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; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

The UN Women Tanzania Country Programme is part of United Nations Delivering as One and its programmatic activities constitute part of the UN Development Assistance Programme (UNDAP) 2014-2016.

During the general elections in 2015, UN Women led the Women’s Leadership and Political Participation Project (WLPP) ‘Wanawake Wanaweza’ that aims at ensuring increased women’s, youth and PWD’s leadership and participation in the political sphere at the national and sub-national levels. The project contributes to three outcomes, namely: The Constitution, electoral and political participation laws advance and promote women’s rights and gender equality in political participation; Participation of women, youth and people with disabilities in political party structures and electoral processes enhanced’; and Gender equality and social inclusion advocates effectively influence media, faith-based and community leaders and grassroots organizations and networks to promote gender equality and social inclusion in leadership and participation. The project is implemented by UN Women through strategic partnerships with both government institutions and civil society organizations. The WLPP project complements the UNDP led election cycle support project, the Democratic Empowerment Project (DEP), which is a multi-donor supported project led by UNDP, where UN Women and UNESCO are implementing partners with the electoral management bodies (EMBs) and other key stakeholders.

Specific support to building the capacity of women, youth and PWD aspirants and candidates included the mapping of aspirants, which was concluded in the first quarter of 2015 with the submission of a final list containing 1925 verified aspirants (701 youth, 105 PWDs, 1119 women) from 19 political parties. The comprehensive data base was used to inform initiatives aimed at strengthening the capacity of women, youth and PWD aspirants to increase their chances for nomination by political parties.  1282 aspirants were trained (845 women, 360 Youth , and 77 PWD). Additionally, a total of 658 confirmed women candidates who contested during the 2015 elections from various parties were trained on public speaking, leadership, resource mobilization, election laws and policies and campaigning skills.

In order to capture lessons learned and best practices of the trained aspirants, UN Women supported TGNP to do a comprehensive follow up with trained aspirants, enquiring about their challenges and successes.

To further complement the information gathered regarding the trained aspirants, UN Women is planning to undertake a follow-up with all those women candidates who have been nominated by their political parties, regardless of them having or not been trained by the UN Women supported elections project.

This will ensure a comprehensive understanding of the enabling factors and means for overcoming challenges during the process of nomination and campaigning of women MP candidates for the 2015 elections. This is even more relevant, as the 2015 elections witnessed an increase in the women elected by Constituencies, rather than appointed through Temporary Special Seats.

UN Women is therefore recruiting an expert to develop a process to collect and analyze data regarding the trajectory of candidates of women candidates to parliament during the 2015 elections.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The proposed study will enable a systematic analysis of the challenges and enabling factors that women candidates to MPs experienced during the 2015 electoral process. It will further identify their coping mechanisms and enabling factors in support of their nomination and election.

• Overall Objective:
• The main objective of this consultancy is to produce relevant knowledge on the enabling factors and challenges regarding candidates’ trajectory to political party nomination and election, in view of developing interventions with targeted support to enable their success.

Specific Objectives:

• Capture the specific challenges women candidates to MPs undergo from seeking nominations to candidacy;
• Capture the enabling factors leading to successful nominations and elections;
• Capture lessons learned and best practices in the candidates’ conduct from seeking nominations to candidacy;
• Develop recommendations for future interventions in support of successful nominations and candidacies.

Specific Tasks/Scope of Work to be undertaken by the Consultant

The consultant will work in close collaboration with UN Women to perform the below tasks:

Analysis framework

• Develop a framework for capturing information and analyzing candidates’ experiences, outlining the categories of information required, how they will be gathered and analyzed.

Data collection:

• Contact all women candidates for the Parliamentary position with a simple questionnaire in order to capture the challenges and enabling factors experienced during the campaigning period and select some cases for follow up and development of case studies.

Capture case studies:

• Follow up with in-depth interviews with selected candidates for the development of case studies. Case studies should focus on enabling factors and the successful overcoming of challenges. Information provided should enable understanding of the circumstances and contexts in which such events occurred, in order to enable the identification of lessons learned and best practices.

Data Analysis:

• Analyze the data captured according to the objectives of the consultancy.

