Background

Limited gender equality and women’s empowerment in all spheres of life are among the most pressing issues in Somalia. The OECD Social Institutions and Gender Index (2014) places So­malia in the 6th lowest position in the world, with ‘very high’ discriminatory family codes, ‘very high’ levels of restricted physical integrity and a ‘very high’ level of restricted resources and assets. Women are generally excluded from most decision-making processes and consul­tations, and lack a voice in most forms of governance. State-building processes (including at the sub-national level) and political power are mostly executed while ignoring women’s con­siderations. As a result, services, policies and legislation are often not gender-sensitive. The Beijing +20 Report on Somalia (2014) points out that low participation of women in politics is one of the most significant challenges for gender equality.

In recent years, the UN has significantly increased its work to address gender equality and women’s empowerment issues in Somalia. Its work is guided by the principles, articulated in several international treaties and UN Security Council Resolutions pertaining to women in fragile contexts, including SCR 1325 (2000); the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); the International Cov­enant on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights (ICESCR)12; the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of

Discrimination against Women (CEDAW); the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment from 1995; the United Nations Decla­ration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women from 1993; the UNDP Eight-Point Agen­da: Practical, Positive Outcomes for Girls and Women adopted in 2006; and the Inter-Agen­cy Standing Committee’s (IASC) Policy Statement on Gender Equality in Humanitarian Action from 2008. The UN System-wide Policy on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (SWAP) provides a blueprint for making gender mainstreaming operational within the UN sys­tem. In addition, many UN agencies have their own gender policies or strategies either at the global- or country level.

The UN has been an important supporter and facilitator in the ongoing peace- and state-building process in Somalia, and plays a key role in delivering humanitarian assistance to the Somali people.

Since 2014, the United Nations has been reconfigured as an integrated presence between the United Nations Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) and the UN Country Team (UNCT), with specific provisions for the UN’s humanitarian work. This arrangement was designed to enable the UN to ‘Deliver as One’ through increased coordination and joint approaches, including on Gender issues

Until now, the UN has been tackling gender challenges in Somalia in line with the New Deal Compact, which was signed by the Federal Government of Somalia (FGS) in 2013 soon to be replaced by the National Development Plan, which has identified visions and clear targets for the engagement on gender. A new UN Strategic Framework (UNSF) is being developed as a response to the NDP, and the Somalia Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) provides the framework for humanitarian action in Somalia. It will further align with the FGS National Gender Policy, which is currently under review.

In order to better structure UN engagements on gender across UN interventions in Somalia, a UN Gender Accountability Framework (UNGAF) is currently being developed. The UNGAF is meant to further en­able the UN to reach the gender targets set out in the Somalia-specific assistance frameworks. It serves as an umbrella tool for the implementation of the thematic gender priorities as de­fined in the NDP and the UNSF. It complements and enables the important tools that exist at programme and project level, and fills an accountability gap at the leadership level. In particular, the UNGAF will enable the UN to help Somalia achieve all gender-related goals of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which were endorsed at the UN Gen­eral Assembly in September 2015. In addition, the different gender strategies and policies of UN entities outline some common principles that inform this framework, including: enhanced sharing of information, the development of monitoring and assessment tools, ‘do no harm’, capacity development, communications, partnerships, financial resources, and evaluation and oversight.

The UNGAF will in particular focus on how to hold the UN accountable for addressing key gender issues of importance to achieve transformational change during the mandate of the next Federal Government in Somalia.

The overall framework for the UN’s support to gender equality and women empowerment is articulated in three key, interlinked documents. 

First, the NDP sets the key overall targets for the road towards 2020. Gender programme of the NDP will effectively and efficiently promote gender equality and freedom from discrimination of all persons in Somalia and reduce gender inequalities and discrimination. It will create an enabling legal, policy and institutional environment to achieve gender equality and equal opportunities. It will also improve safety and security for women and make available quality gender statistics and information to address gender disparities. The vision expressed in the NDP is ‘a society that upholds gender equality, dignity, respect and fairness for all women and men’. The goal of the NDP on gender is to ‘create an enabling legal, policy and institutional environment to achieve gender equality and equal opportunities; improve safety and security for women; and make available quality gender statistics and information to address gender disparities’.

Second, the UNSF summarizes the key collective priorities for the UN in response to the NDP as well as in support of the UN’s overall normative framework on Gender

Third, the UNGAF sets out the key mechanisms by which the UN in Somalia including the UNCT, UNSOM and UNSOS will hold itself accountable for addressing gender issues, and for reaching the priorities spelled out in the UNSF in particular. It points out the key mechanisms by which accountability will be sought in leadership and governance, in programming and implementation, and in monitoring and evaluation.

