UN Women is the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. UN Women is dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.

All human development and human rights issues have gender dimensions. UN Women focuses on priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. Five focus areas of interventions include ending violence against women; economic empowerment; leadership and participation; peace and security; and national planning and budgeting.

UN Women’s Multi Country Office, based in New Delhi, India, covers four countries of the region, i.e., Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

UN Women works on several fronts towards ending violence against women and girls. This includes tackling its main root cause: gender inequality. Interventions focus both on prevention as well as response mechanisms.  Efforts are multiplied through advocacy campaigns and partnerships with governments, civil society, private sector and sister  UN agencies. Initiatives range from working to establish legal frameworks and specific national actions, to supporting prevention at the grassroots level, including in conflict and post-conflict situations and building capacities of relevant stakeholders. UN Women supports data collection on violence against women, facilitating new learning on the issue.

The Directorate of Women Empowerment, Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), Government of Madhya Pradesh and UN Women have been working together on their shared mandate of enhancing gender equality and women empowerment in the State. Under this collaboration, UN Women provides technical assistance to the DWCD’s initiatives to address issues of violence, through policy-based and community-level interventions.

In the last two years of collaboration with the Government of Madhya Pradesh, joint initiatives have been undertaken to mainstream gender in the development processes, with a focus on the following area:

1. Strengthen and Scale up ‘Safe Cities for Women and Girls’ Programme in Madhya Pradesh to enhance women’s and girls’ rights to enjoy public spaces and services free from violence.
2. Capacity building of the State Government officials to strengthen mechanisms for gender equality and women’s empowerment and address issues of violence against women and girls in public, private and work spaces.
3. Strengthen the gender-responsive implementation and monitoring of State flagship programmes such as Shaurya Dals to bring transformational change in people’s attitudes and behaviours towards women and girls.

In the present phase, UN Women is deepening its engagement in the State through scalable initiatives on ending violence against women and girls, particularly working on the following issues, from among many others (a) sexual harassment of women in public spaces, (b)sexual harassment of women at the workplace as well as private spaces, and (c) declining child sex ratio. In this context, UN Women seeks to hire a Technical Consultant to provide support to the Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Under the guidance and supervision of the Commissioner, Directorate of Women Empowerment and Programme Specialist – EVAW, UN WOMEN, the Technical Consultant will undertake the following key tasks and other responsibilities as may be assigned.

Technical advisory to DWCD on gender-responsive implementation of Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Flagship Programme Initiative:

• Provide technical inputs from a gender perspective on policies, programmes and legislations which are proposed by the Department, having a bearing on the empowerment of women, particularly those relating to prevention of and response to ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG) in private, public and workspaces such as on gender biased sex selection, declining child sex ratio including Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, the Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013, and Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005, safety of women and girls in public spaces and Shaurya Dals;
• Provide technical support for implementation, monitoring and evaluation of select initiatives of the Department of Women and Child Development;
• Support over all coordination and implementation of initiatives planned under the Safe City programme in consultation with DWCD;
• Facilitate a multi-stakeholder coordinated response through effective coordination between DWCD and other key stakeholder departments of Core Group on Women’s Safety headed by the Chief Secretary;
• Strengthen linkages of the Safe City program with other initiatives of DWCD aimed at enhancing women’s safety in public spaces.

Coordination and implementation support:

• Coordinate and work with other nodal departments towards drafting of an action plan for mainstreaming gender in the context of ending violence against women & girls in their existing programmes and policies;
• Coordinate on the programmatic implementation with relevant partner organisations and agencies in the state;
• Coordinate for activities on EVAW/G with relevant team members within the Department and UN Women, and work with them in close collaboration to ensure successful implementation of the programmes. This will also include facilitating systematic coordination between UN Women and the Department of Women and Child, Madhya Pradesh;
• Assist the Department in undertaking action on issues related to EVAW/G as per the priorities of the Department;
• Develop and propose recommendations for restructuring of schemes and programmes of the Department that provide institutional support to women in difficult circumstances, including women facing gender-based violence, to ensure greater access by women to these schemes and programmes;
• Develop resources to build capacities of relevant stakeholders on addressing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAW/G), including facilitation of knowledge building and management of documents related to EVAW/G;
• Prepare briefing notes and updates on the status of women in India at state and local level, particularly on issues related to EVAW/G;
• Prepare periodic progress reports of the work undertaken by the Department;
• Any other duties assigned by the Supervisor/ Commissioner, DWE from time to time.

Conducting research and analysis:

• Document and disseminate resources for initiatives under the department, such as case studies and best practices;
• Collection and compilation of data on status of violence against girls and women, with a focus on priority programmes of the Department;
• Support conducting assessment of existing schemes, policies and programmes for their impact on women;
• Informing policy formulations through evidence based research.

Deliverables:

• Develop a workplan for UN Women in consultation with Madhya Pradesh government on ending violence against women.
• Identify opportunities for co-funded collaboration with the Madhya Pradesh government on issues of ending violence against women.
• Developing action plan with the DWCD for gender mainstreaming of the development process in the state with specific focus on EVAW/G.
• Facilitate and supervise trainings on ending violence against women and girls, with focus on select laws, policies and programmes – (a) Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act 2013; (b) Gender Biased Sex Selection; (c) Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005; and (d) Safety of Women and Girls in the City.
• Periodical reporting as agreed by the departments.
• All the information related to the assignment.

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

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 of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organisation and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organisational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Functional Competencies:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Education:

• Master’s degree in social sciences, women’s human rights, international studies, law or any other related discipline.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of professional experience, preferably with the government or civil society sector.
• Experience of working in women related projects would be desirable.
• Experience of Government functioning.
• Excellent communication skills.
• Ability to organise training sessions on gender mainstreaming of development processes.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) required and advance knowledge of spread sheet and database packages desirable.

Language:

• Fluency in English and Hindi.

Application:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
• Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (5 points);
• Experience of working in women related projects would be desirable (5 points);
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) required and advance knowledge of spread sheet and database packages desirable. (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Interview (70 points);
• Written Test (30 points).

Note:

 In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.