Development programming is more and more concerned about decentralization, local development and good governance as means to better achieve the Millennium Development Goals. However, human development also needs gender mainstreaming and a human rights-based approach in order to be achieved, since they are necessary to ensure that development programs benefit those most in need of assistance and contribute to positive cooperation between duty bearers and claim holders. HRBA tries to guarantee thus that the goals of pro-poor service delivery and addressing the needs of vulnerable groups are met. The focus on the local level is important because it helps to bring development to the people and can thus ensure that their needs and aspirations are given primary consideration.

 

However, such integration of HRBA and gender issues into development projects is not an easy task. Many people working at the country office level complain that there are too many “issues” that have to be mainstreamed into programming. The difficulty is how to integrate these requirements without making implementation more complex and increasing the benefits rather than decreasing them.

 

The UNDP Bratislava Regional center together with UNDP country office in Armenia organized in June 2006 a joint local governance, human rights and gender Community of Practice meeting to explore the conceptual and operational linkages between the three areas and to learn about tools available in these fields. The meeting brought together UNDP colleagues from Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Moldova, BiH, Macedonia and Croatia and provided an opportunity for sub-regional sharing of experiences and transfer of knowledge.

 

As following the recommendations of the Armenia meeting, in order to face all these challenges and difficulties that this approach might provoke when incorporating it into development programming, Bratislava Regional Centre would like to elaborate a toolkit in order to help practitioners at the local governance level to better design, monitor and implement projects that are human rights and gender based and provide them with practical advice on how to use and adapt different tools. The process of completing the toolkit is foreseen as open and participatory, where input will be sought from UNDP country offices, external counterparts and experts. Also a training/consultation will be organized on 7 – 9 November, 2006 in Moldova for UNDP Country Office practitioners and representatives of local municipalities.

The Gender consultant would participate in the elaboration of the toolkit to clarify the conceptual linkages between local governance, human rights and gender. She/He will provide a theoretical and substantial view of how to link gender mainstreaming and local development.

 

·        Assessment of the current gender mainstreaming presence in development projects.

·        Analysis of the different gender mainstreaming tools.

·        Conduct the elaboration of the toolkit on how integrating gender mainstreaming into local governance development projects.

·        Writing and editing of the tools, in cooperation with UNDP colleagues,  that explain how to apply gender mainstreaming in local development

·        Write, in cooperation with UNDP colleagues,  the Introduction and the Conclusions parts of the toolkit

·        Emphasize the elements of the tools that are particularly important to take into consideration in a particular development and political situations.

·        Highlight the linkages between gender mainstreaming and local development planning.

·        Highlight the added value of integrating gender mainstreaming into local governance.

·        Raise attention on possible gender discriminative practices in local governance arising commonly from negligence or from deliberateness.

·        Integrate the findings, recommendations of UNDP staff participants of the training/consultation in Moldova, 7-9 November, 2006 to the tools.

·        Integrate the findings, recommendations of local counterparts participants of the training/consultation in Moldova, 7-9 November, 2006 to the tools.

In an effort to develop the toolkit on how to integrate gender mainstreaming and human rights into local governance, UNDP BRC is hiring an international consultant on gender mainstreaming.

 

·        Post graduate degree in gender studies, gender and development, human rights, law, political science or related field.

·        Extensive experience (at least 7 years) in the field of gender/gender mainstreaming with extensive experience in gender mainstreaming.

·        Knowledge of and familiarity with the international human rights regime, human rights instruments.

·        Extensive knowledge of the notion of gender and gender mainstreaming in the UN system.

·        Extensive knowledge of local governance related gender issues in the region.

·        Extensive record in the research area with extensive publishing.

·        Knowledge of political developments and trends in the CIS countries.

·        Recognized expertise in working with multilateral or bilateral gender projects.

·        Demonstrated analytical and writing skills.

·        Excellent interviewing, public speaking skills.

·        Excellent training and moderation skills.

·        Excellent knowledge of English, knowledge of Russian or Romanian languages would be an asset.

·        Teamwork capacity

·        Reliability and timeliness in keeping deadlines and delivering high quality products