Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women through financial support from the Government of Sweden and the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls in partnership with Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MoGLSD) is launching a consultancy to support Council of Traditional Leaders of Africa (COTLA) Uganda Chapter to develop governance framework and system, and operational plan in consultation with cultural and traditional institutions and other stakeholders.

Context and Background:

Council of Traditional Leaders of Africa (COTLA)/ Conseil des Autorites Traditionnelles D’Afrique(CONATA) is a pan African movement of progressive Traditional Leaders primarily established to end child marriage, FGM/C and other harmful practices in Africa by 2030. COTLA/CONATA’s primary focus is to preserve positive cultural practices, customs and traditions while at the same time transforming and eradicating altogether all negative practices, customs and traditions especially those that affect the human rights of girls and women.

COTLA/CONATA envisions a well organised and vibrant pan African platform for progressive Traditional Leaders which harnesses the power and influence of African culture to respect human dignity, human rights, gender equality, and attain sustainable development of Africa in line with the AU Vision 2063.

The objectives of the COTLA/CONATA are as follows:

  • Culture is not static: Create a transformational, informed, dynamic, influential and functional Pan African progressive Traditional and Cultural Leaders movement that embraces cultural dynamism and promotes the successful implementation of the state laws, international agreements, and all other relevant policy commitments in order to end child marriage and FGM/C, and promote gender equality in Africa.
  • Promote Dialogue: Enhance meaningful dialogue of Traditional and Cultural Leaders with the AU, regional bodies, and governments to review culture, traditions, and customs to end child marriage and FGM/C and promote gender equality in Africa.
  • Ensure Action: Develop and implement action plans derived from all commitments the leaders have signed up to and all other relevant policy commitments made.
  • Ensure Partnership: explore opportunities for collaborative work with all other relevant stakeholders especially girls and young women, in order to end child marriage and FGM/C and promote gender equality.
  • Accountability: Ensure tangible and pragmatic, measurable and realistic targets are set and agreed upon with all Traditional and Cultural Leaders so as to realise a world where there is accountability for the lives, human rights and wellbeing of girls and women and all persons, across all spheres of society.

COTLA Uganda Chapter: The Uganda Chapter was launched by the Uganda State Minister for Gender and Cultural Affairs attended by the UN Resident Coordinator, UN Women Representative, (MGLSD) - Permanent Secretary, 70 Traditional or Cultural Leaders and/or Representatives, Academia and CSOs on 27th November 2020. 14 Traditional or cultural institutions made commitment during the launch to incorporate ending violence against women and girls into their institutional agenda. A draft Charter for the Uganda Chapter and interim workplan was adopted by the Cultural Leaders and a detailed roll- out of activities planned to intensify during 2021.

The Launch of COTLA Uganda followed a series of consensus building activities between the traditional or cultural leaders and with support from the Department of Culture and Family Affairs of (MGLSD), Cross Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU) and UN Women among others. In October 2019, The Queen Mother of Tooro, MGLSD, UN Women and CCFU participated in a meeting of cultural leaders in Africa organised under COTLA in Lusaka, Zambia.

During the steering committee meeting held on the 11th of October 2019, a proposal was mooted to establish a COTLA national chapter in Uganda. This national chapter was envisaged to bring together all Traditional or Cultural Leaders in Uganda in an effort to promote gender equality, end violence against women and girls and harmful practices such as early marriage and female genital mutilation and promote their sexual and reproductive health rights and improve access to justice.

While in October 2020 MoGLSD, CCFU and UN Women supported a follow-up orientation workshop of Prime Ministers (PMs) of Traditional or Cultural institutions as pre-launch activities of COTLA in Uganda. The meeting helped the PMs who are the principal technical resource persons from the Traditional or Cultural institutions to internalize the mandate and aspiration of COLTA and what a Uganda Chapter of COTLA would require to begin operations.

The PMs made and adopted a decision to establish the COTLA Ugandan Chapter pending rectification by the principals from their institutions. The PMs’ meeting was further used for building consensus on how COTLA would collaborate with existing forums such as the Prime Ministers’ forums, The Forum of Kings and Cultural Leaders Forum and the Queens’ forum among others. In November 2020 MoGLSD, undertook a 3-day physical outreach mobilisation visit to all the cultural institutions to formally engage and invite the Traditional or Cultural Leaders to the COTLA Uganda Chapter launch.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Rationale of the assignment:

The official launch of COTLA Chapter for Uganda marked a major step toward the operationalisation of the mandates, objectives and activities of the Uganda Chapter. A Draft Charter for the Uganda Chapter and an interim workplan was adopted by the Cultural Leaders. The Traditional or Cultural leaders called for intensified implementation of the Chapter’s activities during 2021.

