UN WOMEN Jobs - 82908- Consultant - To assist with Conceptualizing Ending

Consultant - To assist with Conceptualizing Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG) Programme and support improving services for survivors of violence in Solomon Islands, Kiribati and Fiji.

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Suva, FIJI

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Feb-2019

Application Deadline :

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

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Up to 159 working days within an 11-month period.

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 Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (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 and peace and security. UN Women provides support to Member States’ efforts and priorities in meeting their gender equality goals and for building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) persists in every country in the world as a pervasive violation of human rights and a major impediment to achieving gender equality. Global estimates show that over 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime. The Pacific region has some of the highest rates of violence against women recorded in the world – twice the global average with an estimated two in every three Pacific women impacted by gender-based violence. Along with high rates of violence, women and girls in the Pacific region experience constant and continual inequalities including low levels of participation in decision making, limited economic opportunities, restricted access to health services and rights.

Much work has been done to understand the nature, extent and consequences of VAWG in the region, as evidenced by the Family Health and Safety Studies (FHSS) conducted by UNFPA and the Pacific Community across 11 Pacific countries. The FHSS shows high rates of violence against women: e.g. 68% of women in Kiribati, and 64% of women in Fiji and Solomon Islands experience physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner over their lifetime. In Solomon Islands, 37% of women report that they had been sexually abused before age 15. The most common perpetrators identified were: boyfriend (36%), stranger (24%), family member (20%) and male friend of family (16%). Many incidents of sexual violence involve young girls and children living with extended families (e.g. children from outer islands sent to live in urban centres to complete secondary education), who are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse.

Purpose and Context:

Women in the Pacific region experience constant and continual inequalities, including low levels of participation in decision making, limited economic opportunities, restricted access to sexual and reproductive health and rights, and high rates of physical and sexual violence. Persistent challenges to women’s equality include power imbalances, negative social norms and behaviors and patriarchy being reinforced through culture, religion, practice, policies and archaic laws. VAWG is a central barrier to gender equality and a cause of widespread violation of human rights across the Pacific. Preventing VAWG and promoting gender equality requires policy and programming approaches that prioritise transforming gender relations, empower women and girls, and address attitudes and behaviours that undermine gender equality. The three outcome areas in this programme comprise three approaches that are foundational, inter-related, and structured to progress social change complementarily.

In the Pacific, UN Women has embarked on a new innovative Pacific Partnership to End Violence Against Women and Girls Programme (Pacific Partnership) that brings together governments, civil society organizations, communities and other partners to promote gender equality, prevent violence against women and girls and increase access to quality response services for survivors. The Pacific Partnership aims to transform the social norms that allow violence against women and girls to continue; to ensure survivors have access to quality response services; and to support national and regional institutions to meet their commitments to gender equality and prevention of violence against women and girls. The programme’s three outcome areas are:

Enhanced formal and informal education on gender equality and prevention of violence against women and girls;
A transformative approach is implemented to promote gender equality and prevention of violence against women and girls at community level;
And National State Actors have the capacity to advocate, monitor and report on performance of national and regional institutions and authorities and their commitments on gender equality and prevention of violence against women and girls.

and are jointly implemented through a partnership between the Pacific Community (SPC) Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT), Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (Forum Secretariat) and UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office (MCO).

Under the Programme UN Women is supporting governments and civil society organisations to ensure access to quality services for survivors of violence are available; especially in the geographic locations where prevention programmes are being implemented. Across the Pacific there is still a huge need to develop specific services at the community level, build capacity across a wide range of service providers, and develop clear protocols and guidelines for providing quality multi-sector VAWG services, including coordination and accountability mechanisms.

Therefore, UN Women is seeking to recruit an international consultant to support this work mainly through provision of support to develop standards for counseling services, train frontline service providers on the services, develop coordination mechanism for services and provide support to designing interventions at national level.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the Assignment:

The objectives of the assignment include the following:

Support Government and its institution as well as other service providers in finalization of the National Counselling Framework;
Strengthen the capacities of front line service providers (government and non-government) and UNW staff to understand, implement and roll out survivor centered services aligned with the interagency Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS);
Support the design of rollout of interagency response in remote and rural areas.

Scope of Work / Duties and Responsibilities:

The Consultant will work under the supervision of the UN Women Service Delivery Specialist and in close co-collaboration with UN Women staff from target countries and will have the following major tasks divided by countries.

