UN WOMEN Jobs - 11780- Consultant: Senior Gender Advisor for the Joint Me

Consultant: Senior Gender Advisor for the Joint Mediation Support Team (JMST)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Khartoum/Darfur, SUDAN

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Sep-2009

Application Deadline :

21-Aug-09 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

SSA

Duration of Initial Contract :

One year

Languages Required :

Arabic English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

One year

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

As victims, survivors of armed conflict, women are major stakeholders in the resolution of conflict in Darfur. Women in Darfur often shoulder an additional burden due to traditional gender roles. Their labour, strength and determination have maintained their families and communities during the Darfur conflict. The communities again, rely on women during the process of rebuilding the peace.

In all the Darfur, where the programme is to be implemented, women’s status has been adversely affected by several socio-cultural, economical, political and religious factors. In order to obtain evidence with regard to the underlying hypothesis of the program, project interventions will address specific factors affecting women’s subordination, there equal accessibility to resources and participation in decision making at different levels. At the individual level, women’s self esteem shall be strengthened by improving their psychosocial wellbeing. At the same time, women’s access to resources shall be increased assuming a resulting influence with regard to their participation in decision making at household level. At the community level interventions include the participatory identification of positive and negative traditions and norms and awareness raising of men and women with regard to women’s rights, their violation and resulting impacts on development. In order to include the voice of women in rural areas into political decision making processes at the national level, women’s groups will be linked and their advocacy capacities strengthened to enable them to challenge, influence and change restrictive legal frameworks at the regional and national level.

In order to gather evidence on the programme, a special focus will be given to document results, synthesis findings and to pursue an intensive learning agenda.

Ensuring women’s effective participation involves a range of actions. UNIFEM will support diverse women’s peace building activities at local and national levels, facilitating their development of a common agenda for peace, and strengthening their capacity as leaders to prepare them for the negotiating table as well as post conflict transition. UNIFEM is in a critical position to support women’s participation at the peace table, to build women’s capacity, as effective participants and to ensure that women’s needs and contributions are not overlooked during implementation, given its strong networks with women’s organizations and activists in Darfur and with Darfurian women based in Khartoum.

Buildings on this mandate UNIFEM will together with the secretariat of the AU/UN Joint Mediation Support Team (JMST) ensure sustained engagement by women in the peace process.

Under the general guidance of the UNIFEM Regional Programme Director and UNIFEM Sudan programme Manager, and the direct supervision of the Darfur

Duties and Responsibilities

Programme Specialist, the Senior Gender Adviser will be seconded to the JMST and will be responsible for the following:

Preparing women for a more empowered engagement with the Darfur peace process by consolidating the linkage between the Abuja Peace Talks and processes at the Sudan/Darfur level, through a series of activities, including consultations with key actors such as Women’s Networks, NGOs, and Partners

Organize consultations for Darfur women to take collective stock on progress and challenges for women in the peace process;
Develop skills and knowledge for advocacy and gender analysis for the delegates for activities related to negotiations and peace building in Darfur;
Assist with disseminating, popularizing and drumming support for the gender equality actions of the DPA;
Ensure that women benefit from the experience of participating in the negotiations and get a sense of ownership of the process

Ensure women’s effective participation in the peace negotiations, ensuring that women’s concerns and gender issues are included in the issues that are on the table for discussions, and ensure that the peace documents take into account the specific needs of women

Maintaining regular consultations with women delegates from both government and the movement with a view to amplifying women’s voices in the consultative process;
To ensure the inclusion of gender specific language and gender equality provisions into the mediation document;
Provide technical gender analysis for thematic issues under discussions on wealth sharing, power sharing, and security arrangements;
Document the process of the inclusion of gender concerns within the peace process for knowledge sharing of best practice;
Prepare women in the civil society to be more empowered, more effective and more productive role in the Darfur peace talks;
Build confidence and cohesion among women delegates across party lines;
Provide on-site capacity building for both female and male delegates the Darfur peace talks.
Undertake any other technical actions as may be requested and as may evolve within the context of the peace negotiations and as advised by the Programme Specialist

Competencies

Ability to work well with high degree of cultural sensitivity;
Able to facilitate a complex learning exercise with aspects of lobby, negotiations and networking skills as well as advocacy experience;
Competency in addressing gender issues in a conflict environment and adapting to effectively manage these in a changing environment in Darfur;
Ability to neutral in dealing with women representing different parties with different interests in the negotiations;
Ability to be objective in providing gender analysis to the issues discussed without expressing any opinions on the position of tha various parties;
Uses appropriate interpersonal styles and techniques to gain acceptance of idea or plans;
Works in partnership and builds effective strategic relationships on gender equality issues with all the stakeholders and the negotiation teams.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Advanced university degree in Social Sciences or equivalent gender related studies or a first level university degree with a combination of relevant academic and professional qualifications and extensive experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree

Experience

10 years working experience in the field of gender, women’s empowerment and peace building
Experience in policy analysis, and implementation in a conflict situation;
Understanding of gender issues and women empowerment;
Knowledge of methodologies for promoting gender equality and women empowerment;
Experience with gender and power analysis;
A good understanding of participatory development processes and appreciative inquiry

Language Requirements

Fluency in English and Arabic