UN Women, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women has been created to accelerate up the process of meeting the needs of women and girls across the world. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life.

This gender inequality fuels the high levels of violence against women and girls (VAWG), which remains one of the widespread human rights abuses in Tajikistan. Violence against women in Tajikistan is pervasive, and a large proportion of married women throughout Tajikistan report experiencing spousal violence. In addition, the magnitude of violence against women and children is underestimated, partially because prevalence estimates come from administrative data used by health or justice systems and partly because of the widespread beliefs that lead many people to see violence as a norm rather than a problem demanding attention. Exact figures are not available due to the lack of a centralized data collection system, and a lack of disaggregated data designating the relationship of the perpetrator to the survivors of violence. Inconsistent and uncoordinated methods of data collection and insufficiently detailed publicly accessible data on incidents and causes of domestic violence make it difficult to establish a baseline against which to measure progress in protection and prevention of domestic violence and assess which policies are effective and worth pursuing.

The Joint Spotlight Initiative (SI) (EU/UN) brings the resources to leverage the increasing political will to strengthen institutions and to engage civil society to significantly increase and expand on the EVAWG efforts done to date. Building on European Union’s (EU) “commitment to gender equality, human rights, the empowerment of women and girls and the eradication of gender-based violence” it will contribute to a new way of collaborating to fill important legal gaps and institutional needs and change the norms and perceptions that will address root causes of VAWG and prevent it, while supporting women and girls - survivors of violence, in a holistic and impact-oriented manner.

Within the frames of SPT phase I (2020-2022) through interventions of SI’s Component 5 “Data”, service providers, including NGOs/NGOs and women’s rights advocates, have strengthened their capacities to regularly collect data related to VAWG in line with international standards. Currently data is being collected and disaggregated by type of violence, perpetrator, categories of violence against women and girls; disaggregation by sex, age and relationship between victim and perpetrator, ethnicity of the survivors of violence, and the number of complaints received, legal and other types of aid rendered, and sentence imposed on perpetrators.

While SPT interventions in Phase I (2020-2022) were aimed at the development of VAWG Case registration system and building the capacities of data experts in registering the cases of violence against women and girls, the interventions of the SPT Phase II (2023) will mainly focus on monitoring the VAWG registration system and transferring collected data to Cloud Platform, building the capacity of 10 target NGOs officials on correct collection and saving VAWG data on Cloud Platform.  

In this regards UN Women in Tajikistan seeks for National Data Expert to monitor registration of VAWG data and facilitate VAWG data storage/transfer on Cloud Platform (DATA EXPERT on VAW) (further- Consultant). In his/her assignment the expert will be supported by IT Data Specialist to be also hired by UN Women.

  Objective

The objective of this assignment is to strengthen the capacity of women's rights NGOs to collect incidence data, including qualitative data, on VAWG for evidence-based monitoring and reporting.

1. Scope of Work

During this assignment, the DATA EXPERT on VAW (current TOR) (see column 1 below), in cooperation with IT Data specialist (to be hired by UN Women, see column 2), will contribute to the strengthening institutional capacities of NGOs through:

Ethical guidelines: Given that the Consultant will touch upon primary data gathering, it is important to ensure that he/she adheres to the standard ethical guidelines and safety recommendations for social research: UN Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards for Evaluation in the UN System (2005, updated 2016); UNEG Ethical Guidelines for Evaluation (2008); UNICEF Ethical Research Involving Children (2013); WHO Putting women first: ethical and safety recommendations for research on domestic violence against women (2001); WHO Ethical and safety recommendations for intervention research on violence against women: Building on lessons from the WHO publication “Putting women first” (2016).

Principles of Confidentiality shall be strictly adhered to:

• information will only be shared internally and externally on a ‘need to know’ basis and only with individuals and/or organisations relevant to the data process;
• The Experts cannot discuss any case information with family, friends or co-workers;
• only non-identifying data of individuals will be shared in documents and reports;
• all written information with identifying details will be kept in password protected documents or in locked/secure space (if printed).

Results:

1. Measurement and methodologies for VAWG/Harmful Practices’ data collection are improved and strengthened among target NGOs.
2. The activities will create a framework and capacity that will allow for SGBH/HP data to be regularly collected, analyzed, and used in line with international standards.

2. Expected deliverables and payment procedures.

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• It is absolutely a must for this assignment to meet deadlines;
• The ability to work independently, under pressure;
• Good knowledge of technical area;
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to details;
• Experience in report writing.
• Proven excellent communication and facilitation skills;
• Gender analytical skills.

Education:

• University Diploma in gender issues, humanities, legal studies, human rights.

Working Experience:

• At least 3 years of experience in provision of interactive training to adult audience as a trainer/facilitator.
• At least 3 years of experience in developing educational tools.
• Demonstrated experience in using or introduction the gender and VAW related data/ statistics / indicators in case management of service providers or similar practice

Knowledge of languages:

• Fluent Tajik and Russian languages.

 Application Process 

The application should include:

• Letter of Interest;
• Personal History Form (P-11 form) - including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment  a signed copy should be submitted;
• Financial Proposal:  Specify a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this Terms of Reference, including travel costs.

Candidate should have the ability to quickly produce degree certificates and medical certification (of good health) should they be short-listed in consideration of the consultancy post.