In Solomon Islands:

Support Government and its institution as well as other service providers in finalization of the National Counselling Framework

Review existing relevant guidance in counselling;
Organize consultations with service providers, Government representatives and other relevant stakeholders;
Facilitate dialogue on practical implementation of the framework;
Provide practical advice for users to understand the framework;
Participate in the relevant meetings, conferences, retreats organized in Solomon Islands, and if needed, outside of the country representing UN Women Fiji MCO; AND
Finalize National Counselling Frameworks for its final adoption/clearance by the national authorities.

Strengthen the capacities of front line service providers (government and non-government) and UNW staff in Solomon Islands to understand, implement and roll out survivor centered services aligned with the interagency Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS):

Develop a participatory training package and training manual aligned with the interagency SOP including modules to strengthen the understanding of gender and culture, gender hierarchies and gender-based violence;
Design a training of trainers’ module (programme) including a module on facilitation skills to increase the number of trainers with facilitation skills and knowledge to enable rollout trainings of the interagency SOP to the outer islands;
Facilitate one five-day survivor focused training for front line service providers to understand and implement the interagency SOP;
Identify and assess, in collaboration with government and non-government partners, the training skills of trainers to rollout the interagency SOP;
Facilitate one training of trainers’ module to strengthen the skills of SOP trainers (support may also include observing and supporting the trainers through one of the rollout trainings on the outer islands);
Design and implement pre and post training evaluations; and
Write training reports.

Review and support the development of strategies to rollout out SafeNet to the Outer Islands in Solomon Islands.

Design a next phase UNW programme for improving response and services to survivors of violence as part of the Solomon Islands component of the Pacific Partnership Programme:

Consult with UN Women and relevant (as suggested by UN Women) partners to further develop the Solomon Islands concept note;
Draft the Solomon Islands investment plan based on the consultations; AND
Develop and submit a full project proposal as per the format to be made available (including outcomes, outputs, indicative activities and budget.

In Kiribati:

Support Government and its institution as well as other service providers in finalization of the National Counselling Framework

Review existing relevant guidance in counselling;
Organize consultations with service providers, Government representatives and other relevant stakeholders;
Facilitate dialogue on practical implementation of the framework;
Provide practical advice for users to understand the framework;
Participate in the relevant meetings, conferences, retreats organized in Kiribati, and if needed, outside of the country representing UN Women Fiji MCO; and
Finalize National Counselling Frameworks for its final adoption/clearance by the national authorities.

Strengthen (and where needed develop) the capacities of front line service providers (government and non-government) and UNW staff in Kiribati to understand, implement and roll out survivor centered services aligned with the interagency Standard Operating Procedures (SOPS);

Develop a participatory training package and training manual aligned with the interagency SOP including modules to strengthen the understanding of gender and culture, gender hierarchies and gender-based violence;
Design a training of trainers’ module (programme) including a module on facilitation skills to increase the number of trainers with facilitation skills and knowledge to enable rollout trainings of the interagency SOP to the outer islands;
Facilitate 1 survivor centered training of front line service providers to understand and implement the interagency SOP);
Identify and assess, in collaboration with government and non-government partners, the training skills of trainers to rollout the interagency SOP;
Facilitate one training of trainers’ module to strengthen the skills of SOP trainers in SOI (support may also include observing and supporting the trainers through one of the rollout trainings on the outer islands);
Design and implement pre and post training evaluations; AND
Write training reports.

Review and support the development of the strategies to rollout out SafeNet to the outer Islands.

In Fiji:

Support the design of rollout of interagency response in remote and rural areas.

Trainings to all relevant stakeholders on multi-sectorial coordinated services for survivors of violence:

Training package is developed to include power point presentations, handouts, exercisers, as well as a training manual;
Two trainings 5 days each, to at least 50 partners delivered;
Pre and post training evaluation undertaken;
Training report presented.

Duration of the Assignment

The duration of this assignment will be approximately 159 working days over 11 months in 2019 as per suggested schedule of deliverables below. The scope of work, will cover all M4C project countries: Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Expected Deliverables

The selected consultant will provide monthly progress reports to include activities undertaken, results achieved, challenges and way forward.
It is expected that the consultant will provide the following deliverables (consequence of deliverables is not matching the table below, rather they would need to be provided on a needs basis expressed by the countries’ stakeholders).

(Pls refer to the actual TOR for full table of deliverables).

