UN WOMEN Jobs - 78416- Consultant – Women’s Participation in Governance a

Consultant – Women’s Participation in Governance and Peace Building (Open to Sri Lankan Nationals Only)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Home Based (With Travel Assignments), SRI LANKA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-May-2018

Application Deadline :

28-Apr-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

100 Working Days (Spread over One Year)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

100 Working Days (Spread over One Year)

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

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 and the third gender as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

All human development and human rights issues involve gender dimensions. UN Women globally focuses on key priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. The six priority areas include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, engaging in all aspects of women peace and security processes, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting through Gender Responsive Budgeting and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 recognises that conflicts affect women and girls differently from men and boys, and that women must be part of conflict resolution and long-term peace building process. In this regard, UN Women has a universal mandate to assist countries and the UN system in progressing more effectively and efficiently towards achieving gender equality and empowerment of women as well as upholding women’s rights. UN Women plays a critical role in the development and strengthening of international norms and standards alongside their implementation through operational and coordination activities, while also informing the development of those norms and standards through experience on the ground. It has also established strategic partnerships and networks with a wide range of stakeholders, including governments, women’s human rights advocates, and civil society organizations.

Following the aftermath of war in 2009, Sri Lanka has made several commitments to peacebuilding, reconciliation and good governance, and represents a historic opportunity to advance accountability and reconciliation as necessary steps towards long term and sustainable peace. In this regard, the Sri Lanka Peacebuilding Priority Plan (PPP) was developed, in collaboration with the UN, to serve as the framework for a coordinated Government, UN and development partners’ response to peacebuilding in Sri Lanka. The PPP places particular emphasis on integrating gender perspectives within its framework. As such, it aims to ensure that peacebuilding initiatives in Sri Lanka include leveraging women’s capacities and contributions, and developing strategies for inclusion which recognize their roles, and diverse experiences of conflict. Without women’s engagement at the stages of peace consolidation, the dangers of relapse are greatly heightened. Empirical evidence reveals a strong connection between the inclusion of women in peace processes and more durable and stable peace.

Despite this, the most challenging gap that remains, in terms of women’s political participation across the world, concerns the participation of women in peace processes and post-conflict political transitions. This is particularly relevant in the context of Sri Lanka, given that compared to other development indices, political participation of women has the widest gender gap.

In this context, funded by the United Nations Peace Building Fund, UN Women, in partnership with UNFPA and UNV, is implementing a programme initiative to strengthen the participation of women and youth in the peacebuilding processes in Sri Lanka. UN Women will focus on promoting women’s leadership and participation to strengthen their role in decision-making processes to develop a peacebuilding agenda that is broadly owned, open and transparent. At the same time the project will work with women leaders and political parties to support increased female political representation, with a focus on the implementation of the new quota in the upcoming local government elections. The project will target districts within the Northern, Eastern, Central, Southern and North-Western Provinces.

Duties and Responsibilities

UN Women is seeking the services of a Consultant to undertake the following tasks under the supervision of Programme Analyst, UN Women Sri Lanka:

Conduct bilateral discussions with representatives of political parties, elected women officials at provincial and local levels of governance, and women community leaders of selected project locations;
Convene and facilitate 10 multi-party dialogues bringing together women politicians, elected officials, women community leaders, women’s groups, and local communities to discuss common community positions;
Conduct 10 capacity building programmes for members of the multi-party dialogues in the areas of women’s leadership, peacebuilding, mediation and conflict transformation;
Conduct 10 follow-up assessment workshops subsequent to the multi-party dialogues;
Record the proceedings from the dialogues and capacity building programmes, and support with devising specific recommendations for follow-up action.

Deliverables:

Workplan with specific timeline and methodology (developed in consultation with UN Women and any project implementing partners).
10 multi-party dialogues in selected locations.
10 capacity building programmes/workshops for stakeholders.
10 follow-up assessment workshops, following the multi-party dialogues and capacity building programmes.
Final report on the proceedings from dialogues and workshops, inclusive of specific follow-up recommendations.

Payment Schedule:

Workplan with specific timeline and methodology - Two weeks following the signing of the contract (May 2018) – 30% Payment;
Delivery of the multi-party dialogues - June – September 2018 – 20% Payment;
Delivery of the follow-up assessments workshop - October – November 2018 – 20% Payment;
Delivery of the capacity building programmes - December 2018 – February 2019 – 20% Payment;
Final report on the proceedings from all dialogues and workshops - March – May 2019 – 10% payment.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates commitment to UN Women’s mission, vision and values;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning:

Shares knowledge and experience;
Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to design, planning and implementation of programme, managing data, reporting;
Ability to provide input to and use new IT based systems.

Leadership and Self-Management:

Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Remains calm, in control even under pressure;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
Good understanding of gender and development in South Asia;
Demonstrable ability to work in a team;
Ability to work under pressure;
Good writing and communication skills;
Excellent computer literacy and skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Conflict and Peace Studies, Gender and Development, International Relations, Public Administration, Law, Human Rights or equivalent in relevant fields of Social Science.

Experience:

Minimum 5 years of demonstrable experience in working on women’s political participation, policies or programmes on peacebuilding and reconciliation, and governance issues.
Previous experience in conducting training programmes for women and youth on women’s leadership in governance and peacebuilding is desirable.
Experience of working with provincial/local levels of governments is required.
Proficiency in software applications like Word, Excel, Power point, etc.

Language:

Excellent analytical and writing skills in English.
Spoken Sinhala/Tamil is mandatory.

Application:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (5 points);
Experience of working in women related projects would be desirable (5 points);
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) required and advance knowledge of spread sheet and database packages desirable. (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

Interview (100 points);

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.