Background

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, programs and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. UN Women is at the forefront of the global drive to remove gender barriers and end discrimination, because we believe in a world of justice and human rights for everyone.

About 85% of Tajik labor migrants are male and 20% migrate with their wives. In 2016, 50% of households in Tajikistan were female headed, with 87% of children remained behind with a single parent. Many Tajik men working abroad gradually cease contact with their families and stop sending remittances, opting to build a new life in Russia. This has led to the existence of an extremely vulnerable and marginalized group in Tajik society, the so-called ‘abandoned families’ or ‘families left behind’ of migrant workers. Women and children left behind suffer from poor wellbeing, including mental health, compounded by limited services and support. The current CFP targets families left behind by migrant workers (with women - left behind in focus) and communities where they reside prioritizing the most vulnerable families, including those with a member facing disability.

Families left behind or affected by migration often struggle to access rights and protections, incl. limited access to legal remedies and discrimination in the application of law. Women often unable to divorce their absent husbands or obtain court ordered alimony and child support. There are no functioning systems to identify and register families left behind and a limited awareness among them of available services. Rural women left behind lack equal access to property, land, and credit making them dependent on the other family members and increasing their vulnerability to poverty. This leads to economic and other forms of violence against the women left behind. Traditionally, they live with their in-laws, therefore legally claiming a domicile after divorce or abandonment is difficult. Women have limited access to justice due to the lack of money for documents and lawyers or lack of information about legal protections. Practically, no or few initiatives target ‘families left behind’.

In Tajikistan, rural women often lack vocational skills and do not have any stable income. With this purpose, UN Women office in Tajikistan initiated a series of trainings for abandoned women on business fundamentals and techniques, and self-confidence skills to empower rural women economically and psychologically by building their capacities and skills that are important for running their own businesses, to enhance their leadership, management, and entrepreneurial skills. The training aimed at addressing issues relating to stigma, discrimination, and self-esteem by providing various kind of support through the course of the training. 

Over the last five years, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Tajikistan has focused on supporting national social protection and safety nets, nutrition, climate change adaptation, resilience-building and disasters risk reduction, whilst aligning to national priorities and in synergy with the action of other partners in an inclusive manner that leaves no one behind.

According to the United Nations common country analysis (CCA), institutional mechanisms for gender equality remain weak and underfunded. Women are faced with pervasive gender stereotypes resulting in low participation in the non-agricultural labour force (27 percent), low secondary and tertiary education enrolment rates (31 percent) and high rates of gender-based violence (26 percent).Tajikistan scored 314 on the United Nations Development Programme Gender Inequality Index.

Considering that Gender Equality is at the core of its humanitarian and development work, WFP and UN Women in Tajikistan will mobilize professional expertise and resources to promote better gender transformative practices, enhance the role of women and girls in recourse management, application of participatory gender-and nutrition Social and Behavior Change Communication (CBCC) methodologies.

In this regard, UN Women plans to hire a National Consultant/trainer to provide support in building the economic independence and strong emotional intelligence of rural women by conducting 2 batches of one-day training on basics of entrepreneurship skills and community-based natural resource management for 20 groups of women (approximately 400 women) in 11 target areas of 3 Districts (Khatlon, Rasht, GBAO) of Tajikistan.   

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the UN Women Project Coordinator, the National trainer will be responsible for the following:

• In designing a training module that includes four directions: basics of Business and Entrepreneurship, development of emotional intelligence, visualization, formation of personal growth and soft skills.
• In preparation, facilitation, and provision of the 2 batches of 1 day training session for 20 groups of women (approximately 400 women) in 11 target areas of 3 Districts (Khatlon, Rasht, GBAO) of Tajikistan.
• In preparation and submission of the detailed report on the conducted training sessions along with the supporting documents for the review and approval of UN Women Project Coordinator and further recommendations.

Expected outcomes

• Rural women are equipped with basics of business education, leadership, strategy, and organization of business.
• Rural women are emotionally harmonized in family and community, their leadership skills enhanced, women can effectively build communication with friends, colleagues, and relatives, able to combat stress and manage conscious emotional response, self-motivation skills developed.
• Practical skills, business dating, profit and loss calculation skills developed.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Good knowledge of the training topic on medical aspects and ethical norms in the field of HIV counselling.

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:

• Possesses the ability to work independently, under pressure and meet deadlines;
• Good knowledge of technical area;
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail;
• Experience in report writing.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:         

University degree in Economic and business, Medicine, Sociology, Social Work, humanities and social sciences or another related field.

Experience:

• 5 years of professional experience in conducting trainings and capacity development in inter-personal skills, life skills and/or behavioral assertiveness on business and women rights among women of low-income households
• Experience in developing practical training guidelines and programme; experience in documentation, reporting and evaluation of training programs
• Experience in working with women and men and/or previous experience in provision of training on basics of entrepreneurship skills
• Experience working with international organizations, NGOs, UN organizations or other development assistance actors.

Knowledge of languages:

• Fluency in written and oral Tajik and Russian. Knowledge of English is an advantage.

Other:

• Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point).