All the documents, including the interview tools, and transcripts, all scoping materials including images materials and reports should be submitted in written English language.
Note that all materials, including images will remain property of UN Women and cannot be used without UN Women’s permission.
All deliverables shall be agreed with the UN Women Fiji MCO EVAW Programme Specialist. All reports shall be presented in English, electronic format.
The timeframe for the work of the Consultant is tentatively planned from 1 February 2019 to 31 December 2019 with an estimated total volume of work not to exceed 159 working days, coordinated in advance with the UN Women Fiji MCO EVAW management.
Note: The mentioned number of working days has been estimated as being sufficient/feasible for the envisaged volume of work to be completed successfully and is proposed as a guideline for the duration of assignment. It cannot and shall not be used as criteria for completion of work/assignment. The provision of envisaged deliverables approved by the UN Women Fiji MCO management shall be the only criteria for national consultant’s work being completed and eligible for payment/s.

Inputs

The Consultant will work under the overall guidance and direct supervision of UN Women Fiji MCO EVAW Programme Specialist and in close collaboration with UN Women Service Delivery Specialist and local staff from target countries and other UN Women partner NGOs working in eliminating violence against women and girls.
The Consultancy envisages extensive work with Government, CSO partners in Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Fiji. UN Women will provide space for working in the office, including for meetings, and learning sessions with access to Internet and printer. The selected Consultant shall sign a contract with UN Women for stipulated assignment, as stated above.

Management arrangements

The Consultant will work under the overall guidance and direct supervision of UN Women Fiji MCO EVAW Programme Specialist and in close collaboration with UN Women Service Delivery Specialist and local staff from target countries and other UN Women partner NGOs working in eliminating violence against women and girls.
The Consultancy envisages extensive work with Government, CSO partners in Solomon Islands, Kiribati, Fiji. UN Women will provide space for working in the office, including for meetings, and learning sessions with access to Internet and printer. The selected Consultant shall sign a contract with UN Women for stipulated assignment, as stated above.

Performance Evaluation

Contractor’s performance will be evaluated based on: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.

Travel

This assignment is mostly based in Suva, with frequent travel to selected target countries (Solomon Islands and Kiribati).
Throughout the assignment, the Consultant is expected to conduct at least 3 missions to each of these countries (each mission tentatively for a period of 10 days) which needs to be factored in the proposal, with the rest of the time working days to be spent in Suva, Fiji.
Any additional travel (beyond three missions per country) will be ensured by UN Women Fiji MCO with prior coordination. Other travel, including international as well as local travel, must be covered by consultant.

Financial Arrangement

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by the project managers that the services have been satisfactorily performed as per the delivery table above.

Competencies

Core Values

Respect for Diversity;
Integrity;
Professionalism.

Core 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

Advanced degree in Social Science (International Development Studies, Gender/Women’s Studies, Law, Social Work, Sociology and/or a closely related discipline).

Experience

At least 12 years records of working/collaborating with local government and NGOs in assisting/supporting drafting policy recommendations/ policy reports and coordinating activities for the improvement of service to survivors of violence;
At least 3 years of proven working experience in project design and formulation, including on EVAW;
At least 5 years records of working/collaborating with local government and NGOs in assisting/supporting drafting policy recommendations/ policy reports and coordinating activities for the improvement of survivors of violence;
At least 3 years of experience in working with international organizations (successful experience in working with UN agencies is an asset);
Proven record of at least 5 years of experience in leading /facilitating consultation meetings with various stakeholders (governmental, non-governmental and donor community);
Ability to produce well written reports demonstrating analytical ability and communication skill;
Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, IT tools, ability to use Internet and email.

Language

Excellent written and spoken English;
Language skills such as Hindi, i-Taukei language, Solomon Islands Pidgin or Bislama an asset.

Evaluation

Initially, individual consultants will be short-listed based on the following minimum qualification criteria:

At least 12 years records of working/collaborating with local government and NGOs in assisting/supporting drafting policy recommendations/ policy reports and coordinating activities for the improvement of services to the survivors of violence;
At least 3 years of proven working experience in project design and formulation, including on EVAW;
Fluency in written and oral English is a must.

The short-listed individual consultants will be further evaluated based on a cumulative analysis scheme, with a total score being obtained upon the combination of weighted technical and financial attributes. Cost under this method of analysis is rendered as an award criterion, which will be 30% out of a total score of 500 points. (Please also refer to the full TOR for more detailed information).

Technical evaluation will be represented through desk review of applications and further interview will be organized.

Winning Candidate

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).
Please note that only applicants who are short-listed will be contacted.
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.