Background

The equal participation of women in decision-making bodies have been ensured by international conventions with commitment from member states to remove barriers that hinder women’s participation and to actively promote and ensure their representation and meaningful participation in all governance structures including the elected and appointed bodies. However, around the world, women continue to be side-lined from decision making processes at local and national level. Globally, the percentage of women in national parliaments is 24.3% and only 20.1% hold ministerial positions[1].

Gender quality is a necessary foundation for achieving an inclusive, equitable and sustained development as development is only effective when the diverse experiences, perspectives and talents of women have been included. Research has further proven that the proportion of women in parliament greatly influences the issues discussed and the legislations prioritised aims to bring positive communities for all groups in society especially children and women[2]. Faced with complex development challenges, legislative bodies with members from diverse backgrounds generally provided more innovative solutions to tackle problems.

Political parties play a key role in determining the political participation and representation of women in the political sphere. The power rests on them for recruitment and selection candidate for parliament and island councils and for women’s involvement within the parties’ hierarchies as well. At present, women tend to be overrepresented at grassroots level but are largely excluded from decision making bodies within the parties which again impacts the issues included in their party manifestos.  Another key factor is the social and cultural norms that continue to restrict women’s meaningful participation in all spheres of public life. This coupled with a lack of inclusive institutions/agencies causes women to face considerable challenges when contesting for elected positions. 

UNDP through its Integrated Governance Programme (IGP) has been working towards creating an enabling environment for inclusive and participatory decision making and partnered with Transparency Maldives to hold a Symposium on Women’s Political Participation in 2019. Among the many recommendations that emerged from the symposium, a consensus was formed on collaborating with political parties to increase women’s meaningful engagement and representation in the political sphere. As such, UNDP in partnership with UN Women is seeking the service of an international consultant to support the strengthening of Women’s Wings of political parties for increased engagement and participation of women.

[1] UN Women and Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2019. “Women in Politics: 2019”.

[2] UNDP and National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, 2012. “Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties”.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance of UNDP and UN Women, the consultant will undertake the following tasks;

Diagnostic Assessment Toolkit:

• Conduct consultations with a variety of stakeholders including the political parties to understand the local political party structures and identify the gaps that can be addressed through the diagnostic toolkit.
• Submit an inception report including the work plan, literature review of instruments/tools and best practices globally and from the region on increasing women’s participation and findings from the consultations.
• Based on the findings from the literature review and consultations, develop a diagnostic assessment tool that would support political parties to identify current barriers to women’s meaningful participation within parties and senior leadership levels and strengthen their internal policies and structures.
• Submit the draft diagnostic tool for UNDP and UN Women’s review and incorporate comments.
• Conduct the pilot using the diagnostic tool on the individual political parties.
• Based on the results of the pilot, formulate an action plan for individual political parties with an embedded monitoring and evaluation framework.
• Submit the draft action plans for review and incorporate comments.
• Conduct validation workshops for each action plan with the stakeholders.
• Submit the final action plans.

Training modules for women’s wing

• Conduct consultations with the senior leadership and Women’s Wings of political parties (including women involved in the grass roots level) to identify training needs and existing barriers for women to contest in elections.
• Develop draft modules to build the capacity of Women’s Wings including a methodology for a pilot mentorship programme for potential female leaders at local levels who will function as lobbying groups for women’s issues at political party and local level.
•  Submit the draft modules for review and incorporate comments.
• Conduct a pilot Training of Trainers (ToT) programme of the modules to the Women’s Wings of political parties and revise the draft modules as needed.
• Submit the final training modules.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables;

1. Conduct stakeholder consultations and submit inception report
2. Develop and pilot the diagnostic assessment tool
3. Develop draft action plans for individual political parties
4. Facilitate validation workshops for each action plan with stakeholders
5. Submit the final action plans
6. Identify training needs and develop draft modules for TOT
7. Facilitate pilot ToT for Women’s Wings of political parties
8. Submit final training modules

The following table shows an indication of the duration for the deliverables;

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will work under the guidance of UNDP and UN Women and will be accountable to the assigned Programme Officer, IGP, for each deliverable as stipulated in the proposal. Meetings with UNDP senior management will be held as and when needed.

Duration: 82 days between September – January 2020

Duty Station: Maldives

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards and acts in accordance with the Standards of Conduct for international civil servants;
• Advocates and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.

Functional Competencies

• Knowledge about the UNDP programmes would be an advantage;
• Proven strong analytical abilities;
• Ability to work under pressure with several tasks and various deadlines;
• Ability to actively generate creative, practical approaches and solutions to overcome challenging situations;
• Excellent writing, presentation/public speaking skills;
• A pro-active approach to problem-solving;
• General IT Literacy

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Postgraduate degree in gender, development studies, research, human rights, law or related social science

Experience

• Minimum 8 years of professional experience in the development sector as practitioner or a researcher
• Minimum 6 years of experience in designing and implementing similar assessments/tools
• Minimum 6 years of experience in designing and facilitating similar training programmes for political parties
• Should have experience working with political parties to strengthen their internal environment
• Experience in the region or similar context is an added asset
• Experience working with UNDP or other UN agencies is an added advantage

Language requirement

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required

Application process

Interested individuals must submit the following as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications. 

• A letter indicating why the candidate considers himself/herself suitable for the required consultancy;
• Submission of an updated detailed Personal CV or P11 form which can be downloaded from http://sas.undp.org/documents/p11_personal_history_form.doc
• Lump sum financial quotation, with a breakdown of daily consultancy fee, daily subsistence allowance and ticket fees as applicable – clearly indicate the breakdown of daily fee and number of days of work; 
• At least two references from recent previous jobs or three references contact details

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