Background

Afghanistan’s justice system faces extraordinary challenges. Justice sector infrastructure has often been destroyed or damaged by fighting or decay during the years of conflict; a large number of Afghanistan’s court houses are in need of construction or rehabilitation. Legal professionals are very often the victims of violence by insurgent groups who target them as agents of the state; threatening of justice officials, particularly in the less secure regions of the country is absolutely commonplace, and assassinations are very common. Corruption is a constant concern; judges and other justice system officials are poorly paid, justice system capacity to prosecute corruption is very limited, and corruption is perceived as rampant both within and outside the justice system. The Government of Afghanistan (GoA) and international community are concerned about bolstering the credibility of the “formal” justice system, recognizing that Afghanistan’s traditional justice system plays a major role in resolving conflicts yet does so at times in violation of national and international human rights obligations, particularly the rights of women.

Following continuous engagement in supporting Afghanistan’s justice sector since 2002, UNDP Afghanistan’s justice sector support has now entered a new phase. The Justice and Human Rights in Afghanistan (JHRA) Project draws on the lessons learned through previous UNDP justice projects– Strengthening the Justice System of Afghanistan (SJSA), Access to Justice at District Level (AJDL) and Justice and Human Rights Phase I.

The 1st phase of JHRA Project was implemented from June 2009 - 30 June 2012. The project was designed to support the achievement of the priorities and benchmarks on human rights, rule of law and justice as highlighted in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) and the Afghanistan Compact. The JHRA project worked to improve access to justice at the national and provincial levels in Afghanistan. Programmatic interventions were undertaken by using human rights based approach that simultaneously strengthened citizens’ capacity to claim their rights and enhanced the capacity of justice delivery system actors to deliver justice in compliance with the rule of law and human rights standards. The Project activities included raising awareness through training of justice officials and community members including school teachers and students, and the general public and villages throughout 11 districts in Afghanistan. It also engaged with the rehabilitation of district justice facilities providing emergency infrastructure works and basic equipment so facilities can function. At the national level, the project assisted the three national justice institutions including; the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), the Supreme Court (SCt), and the Attorney General’s Office (AGO) in strengthening their capacity so as to be able to better contribute to the justice reform process and the realization of human rights in Afghanistan.

The new phase of JHRA, Phase II was initiated in January 2013. JHRA Phase II will leverage on the work undertaken in Phase I and deepen the interventions at the national level and provincial levels and attempt to work across the justice sector, involving the rule of law service providers. The JHRA phase II project represents one component of overall strategic support, and will contribute in particular to the Afghan National Priority Plans (NPP) on Justice (draft NPP 5) and Human Rights (NPP 6). It will seek to increase trust in Afghan justice institutions as the necessary foundation and prerequisite for the re-establishment of State legitimacy and the social contract between the Afghan population and the State. Without trust there is no State legitimacy and no social contract; without social contract it is impossible for a Government to guide a country through transition/transformation without conflict. The project assumes a comprehensive approach to trust building composed of increasing service delivery and access to justice and security, in particular for the vulnerable groups, combined with the facilitation of the necessary political leadership; and balanced with structural and institutional mechanisms and safeguards to ensure sustainable transition and development. Similarly, support to justice sector service providers is balanced with support to ordinary people who would normally not be able to circumvent the current justice institutions and its mechanism to access justice, accountability, gain confidence in the formal justice institutions and gain trust in the State.

JHRA Phase II has four project outputs:

Output 1: High-level coordination mechanisms for developing policy and legislation in accordance with international and national standards are established and functional in State justice institutions.

Output 2: Mechanisms for providing quality access to justice services to vulnerable groups are established and functional.

Output 3:    Public participation processes and knowledge base for improving access to justice and human rights compliance established.

Output 4:    Project Support Unit: Internal oversight, monitoring and evaluation capacity in place.

The JHRA Phase II project output one activity result 1.3 focuses on increasing the MOJ’s capacity to effectively reform law through the Taqnin (including the Translation Board) through mentoring, coaching and sharing of best practice for Taqnin and Translation Board staff, specifically in the areas of legislative drafting, bilingual drafting, translation and interpretation. While capacitating the Taqnin and Translation Board, emphasis will be paid on recruitment and working conditions (including retention and promotion) and capacity building of the female employees of the MOJ to increase women’s participation in national law making process. Currently the JHRA is providing some capacity building programs through training in language and computer training as well as personal development programs to increase the confidence of the women employees as well as to build their skills to contribute more effectively to the work of the Taqnin and the Translation Board . In early 2014 a 3 day training and orientation workshop on leadership skills had been organized for the women employees of MoJ. During this training it was observed that these trainings especially on leadership skills required more time to enhance the capacity and confidence of the women employees. Therefore based on this experience a 3 month long training programme is proposed for the women employees on leadership skills which when combined with the other trainings will increase women’s participation within the Ministry .

