UN WOMEN Jobs - 73943- UN Women and UNFPA: National Consultant to Support

UN Women and UNFPA: National Consultant to Support an Assessment of Gender Statistics and Identification of Gaps (Open for Nepali citizens only)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Home-based, NEPAL

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Sep-2017

Application Deadline :

20-Aug-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Three and half months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The fundamental principle of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to leave no one behind. Achieving real inclusion and monitoring progress will require a significant improvement in the availability of data disaggregated by gender, age, sex and other important attributes. In order to improved targeting, and measurement, of interventions, Nepal therefore needs to embark on shift in the production, accessibility, multi-variate analysis and use of quality data and statistics on key aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment. From a gender perspective, the SDGs represent a significant step forward from the Millennium Goals (MDGs), covering for the first-time core areas of the feminist agenda, including a commitment to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, to eradicate discriminatory laws and constraints on sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, to recognize and value unpaid care and domestic work and to increase women’s participation in decisions making.[1]

For Nepal, this translates to an important opportunity to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment by producing evidence, targeting interventions, assessing their impact, and ensuring accountability. However, for this opportunity to come to fruition, a significant amount of work must be done. Comprehensive and periodic statistics on the status of various groups including most-difficult-to-reach groups, which often face not only poverty, but disadvantages related to location, language, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, caste, ethnicity or age. They are also critical for putting the spotlight on inequality in social, economic and political spheres and underscoring the focus on inclusion. As Nepal moves toward a federal system of government, the importance of these factors increases, as baseline data for the new local governance bodies does not yet exist.

There is an explicit need for producing gender statistics in monitoring the progress of the SDGs, including mapping data gaps that move beyond national averages, measuring multiple or intersectional discrimination or inequality, integrating a gender perspective into other areas of data disaggregation such as migration and disability, taking advantage of different data sources, and strengthening partnerships with data producers and users, the statistical community and organizations that are linked to population groups that are left behind.

In line with the SDG follow-up and review mechanism, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA) also calls for strengthening accountability mechanisms for gender equality, including of national gender equality mechanisms, national human rights institutions and regulatory bodies. There is no gender equality without data equality.

In its general recommendations, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has on several occasions called for improving the production and use of gender statistics. In 1995, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action included a strong call for “generating and disseminating gender-disaggregated data and information for planning and evaluation”. Similarly, the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) in its Agreed Conclusions has frequently called for better statistics, including on violence against women in 2013 and more broadly to address data gaps and improve gender statistics in 2014.

While there is a significant amount of data and statistics being generated by different actors in Nepal, most of the data and statistics are difficult to access and use and are not in open format. No central database with statistics from different sectors (e.g. health, education, economic opportunities, political participation and human security) exists, and improved data collection and analysis would allow comparison and analysis for solid evidence-base to guide development policy and decision-making, development programming, research and monitoring and evaluation.? Such challenges in gender statistics in Nepal contribute to the weak policy space and legal environment, financial and technical constraints in the production of gender statistics, and limited capacities of policy makers to analyse and use data to inform polices.

Furthermore, there are data gaps in many areas by sex, caste, diversity, ethnicity, geography, minority groups, including the baseline for SDG indicators in Nepal. The Progress of the Women in Nepal Report (1995-2015) highlighted among other areas the need for gender disaggregated data and evidence based robust monitoring systems.

A general low level of capacity underlies these challenges. There are few institutions and individuals well versed in the collection, analysis, and use of data of this type. This is particularly the case in relation to data on sensitive issues such as violence, discrimination, and social exclusion, for which very specialised research techniques are required. There is need to reduce existing gender gaps in civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) and increase access to adult identity documentation, to improve the available data on gender gaps at both national and subnational levels.

In this regard, UNFPA and UN Women are joining hands to support a joint assessment on the status of gender statistics in Nepal to identify gaps and challenges in different sectors including ending violence against women and girls and harmful traditional practices. Under the guidance and supervision of the Team Leader (an International Consultant), the national consultant will support in coordinating with concerned stakeholders to make the assignment participatory, inclusive and effective.

OBJECTIVE:

The major objective of this assignment is to have better understanding of gaps and challenges related to gender statistics across the different levels.

