Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), grounded on 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 at various levels; 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 centre of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. In Liberia, UN Women leads the United Nations Country Team on gender equality and the empowerment of women. In line with the implementation of the UN One Programme in Liberia, UN Women is embarked on scaling up its support in the four priority areas as aligned to the Government’s Agenda for Transformation i.e. 1. Governance and Women Participation; 2. Women’s economic empowerment; 3. Women, peace and security; and 4. Coordination and gender mainstreaming in national development priories.

After a decade of peace, Liberia is resolutely turned toward the future and consolidating the gains and dividends of peace. Characterized as both a post-conflict country, and a fragile state, Liberia is facing the challenges of transitioning from a country marked by the fourteen year civil war to a country resolutely turned toward the future.  Liberia is confronting the challenges of persistent structural poverty, highly unequal income distribution, and lack of access to basic services for the vast majority of the population. The consequences of the civil war only further exacerbated the situation, destroyed the existing infrastructure and lay the groundwork for the significant reconstruction and development priorities which need to be addressed today in Liberia. The Ebola outbreak further exacerbated the vulnerability faced by women impacting their livelihood, access to opportunities, as well as halting peace building processes. Despite the presence of emblematic leaders in advancing women’s rights and strong state commitment as well as the continued improvements in global rankings, the status of women in Liberia remains marked by gender disparities and the persistence of cultural norms which limit the recognition and exercise of women’s human rights and compromise future development.

The Ministry of Gender, Children, Children and Social Protection is committed to addressing its institutional development needs and capacity gaps in order to more effectively play its role in consolidating the policy gains through improved implementation and anchoring them in a whole of government accountability framework.  As the Ministry’s key partner, UN Women is particularly well placed to accompany them in this process through the provision of technical assistance, capacity building, and policy guidance.

There are multiple Government institutions and ministries, as well as civils society organizations that have been playing a pivotal role in the advancement of gender equality in Liberia. These partners are implementing a series of initiatives whilst taking into consideration the ongoing national Ebola recovery efforts that has been stipulated in the Economic Recovery and Stabilization Plan (ERSP).  Furthermore, UN Women has led to the establishment of Women’s peace building platforms (Peace Huts), which have played a fundamental role in engaging women groups to contribute to peace processes at the community level in Liberia; These platforms are spread throughout the country and are a basis for capacity building for women initiatives in areas of economic empowerment, improved livelihood, and participation in decision making.

About the Position

Under the overall guidance of the Country Representative, and direct supervision of the Deputy Representative, the consultant will undertake a bottom-up planning process by engaging communities and relevant stakeholders in gender equality and women empowerment, including government, lawmakers, civil society, community leaders, women groups, public agencies, private sector, among others; to identify priorities for scaling up the implementation of national and international commitments on gender equality. This feed into a broader programme on Gender Sector Support that will be implemented in a 4-year period.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Conduct consultations with various stakeholders on social mobilization to demonstrate effectiveness of community based approach to sustainable local level development on gender equality and women empowerment initiatives;
• Facilitate sessions for the development of a toolkit to strengthen community participation in planning and implementation of programmes –including strengthening of participatory  governance and participation in decision-making process;
• Develop tools for strengthening partnership and cooperation between community organizations – including women peace huts and the various levels of government for the implementation of women empowerment projects;
• Pilot the initiatives for supporting the scaling up of experimentation on local level strategic planning in the area of gender and women empowerment, drawing from the existing structures such as Women in Cross Border Trade; Rural Women Association, and Women Peace Huts;
• Prepare and organize a Training of Trainers (TOT) to facilitate consultations;
• Develop relevant training materials and implementation guidelines that will be used by the team of trainers, as well as for local communities;
• Use appropriate standards for reporting certain findings or recommendations.

Deliverable(s):

• Establish a core team of trainers (TOT) to undertake community-led planning processes, drawing from the existing structures – such as the Association of Rural Women, Association of Women in Cross Boarder, and Women Peace Huts;
• Develop a Toolkit for engagement of women networks and other stakeholders in planning and priority setting with a particular focus on initiatives for strengthening of women capacities and gender equality;
• Organize/conduct a series of community based participatory planning sessions at the district, county and national level using a team of core trainers, as well as the toolkit;
• Develop a synthesis  report on the community based priorities for integration in the broader GSSP Programme document.

Competencies

Core values and Guiding principles:

Integrity:

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

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment

Development and Innovation:

• Take charge of self-development and take initiative

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making

Functional Competencies:

• Participatory approach, knowledge of statistical theory and applications and the ability to monitor and collect research data to assess accuracy, validity, and integrity;
• Ability to analyze statistics and other data and to interpret and evaluate results, and create reports and/or presentations;
• Ability to effectively utilize computer software (i.e. MS Excel, Access, oracle, etc.) for database development and management;
• Communicating clearly and objectively the work done and the resulting findings.
• Ability to follow instructions through a standard work process;
• Ability to perform routine tasks and to check work for accuracy before completion of tasks;
• Ability to write comprehensive assessment and/or research reports.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, development, gender or related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years  of proven working experience with local communities for development activities in the area of gender equality or women empowerment;
• Experience in working with all level of governments and non-government organizations, civil society, and community networks;
• Sound knowledge of the concept of social mobilization, strategic planning and sustainable development;
• Strong experience on developing participatory methods to facilitate meetings/consultations including designing practical tools and materials for participants;
• Experience with civil society and governance structures at national and local level.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of French would be an added value.