The meeting further agreed to establish a functional Secretariat which would be responsible for coordinating and implementing the day-to-day affairs of the Chapter. The MoGLSD, represented by the Commissioner of Culture and Family Affairs, offered to tentatively host and support the Chapter. UN Women is now commissioning this call for individual consultancy to support the Chapter to develop its operations documents such as Constitution, Article of Association/Memorandum of Understanding, operational manual and guidelines; to support the chapter to realize its goals and aspirations. The assignment is designed to be conducted in collaboration with the Office of UN Resident Coordinator (RCO), MoGLSD, and CCFU and other stakeholders.

2. Objective of the individual consultancy:

The overall objective of this individual consultancy is to develop key governance and operations documents1, and a three-year costed Strategic Plan which builds on the draft documents agreed on during the launch of COTLA Uganda Chapter.

The specific objectives of the consultancy are:

  • To undertake a mapping of relevant structures, systems and operations of identified cultural and traditional institutions.
  • To offer technical support for development of inclusive, viable and sustainable governance systems and frameworks for COTLA in Uganda
  • To support the building of ownership and commitment to COTLA’s governance and operations systems among the relevant cultural and traditional leaders in Uganda

3. Duties and Responsibilities:

Under the direct supervision of the UN Women Programme Specialist Ending Violence Against Women and Girls with support from Deputy Country Representative and working in partnership with MoGLSD, Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO) & CCFU, the consultant will;

  1. Develop a methodology and plan for developing the key documents (Governance and operations systems), and 3-year costed strategic plan, and map and analysis of relationships of existing cultural forum.
  2. Consult widely among the gazetted Traditional or Cultural institutions, CSOs, the JLOS secretariat to collect data for the preparation of key draft documents and the 3- year Strategic Note (Traditional or Cultural and institutions level, MGLSD other stakeholders).
  3. Organize a workshop to present the key draft documents, operations systems and costed 3- year strategic note to the technical team from the different Traditional or Cultural institutions, MoGLSD, CCFU, UN Women and other project partners.
  4. Conduct a wider stakeholders’ validation workshop to approve and adopt the final documents,
  5. Conduct a 2-day workshop of the COTLA Uganda’s Chapter Leaders and selected stakeholders to build ownership and commitment of the COTLA’s governance, systems and programme.
  6. Disseminate the final documents at a national event and at cultural institutions /regional level.

4. Key Deliverables/Time Frame/Payment percentage

  1. Conduct Desk review, develop methodology and prepare inception report, detailing the proposed methodological approach to the consultancy assignment – 25%
  2. Consultations with Traditional or Cultural institutions, MGLSD, CCFU and other stakeholders.Present key draft documents, operations systems and costed 3- year strategic note to the technical team from the different Traditional or Cultural institutions, MoGLSD, CCFU, UN Women and other project partners. Incorporate comments and recommendations into final documents for broader validation Meeting – 40%
  3. Conduct Validation with wide range of stakeholders, finalize report and strategy document. Conduct workshop to build ownership of governance, systems and programme – 25%
  4. Support dissemination of the final report and strategy documents – 10%                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
  5. Inputs into the assignment:
  • UN Women, MoGLSD, CCFU and partners will provide the consultant with background materials related to the assignment.
  • MoGLSD will provide the consultant with the space and access to institutional documents as necessary, to undertake the assignment.
  • MoGLSD will further provide guidance on institutional and policy context informing the operation of cultural Institutions.Performance evaluation:
  1. The consultant’s performance will be evaluated against such criteria as: timeliness,

  2. responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, quality of the products delivered.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

  • Integrity
  • Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of the UN systemin actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
  • Ability to maintain confidentiality and a high degree of professionalism when dealing with survivors and sensitive information.
  • Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity
  • Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff, and of those of Government of Uganda entities;
  • Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN's values and ethical standards;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the UN, particularly relating to gender equality and the empowerment of women;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, sexual orientation, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Treats all people fairly and without favoritism.

Functional Competencies:

  • Strong analytical, reporting and writing abilities skills;
  • Demonstrated accuracy and attention to detail;
  • Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate and work well with diverse and multicultural supervisors and staff members;
  • Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure.
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
  • Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

  • A Master’s Degree in Organization Development, Social Science, Business Administration, Development studies, Research or relevant related field.
  • Possession of a PhD in Organizational studies, Development studies, Research or relevant related field is an added advantage

Experience:

  • A minimum of 10 years of relevant professional experience in developing governance, operation systems and development of strategy for diverse organizations/institutions.
  • Experience working with Traditional or Cultural leaders and in Uganda would be an asset;
  • Experience in conducting consultations with diverse stakeholders to elicit actionable information would be an asset;
  • Experience developing documents and manual for use by institutions and persons with varying levels of education would be an asset;
  • Demonstrated experience in organizational development, gender and culture, culture in development, participatory approaches, systems analysis, social research, operational planning, and management
  • Experience working with the UN system would be an asset.

Language Requirement:

  • Fluency in English is required.