Background

UN Women is 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. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action in East and Southern Africa (ESA).

Ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG) remains a priority area for UN Women in East and Southern Africa, as the most widespread violation of human rights. Regional prevalence estimates of women and girls’ experiences of different forms of violence are often higher than global averages.[1] For example, the WHO 2018 prevalence estimates show that 20% of ever-married/partnered women aged 15–49 in Sub-Saharan Africa have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) in the past 12 months, the highest compared to other regions, while 33% have experienced violence in their lifetime, which is higher than the global estimates of 27%.[2]

According to WHO, over one billion people live with some form of disability in the world, corresponding to 15% of the world's population. The WHO 2011 World Report on Disability found that the female disability prevalence rate is 19.2%.[3] Women and girls with disabilities face intersectional discrimination[4] and exclusion, based on their gender and disability, among other status, which include attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers. These factors contribute to the higher risk of violence for women and girls with disabilities, although lack of adequately disaggregated data on violence against women and girls with disabilities results in EVAWG policies, funding allocations, service provision and programmes which do not adequately reflect the needs, engage or respond to the rights of women and girls with disabilities.

[1] See: What we do: Ending violence against women | UN Women – Africa

[2] WHO (World Health Organization). 2021. Violence Against Women Prevalence Estimates, 2018: Global, Regional and National Prevalence Estimates for Intimate Partner Violence against Women and Global and Regional Prevalence Estimates for Non-partner Sexual Violence against Women. Geneva: WHO, on behalf of the United Nations Inter-Agency Working Group on Violence Against Women Estimation and Data (United Nations Children’s Fund, United Nations Population Fund, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, United Nations Statistics Division and UN Women).

[3] WHO. 2011. World Report on Disability (who.int).

[4] See General Comment No. 6 (2018) on Equality and Non-Discrimination: Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. 

As part of UN Women East and Southern Africa’s Strategic Note 2022-2025, the entity seeks to collaborate with regional partners, including UN agencies, to develop a strategy for disability inclusion across the East and Southern Africa Region’s (ESAR) efforts, with an initial focus on its work in ending violence against women and girls.[1] These efforts will enable UN Women to better contribute to upholding the rights of women and girls with disabilities and involve increased collaboration with organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs), especially women-led OPDs and support to coalition building and strategic partnerships between Organisations of Persons with Disabilities (OPDs) and women’s rights organizations, youth organizations and other civil society partners to promote leadership of women and girls with disabilities.[2] It will focus engagement and partnership among these CSO partners at country and regional levels for addressing intersectional discrimination faced by women and girls with disabilities, strengthening networks and solidarity across groups and monitoring of progress against commitments for EVAWG.[3] In support of these results, UN Women seeks to hire a consultant to support the EVAW Unit to develop a roadmap for targeted and mainstreamed disability inclusion within UN Women’s EVAW efforts in East and Southern Africa.

Objective:

The objective of the assignment is to develop roadmap which will guide UN Women in systematically improving disability inclusion in its EVAW efforts (including programming) across East and Southern Africa toward realizing more effective and inclusive results for women and girls in their diversity. This will consider the attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers faced by women and girls with disabilities and cover aspects related to personnel knowledge and capacities as well as organizational practices, including, but not limited to human resource management, stakeholder engagement and partnerships, programme design, implementation and monitoring.

Scope of Work:

The consultant, under overall guidance of the UN Women Regional Policy Specialist on EVAWG (who also serves as the UN Women Disability Focal Point for East and Southern Africa), will lead the development of a roadmap for targeted and mainstreamed disability inclusion efforts within UN Women’s EVAW efforts and programmes in East and Southern Africa. This will include consultation with UN Women personnel and partners in the region on the roadmap development, drawing upon good practices within UN Women and beyond and lead the design and delivery of introductory learning sessions on disability inclusion for ending violence against women and girls for personnel and as relevant, select partner organizations.

