UN Women is the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. UN Women is dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.

All human development and human rights issues have gender dimensions. UN Women focuses on priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. Five focus areas of interventions include ending violence against women; economic empowerment; leadership and participation; peace and security; and national planning and budgeting.

UN Women works on several fronts towards ending violence against women and girls. This includes tackling its main root cause: gender inequality. Interventions focus both on prevention as well as response mechanisms. Efforts are multiplied through advocacy campaigns and partnerships with governments, civil society, private sector, and sister UN agencies. Initiatives range from working to establish legal frameworks and specific national actions, to supporting prevention at the grassroots level, including in conflict and post-conflict situations, and building capacities of relevant stakeholders. UN Women has also supported data collection on violence against women, facilitating new learning on the issue. Violence against women and girls is one of the most widespread violations of human rights affecting more than one-third of all women globally. Over time, there is greater understanding of the causes, nature and severity of violence against women and a recognition of its impact both on economies and societies.  Much of the research evidence on what works to prevent violence emphasizes the role of the State as a provider of comprehensive prevention and response mechanisms to its citizens and ensure easy and effective access and delivery of justice.      

Governments, non-government organisations and women’s rights movements and actors have adopted different approaches in three distinct, yet interrelated, areas: law and justice, provision of services and prevention of violence. In this context, multi-agency or multi-component response mechanisms to address Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) have emerged as recognized best practices. It is important that these services work together to reduce the burden and impact on women and girls in the process of reporting, response, and recovery, to avoid the re-victimization of survivors and to provide quality services. Access to health services, legal aid, psychosocial counselling, and support; 24-hour emergency hotline services, long-term economic and employment assistance and social reintegration support – have all proved to be essential elements of the multi-component response package.

The 66th session on the Commission on the Status of Women strongly condemns all forms of violence against women and girls, which are rooted in historical and structural inequalities and unequal power relations between men and women. It recognizes that the adverse impacts of climate change and environmental challenges increase and exacerbate the vulnerability of women and girls to discrimination and all forms of violence. It reiterates that violence against women and girls in all its forms and manifestations, online and offline, in public and private spheres, including sexual and gender-based violence, such as sexual harassment, domestic violence, gender-related killings, femicide, harmful practices such as child, early and forced marriage and female genital mutilation, as well as child and forced labour, trafficking in persons and sexual exploitation and abuse are pervasive, underrecognized and underreported, particularly at the community level. It re-emphasizes that violence against women and girls is a major impediment to the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and that it violates and impairs or nullifies their full enjoyment of all human rights and fundamental freedoms. Though the status of women in the state of Rajasthan, India, has improved considerably, offences against women are being committed mostly in private spaces.  The state government is taken up multiple initiatives to address violence against women. An analysis of the situation indicated that a strong and comprehensive multi-sectoral and multi-agency response and redressal mechanism was needed to prevent/ violence against women.  Accordingly, the Government of Rajasthan started a scheme for establishing Mahila Salah Evam Suraksha Kendras (MSSK) in each police district of the state in compliance of the budget announcement in the financial year 2010-11.

In 2013 One Stop Crisis Centre named Aparajita were set up in Jaipur, along the lines of National scheme for OSCC by MWCD, GOI. Its objectives, target group, services and stakeholders are defined accordingly.

The objectives set forth for the MSSK are as follows:

Providing support to women facing violence by way of:

• Assisting them to navigate through the Criminal Justice System;
• Settling disputes through alternative dispute resolution mechanisms;
• Facilitating rehabilitation for women survivors of violence;
• Establishing Counselling, Advisory and Redressal Centres in forty police districts of Rajasthan;
• Identifying and strengthening support groups for these centres in these districts and building their ownership towards the MSSKs in the districts;
• Create support groups of various stakeholders to respond to the issue of violence against women;
• Provided requisite legal aid to women facing violence;
• Establish critical linkages for referral services to women facing violence in some of the selected districts;
• Build a resource unit at the state level to provide research, documentation, and training inputs to the district MSSK.

Currently, there are 40 MSSKs in Rajasthan to safeguard the interests of women across the State. They are operated through reputed registered Non-Government Organizations to ensure holistic redressal of grievances and act as service providers to ensure the safety and security of the aggrieved women. They also help the Protection Officer of the district to file Domestic Incidence Report (DIR) in cases of Domestic Violence.

The key objective of OSCs is to offer integrated services through one window to all women facing violence. The key services offered are medical, police, legal, counselling, temporary shelter for 24 hrs and referral services.

In this context, UN Women seeks to hire one consultant to undertake an impact study of selected MSSKs and selected One Stop Crisis Centres in selected districts in Rajasthan. The main purpose of the study is to provide a well-researched and documented overview of the MSSK and OSCs and its impact on enhancing women’s access to response services.

The purpose of the study is to document and capture the impact of existing MSSK centers across the 40 districts and One Stop Centres of Rajasthan with following specific objectives:

• Documentation of the impact of the One Stop Centre in providing services (medical, counseling, legal, shelter and police related) to the survivors of violence and discrimination.
• Documentation of the impact of MSSK in providing immediate response, guidance and protection of rights of the survivors of violence in a domestic or any other social setting.
• Identifying impediments and enabling factors in the current approaches/models towards enhancing women’s access to response and redressal services to all forms of violence; and highlighting patterns and trends, if any, and issues addressed.
• Mapping and documentation of factors that impact violence response from the perspective of service delivery.
• Consolidation of learnings and recommendations for critical actors, including the Government, UN and Civil Society on both the schemes.
• Identifying factors and recommending steps and strategies for upscaling/replicating of MSSKs into One Stop Centers. Under the guidance and supervision of the Programme Specialist, EVAW, UN WOMEN, the Consultant will undertake the following key tasks and other responsibilities as may be assigned.

