UN WOMEN Jobs - 93916- National Junior Consultant to provide support to U

National Junior Consultant to provide support to UN Women office and Senior consultant in conducting the National Assessment on key barriers to women’ access to HIV treatment in Tajikistan

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Dushanbe, TAJIKISTAN

Type of Contract :

Other

Starting Date :

28-Sep-2020

Application Deadline :

21-Sep-20 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

Other

Duration of Initial Contract :

three months

Languages Required :

Russian

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

UN Women, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women has been created to accelerate up the process of meeting the needs of women and girls across the world. As a part of the UN reform agenda, it brings together resources and mandates which will subsequently have a lasting impact on the whole community. Gender inequality contributes to the spread of HIV and increases infection rates and reduces the ability of women and girls to cope with the epidemic. Often, women and girls have less information about HIV and fewer resources to take preventive measures. They face barriers to the negotiation of safer sex, because of unequal power dynamics with men. Sexual violence, a widespread violation of women’s rights, exacerbates the risk of HIV transmission. Evidence suggests that forced and arranged marriages can be a major risk factor, especially for young women and girls. Many women livings with HIV struggle with stigma and exclusion, aggravated by their lack of rights. Women widowed by AIDS or living with HIV may face property disputes with in-laws, complicated by limited access to justice to uphold their rights.

According to UNAIDS data, as in all countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, the increase in HIV cases in Tajikistan continues and over the past 10 years the number of new cases has increased approximately by 20%. Over the past five years the proportion of women living with HIV in Tajikistan has increased by 17% and has reached 41%. HIV care cascade as of 01.01.2020 demonstrates that only 60% of all PLHIV know their status, about 80% of PLHIV are on ART, and 74% of them are virally suppressed (data of the National AIDS Center, 2020). Currently, a draft of a new National Program on HIV/AIDS for the next 5 years has been developed and the country is determining its steps towards achieving the goal of ending AIDS.

In the framework of UNAIDS Unified Budget, Results and Accountability Framework (UBRAF) UN Women country office in Tajikistan is planning to conduct National Review to identify key barriers to women’ access to HIV treatment in Tajikistan. For this purpose, Senior National consultant will be selected. Due to significant scope of the work to conduct the National Assessment, different interrelated research phases and limited period of time UN Women is seeking for a National Junior Consultant to provide support to UN Women office and Senior consultant in conducting the National Assessment on key barriers to women’ access to HIV treatment in Tajikistan.

Goal and objectives

The overall objective of the proposed consultancy is to provide technical support to UN Women Tajikistan to conduct comprehensive National review to identify key barriers to women’s access to HIV treatment in Tajikistan and to provide key findings of the review to policy –makers, national authorities, programme specialists and experts, donors and CSO and community representatives for significant improving access of women and girls to HIV treatment in near future.

Focus should be done on:

Increasing the understanding of the dynamics of antiretroviral coverage and access for women and girls in Tajikistan by adding to current indicators with in-depth knowledge from lived experience.
Identifying the key barriers of women to HIV care and treatment within psychosocial, household, family, and community (micro), health service (meso) and national (macro) spheres of influence.
Renewal of discussions on measuring treatment accessibility using frameworks that assess women’s ability to obtain broader health services.
Studying the accessibility barriers in country-level assessments.
Developing the key findings to inform and provide recommendations for policy and programming.

The study needs to be conducted according to the methodology indicated in the Global review of “Key barriers to women’s access to HIV treatment: Global review” and adopted to the national context if necessary.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Country Programme Manager and under the supervision of National Program Coordinator on Youth and HIV, the Consultant will perform, but will not necessarily be limited, to the following tasks:

To establish technical working group/ platform for the interested partners to share the information and discuss the issues related to the assessment.
To create a list of the contacts of the interested partners and provide support for organizing meetings or on-line discussion.
To provide support to Senior Consultant to conduct literature review through by searching for relevant sources in various Database searches using the methodology indicated in the Global review report.
To provide support to the Senior Consultant to develop/adopt the questionnaire for FGD according to the methodology indicated in the Global review report.
To provide support in preparation of all materials related to conducting of FGD and one-to one interview and submit it to UN Women office in Tajikistan for approval and for the subsequent obtaining permission of the National Ethics Committee to conduct FGDs and one-to one interview.
To provide logistic and organizing support to leader/facilitator identified among women living with HIV to conduct at least three FGDs and three one-to one interview among women living with HIV and keep meeting notes if will be required.
To provide support in the analysis of the qualitative research of the results of the FGDs.
To provide support to Senior Consultant to develop the country’ case study report.
To provide logistic and other necessary support in conducting the on-line and face- to face meetings, presentation, filling the data base tables, preparing the annexes, pictures and charts for presentation and developing of the report.
To provide support to Senior Consultant in developing the final report on the National Assessment of key barriers to women’ access to HIV treatment in Tajikistan.

Competencies

Core Values:

Respect for Diversity
Integrity
Professionalism

Core Competencies:

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
Accountability
Creative Problem Solving
Effective Communication
Inclusive Collaboration
Good knowledge of the training topic on medical aspects and ethical norms in the field of HIV counselling.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

Possesses the ability to work independently, under pressure and meet deadlines;
Good knowledge of technical area;
Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail;
Experience in report writing.
Proven excellent communication and facilitation skills;

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree in gender equality, women’s studies, law, human rights, social studies, development studies or related field;

Experience:

At least 2 years of relevant experience in promoting the rights of women living with HIV (WLWH) to overcome stigma and discrimination and the empowerment of WLWH.
At least 1-year experience in provision of support in conducting research.
Previous work and direct working relationships with UN agencies considered an asset.

Knowledge of languages:

Proficiency in written and oral Russian and Tajik.