The Gender expert and Female Empowerment Consultant will report directly to Output 1, Policy, Legislations and Human Rights Project National Coordinator and also work closely with the  Head of the Ministry of Justice’s Gender Unit.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of, Component 1 National Coordinator of JHRA and the Administrative Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Justice, the Gender Specialist and Female Empowerment Consultant is expected to enhance the leadership skills and confidence of female employees of the Ministry of Justice by assisting them in identifying their positive qualities and strengths. The trainings will be for three months over, 3 days in a week for a group of 30 participants.

The trainings should include basic self-esteem exercises including role-playing and team-building, as well as self-exploration and value clarification drills. A few broad topics are identified below:

Summary of key functions:

• Develop an entry and final assessment on the level of confidence of the participants;
• Undertake lessons based on an approved format and preliminary assessment of the participants;
• Plan, prepare and deliver instructional activities that facilitate sustainable learning experiences;
• Develop schemes of work and lesson plans;
• Establish and communicate clear objectives for all learning activities;
• Develop self-esteem exercises for participants to take home for personal use;
• Maintain an accurate and complete record of participant’s progress and development;
• Prepare and deliver a final report on the student’s improvement and activities;
• Include basic management and leadership training materials in the curriculum and share such material over the period of the training.

Specifications on trainings:

• Prepare classroom for interactive activities where the trainer will focus on class discussion, question and answer, brain storming methodologies during his training sessions;
• Encourage participation and story telling amongst participants;
• Assign exercises that participants could take up outside the class room;
• Observe and evaluate student's performance and development and maintain accurate and complete records of students’ progress and development;
• Some training topics suggested are: self-awareness, self-management, time management, dealing with harassment at workplace, discuss strategic planning of the MoJ for the next five years, commitments of National Action Plan for Women in Afghanistan (NAPWA), results oriented planning; women in and into leadership and management positions, effective communications, women managers building effective teams; how to conduct a meeting;
• Provide appropriate feedback on work;
• Introduce the trainees with different types of management methodologies;
• Encourage trainees for innovations, creativity and hard work;
• Present international best practices from neighboring countries as well as developed countries.

Deliverables:

• Develop and present a work-plan and agenda within two days of signing of contract;
• Develop and present a preliminary entry assessment for the participant’s level of confidence and self-esteem;
• Discuss an engagement strategy for the female employees and other departments in the Ministry of Justice. Provide necessary inputs in the final report;
• Develop and present the final assessment report on the participant’s progress within one week of the completion of the contract. This assessment must include the weaknesses and strengths of the participants regarding key areas of the trainings and also identify some areas where further capacity development can be provided;
• It would be necessary to submit the workplan, agenda and final reports in English to UNDP.

Competencies

Competencies:

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Good knowledge of issues facing women in Afghanistan
• Ability to manage the priorities of class activities;
• Ability to implement new systems and affect student behavioral/ attitudinal change;
• Excellent teaching and managing skill.

Management and Leadership

• Builds strong relationships with student, focuses on impact and result for the student and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approach work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities. Special skills requirements

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in fields related to Gender, Psychology and/or Counseling for Women and Young Adults.

Years of experience:

• Relevant experience working with women in traditional societies. Experience in leadership training and capacity building for Ministerial staff
• Knowledge of the structure of Ministry of Justice is an asset;
• With master’s degree 3 years of experience and with bachelor’s degree 7 years of experience is required;
• Experience of working with women's groups;
• Good teaching, class management and reporting skills;

Evaluation criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Evaluation:

• The selection shall be made on a combined scoring method, based on a 70%-30% distribution on the technical and financial offers, respectively;
• Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (=70 % of the technical score weight) on technical evaluation only would be considered for the financial evaluation and further selection process.

Technical Criteria – Maximum 70 points

• Criteria A Eg. Relevance of Education – Max 5 points
• Criteria B Eg. Special skills, Language, etc.- Max 5 Points
• Criteria C Eg. Relevance of experience – Max 30 points
• Criteria D Eg. Description of approach/methodology to assignment.(if applicable) – Max 20 Points
• Criteria E Eg. Interview (if applicable) – Max 10 points

Application Submission:

Interested individuals must upload the following documents/information (in a single PDF or word document) to demonstrate their qualification:

Technical proposal:

• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment

• A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment.

Financial proposal: that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (Annex II)

• A one page proposal explaining why they are the most suitable for the work;

• Personal CV or duly signed P11 including at least 3 references (either current or former supervisors) with their contact details to be provided;
• Applicants should apply on-line through the UNDP job site at http://www.undp.org/content/afghanistan/en/home/operations/jobs.html . Please ensure to fill and upload resume or Personal History Form-P.11 which is available at UNDP job site in the relevant field of the on-line application.
• The applicant will receive an automated response upon successful submission of the application. Incomplete applications will not be given consideration. Candidates are requested to mention their interested area of expertise (as listed above) with the specific code in subject line of their application.