Background

Project background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of 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. The fundamental objective of UN Women is to enhance national capacity and ownership to enable national partners to formulate gender responsive laws and policies and to upscale successful strategies to deliver on national commitments to gender equality.

The work of UN Women Cambodia is informed by the Strategic Plan of UN Women 2016-2018 and its Annual Work Plan for Cambodia 2016-2018.  Ending violence against women and girls has been identified by UN Women as a primary focus area in Cambodia. Cambodia is currently presented with a key opportunity to build on achievements to date and accelerate efforts to end violence against women and girls (EVAW/G). Key policy documents—including Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, the National Action Plan on the Prevention of Violence against Women (NAPVAW) and the MoWA-Neary Ratanak—highlight EVAW/G as a government priority.  RGC strategies to prevent and respond to VAW/G are elaborated in the recently-launched second National Action Plan to Prevent Violence against Women (2nd NAPVAW), which was formulated with financial and technical support from UN Women through an inclusive and participatory process.  UN Women advocates for policies and programmes that are evidence-based and evidence-building, enabling responses to VAW to be grounded into a continuing cycle of evidence-to-policy-to-practice. 

UN Women will continue its efforts to support the Royal Government of Cambodia (RGC) to effectively implement the 2nd NAPVAW, both the national and the sub-national level. Specifically, it plans to engage the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MoWA) to take the lead in this process, in close consultation with relevant ministries, development partners and civil society.  Outcome 3.2.1.1 of the 2nd NAPVAW calls for the development of “coordinated and comprehensive primary prevention strategy”. UN Women conducted a rapid assessment of prevention activities conducted in several provinces across Cambodia and, in collaboration with MoWA, prepared an initial draft national strategy on primary and secondary prevention.

The draft strategy details a nationwide approach to preventing violence against women and girls by:

  • Identifying the risks and protective factors to violence against women and girls;
  • Providing entry points to state and non-state actors and other actors working in this field using evidence-based data on how to effectively lead, coordinate, mobilise resources and support prevention efforts across Cambodia;
  • Tackling the fundamental structures that still permit early marriage; the turning of a blind eye to domestic violence; the impunity of rapists; the vulnerability of a teenage girl in her home and in public places; the hostile attitude of service providers including police stations and court rooms to women and girls’ testimony of violence experienced; and
  • Ensuring that the State takes centre-stage in sustainable efforts to preventing violence against women and girls

Under the direct supervision of the EVAW Programme Manager, the national consultant will provide technical expertise on violence prevention in Cambodia, with emphasis on: leading an inter-ministerial consultation process, in collaboration with MoWA, other relevant line ministries and civil society organizations; presenting the draft strategy to development partners; finalizing the draft of the Strategy on the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Girls; and, presenting the final strategy for incorporation into the framework of the 2nd NAPVAW before  the Technical Working Group on Gender - Gender Based Violence Sub-working Group (TWGG-GBV).

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work

Policy advice and technical guidance on primary and secondary prevention:

  • Review the draft Strategy on the Prevention of Violence against Women and Girls.Conduct initial meetings with CCO-EVAW Programme and MoWA staff across departments; ascertain the latest status of the document; and provide technical inputs to the content of the draft Strategy;
  • Translate the existing draft Prevention Strategy into Khmer;
  • Prepare an inter-ministerial consultation meeting with several key line ministries and CSOs, possibly including internal inter-departmental meetings within MoWA, bi-lateral consultations between MoWA and other line ministries and with other key stakeholders as necessary;
  • Facilitate participatory dialogue at inter-ministerial consultation process to solicit data and inputs to the draft Strategy on the Prevention of Violence against Women and Girls;
  • Update the draft Prevention Strategy after the inter-ministerial consultation meeting, incorporating all inputs and comments, including updating the English version;
  • In collaboration with the EVAW Programme team, present the draft Prevention Strategy to development partners in English.
  • Prepare final draft version of the Prevention Strategy in English and Khmer to circulate to all stakeholders for final comments;
  • Incorporate the final comments and edits into the Prevention Strategy and present it to the TWGG-GBV with MoWA and UN Women for validation;
  • Prepare a series of proposed next steps for implementation of the Prevention Strategy, identifying key milestone results and timelines, and a final report.

Competencies

Functional/Technical Competencies:

  • Local knowledge of the social, cultural, and political context of Cambodia and its relation to gender and VAW.
  • Promotes knowledge management and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example.
  • Demonstrated sensitivity, discretion, tact, and courtesy in relation to gender equality and women’s rights, development principles, implementing partners, and national and international personnel of varied nationalities and backgrounds;
  • Good knowledge of the Cambodian policy, legislative framework and institutional mechanisms concerning ending violence against women, especially on violence prevention;
  • Strong knowledge of results-based management (RBM) principles, gender equality and human rights-based approaches;
  • A proven ability to liaise and coordinate with a myriad of stakeholders and partners, including government, civil society, international organizations and grassroots organizations;
  • Experience of developing sectoral and programme-based knowledge products.

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
  • Treats all people fairly without favouritism;
  • Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment;

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree in gender, development studies, international relations, or other related disciplines.

Experience:

  • Minimum 7 years progressively responsible relevant experience, preferably from the UN System or an international organization;
  • At least 3 years professional experience in Violence prevention, including programme planning and implementation, monitoring, evaluation;
  • Sound knowledge of international standards on violence prevention;
  • Professional experience working in women’s human rights and/or development in Cambodia, in particular on ending violence against women would be a strong asset;
  • Experience with UN programming.

Language:

  • Fluency in English and Khmer (Both oral and written).

Evaluation

Application will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

  • Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
  • Financial/Price Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Submission of application

Interested candidates are requested to submit an electronic application to Cambodiaco.unwomen@unwomen.org and hr.bangkok@unwomen.org no later than 11 May 2016 by 5:00pm local time in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Late application submissions will be rejected.

Application package:

All applications must include (as attachments):  CV, copies of educational qualifications, P11, four original writing samples, and the financial proposal.