Antecedentes

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the UN, 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. Within this frame, preventing and countering terrorism and the underlying spread of violent extremism continues to be a growing area of mandated work for UN Women.

UN Women provides normative and operational support as part of the UN’s work to promote and support the comprehensive and balanced implementation of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy and relevant Security Council resolutions by Member States, including efforts to prevent and counter violent extremism (PCVE). UN Women’s work on PCVE is conceived and developed within the framework of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and the UN priority agenda on prevention and sustaining peace (GA resolution 262/70, and the SCR 2282). UN Women’s support to PCVE is envisioned and planned across the continuum of peace and linked to long-term development. UN Women’s work on women, peace and security is aligned with and contributes to Sustainable Development Goals 5 and 16 of the Agenda 2030.

UN Women occupies a unique role within the UN system working on PCVE, where it contributes to bridging knowledge between implementation at the local level, and the normative system and policy development at the global level, through its accumulated body of research and pilot programmes commissioned and developed at the regional and national levels. This knowledge provides deep insight on the gendered aspects of the push and pull factors of violent extremism conducive to terrorism, to which responses are inevitably limited.  Gendered approaches permit informed debates, and complex discussions on violent extremism conducive to terrorism, and to develop nuanced responses that are fit-for-purpose to the realities at the local level. Through UN Women partnerships with civil society, it provides a platform that promotes the engagement of and contributions of civil society, and its efforts of bringing in private sector to the UN organs at the global level.

UN Women partners with the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) to ensure gender mainstreaming and gendered approaches to analysis and programmatic assistance provided to national governments and other key stakeholders. UN Women also chairs the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Coordination Compact Working Group on Gender Sensitive Approach to Preventing and Countering Terrorism. UN Women Strategic Plan (2018 – 2021) Outcome 5 clearly defines the organization’s work on supporting women and girl’s contribution to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience. In specific, the strategic plan stipulates UN Women’s role in contributing to the implementation of  relevant UN documents, such as Security Council resolutions 2242 (2015), 2395 (2017) and 2396 (2017), where gender is identified as a cross cutting issue, hence UN Women works directly with respective entities, including UNOCT and Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate, to ensure the fulfillment of this requirement.

To deliver on this commitment, UN Women is seeking a qualified candidate to provide support to its PCVE portfolio and to deliver specific tasks as outlined below. The consultant will be part of UN Women’s peace and security team and will report directly to the CT and PCVE policy specialist, with matrix reporting to UNOCT focal point.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Policy and Advocacy:

  1. Support expanding the knowledge base on gender responsive approaches to PCVE, through research, policy development and comparative analysis.
  2. Contributes specialized inputs on PCVE issues to UN Women and UNOCT, including for research, background papers, talking points, briefing note and other relevant materials.
  3. Support development of relevant standard operating procedures in consultation with OCT and CTED.

Planning and Coordination:

  1. Support the work of the UN Global Counter-Terrorism Compact Working Group on Gender Sensitive Approach to Preventing and Countering Terrorism, and UN Women in its role as Chair of the Working Group.
  2. Coordinate closely with the focal point on gender in UNOCT and the Global Compact Committee Secretariat.
  3. Support liaison with gender focal points in other Global Compact entities on matters related to CT and PCVE.
  4. Support the development of standard operating procedures related to strategic exchange of information and cooperation between UN Women, UNOCT and CTED on matters related to gender in the CT and PCVE context.
  5. Provide support to the development and coordination of the Working Group related initiatives.

Reporting:

  1. Develop high quality reports of the Global Compact Working Group on Gender Sensitive Approaches to Preventing and Countering Terrorism are submitted timely to the Global Compact Secretariat;
  2. Support lessons learned, and best practices aggregation and analysis exercises.

 Consultancy Deliverables:

  • UN Women led coordination mechanisms including the Global Compact working group on gender approaches is operational and effectively deliver on the updated terms of references for 2019.
  • Effective follow up and coordination with UNOCT with regards to the Gender Working Group initiatives.
  • Effective support to policy and programme development as appropriate. 

High quality reporting of the Global Compact Working Group on Gender Sensitive Approach to Preventing and Countering Terrorism are submitted timely to the Global Compact Secretariat.

Competencias

  • Overarching knowledge of the UN policies, procedures and frameworks on sustainable development, human rights, conflict prevention, counter terrorism and PCVE is required;
  • The consultant must have thorough understanding of the gender dimension of PCVE and  a strong knowledge of human rights-based approaches.
  • Knowledge of the latest developments in the women, peace and security agenda, PCVE.
  • Experience in working with security and/or justice sectors development, rehabilitation and reintegration programs, and/or social cohesion and community-based security programmes is an asset.
  • The consultant must have experience in developing UN programmes and familiarity with results-based and resources management frameworks. Experience in developing and implementing programmes in conflict or post-conflict settings is an asset.
  • Excellent analytical, critical thinking, and writing skills; and
  • Ability to work independently under pressure and ability to meet strict deadlines. 

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

  • A Master’s degree in political studies, law, human rights, development, criminal justice, gender studies, international relations or a related field or with comparable experience.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 5 years of experience in addressing gender, rule of law and human rights issues in the context of peace and security, including at least 5 years specifically in the areas of preventing and countering terrorism.
  • Experience working with rule of law institutions or other related disengagement and rehabilitation efforts is an asset.
  • Experience in drafting research and analytical products and/or experience with prosecution, rehabilitation, and reintegration, as well as disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration efforts and gender are considered especially valuable. 

Language:

Fluent in English is required, other UN languages are an asset.