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.
UN Women’s goal in Liberia is to promote women’s human rights and gender equality which are key in sustaining and furthering achievements in stability and development. In this regard, its programming in the Country is connected to five corporate priority areas: women’s leadership and political participation; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; engaging women in all aspects of women, peace and security processes; advancing women’s rights to live free from violence and gender responsive budgeting and governance. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s joint work in advancing gender equality.
Although Liberia has succeeded in ensuring a transition from conflict to peace, it still faces continued peacebuilding challenges due to unresolved grievances that are linked to the country’s 14-year civil war. A nation-wide conflict mapping exercise undertaken in 2016 by the Liberia Peacebuilding Office (PBO) revealed three key conflict drivers that pose a significant threat to national peace and stability, namely, land/property disputes, corruption and border/boundary disputes. Another exercise further revealed that land/property disputes were the most predominant conflict driver in all 15 counties of Liberia and hence requires concerted effort to ensure their resolution
To address the above-mentioned problems, the Government passed the Land Rights Act (LRA) in 2018 which seeks to address the root causes of conflicts and sets a framework for building and sustaining the peace. This legal framework is a milestone in land legislation, where discrimination in all forms is prohibited in terms of access and ownership of land. It further ensures that customary and private rights are recognized on an equal basis. If implemented with the Government’s decentralization programme—through the Local Government Act (LGA), passed in 2018, which should fully devolve political, administrative and fiscal authorities to counties over a ten-year period – LRA will be able to provide opportunities for empowering rural communities by allowing them to manage their land and land-based resources to advance their economic growth and development, and in turn to consolidate peace in Liberia.
As part of the implementation of the LRA, the Government has started developing a clear, concise and practical alternative mechanism and procedure for resolving conflicts, including conflicts related to land. The Liberia Land Authority (LLA) in coordination with the Ministry of Justice developed the Land Alternative Dispute Resolution Policy and the Legal Aid Policy, which recognized both statutory judicial dispute resolution and ADR mechanisms as equally legitimate for citizens to resolve their differences over land issues. As stated in the ADR Policy, there are multiple actors providing ADR services and therefore streamlining such mechanisms is crucial towards the realization of an effective conflict resolution mechanism. These mechanisms are coordinated by the LLA, the Peacebuilding Office (PBO), the National Bureau of Concessions (NBC), Office of the Legal Advisor to the President (OLA) and the National Center for the Coordination of Response Mechanism (NCCRM). These different community-based peace structures include County Peace Committees (CPC), Community Land Offices (CLOs), Women Peace Huts, Palava Huts, Multi-Stakeholder Platforms (MSP), and structures that will be established by the LLA as stated in the LRA, including Community Land Boards (CLB), and the Community Land Development and Management Committees (CLDMCs).
As a way of supporting the Government to fully implement the two mentioned legislations as well as sustain the fragile peace, UN Women, UNDP and WFP are jointly implementing the project “Sustaining Peace and Reconciliation through Strengthening Land Governance and Dispute Resolution” funded by the Liberian Multi Partner Trust Fund. The project aims at strengthening the existing semi-formal and informal land dispute resolution mechanisms such as the MSPs and the new mechanisms established through the LRA such as the Community Land Development Management Committees (CLDMCs), with a view to reducing conflicts in a more transparent, effective and gender and youth responsive manner. The project will support the communities including women and youth in targeted counties to gain and enhance their capacity and skills to participate in decision-making processes of the land dispute mechanisms.
Against this background, UN Women Liberia Country Office seeks to hire an International Consultant (IC) to mainstream gender into the early warning mechanisms.
Deberes y responsabilidades
Objectives of the assignment
The main objective of this consultancy is to support the Government of Liberia in mainstreaming gender into the early warning mechanisms.
Scope of work and tasks
Under the overall guidance and management of the UN Women Peace and Security Specialist and supervision from the UN Women Gender and Land management specialist, the IC will perform the following tasks:
Task 1. Desk Review and development of the consultancy plan
- Conduct a desk review of existing relevant documents.
- Conduct preliminary consultations with the NCCRM, LLA, Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP), PBO, Ministry of Internal Affairs, UN Women, UNDO and WFP.
- Develop and share a consultancy work plan with the project team.
Task 2. Conduct a gender and Human Rights assessment of the early warning mechanisms
- Conduct a gender assessment of the early warning mechanisms.
- Develop data collection tools and collect data to be used for the assessment.
- Organize and facilitate a validation workshop with key stakeholders including the PBO, LLA, NBA, MIA, NCCRM;
- Develop a well-structured gender and human rights assessment report. Ideally, the report should be structured as follows:
- Introduction
- Table of Contents
- Background information
- Proposed research design (description of research methodology and research questions, research tools etc.)
- Research findings (including existing gender gaps and challenges)
- Recommendations
- Annexes: list of persons interviewed
Task 3. Support NCCRM, LLA, NBC and PBO to develop a monitoring system for land conflicts, including, indicators, procedures and data collection tools.
- In close consultation with the NCCRM, LLA, NBC, and PBO, develop a simple and effective monitoring system for land conflicts that includes indicators, procedures and tools;
- Conduct trainings on the use of the system for staff members of LLA, NBC, PBO, NCCRM that are responsible for monitoring.
Task 4: Strengthen capacity of conflict early warning monitors, PBO staff, and NCCRM, through training on land related issues and link them with the Liberia Early Response Network (LERN)
- Develop and agree with UN Women, UNDP and WFP a training plan;
- Develop and agree with UN Women, UNDP and WFP on training materials.
- Develop a concept note for the training.
- Conduct capacity building trainings on data collection, analysis, reporting and gender mainstreaming.
- Submit a detailed training report which should include summary of results achieved (including changes in knowledge and skills through pre and post-tests).
Competencias
- The IC’s performance will be evaluated based on:
- timeliness,
- responsibility,
- initiative,
- communication,
- accuracy, and
- quality of the products delivered.
Habilidades y experiencia requeridas
- Education
Master’s degree in Gender Studies, law, public administration or other related fields
2. Experience:
- At least 5 years of experience working on gender issues, gender mainstreaming and Human rights assessments
- Proven experience in conducting research in the area of gender equality and women empowerment.
- At least 3 years of experience in developing monitoring systems and tools
- Proven working experience in conflict prevention and resolution in conflict prone contexts
- Experience in and Understanding of the Land sector in developing countries.
- Experience working in similar tasks specifically with a focus on Land conflicts would be an added advantage
- Proven experience facilitating high level consultative workshops for government institutions and CSOs and local community members.
3 - Language and other skills:
- Proficiency in oral and written English
- Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, Internet and email. Excellent facilitation and training skills