The consultant will be responsible for consolidating and reviewing available documentation related to disability inclusion and EVAW, developing and conducting consultations, drafting and presenting the roadmap for validation and revising based on feedback received. This will include ensuring the approach reflects UN Women’s corporate strategy on disability inclusion, the UN Disability Inclusion strategy, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

[1] This follows UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025, which is fully committed to mainstreaming disability inclusion throughout its work, in line with the corporate strategy on disability inclusion, the UN Disability Inclusion strategy, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

[2] This is one of the commitments made by UN Women to the Global Disability Summit in 2022.

[3] This will include, but not be limited to: UN Trust Fund on Violence against Women Grantees, youth organizations, organizations of persons with disabilities, women living with HIV, LGBTIQ+ persons and other marginalized groups.

Duties and Responsibilities

The tasks to be undertaken include:

Develop and conduct an assessment of the strengths and capacity development needs of UN Women in ESAR and partner organizations in ESAR with regards to addressing violence against women and girls with disabilities and intersectional discrimination. This will include, but not be limited to women’s organizations, youth organizations and organizations of persons with disabilities and related networks.

Review UN Women ESAR documentation on EVAW efforts and organizational practices related including, but not limited to human resource management, EVAW stakeholder engagement and partnerships, programme design, implementation and monitoring.

Review UN Women and sister agency documentation on disability inclusion, particularly as it relates to EVAWG.

Consult with ESAR personnel and select partners on how UN Women can systematically address intersectional discrimination to:

1. uphold UN Women’s disability inclusion policy and corporate strategy in the ESAR
2. strengthen personnel and partner organizational capacities and competence related to intersectional discrimination and the rights of women and girls with disabilities,
3. improve inclusive and reflective practices in stakeholder engagement and partnerships for EVAWG
4. promote leadership and leadership development for women and girls with disability in their diversity, across the humanitarian, peace and development contexts.[1]
5. support coalition building and strategic partnerships between organisations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) and women’s rights organizations, youth organizations and other civil society partners to promote leadership of women and girls with disabilities
6. integrate a disability inclusive lens in all stages and aspects of the regional EVAW portfolio (across the normative, coordination and operational mandates)
7. more effectively engage in global, regional and country inter-agency disability working groups and other coordination mechanisms
8. better document and amplify promising and emerging practices of disability inclusion for EVAW across the region
9. Draft a roadmap for disability inclusion in UN Women’s ESAR EVAW efforts for 2022-2025, which provides guidance on above-mentioned areas and present the draft for validation.
10. Revise and finalize the roadmap based on feedback obtained.
11. Provide technical support to design and facilitate two learning and knowledge exchange sessions on disability inclusion for EVAW with personnel, and possible external partners (including sister UN agencies). The sessions should be designed to be between 1.5 and 3 hours each and virtually or in-person delivery will be determined based on assessment results.

Deliverables:

1. Report on capacity strengths and needs of EVAW personnel and partners with regards to addressing violence against women and girls with disabilities and intersectional discrimination (8-10 pages, plus annexes)
2. Draft roadmap for disability inclusion in UN Women’s ESAR EVAW efforts for 2022-2025, including documents which informed roadmap and presentation used for validation
3. Finalized roadmap for disability inclusion in UN Women’s ESAR EVAW efforts for 2022-2025
4. Summary Report of learning and knowledge exchange sessions on disability inclusion for EVAW with UN Women personnel and/or partners (8-10 pages plus annexes of learning materials used and related documents)

Work Schedule:

[1] This is one of the commitments made by UN Women to the Global Disability Summit in 2022.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

• Strong programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills.
• Ability to synthesize programme performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Strong Facilitation skills.
• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems.
• Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate.
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women.
   

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A Master’s Degree in International Relations, Sociology, Social Work, Community Development, Human Rights, Gender and Development, or similar field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level related to disability inclusion in the design, planning, implementation, monitoring or evaluation of gender equality programmes.
• Demonstrated technical expertise on addressing violence against women and girls.
• Proven experience developing and/or implementing organizational capacity assessments and capacity development plans related to addressing intersectional discrimination, particularly on disability inclusion.
• Proven experience working with organizations of persons with disabilities
• Work experience within the East and Southern Africa region is an asset.
• Familiarity with the UN system and the UN system development reform is an asset

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in spoken and written English is required.
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need. 
If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application. 
UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)