Antecedentes

UN Women is the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women created in 2010 as a UN entity, to accelerate progress on gender equality and the realisation of women’s rights. UN Women is a dynamic and strong champion for women and girls, providing them with a powerful voice at the global, regional and local levels. In 2015, UN Women commemorated 20 years of the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA, 1995), and successfully advocated with partners, for the stand-alone gender equality goal under the Sustainable Development Agenda 2030. UN Women is involved in strengthening the commitment of UN member states to the Agenda 2030, Beijing Platform for Action, and other normative frameworks such as CEDAW, by investing directly in the rights of women and girls, and in supporting gender mainstreaming initiatives, in order to ensure substantive equality, particularly for those from marginalised communities. 

Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is a flagship programme of the Government of India which provides workers with employment guarantee along with opportunities to be part of governance structures - in implementation and monitoring, and in ensuring administrative transparency and accountability, through the provision of social audits and the practice of appointing worksite supervisors. The law is particularly significant for women workers belonging to marginalised communities, who otherwise have no access to just employment opportunities.

However, research studies and figures show that there are states where the participation of women is below the mandated 33%. With a view to understand the reasons for low participation of women and propose recommendations which specifically target an increase in female participation, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD) and UN Women decided to jointly undertake a four state action research study in June 2014. The 18 month research has led to extensive baseline surveys and capacity building of government functionaries for gender-responsive implementation of MGNREGA in three states. As a result of advocacy and concurrent monitoring support by UN Women, three state governments adopted Gender Action Plans for increasing women’s participation in MGNREGA. Direct and indirect support from UN Women in the pilot Blocks of the action research in three states led to an increase in women’s participation in MGNREGA from 17% (2012-13) to 30% (2015-16) in Beldanga-I, West Bengal; 2.3% (2012-13) to 17% (2015-16) in Shergarh, Uttar Pradesh; and 12.3% (2012-13) to 16.3% (2015-16) in Khan-sahib in Jammu and Kashmir.

Justification

Based on the positive results of UN Women’s intervention, the Ministry of Rural Development (MoRD), Government of India has requested for expansion of the Action Research to three new states and two new regions of existing states (Assam, Haryana and Nagaland; Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir and Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh) and for the re-initiation of work in one state (Odisha).

Furthermore, MoRD committed to the following outcomes in a recently held National Consultation on ‘Gender Transformative Rural Livelihoods’ organised by UN Women on 3-4 November 2015 in Ranchi, Jharkhand:

• Institutionalising mechanisms for building gender-related capacities of all rural development functionaries at all levels;
• Creating dedicated plans and resources in rural development programmes and schemes for (1) creating public infrastructure and essential public services for reducing women’s drudgery and unpaid work and for (2) increasing women’s ownership and control over resource rights (land, water, seeds, commons, forests, technology, finance);
• Developing a strategy and target for gender parity for employment of women at all levels, especially in skilled work that is created through key flagship programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme; the National Rural Livelihoods Mission and the Indira Awaas Yojana;
• Creating time bound plans for ensuring collection of sex-disaggregated and gender-responsive data at all levels and across indicators for all social groups (scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, other backward castes, religious minorities, single women and women headed households);
• Institutionalising strategies for achieving convergence in programme implementation.

In alignment with the above outcomes and with a view to scale up learnings from its past engagement with MGNREGA, UN Women seeks to recruit a Consultant to lead the Action Research and provide concurrent and monitoring support for the implementation of Gender Action Plans in a total of seven states (Assam, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal) in 2016.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Under the direct supervision of the Programme Specialist- Women’s Economic Empowerment Unit, UN Women MCO, the Consultant is expected to:

• Provide strategic direction and advisory services for the rollout of the MGNREGA action research in 3 states that have adopted the Gender Action Plan; as well as initiate the action research in 4 new states;
• Lead the process of planning for and conducting the capacity building of government functionaries on gender responsive implementation of MGNREGA in 7 states;
• Provide accompaniment to relevant state government and district level officials in the detailing of the strategies and the activities under the Gender Action Plans and provide technical oversight and support for the implementation of the Gender Action Plans;
• Develop a template for monitoring and documentation of the Gender Action Plans;
• Undertake meetings with relevant officials at the district, state and national level, with regard to the above-mentioned activities.  

Expected Outputs:

• Relevant government functionaries and implementing agencies have better capacities for the rollout and implementation of the Gender Action Plans under MGNREGA in select states;
• The proposed Gender Action Plans, relevant indicators and a monitoring/documentation template is adopted by the government functionaries.

Specifically, the Consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables:

• Enhanced capacities of government functionaries on implementation of Gender Action Plans under NREGA through training workshops and handholding and supervision of implementing agencies;
• Report on training workshops conducted and accompaniment provided in 7 states and documentation of the finalized implementation strategies;
• Submission of progress report as per deliverables.

Deliverables :

1 March – 30 May 2016: (20 days)

• Mission travel undertaken to support and monitor the rollout for the Gender Action Plans that have been adopted in 3 states;
• Relevant mission reports submitted with details of implementation plan, budgets and roles and responsibilities of partners/ implementing agencies.

June – 31 August 2016 : (24 days):

• Mission travel undertaken to build capacities of implementing functionaries for rollout of Gender Action Plans in 3 states;
• Relevant mission reports submitted with details of capacity assessment and training outcomes.

September- 30 November 2016: (28 days):

• Mission travel undertaken to monitor the implementation of the Gender Action Plans in 3 states;
• Documentation of case studies/good practices emerging from implementation of Gender Action Plans in 3 states. 

December 2016- 28 February 2017 : (24 days):

• Inception meetings undertaken in 4 new states;
• Inception meeting reports submitted;
• Action research work plan for 2017 prepared and submitted.

Competencias

Core Values / 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.

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 behaviour 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.

Functional Competencies:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Masters’ degree in Gender Studies, Social Sciences or other Development-related field.

Experience: 

• A minimum of 7 years of relevant experience on gender and development;
• Sustained experience on engendering policies and programmes related to rural livelihoods, employment and social protection;
• Analytical ability to articulate field level research findings with concrete recommendations;
• Understanding of gender in the context of MGNREGA is preferred;
• Proven ability to dialogue with senior government functionaries and experience of working closely with the Government stakeholders;
• Ability to work independently and with minimal supervision.

Language:

• Strong written skills in English and good command over Hindi.

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.