UNDP Jobs - 69448- International consultant to support gender mainstr

International consultant to support gender mainstreaming into Tanzania Productive Social Safety Net (PSSN) Programme

Location :

Dar es Salaam with travel to selected districts, TANZANIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Dec-2016

Application Deadline :

25-Nov-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

50 person days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

50 person 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

The United Republic of Tanzania aspires to become a middle-income country by 2025 through industrialization for economic transformation and human development. Since 2007, the country has recorded sustained growth of more than 6 per cent per annum and notable progress in human development has been made, as reflected in the improvement of the Human Development Index (HDI) from 0.352 in the 1990s to 0.488 in 2013. However, despite sustained economic growth, the poverty rate has only marginally declined from 33.3 per cent in 2007 to 28.4 per cent in 2012, and 43.5 percent of the population is still living on less than $1.25 per day.

While poverty in Tanzania is particularly pervasive in rural areas, it is also feminized, and in 2013 the Gender Inequality Index ranked Tanzania 123 of 149 countries with a score of 0.553, implying significant gender gaps in human development. Women, particularly in rural areas, are often disadvantaged in terms of access to employment, health services, education and decision making processes. At the same time, inadequate coverage and coordination of social protection interventions continue to leave poor men and women vulnerable to disease, job loss or other catastrophes, despite recent commendable progress in social protection provision in Tanzania. These shocks and risks are experienced and dealt with differently by men and women, because of their specific roles and responsibilities in the family, community and society.

Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) was initiated in 2000 by the Government of Tanzania as one of its initiatives on poverty reduction anchored to the Poverty Reduction Strategies. The implementation of the first two phases of TASAF achieved impressive results in facilitating community access to social services through infrastructure projects such as schools, health facilities and water points reaching 7.3 million people in TASAF I and 16.1 million in TASAF II. Moreover, in TASAF II community based conditional cash transfers (CB-CCT) were piloted in the three districts of Bagamoyo, Kibaha and Chamwino targeting extremely poor households (below the food poverty line) to encourage targeted households to invest in nutrition, education and health.

Based on the success of TASAF I and TASAF II, in 2013 the Government of Tanzania decided to design and implement the Tanzania Productive Safety Net programme (TASAF III–PSSN). Direct beneficiaries of the TASAF PSSN Programme are poor and vulnerable households living in Project Area Authorities (PAAs) identified as chronic poor and it targets people living below the food poverty line. The households benefit from a combination of basic and conditional cash transfers, wages through participation in labour intensive public works; advice and support concerning savings and investments. The programme was initially expected to support 275,000 households in five years (2013-2017), but in 2015 the programme was scaled up to over 1.1 million extreme poor households.

While the PSSN programme does not explicitly aim to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment, gender concerns are to some extent integrated into the program. Women are for example identified as the recipient of the cash transfer on behalf of the household, and are offered flexible working hours for the public works programme. However, there is a need for more knowledge about the impact of the PSSN on gender roles and dynamics in the communities and within families. Additionally, there is a need to ensure that gender concerns are integrated into all components of the PSSN Programme. Therefore, UNDP is recruiting an international and a national gender specialist on behalf of TASAF. The gender specialists will work under the direct supervision of the UNDP Programme Specialist and in close cooperation with the TASAF Executive Director and TASAF Management Unit.

The gender specialists will support TASAF to conduct an assessment of the gender dimension of the PSSN programme, including capacity of TASAF staff at the national, regional and local levels. The assessment will take as its starting point a review of existing studies and analysis in the area. Based on the assessments, the gender consultants will develop a gender equality strategy and action plan for TASAF, including recommendations on how gender can be mainstreamed into all components of the PSSN programme. The strategy will also identify the requisite capacity needs of the national, regional and local levels of the government to address gender-specific concerns. The consultants will develop and test a series of training modules on the practical dimensions of gender responsive programming for TASAF staff at the national, regional and local levels.

Duties and Responsibilities

Review existing studies and analysis on gender-sensitive social protection programmes, including the baseline study on the impact of the PSSN on women’s empowerment;
Conduct gender assessment of the PSSN programme, institutional framework and capacity of TASAF staff at national, regional and local levels;
Conduct interviews with TASAF staff, PSSN beneficiaries and relevant stakeholders in selected districts;
Develop gender equality strategy and action plan for TASAF in close collaboration with staff and stakeholders;
Provide recommendations on actions to ensure that gender is consistently integrated into all areas of TASAF and the PSSN programme;
Develop and test a series of core training modules on the practical dimensions of gender responsive programming for TASAF staff at the national, regional and local levels;

Competencies

Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
Excellent report writing and editing skills.
Excellent analytical and reporting skills.
Fully computer literate.
Fluent in the English language and good proof reading skills.
Ability to work under minimum supervision to meet short deadlines.
Commitment and drive to achieve challenging goals, and problem solving attitude.
Ability to identify client needs and deliver them promptly and accurately.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications

Master’s Degree in gender studies, international development, social sciences or related fields.

Experience and qualifications

At least 10 years of experience in gender mainstreaming, gender-responsive programming, gender training;
Proven experience in combining formal expertise on gender mainstreaming and gender equality with experience of applying these concretely to specific programmes, plans, policies and organizational processes;
Experience in conducting gender analysis and capacity assessments in developing countries, preferably in East Africa;
Experience in developing gender equality strategies and gender mainstreaming and training tools;
Knowledge of and experience in social science research methods;
Familiarity with social protection concepts, approaches and programming;

Language requirements:

Excellent command of English (oral and written)

How to Submit Proposals:

Proposals should be submitted to icprocurement.tz@undp.org e-mail address not later than not later than Friday, 25 November 2016;
Applications with no financial offer or missing P11 form and CV or the required documents for the technical evaluation will not be considered for evaluation;
All necessary information for this post (TOR, Deliverables, Target dates, etc. are presented in the ICPN) therefore applicant must download it from the following link: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/
Each email should be less than 8MB; emails over this size will not be received to the above mentioned account;
Any request for clarification must be sent in writing, or by standard electronic communication to the e-mail address tenders.tz@undp.org