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 as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the centre of its efforts, UN Women is mandated to lead and coordinate United Nations’ system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming are translated into action. It is also mandated to provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Poverty and vulnerability remain significant bottlenecks for achievement of SDG targets and national socioeconomic development goals in Tanzania. This is despite relatively strong and stable economic growth of about 7% over the past 10 years (2008/09 – 2017/18). The Human Development Index (HDI) value improved from 0.446 in 2005 to 0.531 in 2015 and 0.538 in 2018, but Tanzania remained in the low human development category, 154th out of 188 countries (Human Development Reports, UNDP,2018). According to the Gender Economics of Women and Poverty Eradication Report (United Republic of Tanzania,2015) about 60% of Tanzania women live in extreme poverty, and in 2017 the Gender Inequality Index ranked Tanzania as 154 of 189 countries with a score of 0.554, implying significant gender gaps in human development.

Social protection is a direct way of reducing poverty and marginalization. The United Republic of Tanzania recognizes the role of social protection in its broader socioeconomic development portfolio. Social protection also features prominently in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to which Tanzania is strongly committed, particularly as a mechanism for the elimination of poverty (SDG 1), gender equality (SDG 5) and the reduction of inequality (SDG 10).

The Government of Tanzania initiated social assistance programme dubbed Productive Social Safety Nets (PSSN) which commenced in 2012 in its quest to promote inclusive growth and eradicate extreme poverty. PSSN is implemented by the Tanzania Social Action Fund (TASAF) and now rolling into second phase PSSN II (2019-2022).

Despite the stride in implementation of social protection programmes, these social protection programmes, particularly in low-income countries of Africa and including in Tanzania, are generally not designed with a gender lens despite documented positive effects of such programmes on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment around the globe.

TASAF has developed a Gender Action Plan (GAP) 2019-2021, which is scheduled for implementation under PSSN phase II (2019-2022). The GAP provides a roadmap for the PSSN II Program detailing key priorities of women’s economic empowerment drawing on experience and evidence from PSSN and lessons learned around the globe. The GAP seeks to comprehensively address gender issues in PSSN II design, implementation, and monitoring to ensure that women, along with men, participate in and benefit from all components of PSSN Program.

Ensuring that TASAF-PSSN staff have enough capacity to deliver on their own GAP, which is aligned with the government's Gender Policy, becomes central. Capacity strengthening is needed across all TASAF gender strategy’s areas (cash transfers, public works, livelihoods enhancement, programme governance, community sensitization, knowledge generation and learning, human resources, gender mainstreaming training and tools, M&E, and data collection and analysis).

As a first step in this capacity building effort, UN Women intends to hire a consultant to train the core Gender Team of TASAF, consisting of five staff members, on the basics of gender, gender mainstreaming, and the linkages between gender equality and social protection programmes so that they can better enact their Gender Action Plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of UN Women, the consultant will undertake the following assignments:

Main responsibilities

• Conduct a 5-day training for five members of the TASAF core Gender Team on topics including the basics of gender, gender mainstreaming (GM) and the use of GM tools, the importance of gender disaggregated data and gender analysis, the linkages between gender equality and social protection, and community sensitization for gender equality promotion.

Approach and Methodology.

The consultant shall develop:

• Gender and social protection relevant training content for participants;
• Agenda of the training program;
• Key learning points of the program;
• Learning materials for the participants in a workbook containing important topics;
• Training evaluation form.

The consultant shall submit:

• Training report including an evaluation of the trainer/facilitator work, based on evaluation forms received from participants.

General considerations:

1. The consultant is expected to commence the assignment starting on 16th January 2020 and spend a total 12 working days to produce the deliverables. The consultant is expected to submit an inception report within two days of commencing the assignment.
2. The consultant is expected to submit draft versions of the report, as requested by UN Women and TASAF. S/he will be required to prepare training content and tools, and submit a training report.

 Fees and terms of payments: 

• 30% upon submission of the approved inception report detailing methodology, approved work plan, and approved analysis tools;
• 30% upon facilitation of the training;
• 40% upon submission of the approved final training report to UN Women.   

Expected Results 

The key, immediate result is that TASAF staff have increased capacity to design, implement, and monitor gender-responsive sustainable social protection programmes, especially for the poor and most vulnerable.

Longer term intended results include:

• Gender dynamics and the needs of girls and women are taken into consideration in the implementation of PSSN II;
• Communities become gender-sensitized in the implementation of PSSN II.

Competencies

Functional competencies

• Substantive knowledge and understanding of social protection and gender mainstreaming in programme implementation.
• Excellent understanding of gender equality issues and, more broadly, women’s economic empowerment;
• Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
• Minimum university degree in Social Science or another relevant field;
• Extensive experience in completing trainings/workshops for organizations;
• Excellent inter-personal communication skills, including experience of facilitation of trainings/workshops and presentation;
• Establish, build, and sustain effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective; anticipate client needs and addresses them promptly;
• Leads and works with teams effectively, demonstrating emotional intelligence and good judgment. 

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Minimum of Master's degree or equivalent in Gender, Public Policy, Public Health, Sociology, Social Work, Development Studies, or other related disciplines.

Experience:

• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience in the field of gender and social protection interventions at a national or international level;
• Experience in social protection design and programming from a gender perspective, with extensive knowledge of the Tanzania social protection framework;
• Technical experience and sound understanding of social protection mechanisms and policies. Experience from the African context will be considered an asset.
• Experience in working with TASAF and/or UN agencies is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Written and oral proficiency in Kiswahili and English is required.

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=558. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.