UNDP Jobs - 76541- Gender Specialist Consultancy

Gender Specialist Consultancy

Location :

Lilongwe, MALAWI

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

12-Feb-2018

Application Deadline :

19-Jan-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

120 days spread across 6 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 United Nations has been supporting the efforts of Malawian electoral stakeholders in strengthening the transparency and inclusiveness of their electoral processes since the country adopted a multi-party system in 1993. UN electoral support, in close partnership with national stakeholders and international partners, has included support to the Malawi Electoral Commission (MEC) in developing its institutional and operational capacity, assisting civil society organizations (CSOs), providing support to electoral reform initiatives, promoting women’s participation, and the mitigation of election related violence.

The current electoral assistance project, MECS (2017 -2019) is structured around four outputs, (i) support to the MEC to administer and manage elections in accordance with regional and international standards; (ii)the strengthening of women’s political empowerment throughout the electoral cycle; (iii) the improved ability of political parties to contribute to orderly and inclusive elections;(iv) and effective and efficient management of the project.

A UNDP managed basket fund has been opened for the project and a partnership between UNDP and UN women has been established to ensure the strengthening of women’s empowerment throughout the electoral cycle. UNW leads on output two that aims at strengthening women political empowerment throughout the elections cycle. However, the project also contains women empowerment initiatives in outputs one and three led by UNDP.

purpose of these Terms of Reference will be to hire the International gender specialist, who will support the planning and implementation of gender-based activities under the MECS project. The gender specialist will report to the Chief Technical Advisor and liaise closely with UNWOMEN.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives, Tasks and Responsibilities

Working under the supervision of the UNDP Chief Technical Advisor, the consultant will provide strategic advice and implementation support to the MECS project to ensure that all gender-based activity work is properly prioritized and there is a solid stakeholder platform that is ready to work on gender equality in the field of politics, with a focus on elections.

The gender consultant will have the following responsibilities:

Provide strategic and timely advice to MEC and the Centre for Multi-party Dialogue (CMD) on steps to ensure more women and specified others seek political party nominations for the 2019 tripartite elections;
Develop plans to engage women, youth and people with disabilities and others who have been traditionally marginalized to encourage and empower them to seek political party nominations;
Undertake research and broad consultations with political parties and others on roadblocks to participation in Malawi Develop baselines and targets for enlarged participation (candidates for nominations);
Provide technical support to the implementation of the Elections Project
Develop training of trainers strategies, approaches and methodologies focusing on engagement and empowerment of potential women, youth and PWD candidates; Develop TORs for contracted experts/others and assess proposals;
Provide periodic updates and briefing notes as required

Produce an Inception Report which will include:

recommended action against time roadmap for all the gender components of the MECS project, building on logical sequencing.
Guidance on the best way of ensuring relevant stakeholder buy-in to the activities
Suggested monitoring mechanisms for the roadmap

Support the implementation of Output 2 Annual Workplan Output 2 activities:

Provide quality control on the activities relevant to national and community radio broadcasting.
Establish the criteria for selecting He or She champions at national and local level
Provide design and content advice for the Violence Against Women (VAW) database and guide on the recruitment of field monitors.
Provide content inputs to the curriculum to be used for training women aspirants to the 2019 tripartite elections
Provide inputs into the agenda, programme and session content for the sensitization sessions to be held with local leaders.
Provide similar inputs into the sessions to be held with local political representatives

Support the establishment of strong coordination mechanisms with other projects supporting women empowerment:

Liaise with the Ministry for Gender in establishing a regular coordination body that would meet quarterly
Assist in establishing a project-level coordination body with rotating Chairing and hosting of the meetings between the partners involved in Gender support projects.

Competencies

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
Accountability;
Creative Problem Solving;
Effective Communication;
Inclusive Collaboration;
Stakeholder Engagement;
Leading by Example.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A university Masters’ degree in Business Administration, Political Science, Development Studies, Public Administration or Social Science or other relevant field

Experience:

Have proven experience in mainstreaming gender activities across institutions.
Have at least 5 years experience in implementing gender-based activities
Be able to provide proof of work done for international organizations in the past 5 years.
Be able to provide guidance and advice to institutional leadership
Be conversant with electoral operations

Language:

Fluency in written and spoken English is essential

Additional Requirements:

Ability to work with people of different political, religious and cultural backgrounds;
Awareness and sensitivity of gender and social inclusion, and an ability to integrate a gender and social inclusion perspective into tasks and activities;
Ability to work with minimum supervision and in a team.

How to Apply:

Please submit the following documents:

Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP.
Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and three (3) professional references.
Brief description (max. ½ page) of why you consider yourself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology (max. 1 page) for how you will approach and complete the assignment.

Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided below.?

Note that availability from February 2018 will be a determining factor for candidate selection.

For more details please check the detailed Terms of Reference on the link below:

http://procurement-notices.undp.org/