Under the guidance and supervision of the Programme Specialist, EVAW, UN WOMEN, the Consultant will undertake the following key tasks and other responsibilities as may be assigned.

The Consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Review the existing models, services and approaches employed by select MSSKs & OSCs;
• Responsiveness and effectiveness of the existing services to the diverse needs of women and in responding to multi-dimensional manifestations of violence;
• Accessibility of existing services for women and girls especially from rural and remote areas;
• Identifying, analysing and documenting the factors that influence women’s access to select MSSKs & OSCs;
• Communicating achievements and capturing long terms successes in a way that informs stakeholders to adopt/up-scale similar initiatives;
• Generating information and perspectives of change so that various stakeholders can learn from the relationships/ processes involved and adapt their interventions accordingly;
• Generating data and analysis to inform policies, develop new strategies, improve existing interventions and/or strengthen advocacy initiatives on EVAWG;
• Provide SWOT analysis of both MSSKs and OSCs;
• The consultant is, therefore, expected to provide a factual analytical report of the impact of MSSKs & OSCs, success stories emerging from relief mechanism, learnings to improve the present process and policies and give recommendations for better functioning of these MSSKs & OSCs so that they respond effectively to VAWG, and should therefore highlight scalable strategies, tools, techniques, and approaches.

Expected Deliverables:

• Inception Report & A Situational Analysis Report - 15 February 2023:

The Inception Report will detail the preliminary approach to the research, study tools to be used and the framework to be adopted. The Inception report will be used to confirm a common understanding of the purpose, objectives, scope, timescales, and methodology for the research. It will include:

• Overview, purpose and objectives
• Team - Roles and Responsibilities
• Assessment Framework and Methodology
• Information Collection and Analysis
• Work Scheduling – including Reporting timelines

At the time of the Inception Report, the researcher will present a Power Point detailing the salient features of the assignment that they will be sharing with key stakeholders during the Assessment.

A situational analysis report on the impact of MSSK & OSCs, while identifying impediments and enabling factors in the current approaches/models towards enhancing women’s access to response and redressal services to VAWG; and highlighting patterns and trends, if any, in issues addressed.

• Field Work (including interviews, field visits in various locations) & A Report on Primary Data Collected - 25 March 2023:

Collect anecdotal evidence on response and service mechanisms followed in the MSSKs & OSCs with a focus on the most vulnerable constituencies of women and triangulate it with the secondary data on MSSKs interventions, especially No. of cases handled by MSSKS & OSCs, budgeting and implementation of VAW services.

It will include gathering and analysing additional data to address tentative questions, and (2) facilitating joint learning with key UN Women partners and key UN Women staff.

• Draft Final Report - 15 April 2023:

At the end of Week 10, the consultant  will submit the draft report.  The outline and main finding of the assignment should be completed and handed to UN Women during the final de-briefing session. 

The second Power Point is expected from the researcher during the presentation of the Draft Final Report at the end of the Assessment Period.

• Final Assessment Report - 30 April 2023:

Based on the spoken and written comments of the stakeholders during the de-briefing and subsequently, the researcher will finalize and submit the final version of the report within ten days of receipt of comments.

The report should include the learnings and recommendations to critical actors, including the Government, UN agencies and Civil Society on Community Based initiatives towards EVAWG.

The length of the report should not exceed 40 pages, excluding Annexes. While the researcher is free to use any detailed method of reporting,

In the Final Report, the researcher is expected to provide details in respect of:

• Tools and guides
• Documents reviewed
• Interviews
• Field visits
• Participatory techniques and other approaches for gathering and analysis of data; and Participation of stakeholders and/or partners.

In addition, the final report should contain the following annexes:

• Terms of Reference for the study
• Itinerary (actual)
• List of meetings attended
• List of persons interviewed
• List of documents reviewed

Any other relevant material.

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Functional Competencies:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills.
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Education:

• Post-graduate degree in social sciences, international development, or relevant field. A PhD in social sciences, gender studies, social work is desirable.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of experience in the development sector, with specialisation in gender, social development and women’s rights;
• Minimum 7 years of experience in action research, policy research or academic research;
• Strong quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis skills is essential;
• Significant knowledge and experience of study concepts and approaches on EVAW;
• Recent experience with gender equality issues and knowledge of mainstreaming gender equality into policies/programming/development is an asset;
• Sound understanding of human rights-based approaches;
• Consultancy experience in India, especially Rajasthan is an asset;
• Facilitation skills, particularly the design of qualitative and stakeholder consultations;
• Excellent analytical skills and communication skills;
• Demonstrated writing skills in English and Hindi.

Language Requirements:

• Excellent writing, reading and communication skills in English and Hindi.

APPLICATION

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs.
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted.
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.                                                       

Evaluation and Selection Criteria:

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points).
• Expertise and Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points).
• Demonstrable experience of working on gender issues (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Interviews (100 points)

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality, and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.