Background

Over 2.5 billion women and girls around the world are affected by discriminatory laws and the lack of legal protections, often in multiple ways. Law reform more broadly, and the repeal or revision of discriminatory laws specifically, are inherent to the achievement of gender equality a requirement for realizing the transformative ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. They are also among the specific commitments of States enshrined in relevant international conventions and United Nations standards and norms. Yet progress in eliminating discriminatory laws has been uneven.  In many cases, global, regional and national sources of support have not been fully harnessed to accelerate reforms. Key propellers have included the monitoring role of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee), country visits of the United Nations Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, the policies of regional and interregional bodies, statements of political will from national governments, ongoing investments in analysis of laws from a gender perspective, continued education of the judiciary on domestic application of international law, judicial activism in striking down unconstitutional or discriminatory laws, the active engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs), campaigns to galvanize awareness and the collection of data to track specific aspects of discriminatory laws.

In line with the above, UN Women Nigeria intends to embark on a comprehensive legislative analysis from a gender perspective to provide an in-depth understanding of the current legal framework and the existence of gaps and discriminatory provisions, with the long-term vision of advocating for law reform to enact new laws or repeal or revise discriminatory legislation. The gender analysis will explore the vast spectrum of laws to assess their gender responsiveness and will highlight discriminatory provisions and gaps that would need to be repealed, amended or enactment through a law reform process.  Gender-sensitive legislation assumes “the integration of a gender perspective into all components of the legislative process—design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to achieve the ultimate objective of equality between women and men.

The legal analysis will look at discrimination in a broad sense--both on direct discrimination, namely, how the law explicitly treats women, men, girls and boys; and indirect discrimination that occurs when a law appears to be neutral on its face but has a discriminatory effect in practice on women because pre-existing inequalities are not addressed by the apparently neutral measure. The legal analysis will consist of a selective mapping of the national context for purposes of capturing all forms of legal frameworks (laws, legislative instruments, executive orders, case law and other relevant and related government texts) and not only those which reference gender, women or girls. The legal frameworks in question will cover all fields and sectors of law and will not be limited to legislation that is specifically related to women, girls or children. Each legal text will be pre- assessed, and a determination made as to how the provisions impact upon the achievement of gender equality.  The legal analysis will draw from international standards, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendation No. 28 on the Core Obligations of States Parties under Article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

Duties and Responsibilities

I. Methodology and Scope of Work:

Under the strategic guidance and supervision of UN Women Country Representative, with day-to-day reporting to the Deputy Country Representative, the consultant will undertake a comprehensive mapping of the legal landscape of Nigeria for purposes of capturing all forms of legal frameworks (Laws, legislative instruments, executive orders, case law and other relevant and related government legal frameworks). The legal texts in question must cover legislation that is specifically related to women and girls, as well as other fields and sectors. Each legal text will be analyzed to determine how their provisions impact upon the achievement of gender equality. The report outline will cover the following:

1. The plural legal, political, social, economic and cultural context of Nigeria   
2. Nigeria’s commitments to global, regional and sub regional frameworks which advance gender equality;
3. The extent to which these commitments have been translated into domestic law, identifiable gaps in the content of existing laws as well as implementation and the reasons for such gaps;
4. An analysis of other sectoral laws and how these impact on the achievement of gender equality;
5. Whether and how the laws in question explicitly treat women and men or girls and boys differently and/or indirectly based on being facially neutral on its face but discriminatory in effect due to pre-existing inequalities that are not addressed by the apparently neutral measure.
6. Following the above narrative, the consultant will annex to the report, a table which encapsulates (1) the titles and dates of all the laws under investigation; (2) the sections which are explicitly or implicitly discriminatory; (3) gaps in the law; (4) the basis for arriving at these conclusions and (4) recommended actions to relevant stakeholders

II. Deliverables

• Conduct a legal analysis from a gender perspective of agreed sectors of national legislation.
• Undertake consultations with key stakeholders to identify the sectoral laws for revision.
• Comprehensive report including the annex mentioned in II.6.

