UN WOMEN Jobs - 58999- National Consultant for the Development of Women P

National Consultant for the Development of Women Political Participation National Strategy

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Home Based, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

30-Sep-2015

Application Deadline :

14-Sep-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

2 months (20 estimated working days)

Languages Required :

Arabic English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

2 months (20 estimated working days)

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Frequent visits to MoWA and other related stakeholders offices, with at least 6 working days mandatory presence at UN Women and/or MoWA office or as requested by the UN Women.

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in Palestine since its inception in 1997. UN Women focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In support of this goal, and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the oPt context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions toward the realisation of following strategic goals: Engendering governance, peace and security; Supporting women's economic security and rights; and Promoting women’s rights and protection against violence.

UN Women in the State of Palestine works to enhance Palestinian women’s transformative leadership to participate in decision-making processes in all walks of life, and to support the incorporation of a women’s rights agenda in legal, regulatory and institutional frameworks. It also aims to foster women’s participation and leadership in conflict resolution and state building processes on the basis of UNSCR 1325, actively supporting their increased engagement with decision-makers so as to increasing their influence locally and internationally. To these ends, UN Women in Palestine had developed jointly with the Palestinian Central Election Commission (CEC), a project that is funded by the Government of Norway, “Sustainable Empowerment and Enabling of Political Participation for Palestinian Women”, to address women political participation at local and national level, in addition, under the project, the CEC and UN Women will work jointly to tackle challenges facing women’s political participation through this off-elections intervention, starting with developing a coherent and comprehensive National Strategy to Enhance Women’s Presence and Role in Decision-Making (Women Political Participation National Strategy), and at the same time to empower women and the future female leaders in local communities through providing small grants for local initiatives proposed by women’s groups in selected local communities, influencing the media and enhancing social awareness to promote women’s political participation and increase their active role in decision-making.

The demand for women’s equal political participation is deeply rooted in the Palestinian Declaration of Independence of 1988, the Basic Law of the State of Palestine, the Palestinian Women's Bill of Rights of 2008, international conventions, particularly CEDAW, and Security Council Resolution 1325 which addresses the impact of conflict on women.

In response to the need for supporting women’s political participation and engagement in public life , the project was designed to empower women and enhance their political participation at the national level; promoting their leadership and participation in decisions making processes at all levels. The project is in line with UN Women’s development result framework: Impact Area 1 “Women’s increased leadership and participation in the decisions that affect their lives” and with the Cross Sectoral National Gender Strategy (CSNGS) for the years 2014-2016; mainly strategic objective number 3 “increasing level of women participation in decision making and public sphere”.

The Central Elections Commission (CEC) and UN Women Palestine country office are keen to work jointly on this 2-year project. In an attempt to jointly design and implement this initiative that will tackle the low rates of women political participation, in addition to empowering women especially those who are in public office and already participating in the political sphere to effectively play their roles in the public sphere, UN Women is seeking to hire a National Consultant to carry out this task in line with the following objectives.

The main objective of this assignment is to develop a comprehensive national strategy for women political participation, to enable key stakeholders have a comprehensive framework to promote women’s political participation and leadership in political and public life spheres in accordance with the Cross Sectoral National Gender Strategy 2014-2016 and UN Women’s Strategic Note 2014 – 2016.

The development of the strategy should involve women leaders, politicians and women in cabinet in addition to key national institutions as identified by the task manager.

The Women Political Participation National Strategy should follow the model used by UN Women and MoWA in the development of the National Strategy to Combat Violence against Women, adopted by the Palestinian Cabinet in 2012. The methodology utilizes a participatory approach based on the principles of ownership and partnership amongst all stakeholders, including governmental, nongovernmental, women groups and networks, and community based organizations, and women community members at local level. This approach should be feasible to ensure the support for the developed strategy, through adoption and commitment to its implementation.

The National Consultant is required to work closely with UN Women, the CEC and other key national stakeholders, namely, the Ministry of Women Affairs (MoWA) and the Ministry of Local Government. The duration of this assignment is for 2 months with an estimated number of 20 working days.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of UN Women’s Special Representative, the direct supervision of the assigned program manager by UN Women, and the guidance of the Project Advisory Committee, the National Consultant will be responsible for working closely with the national partners as identified by UN Women.

In specific, the consultant’s duties and responsibilities are the following:

Literature review for the existing related national documents on women’s political participation including the Cross Sectoral National Gender Strategy, among others;
Facilitate discussions with related stakeholders to identify the strategy framework and main elements;
Ensure wide and adequate consultation process with relevant national partners;
Lead focus group discussions, as needed, to finalize the Strategy and ensure engagement and participation of related stakeholders throughout the whole development process;
Present progress milestones during the development of the strategy and seek feedback and inputs of related stakeholders.
Present the draft strategy for discussion with main stakeholders;
Finalize the strategy and present it for endorsement, based on final feedback received from UN Women, the CEC and members of the Project’s Advisory Committee.

Deliverables:

An Inception report including an agreed upon methodology and work plan for the development of the strategy;
Report on the results and recommendations of the consultation workshops;
Draft Strategy and power point presentations to key stakeholders (Arabic & English);
Final strategy document including full documentation of the strategy development process and all relevant annexes, incorporating feedback received from UN Women, the CEC and other key stakeholders, along with the promulgation workshop.

Results:

Key stakeholders have a guiding national strategy document on women political participation;
Key stakeholders have a comprehensive framework of actions to promote women’s political participation and leadership in political and public life spheres.

Competencies

Core Values/Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity:

Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Results oriented:

Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals, generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations.

Ethics and Values:

Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:

Initiative-taking; coaching and mentoring ability.

Working in Teams:

Acting as a team player and facilitating team work.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

Creating synergies through self-control.

Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:

Managing conflict.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of other.

Functional Competencies:

Ability to lead strategic planning at local and national level including leading change processes;
Adequate knowledge and understanding of the local socio-economic and political context;
Ability to lead formulation of strategy documents with different groups and participants;
Ability to coordinate the work with multiple stakeholders and work on tight deadlines and handle multiple tasks;
Substantive knowledge and experience in the provision of technical assistance to national and local institutions;
Ability to think conceptually, strategically and analytically;
Excellent leadership, networking and interpersonal skills, including ability to operate effectively across organizational boundaries;
Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
Ability to lead effectively, strong facilitation skills as well as conflict resolution skills;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Ability to make decisions under pressure and to deal with matters that are politically and cultural sensitive;
Results oriented, flexible and problem solving skills;
Good interpersonal and diplomacy skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master degree in political science, social and development studies, business administration or other related fields.

Experience:

At least 6 years of relevant experience and in the field Technical Assistance provision to different beneficiaries including governmental institutions;
At least 2 cases specific expertise in development of national plans /strategy documents for different public sector institutions;
At least 3 cases of proven expertise in providing technical assistance in the field of gender equality.

Language:

Fluent spoken and written English and Arabic.

UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications who will meet minimum requirements.Applications should clearly indicate how they meet the above requierements.