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, peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In Zimbabwe UN Women supports the implementation of the existing international commitments to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in line with the national priorities as outlined in ZimAsset. UN Women’s programmes in Zimbabwe are aligned to the Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework (ZUNDAF) 2016-2020 and the UN Women Global Strategic Plan 2014-2017.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) was adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly on 18 December 1979 and entered into force on 3 September 1981. CEDAW was established and adopted to recognize, protect and promote women's human rights. Its main objective is to eliminate all kinds of discriminatory practices against women on the basis of gender and sex. It seeks to achieve equality between men and women in all aspects of life, be it private or public, through providing equal opportunity in, and access to, all the different areas and fields of a society. The Convention obligates member states to take practical and legislative measures to remove all forms of discrimination against women.  CEDAW is the most important treaty dealing with women's human rights by establishing the universal minimum standard of women's human rights to which all countries must abide by.

CEDAW obliges States parties (under Article 18 of the Convention) to submit a report on the legislative, judicial, administrative or other measures that they have adopted to implement the Convention within a year after its entry into force and then at least every four years thereafter or whenever the CEDAW Committee so requests. Following consideration of each State Party report, the CEDAW Committee formulates concluding comments which outline factors and difficulties affecting the implementation of the Convention for that State party - positive aspects, principal areas of concern and suggestions and recommendations to enhance implementation of the Convention.

In this regard, UN Women is providing technical support to the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development to compile and submit the 6th CEDAW State party report. Zimbabwe ratified CEDAW in 1991. As part of member states obligation to treaty body mechanisms, Zimbabwe’s initial report was submitted in 1995 and presented before the CEDAW Committee in 1996. In 2009, Zimbabwe submitted its 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Combined Periodic Report. The Report covered the period 1996 to 2010. The report was presented before the CEDAW Committee on 21 February 2012. Zimbabwe was requested to provide written information on the steps undertaken to implement the recommendations within two years. An update report was submitted in 2015.

Zimbabwe is due to submit its 6th periodic Report to the CEDAW Committee in 2016. The report will highlight progress and challenges in implementing the CEDAW Committee’s recommendations (see link: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cedaw/docs/co/CEDAW-C-ZWE-CO-2-5.pdf) and other measures that the have been taken to promote the rights of women and girls in line with the Convention.

UN Women is supporting the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development to procure a consultant to compile the Draft Zimbabwe 6th CEDAW periodic Report through desk reviews and nation-wide consultations and discussions with the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law and civil society organizations

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Deputy Representative; the consultant is accountable to and reports to the Secretary for Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development. She/he will be working closely with the Director of Gender in the Ministry of Women Affairs and the Coordination and Gender Mainstreaming Advisor in UN WOMEN, other experts from the Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Human Rights and International Humanitarian law and UN Gender Results Group (GRG) to:

Deliverables:

The consultant will be required to submit:

  • An Inception report, outlining methodology, structure and outline of the report;
  • A work plan or schedule of deliverables;
  • Report on the nation-wide consultations.

1st draft Zimbabwe 6th CEDAW periodic Report (hard and soft copy).

A Comprehensive Draft Zimbabwe 6th CEDAW periodic Report .The report should clearly outline the extent to which Zimbabwe has implemented the recommendations made by the CEDAW Committee in 2012 and the Convention in general.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

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

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity:

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

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

  • Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;

Communicating Information and Ideas:

  • Facilitating and encouraging open communication in a team, communicating effectively.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

  • Creating synergies through self-control.

Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:

  • Managing conflict;
  • Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.

Functional Competencies:

  • Leadership skills;
  • Strong knowledge and experience in networking and communication, particularly with the government and civil society sector;
  • Ability to deal with multiple and diverse parties/partners;
  • Flexibility and ability to negotiate based on agreed upon goals;
  • Strong analytical skills;
  • Strong ability to translate complex data and information into effective, strategic well written reports;
  • Extensive Knowledge of CEDAW and working in CEDAW related issues or processes;
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • A master’s degree or  its equivalent  in any social science, preferably including gender studies, Development Studies, Law, Political Science or relevant area.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 7 years’ experience of working on gender equality and women’s empowerment work;
  • Experience in working with officials at all levels of government and to work effectively with a wide range of constituencies including UN, private sector and civil society;
  • Experience in research, compiling reports and report writing.

Language:

  • Proficiency in the English language.