III. Timelines

The consultant will undertake the assignment in consultation with relevant government departments and ministries, Civil society organizations, and UN Women and will deliver on the following products over a period of 50 days between the period 01 October - 30 November 2020  

Competencies

Technical Competencies:

• Experience in issues related to gender equality, legal reforms and women’s rights

Functional Competencies

• Ability to pragmatically apply in-depth knowledge and experience of issues and practices in the fields of judiciary systems; legal reform; gender equality
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
• Strong communications skills (written and oral)

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;

Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Skills and Experience of the National Consultant

The assignment is expected to be carried out by one individual consultant. The expert can form a team to carry out the commission, however the contract will be made with the expert and overall responsibilities for the service will be upon the expert. The consultant needs to be independent in terms of using office spaces, equipment, utility and other logistics. UN Women facilities may not be available unless specified.   

Expected skills and experiences of the evaluation expert is mentioned below

• Master’s degree in law. A PhD will be an added value.
• At least 10 years’ experience on the legal landscape of Nigeria from a gender perspective and ability to undertake a gender analysis of national legislation and policy documents;
• Proven knowledge of international practices, legislations and policies; and instruments, including women’s rights; and/or the protection of human rights;
• Experience in managing and facilitating high-level dialogues, round table discussions, consultations, with stakeholders at both grassroots and national levels;
• Experience of working with CSOs initiatives and government;
• Proven experience to collect, analyze and interpret complex qualitative and quantitative data;
• Excellent command of English is required;
• Previous professional experience with development agencies and the United Nations would be considered an asset.

Required Skills and Experience

The assignment is expected to be carried out by one individual consultant. The expert can form a team to carry out the commission, however the contract will be made with the expert and overall responsibilities for the service will be upon the expert. The consultant needs to be independent in terms of using office spaces, equipment, utility and other logistics. UN Women facilities may not be available unless specified.   

Expected skills and experiences of the evaluation expert is mentioned below

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree in law. A PhD will be an added value.

Experience:

• At least 10 years’ experience on the legal landscape of Nigeria from a gender perspective and ability to undertake a gender analysis of national legislation and policy documents;
• Proven knowledge of international practices, legislations and policies; and instruments, including women’s rights; and/or the protection of human rights;
• Experience in managing and facilitating high-level dialogues, round table discussions, consultations, with stakeholders at both grassroots and national levels;
• Experience of working with CSOs initiatives and government;
• Proven experience to collect, analyze and interpret complex qualitative and quantitative data;
• Excellent command of English is required;
• Previous professional experience with development agencies and the United Nations would be considered an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of the other UN official language is an asset.

Application procedure and deadline

Interested applicants must submit the following document/information (in PDF format) to demonstrate their qualifications

Technical component:

• Letter of interest explaining why they are the most suitable for the work
• Technical proposal of no more than 3 pages outlining the applicants understanding of the issue to be addressed in the study and proposed methodology for the assignment, including stakeholders to be met.
• Signed Curriculum vitae with contact details of 03 clients for whom you have rendered preferably similar services
• Sample work

Financial proposal (with your signature)

• The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount in Nigerian Naira including all consultancy fees.
• Please note that the cost of preparing a proposal and of negotiating a contract, including any related travel, is not reimbursable as a direct cost of the assignment.
• If quoted in other currency, prices shall be converted to Nigerian Naira at UN Exchange Rate at the submission deadline.

PLEASE NOTE: THE SYSTEM ALLOWS ONLY ONE ATTACHMENT. KINDLY COMBINE ENTIRE SUBMISSION INTO A SINGLE PDF DOCUMENT TO UPLOAD

NOTE: Documents required before contract signing:

• UN Personal History Form
• Certificate of good health OR Full medical examination and Statement of Fitness to work and travel for consultants with travel involved.
• Individual subscribers over 65 years of age are required to undergo a full medical examination including x-rays at their own cost and obtaining medical clearance from the UN Medical Director prior to taking up their assignment.
• Release letter in case the selected consultant is government employee.

1. Application Evaluation Criteria

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the submissions, with evaluation of the technical components being completed prior to any price proposals being opened and compared. The price proposal will be opened only for submissions that passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the evaluation of the technical component. The technical component is evaluated based on its responsiveness to the Term of Reference (TOR).

Technically qualified consultants may be selected for an interview before financial evaluation. Maximum 100 points will be given to the lowest offer and the other financial proposals will receive the points inversely proportional to their financial offers. i.e. Sf = 100 x Fm / F, in which Sf is the financial score, Fm is the lowest price and F the price of the submission under consideration.

The weight of technical points is 70% and financial points is 30%.

The consultant will be evaluated based on Cumulative analysis, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
   • Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria: