Background

The Spotlight Initiative (SI) is a global, multi-year partnership between European Union and United Nations to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls by 2030.

Funded by the European Union, the Initiative is responding to all forms of violence against women and girls, with a particular focus on domestic and family violence, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) and harmful practices, femicide, trafficking in human beings and sexual and economic (labour) exploitation. Further information can be found at https://www.spotlightinitiative.org 

The Spotlight Initiative regional programme for Central Asia and Afghanistan managed from Kazakhstan (Almaty) in cooperation with all participating countries will harness the collective expertise, experiences, challenges and energy of gender equality advocates from the five Central Asian countries, as well as Afghanistan. It invests in the development of a Central Asia Alliance on SGBV, comprised of both government and non-governmental stakeholders, including parliamentarians, ministries and government departments, judiciary and police, civil society organisations, activists, survivors, youth, men and religious leaders.

Through collective thinking and collective advocacy, Central Asia-specific models for legislative, policy and institutional reform will be developed that will be grounded in the international norms and standards guiding work on SGBV, including the CEDAW, the CRC and the Istanbul Convention. In addition, the Models will reflect the importance of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) methodologies – including costing – to ensure prevention and response to SGBV and harmful practices is robust and in line with the Global agenda to leave no one behind.

The Spotlight Initiative Pillar 6 aims at strengthening regional leadership, coordination, knowledge sharing and networking of women rights organizations to support CSOs collective and strategic engagement with governments and other actors within the broader Alliance for Central Asia on SGBV.

Women’s movement in Central Asia have been hampered by lack of resources, limited access to information sharing and limited platforms for dialogue both within countries and regionally.

Moreover, CSOs in the region lack a coherent vision and understanding of topics pertaining to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment and the capacity to initiate, lead and monitor transformative change in the lives of women and girls.

The lack of strong CSO coalitions in Central Asia has created barriers to sustained collaboration between women's organizations beyond project-based activities and reduces the potential impact of each organization.

There is a need for stronger sharing of CSO knowledge on lessons in SGBV programming, and exposure to promising global practices, which often is limited to larger NGOs or international NGOs.

For this consultancy Spotlight Initiative Programme intends to procure services of an international consultant who will conduct an assessment of the institutional/governmental barriers to the full engagement of CSOs to identify the best mechanism for supporting their involvement in the regional women’s movement building.

Purpose

Under the supervision of the SI Project Officer, the International Consultant is expected to identify and evaluate the barriers that hinder CSOs full engagement in the regional movements and to suggest the best mechanism for supporting CSOs’ involvement in the process of the regional women’s movement building.

The International Consultant will identify, classify (institutional, governmental, etc.) barriers to CSOs engagement, provide recommendations on how to overcome those barriers and propose the best mechanism for supporting CSOs’ involvement in the process of the regional women’s movement building. The proposed mechanism should ensure participation of active women leaders, less resourced CSOs, including rural grassroots organizations, younger less established organizations, feminist, women-lead, youth and LGBTI organizations, organizations benefiting marginalized and vulnerable groups in line with the principle “Leave No One Behind”, in the regional network. Linkages between traditional feminist activists in the region and newer, more intersectionality-focused groups, should be considered as well.

The results of this assessment will feed into establishment of a regional CSOs network, that will involve WROs, CSOs, activists and women’s rights defenders across the six countries - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, to strengthen the role of CSOs to strategically and collectively engage as accountability holders in their engagement with the Central Asia Alliance and other national and international platforms.

The International Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

1. Develop and submit detailed workplan with timeframe for desk study, consultations with CSOs / other organizations and people, identification of barriers, their classification and finding the best mechanism for CSOs involvement;
2. Conduct a desk study into barriers to the full engagement of CSOs in the regional women’s movement building; identify the barriers’ levels, dimensions, categories, groups of actors, and classify them; prepare brief overview and presentation with visuals (matrix table, graphs, charts, etc);
3. Conduct consultations (online/off-line) with CSOs and other actors in the region identified during the desk research; it may include 5-day travel depending on the epidemiologic situation. Prepare a report on findings and concrete recommendations;
4. Based on the desk study and consultations’ findings develop strategy for establishing mechanism for supporting CSOs involvement in the regional women’s movement building with concrete recommendations and guidance to ensure strateic engagement with the CSOs in the region. Write out potential risks and propose mitigation strategies, indicate the best way of supporting the CSOs and responsible parties, and potential sources of financing. Please take into account specific political and economic context in different countries of the Central Asia region;
5. Finalize and submit a final report with relevant strategy, guidance and recommendations and supporting documents as attachments.

The International Consultant is expected to work from home and conduct online/off-line consultations with the SI Project Officer and local partners. The site visits to hold face-to-face meetings with CSOs and other actors will depend on the Covid-19 situation and be determined later.

All deliverables are submitted to and approved by the SI Project Officer. 

Deliverables and timelines

The assignment should be carried out within a period of 5 April – 31 May 2021. The Consultant is responsible for delivering the following outputs:

Core Values:

Respect for Diversity

Integrity

Professionalism

Core Competencies:

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues

Accountability

Effective Communication

Inclusive Collaboration

The selection process of consultant will be by following criteria:

Education: Please ensure similar formatting

- Advanced degree in Social Science, Research methods, Gender studies, Development studies, Law, Public Policy and Administration, and other related fields.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of professional experience in the field of evaluation of women’s movements, ?SOs movement development (supporting materials or link to the site where the document is available to learn about the candidate’s experience);

• Experience of coordinating and liaising with government agencies, managing multi- stakeholders and multi-country environment;

• Experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection methodologies and gender methodologies, including in the field of elimination of violence against women and girls;

• Proven experience conducting similar assignments including developing research, methodologies to assess women’s movement building mechanisms, monitoring and evaluation frameworks (supporting materials or link to the site where the document is available to learn about the candidate’s experience);

• Experience with UN agencies and other international organizations, as well as with government agencies for promoting gender equality is an asset;

• Previous experience of working in Central Asia and Afghanistan (desirable).

Languages:

- Excellent writing and speaking skills in English and/or Russian. Knowledge of language/s of Central Asia and Afghanistan is an asset.

.Evaluation process

Applicants must meet the above minimum qualification requirements which will be included in the technical evaluation process in the future. The next stage of the assessment process will be maintained by cumulative analysis methodology of technical proposal (70%) and the financial proposal (30%) of the candidate.

Technical evaluation criteria:Only candidates, who will accumulate at least 490 (70%) points of the maximum 700 points during the technical evaluation process, will be qualified for financial proposal*.

Application Process:

All documents should be sent including:

• CV/ UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment

• Technical proposal describing how the expected assignment will be performed. The technical proposal should also include:
  • supporting materials or link to the site where the document is available to learn about the candidate’s experience in evaluating women’s movements, barriers, ?SOs movement development, research, methodology, M&E frameworks, etc;

• a link to the resources developed by the candidate on gender analysis, mechanisms for supporting CSOs involvement in women’s movement building, etc.

• Financial proposal, including a USD amount to include all costs and expenses the consultant will have to fulfill all tasks within the framework of this ToR.

Only candidates who have passed the preliminary selection will be informed.

Kindly note, that the system will only allow one attachment, hence all supporting document

e.g. P11, CV must be scanned as one attachment. Applications without the completed UNDP P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.