Background

The equal participation of women in decision-making bodies have been ensured by the Maldives Constitution and laws as well as the international conventions. This is backed by 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 underrepresented 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. 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 of candidates 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 activity 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 at all levels. From the various works carried recommendations point towards collaborating with political parties to increase women’s meaningful engagement and representation in the political sphere. As such, UNDP 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 in the political sphere.

[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, the consultant will undertake the following tasks.

Diagnostic Assessment Toolkit:

Home Based

• Submit an initial draft of the inception report including the work plan, literature review of instruments/tools and best practices globally and from the region on increasing women’s participation.

Male’ Based (or Home Based depending on the situation)

• 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, and submit the final draft of the inception report with the findings of the consultations incorporated.

Male’ or Home Based

• 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 review and incorporate comments.

Male’ Based (or Home Based depending on the situation)

• 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.

Home Based

• Submit the final action plans.

Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables.

1. Submit initial draft of the inception report
2. Conduct stakeholder consultations and submit final inception report
3. Develop and pilot the diagnostic assessment tool
4. Develop draft action plans for individual political parties
5. Facilitate validation workshops for each action plan with stakeholders
6. Submit the final action plans

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

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will work under the guidance of UNDP 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: 40 days between June – August 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

• Bachelor’s degree in gender, development studies, research, human rights, law or related social science.

Experience

• Minimum 6 years of experience in designing and implementing similar assessments/tools
• 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

Note: Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into one single file.