The specific objectives of this assignment are:

To map out existing gender statistics in various sectors on ending violence against women and girls including harmful traditional practices[2];
To identify gaps and challenges in ending violence against women and girls, including harmful traditional practices; and make necessary concrete recommendations.

[1] Making Every Woman and Girls count, UN Women, May 2016.

[2] Harmful traditional practices such as: child marriage, the dowry system, son preference, polygamy, widows accused of witchcraft, and such practices as chhaupadi, jhuma, deuki and dhan-khaane, para 17 of the Concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women for Nepal, 2011.

Duties and Responsibilities

Support the team leader (international consultant) to carry out the following:

1. Carry out an in-depth desk review on the following topics:

Legal frameworks, policies and practices governing the production of gender statistics;
The extent to which gender is mainstreamed into the national/sectoral development agenda and statistical plan;
Financial and human resources of the government, including technical capacity, available at the national level for gender statistics;
National protocols for publishing statistical data;
Inventory of available data;
Existing data sources and gaps in gender data production vis-à-vis the national/sectoral policy framework;
Assessment of the utilization of existing data in gender programme;
Costing of integrating gender perspective in data collection;
Percentage of national government resources devoted to improving gender statistics (as a per cent of total resources devoted to statistics);
Other relevant documents related to gender statistics.

2. Conduct a mapping of the projection of the anticipated future system for generating, maintaining and updating gender statistics under the federal structure.

3. Carry out in depth interview with key stakeholders such as National Planning Commission (NPC), Centre for Bureau of Statistics (CBS), national women machineries, civil society organization groups, universities, research institutions and development partners (UK AID, World bank etc.).

4. Conduct a validation workshop for the draft desk review reports.

OUTPUT:

An assessment of gender statistics is available to address data gaps on different sectors including ending violence against women and girls and harmful traditional practices.

KEY DELIVERABLES:

First draft inception report including conceptual framework, methodology, tools and detailed workplan;
Final report of the desk review on gender statistics in different sectors including ending violence against women and girls and harmful traditional practices;
Final report on the anticipated future system for generating, maintaining and updating gender statistics under the federal structure;
Final report of all consultations with the relevant stakeholders and validation workshop.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

Participation and non-discrimination;
Gender equality and social inclusion;
Culturally sensitive approach;
Human rights-based approach;
Confidentiality.

Note: No documents, researches, raw data collection or analyses (or parts thereof) will not be shared outside the NCO and all documents provided to the consultant will be treated as confidential.

WORKING ARRANGEMENT: The consultant will work from home and the UN Women Kathmandu office.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Excellent knowledge of results based management principles and approaches;
Proficient in English and Nepali with quality report writing skills;
Good interpersonal communication skills;
Expert in data analysis software’s.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A minimum master’s degree on gender and development, statistics, demographic, population studies, sociology or any other relevant field of social sciences.

Experience:

At least five years of experience on both qualitative and quantitative research focusing particularly on gender equality, ending violence against women/girls and the social sector;
A minimum five years of experiences in the field of data management and analysis as part of larger survey and research studies in the social field;
Two years of experiences in the field research.

Language:

Excellent oral and writing skills in English and Nepali.

HOW TO APPLY?

Interested applicants must submit the following document/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Cover letter confirming availability for work on mentioned dates;
Expression of Interest with explanation on why applicant is the most suitable for the work;
CV and dully filled P11 form that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment;
A separate page of lump-sum financial proposal with break-down of proposed amount in NPR for each deliverable to carry out above activities.

Note: Please combine all your documents into one (1) single document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

PAYMENT SCHEDULE:

Payment will be made at the end of the assignment and upon approved time log. If staggered payments are requested, then payments can be made at the delivery of satisfactory draft report (50% of total fee) and at the end of the assignment (50%);

EVALUATION OF APPLICANTS:

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as responsive/ complaint/ acceptable followed by the satisfactory reference check. Criteria for selection will be based on the following assessment:

Qualification and background (15 points);
Five years of experience at the international level on both qualitative and quantitative research particularly on gender equality, ending violence against women/girls and social sector (30 points);
Previous experience in carrying out gender assessments and reviews (20 points);
Proficient in English and Nepali with quality analytical report writing skills (15 points);
Work experience in Nepal on gender statistics and data analysis software (10 points);
Proven workshop facilitation skills (10 points).