Background

UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations, dedicated to advancing women's rights and achieving gender equality. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies that foster women's empowerment. UNIFEM works on the premise that it is the fundamental right of every woman to live a life free from discrimination and violence, and that gender equality is essential to achieving development and to building just societies.
Progress of the World's Women is UNIFEM's flagship biennial report. By tracking progress towards gender equality, it aims to inspire bold action by governments and civil society to meet their commitments and accelerate the achievement of women's rights.  There have been four editions of Progress to date focusing on gender and globalization; women, peace and conflict; informal workers; and accountability to women. The next edition of Progress of the World's Women will focus on women's access to justice.
 
The failure of states to meet their obligations with regard to access to justice is a major barrier to the achievement of women's human rights worldwide. Access to justice for women encompasses a wide range of issues, including discriminatory legal frameworks, physical and structural barriers to formal justice processes, access to informal justice processes and institutions, transitional justice and access to economic justice. Lack of access to justice is not an abstract issue, but has serious impacts on all aspects of women's human rights and economic and political empowerment. Despite this and the fact that justice and rule of law reform are the cornerstones of the governance agenda, the gender aspects of access to justice have received relatively little attention and have been very inconsistently addressed. Progress of the World's Women 2010-11 will aim to address this gap by providing a framework for understanding access to justice from a gender perspective, as a means to address the current widespread impunity on women's rights. The report is in two parts. The data section presents the latest country-by-country statistics and analysis on gender equality and the MDGs. The main part of the report focuses on the substantive theme.

Duties and Responsibilities

This role will be central to the production of the final Progress report. We have commissioned a number of background papers and case studies for the report, which will form the majority of the information required to compile the report. But, we will also require additional pieces of research for the report, as well as support in writing the final product. The main responsibilities will be to work with the team to:

  • Carry out high quality desk research and literature reviews on key topics for the report. This will involve locating relevant information and synthesizing large amounts of academic, programme and evaluation literature on aspects of women's access to justice, to draw out the main findings and relevant conclusions for Progress;
  • Research and write case studies on examples of work to address women's access to justice. This will involve identifying examples of good practice in relation to women's access to justice, including from UNIFEM's own work, thoroughly researching these examples and writing the findings up in case study format;
  • Drafting sections of the report, with  particular responsibility for boxes and panels and context;
  • Draft and finalise the MDGs section of the report with collaboration of Policy Specialist and Statistics Consultant;
  • In addition to those mentioned, the consultant is also expected to work on other assignments as and when requested by the Progress team.

Competencies

  • Experience of compiling substantial policy reports, preferably on women's rights, including the ability to identify and mobilize evidence to make a compelling case and recommendations;
  • Proven outstanding writing skills, for a range of different audiences;
  • Substantial experience of working on policy and advocacy work on women's rights and/or human rights;
  • Proven capacity to produce high quality research and case studies on women's rights, access to justice and development;
  • Excellent understanding of women's access to justice issues in a range of contexts;
  • Ability and willingness to work as part of a team to meet tight deadlines and produce high quality work.

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modeling the United Nations' values and ethical standards;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the UN and UNIFEM;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master degree or equivalent in human rights, gender/women's studies, international development, international law or a related field.


Experience:

  • Minimum 3 years of relevant work experience, with a demonstrable ability to carry out desk research and literature reviews. Outstanding writing skills and an excellent grasp of substantive and policy issues related to women's rights and access to justice.


Language Requirements:

  • Excellent command of English (oral and written). Other UN languages an asset.