Historique

  • The population of Mozambique is estimated to be 24 million of inhabitants and women represent 53% of the population (INE, 2013). Mozambique is a typically agrarian country where 70% of its populations lives in rural areas and is involved in small substance farming;
  • Rural women’s livelihoods are mainly ensured through agriculture where women’s labor accounts for 87% of labor for household food supply and constitute the majority of the population in rural areas;
  • Despite their prominent role in agriculture and food production, the status and conditions of rural women remain low due to the low access to productive resources, services, markets, and agency in the making of rural development and agricultural policies;
  • The persistence of gender disparities is well illustrated by key socio-economic indicators;
  • Women account only for 11% of the total number of public extension workers, 25% of the land owners holding official user rights (DUAT), and 13% of the beneficiaries of extension services (MINAG);
  • The adverse effects of climate change affect women disproportionately and differently than men;
  • Women are the main users and managers of natural resources in Mozambique, but they tend to have lower climate change adaptation capacity than men as they have typically less access to and control over requisite resources (financial, physical, human and social capital);
  • Mozambique is particularly vulnerable to climate change and experiences frequent declines in national food security as a result of periodic food shortages, peeks in food prices, and extensive food, cattle and cash crop losses;
  • The Gaza Province is particularly prone to recurrent food insecurity and has repeatedly been subjected to the devastating impacts of climate hazards and natural disasters;
  • Considerable efforts have been taking place to tackle this grave situation;
  • However, the overall absence of gender responsive strategies to address food security and climate resilience has largely limited impacts and results of such interventions;
  • In response to the disproportionate negative effect of adverse climate events and related food insecurity on women in Gaza province, UN Women will implement the Project Expanding Women’s Role in and benefit from agricultural production and natural resource management as strategy for socio-economic empowerment towards improved food security and climate change resilience in Mozambique;
  • The objective of the project is to enhance women’s food security and climate change resilience, and to empower them and their communities to become change agents in local decision-making, development and implementation of women’s economic empowerment, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies;
  • The direct beneficiaries of the project will be women and local governments in the selected districts of the Gaza province[1] with high vulnerability to climate-induced disasters;
  • More specifically, the project will work primarily to ensure synergies with other actors, targeting directly women in 2 of 6 districts identified for implementation of the project;
  • In order to refine and generate informed strategies, targets and partnerships that will lead to sustainable results that will advance  gender equality and women’s empowerment, UN WOMEN intends to conduct a scoping mission to six districts where the project will take place;
  • In this context it seeks the services of Consultant to conduct the work which will serve as background for refinement of its strategies and approach to project interventions;

[1]The selected districts are: Massangena, Guijá, Chigubo, Chicualacuala, Massingir and Mabalane, all of them located in semi-arid areas;

Objectives of the Scoping Mission  

The main objectives of the mission are following:

  • Identification of women’s groups and their economic activities and possibility for scaling up and replicating women’s economic empowerment models on value chains through capacity building and marketing, refinement of baseline indicators and establishment of synergies;
  • Identification of relevant actors, stakeholders and beneficiaries of food security and climate resilience and assess their capacities and challenges to contribute for gender equality and women’s empowerment in the context of project intervention;
  • Collection of baseline  data and information - fine tune project indicators including on women’s representation  in  local level decision making such as Consultative committees, natural resources management and risk management  committees; perception of local government, other members and community members on women’s participation in those bodies;  government allocations to GEWE in those districts; sources of funding and technical support for women’s economic  activities; main constraints to women’s access and control to economic assets (views of women, community members, government and other key players); 

The consultant will seek also (4) to identify lessons of past interventions and recommend appropriate measures that will lead refinement of project approach and generate sustained partnerships and synergies;

Methodology

  • The assignments will be undertaken through a combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches;
  • The consultant shall privilege data and information collection through desk review and collect primary for qualitative analysis and fill in data gaps;
  • Primary data collection will be done through individual interviews and focal group discussions with representatives of relevant government institutions, development partners, women’s organizations, farmer beneficiaries  and key community players of past or ongoing  interventions on food security and climate resilience and gender equality and women’s empowerment;
  • The consultant is expected to propose a methodology to collect reliable data and information from 6 districts within the pre-established timeframe;
  • The final report should describe the process which led to the development of each product, explaining the methodology including a list of documents consulted, their location and of people consulted/interviewed and their contacts.

Application Process 

Devoirs et responsabilités

The consultant will work under overall guidance of the Programme Specialist and benefit from technical support of UN Women;

The consultant will be responsible to:

  • Identify economic activities in which women are engaged and their participation in agricultural value chains as well their access and control over its benefits; 
  • Identify existing interventions in the areas of rural development, climate change and food security, in the six districts, and determine how they contribute for women’s economic empowerment and explore possible synergies with project interventions;
  • Identify institutions that UN Women can partner with for the achievement of project results in the different areas with a clear indication of the type of support that they might need to be effective in contributing to the achievement of the project results; 
  • Identify and assess the capacities and challenges of the gender machinery to support efforts for gender equality and women’s empowerment in districts of Massangena, Guijá, Chigubo, Chicualacuala, Massingir and Mabalane;
  • Identify  relevant women’s organizations, assess their capacities and challenges to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment and explore ways in which they  can contribute to the achievement of  project results;
  • Explore ways to strengthen institutional capacities of rural women’s organizations and government institutions in the area of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment;
  • Identify and document good practices, challenges and lessons of past interventions and recommend  forms to improve project strategies; 
  • Identify socio-economic status of rural women in the six districts, their level of participation in decision making structures as well as cultural norms that affect food security and climate resilience;
  • Identify and recommend reliable project mechanisms and structures for coordination and sharing information in order to ensure a common approach and complementarity of actions of involved actors in the fields of food security, climate change and gender equality in  Gaza province;
  • Drawing on findings and lessons recommend main activities and two districts where the project will concentrate its activities.

Compétences

Corporate Competences:

  • Demonstrate integrity, values and ethics in accordance to UN Women norms;
  • Promote the vision, mission and strategic objectives of UN Women;
  • Show respect regardless the race/colour, sex, religion, nationality and age as well as be sensible to cultural adaptation capacity.

Functional Competences:

  • Knowledge of legislation, programme and public policies on gender, women’s economic empowerment, and women’s rights in general in Mozambique;
  • Leadership and skills to work with autonomy and initiative;
  • Strong Advocacy skills.

Managing knowledge and learning

  • Promote knowledge sharing and a learning culture;
  • Team working;
  • Strong communication skills, oral and written in Portuguese and English.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:

  • Post Graduate  degree (Masters) in development studies, economics, social science, rural development and other related fields with a main in sociology;

Experience:

  • A minimum of 7 years of progressive experience in the field of  gender equality and women’s empowerment;
  • Solid knowledge and practical experience of work with economic empowerment, rural development and food security;
  • Experience  in conducting gender analysis of government plans and budgets;
  • Sound understanding of  social and cultural reality of Mozambique in particular traditional norms linked to gender;
  • Sound understanding of the functioning of government institutions in Mozambique especially at the local level;
  • Demonstrated experience in gender and economics related research;
  • Experience in working with stakeholders in rural areas such as women, traditional leaders and others;
  • Solid knowledge about the national gender machinery, women’s organizations, policies and legislation on WEE/rural women;
  • Experience in field research.

Language:

  • Excellent spoken and writing skills in both English and Portuguese with demonstrated  ability to plan and undertake research, collect and analyse data within a given timeframe; 
  • Knowledge of a local language of Gaza province is an asset.