The next step now is to apply the accountability framework to three key UNSF priorities that are most likely to make transformative change and where consolidated and joint effort of the Integrated Mission is required, and where we collectively need to build on the programmatic and political strength of the UN.

The first of these key priorities is the Roadmap 2020 for Women Political Leadership and Empowerment (2020 WPE).      

As a collaborative effort between the Resident Coordinator Office through the UN-World Bank Trust Fund; UN Women through the Joint Programme on Enablers funded by Denmark and Sweden; and the Joint Programme on Local Governance (JPLG) funded by the EU, UK, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark and, Norway, a senior international consultant will be recruited to design the 2020 WPE Roadmap. The consultant will work under the overall supervision of UN Women Country Programme Manager and in close coordination with the Programme Manager for JPLG, as well as in close consultation with UNDP’s election team, UNDP’s Gender Advisor, as well as with UNSOM’s Political Team and the Integrated Gender Office in UNSOM.    

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective:

The purpose of this consultancy is:

• to put in place a roadmap by which the UN can hold itself accountable for collectively responding to the need to ensure the participation by women and voters and candidates in the local government selection in 2017 and the local elections in Somaliland, and also to ensure one-woman-one-vote as well as to ensure women’s participation as candidates and voters in the 2020 election;
• to put in place an overall Roadmap between 2017 and 2020 for the Integrated Mission’s political and programmatic engagement across leadership/governance, programme/implementation, and monitoring/reporting, as per the UNGAF.

Scope:

The scope of work of the consultant will be to:

• Familiarize her/himself with the NDP, the UNSF and the UNGAF, as well as the ongoing UN Strategic Assessment (SA);
• Consult with key stakeholders on gaps in the 2016 election process with regards to a consolidated approach to promoting women in leadership roles;
• Consult agencies working on the elections and electoral project to get their views on the gaps identified in women participation and the lessons learnt.  Especially the EU observer team as their TORS include gender inclusion / recommendations;
• Liaise with the gender team that will conduct the JPLG gender review as one of the key deliverables in a country context analysis which will incorporate local governance;
• Meet with political party leaders in Somaliland to explore how committed they are to women’s inclusion and what strategies can be implemented to overcome the poor statistics;
• Meet with a cross section of politicians (both Men and Women) for targeted discussions;
• Consult with stakeholders at federal, state and district level, with development partners, the UN and relevant CSO as to what consolidated efforts they could foresee that would help ensure a more joint and coordinated approach from 2017 to 2020 with regards to district elections, state level governance, Somaliland elections, and the 2020 national elections;
• Apply the UNGAF to a 2020 WPE scenario and discuss with key stakeholders what enhanced role they can play to ensure that the UN continues to build on the programmatic and political strength of the UN on gender, and review this in the context of the SA discussions, in particular in SA Working Group 6 (WG6) on gender;
• Discuss and agree with the different UN stakeholders on their specific role in the UNGAF on WPE.
• Clearly identify priority actions for Somali counterparts.

Deliverables:

• A Concept Note outlining the key elements of the Roadmap 2020 on WPE (15 days), to include district council selection processes and local elections form 2017 forwards;
• A two-day validation workshop with key stakeholders plus preparations (5 days);
• A Roadmap 2020 on WPE which is applying the UNGAF (20 days);
• A One-Day Launching of Roadmap 2020 on WPE plus preparations (10 days).

In addition, the consultant will spend 5 days on security training, consisting of 4 days SSAFE training before the first or second mission to Somalia, and 1 day for the completion of two online courses on Basic Security in the Field and Advanced Security in the Field before the start of the mission.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

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 or the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Core Values and Ethics:

• Demonstrate cultural sensitivity and ability to work in a multi-national environment;
• Support the Organization’s corporate goals;
• Comply with UN WOMEN rules, regulations and code of conduct;
• Integrity.

Teamwork:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds;
• Build effective client relationships and partnerships;
• Interact with all levels of staff in the organization;
• Excellent interpersonal skills;
• Build and share knowledge;
• Make valuable practice contributions.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication;
• Excellent oral and written skills;
• Listen actively and respond effectively.

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.

Functional Competencies:

• Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical speciality relating to the position;
• Possess basic knowledge or organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master degree in Social Science, Gender Studies, International Relations, Political Science or related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of experience working on women, peace and security in fragile states;
• Extensive experience in research and analysis on conflict issues including addressing gender issues and human rights;
• Experience working with integrated UN missions a significant advantage;
• Excellent drafting, writing and presentations skills;
• Experience as lead consultant in similar assignments.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in the English language required, with strong, confident command of both written and oral English.