Historique
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 center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
UN Women is committed to the achievement of equality between women, men, boys and girls as partners and beneficiaries of humanitarian action. In October 2012, UN Women established its Gender and Humanitarian Action Unit to consolidate its advocacy, coordination and capacity development role for the integration of gender equality across humanitarian action. This has now further developed to include a unit for disaster risk reduction with a focus on prevention, mitigation and preparedness, in Geneva, and a humanitarian unit in New York focusing on humanitarian norms and standards, coordination, and emergency management, and consolidated under the Humanitarian Action and Crises Response Office (HACRO).
In this context, emanating from the World Humanitarian Summit, the Grand Bargain is an agreement between the biggest donors and aid providers, which aims to get more means into the hands of people in need. However, gender did not feature in the negotiations on the Grand Bargain. UN Women has therefore led efforts to mainstream gender, including GBV, in the Grand Bargain process. In an attempt to address the lack of a gender perspective in the Grand Bargain, UN Women, together with other governmental, UN and INGO partners, formed an informal Friends of Gender Group (FoG) at the first meeting of the Grand Bargain signatories in Bonn in 2016.
The Friends of Gender Group (FoG) has deemed as priority the work conducted by the following four Grand Bargain Workstreams:
- Workstream 2: More support and funding for local and national responses
- Workstream 3: Increase the use and coordination of cash
- Workstream 5: Improve joint and impartial needs assessment
- Workstream 6: A participation revolution.
Based on the work of these priority workstreams, the Humanitarian Action and Crises Response Office (HACRO) at UN Women is particularly interested in Workstreams 2 and 6. The roles and impact that diverse women have in all the phases of humanitarian action as active agents of change being leaders, frontline responders, mobilizers and more, who bring with them relevant experiences, skills and resources is a critical area of interest. The contributions of local women’s groups which are critically underfunded and oftentimes not taken seriously by humanitarian actors are also an area of special interest for HACRO given the reduced amounts of attention that they tend to receive.
In this sense and to further advance the efforts to address GBV and promote Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls (GEEWG) in humanitarian action through the Grand Bargain, UN Women will attempt to bridge the evidence gap through an extensive one-year long field-based research study illustrated with four (4) diverse IDP/Refugee case studies that provides relevant quantitative and qualitative findings around gender in the priority workstreams. The specific locations for the four case studies have already been selected by UN Women and would be shared with the selected candidate, but they cover four different continents and a variety of humanitarian settings with large numbers of internally displaced and refugee communities which have been differently affected by crises. This research study will look at the effects of gender-responsive/transformative localization and participation of women and girls on GEEWG, including GBV as well as on how gender-responsive/transformative humanitarian action contributes to sector-specific humanitarian outcomes and resilience building across the humanitarian-development-peace continuum.
Importantly, while seeking to advance and strengthen the evidence unearthed by UN Women’s previous studies (“Preventing Conflict Transforming Justice Securing the Peace – A Global Study of United Nations Security Council resolution 1325” and “The Effect of Gender Equality Programming on Humanitarian Outcomes”) through a different approach that allows for a more profound and comprehensive understanding of the complexities of the realities of gender in IDP/refugee humanitarian settings, the study will especially focus on potentially marginalized groups of women and girls in crisis settings requiring especial attention such as survivors/victims of GBV, women refugees and internally displaced women, young women and adolescent girls, women and girls living with disabilities, widows, single women, women heads of households, pregnant and lactating women, members of the LBTQI community, elderly women, women members of ethnic/racial minorities, among others.
Within this context, UN Women is looking for a senior researcher to develop the methodological design for the above-mentioned field-based and mixed (quantitative and qualitative) research study. Under the overall guidance of UN Women’s Chief Humanitarian, the incumbent will draft a research design document.
Justification
Currently, gender-responsive and gender-transformative humanitarian action is far from a reality. In fact, the gap that remains between the commitments and standards on GBV and GEEWG of the Grand Bargain’s signatories and their implementation derives largely from the broader situation in the humanitarian sector which suffers from a lack of coordination, lack of capacity, lack of financial resources, lack of accountability and especially a lack of available evidence-based knowledge.
Regarding the important knowledge gaps, it is important to highlight that while evidence and data on women and girls in crisis contexts is growing, it is rarely collated and packaged in a usable manner. UN Women’s past efforts at gathering evidence on gender and humanitarian action need to be continued and strengthened. This time around, a different approach to advance this kind of evidence in IDP/refugee settings is required and UN Women is allocating resources to address this and seize this opportunity for global impact through a research study that contributes to filling the gap in knowledge.
Purpose and Objective
The objective of this consultancy is to develop and finalize a methodological research design document for the proposed study. Therefore, the key purpose of this consultancy is to substantially contribute to addressing the paucity of solid evidence-based knowledge on the linkages between localization, participation, GBV and GEEWG around potentially marginalized groups of women and girls in IDP/Refugee crisis settings.
Devoirs et responsabilités
Scope of Work
Based on extensive and ongoing consultations with the HACRO team, the scope of work for this consultancy covers:
- Prepare a workplan with a detailed timeline [1 day].
- Conduct a brief desk review of the most relevant materials covering: localization and participation in humanitarian action in connection with GBV and GEEWG, to inform the research design and write a brief report (max 10 pages) to guide the research design [4 days].
- Identify research questions, methods and tools for data collection as well as for data analysis and interpretation and draft a methodological research design document to guide the study including the (4) case studies [8 days].
- Present the document and discuss revisions and finalize the methodological research design document [2 days].
Deliverables
- Workplan document with a specific timeline (max. 3 pages) [1 day]
- Desk review report (max. 10 pages) [4 days]
- Draft methodological research design document (max. 15 pages) [8 days]
- Final methodological research design document (max. 15 pages) [2 days]
Compétences
Integrity
- Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct
Professionalism
- Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge or the pertinent substantive areas of work
Core Values and Ethics
- Demonstrate cultural sensitivity and ability to work in a multicultural environment
- Support the organization’s corporate goals
- Comply with UN WOMEN rules, regulations and code of conduct
Teamwork
- Demonstrate ability to work in a diverse environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
- Build effective client relationships and partnerships
- Interact with all levels of staff in the organization
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Build and share knowledge
- Make valuable practice contributions
Communicating and Information Sharing
- Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication
- Excellent oral and written skills
- Listen actively and respond effectively
Self-management and Emotional Intelligence
- Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others
Functional Competencies
- Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty relating to the position
- Basic knowledge or organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks
Qualifications et expériences requises
Required Skills and Experience
- Master’s Degree in Women/Gender Studies, Humanitarian Action or relevant Social Sciences, a PhD Degree is preferred
- Minimum 10 years of experience conducting both quantitative and qualitative research
- Experience as lead researcher in the field of gender and humanitarian action/peace and security
- Demonstrated experience collecting, classifying, and analyzing both primary and secondary data in an efficient and effective way, and presenting the findings in a clear and coherent manner
- Experience working/conducting research in humanitarian/fragile settings, particularly with displaced and refugee populations
- Familiarity with the humanitarian system and its processes, particularly the Grand Bargain workstreams is desired
- Experience researching gender-based violence (GBV) is highly desired
Language Requirements
- Fluency in written and spoken English is required.
- Knowledge of other UN official language is an asset.
Computer Skills
- High level of proficiency in computer systems, internet navigation and various office applications including research databases and other software.