Antecedentes

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; the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development; human rights; as well as 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.

Violence against women (VAW) persists in every country in the world as a pervasive violation of human rights and a major impediment to achieving gender equality. Global estimates show that over 1 in 3 women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime, with this figure being as high as 7 in 10 in some countries. Research shows that violence against women leads to a wide range of physical, mental and sexual health problems, including death, and it affects families and whole communities. Violence against women also has a significant economic impact and impedes the achievement of any global development goals.

Over the past two decades there has been a growing momentum to eliminate and prevent all forms of violence against women, mainly due to the sustained efforts of the women’s rights movement. Governments have demonstrated their obligations and commitments to address VAW through the further elaboration of international and regional policy and legal agreements. General Recommendation No. 19 of the CEDAW Committee affirmed that violence against women was a form of discrimination, confirming that States have to address violence through this Convention. The Beijing Platform for Action (1995) identified violence against women as one of the 12 critical areas of concern that required urgent action to achieve the goals of equality, development, and peace. The recently agreed agenda on the SDGs included ending VAW and harmful practices, as target areas, confirming that they need to be urgently addressed in order to achieve gender equality.

An increasing number of initiatives to prevent and address VAW have been undertaken in numerous countries.Progress has been mainly on the adoption of laws and policies; improving justice and service responses for survivors; raising awareness and data collection. Whilst services have been established in some countries however, the availability and accessibility of these services is limited and the quality of services varies. Despite progress, the level of VAW remains alarmingly high, and many challenges still persist, including lack of strong political will; insufficient enforcement of legislation and allocation of adequate resources to implement laws, policies and programmes; insufficient monitoring and evaluation of their impact; and lack of coordination among different stakeholders.

The most significant challenge for eliminating and preventing violence, however, remains the persistence of attitudes and behaviours of men and women in society, including politicians, decision-makers, service providers (police/health workers), community leaders etc. that perpetuate negative stereotypes, discrimination and gender inequality, as root causes of VAW, and addressing this challenge, including structural causes, lies in the core of prevention work. Despite some promising practices, prevention of violence against women and girls remains a relatively new area of work without a critical mass of data and clear evidence of “what works”. Prevention initiatives are often small scale, fragmented and stand-alone activities, limited to awareness-raising events, under-resourced and lacking impact evaluation. In addition, prevention of VAW is not often a part of comprehensive EVAW strategies and programmes, which is advisable as prevention should be part of the continuum of EVAW work.

There are many reasons to prevent violence against women and girls. It takes a profound and long-term toll on women and children’s health and wellbeing, on families and communities, and on society as a whole. Violence against women is not inevitable, and it can be prevented.

Thus, to improve its work in the EVAW prevention, UN Women WCA plan to recruit an international consultant to develop the EVAW Prevention Strategy for the West and Central Africa region. This plan will guide our various work and intervention under EVAW prevention portfolio.

This consultancy will build on existing work carried out and led by UN Women together with other partners to formulate a regional strategy on prevention VAW/G. It will be used to develop EVAW contribution on the 2022-2024 Strategic Note of UN Women.

The consultant will work under the responsibility of the of the EVAW Regional Policy Advisor. UN Women in West and Central Africa Regional office cover 12 countries with various portfolio one of them is the program to End Violence Against Women (EVAW). Under EVAW programme, UN-Women promotes integrated approaches to ensure that all women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence.

 The programme support Member States to strengthen global normative standards on ending violence against women and girls (VAWG), and lead system-wide processes in response and prevention, build on its leading work on prevention through evidence-based guidance and programming, including the formulation of signature national action plans on VAWG prevention and social norms change programming engaging men and boys. Furthermore, strengthen knowledge and evidence base on ending VAWG and share critical learning to influence policy and practice.

Deberes y responsabilidades

TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

The consultant will work closely with the UN Women team at the regional and country offices. The main objective of the consultancy is to produce a EVAW Prevention strategy . The consultant is responsible to provide expertise to the directorate in developing the Prevention strategy in accordance with the West and Central Africa context.

The consultant will work with internal expert to perfume specific duties and responsibilities as underlined below:

• Undertake a thorough situation analysis including review of existing initiatives on EVAW prevention across the west and central Africa region;
• Consult with relevant stakeholders women/youth-based organizations and networks; traditional leaders, CSO working on EVAW, other UN agencies and regional bodies working on youth related initiatives) with a purpose of gathering relevant information for the prevention strategy;
• Develop a 4-year vision for UN Women WCARO’s prevention strategy (maximum 15 pages) anchoring to the commitments of the generation equality forum, UN Women Strategic Plan 2022-2025, UN Women WCARO Strategic Note, AU Agenda 2063, Beijining+25 and the SDGs, UN System Wide Action Plan on EVAW prevention and prioritizing activities consistent with UN Women’s mandate, comparative advantage and roles of partner entities;
• Prepare a draft strategic plan with emphasis on cross practice, cross sectoral collaboration (Women Peace and Security, Women Economic Empowerment, Ending Violence Against Women and Girls, Leadership and Governance, Humanitarian Action and Gender and Statistics);
• Ensure that the principles of the draft new UN Women WCARO EVAW prevention strategy are consistent with international policy guidance and frameworks on VAW/G issues;
• Identify and establish a list of regional stakeholders, developing an outreach strategy for engagement during the consultative and planning process

Deliverable:

1. The Regional Ending Violence Against Women and Girls prevention Strategy that is logically structured, with evidence-based findings, conclusions, and recommendations. The strategy should include overview of UN reform processes and outcomes, mapping of regional organizations working on EVAW prevention in WCAR with clearly identified entry points for the Regional Office; action plan for 2021-2022 and outline of key recommendations for including in new WCARO SN;
2. A 1-pager summary of the EVAW prevention Strategy;
3. Generate a list of stakeholders for further engagement and support;
4. Power Point presentation for sharing at a stakeholder’s validation meeting.

Payment:

Lumpsum payment on completion of all the deliverables.

Travel and Accommodation expenses :

This will be a home-based assignment, to be conducted virtually, in person meetings may be considered on an exceptional basis (cost of which will be borne by UN Women), in line with COVID-19 safety protocols.

Competencias

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving; 
• Effective Communication; 
• Inclusive Collaboration; 
• Stakeholder Engagement; 
• Leading by Example. 

Functional Competencies:

• Proven ability to formulate a strategic document in a collaborative setting; 
• Excellent coordination of discussions, and negotiations in regional context, an asset; 
• Excellent interpersonal skills and cultural sensitivity to effectively interact with all levels of staff;
• Demonstrated ability to cultivate and maintain inter-agency and other professional networks and partnerships; 
• Understanding of UN Women’s priorities, structures, hierarchy, process flows throughout the organization, products and services and the perceptions of client will be an asset.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education and certification:

• Minimum of master’s degree or equivalent degree in gender studies, any of the social sciences, data science, law, public administration, or a related field.

Experience:

• At least 5 years working experience in international development and particularly in ending violence against women and girls;
• Experience working on initiatives involving youth and development objectives;
• Proven experience in strategic planning, programme/project and/or policy formulation;
• Experience working in an organization with multi-country operations;
• Expertise in using modern technology tools in managing documents and data in shared spaces;
• Familiarity with the west and Central Africa region context is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Verbal and written proficiency in English and French.