Draft report

The report shall include a brief literature review regarding the political participation of women, an overview of the context of their political participation and nomination practices in Tanzania and background information on the participation of these groups in the 2015 electoral process. An analysis of the data gathered will be presented, as well as individual case studies. The report will identify best practices and lessons learned in the process from aspiring to political nomination, the nomination process and campaigning. Recommendations for future programming in support of women’s successful candidacies to MPs shall be identified and explained, detailing areas of intervention and institutions mandated to implement them.

Key Deliverables

Specifically, the assignment will result in a comprehensive analysis of the enabling factors that contributed to the success of women, youth and PWD candidates, as well as the challenges they faced with a focus on strategies applied to overcome those challenges. Factors to be analyzed include the positioning and support from the political parties; community; family support; legal framework; available and raised funds; campaigning and support from the political party and the constituencies; media; and other factors as relevant on a case by case basis. A series of case studies will be produced which can exemplify good practices, essentially regarding effective ways of overcoming challenges.

The report to be presented will be detailed, precise and comprehensive, including among others: Clear and comprehensive presentation of the findings; analysis of the findings in regards to their impact on women’s political participation; practical, concrete and implementable recommendations that will inform decisions and policy makers as well as other key actors on how to promote the leadership and political participation of women, youth and PWD in the future.

Impelementation time frame:

• The planned activities for the study will take a total of thirty days allocated as follows:

Inception report (3 Working days):

• Containing proposed methodology, analysis framework and structure for final report, for approval;.

Literature review (4 Working days):

• Focusing on how policies, strategies and regulatory frameworks regarding elections have included women and gender issues. The report will include an analysis of available data from different sources within the country on women’s leadership and political participation.

Data collection (10 Working days):

• Colllect quantitative and qualitative data about women’s experiences during the electoral process, including in depth data for use in case studies.

Data Analysis (5 Working days):

• Systematic analysis of the data and information collected, enabling the identification and understanding of the main challenges and enabling factors for successful women candidates to MPs, the successful overcoming of challenges within a clearly explained context and circumstances, as well as analysis of in depth information for the elaboration of case studies. 

Development of Case studies (3 Working days)

• Writing up of relevant case studies which will provide clear and concrete information of enabling factors and successful overcoming of challenges in the pursuit of election to MPs by women.

Draft report (3 Working days):

• The report will have no more than 40 pages in addition to annexes, as appropriate. A Swahili and English version of the report will be produced. English shall be the language of the first draft of the report for comments.

The structure of the final report will be proposed by the consultant and should include the following elements:

• An Executive Summary in which major findings and recommendations are clearly presented;
• After a concise introduction to the study referring to the background, methodology used for the collection of data, make a quick overview of women, youth and PWD leadership and political participation in accordance to the national and international literary review as well as an overview of nomination practices in Tanzania;
• Present the findings in a clear and precise manner, nonetheless comprehensibly and provide an analysis of their impact on women’s political participation;
• Document lessons learned and provide clear, practical and implementable recommendations that will inform decision and policy makers and other development practitioners in planning and programming interventions to prevent, mitigate and respond to VAWE.

Validation workshop (1 Working day):

• The consultant will do a presentation at the validation workshop with the purpose of receiving input to the report from relevant stakeholders.

Drafting of final report (1 Working day):

• The final report will be revised to include the comments and inputs provided in the Validation Worskhop.

Competencias

• Demonstrate commitment to upholding and promoting the values of the United Nations in actions and decisions, in line with the UN code of Conduct;
• Demonstrate professional competence and is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;
• Display cultural, gender, religious, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Create and promotes an environment for open and effective communication;
• Share knowledge and builds a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
• Be strong team players.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• PhD or Master Degree in the field of Political Sciences, Law or Human Rights or relevant discipline.

Experience:

• Experience of not less than 7 years in working with political parties, election processes, gender equality, governance, policy analysis within the context of Tanzania;
• Relevant experience in conducting research and/or surveys on gender equality, women’s leadership and political empowerment, human rights or related field;
• Proven capacity to conduct data analysis and produce comprehensive analytical reports;
• Excellent communication, writing, presentation and interpersonal skills;
• Ability to complete complex assignments in a timely manner and delivery of quality results;
• Strong writing, communication and interpersonal skills.

Language:

• Mastery of oral and written English.

Submission of application:

Interested consultants need to submit the following documentation in support of their application:

• Cover letter: Explaining why the candidate the most suitable for the work;
• Proposed approach and envisioned work plan;
• UN Women Personal History Form (P11), which can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document;
• Only shortlisted consultants for the vacancy will be contacted.