Background

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 Georgia Country Office (CO) Provides technical support to the state and non-state partners towards the achievement of substantive gender equality in Georgia. In line with national and international commitments, UN Women works on the levels of policies and legislation, institutions and grassroots, in order to achieve transformative results for increased gender equality and greater protection of the rights of women and girls. UN Women puts special emphasis on the work towards gender mainstreaming in good governance reforms and enhancing women’s political participation, ending violence against women, promoting and supporting women’s economic empowerment, and Women, Peace and Security agenda. Along with these key priority areas that constitute UN Women’s mandate, UN Women interventions in Georgia are anchored in the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for the years 2021-2025 with the government of Georgia.

The UN Women Georgia CO, with the support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), is implementing a four-year project - “Women’s Increased Leadership for Democracy in Georgia” (WILD). The project was launched in April 2023 with the objective of promoting gender equality in Georgia by enhancing women's political empowerment, fostering good governance, and facilitating inclusive development. The impact-level goal of the project is to ensure that women and girls, in all their diversity, fully and equally participate in decision-making and benefit from gender-responsive governance in Georgia. 

Despite the constitutional and legislative provisions of Georgia that guarantee women equal political participation rights, as well as the country's international commitments that reinforce this objective, the substantial challenge of enhancing women's engagement in the political sphere persists, impeding progress toward gender equality and the overarching sustainable development agenda. The results of the UN Women's Report on Violence against Women in Politics in Georgia (2022) indicate that a significant proportion of the respondents (54 percent) disclosed experiencing some form of harassment or violence during their tenure as elected officials or while engaged in political campaigns at the municipal and central levels. This constituted a substantial obstacle to their ability to engage in political activities.

Hence, to recognize this issue and foster constructive discussions with relevant stakeholders (including but not limited to the Georgian government, the Central Election Commission, the Public Defender's office, political parties, national and international organizations, and the media), UN Women Georgia intends to hire a national consultant to develop two issue briefs: one – on violence against women (VAW) and another one on women’s participation in decision-making processes and a policy paper outlining a national mechanism to prevent violence against women in politics (VAWP)The issue briefs should be based on 2023 Country Gender Equality Profile (CGEP) of Georgia[1] and should transform information included in its respective thematic chapters into 4-5 pages long user-friendly issue briefs, with relevant infographics and other data visualizations. [2]

The VAW issue brief will be based on the CGEP chapter on VAW and harmful practices and its main objectives will be:

• To summarize and critically analyze existing laws and policies related to VAW in Georgia
• To summarize and critically analyze existing VAW services in Georgia.
• Do develop targeted recommendations on how existing laws, policies and services should be improved to better prevent and address VAW in Georgia

The issue brief on women’s participation in public life will be based on CGEP chapter on women in power and decision making and its main objectives will be:

• To summarize women’s participation in parliament, executive government, local government, and judiciary with a special focus on LNOB groups and back up with recent data present in the CGEP
• To identify barriers that hinder women’s participation in decision-making processes.
• To develop targeted recommendations on how women’s meaningful participation in decision-making processes can be fostered.

The main objectives of the policy paper will be:

• to develop country-specific legal guidelines on how the existing legislation can be used by survivors or institutions to address VAWP and identify the gaps in this process that need to be filled to ensure effective prevention, identification, and referral of VAWP cases;
• to map international best practices for national instruments and mechanisms designed to prevent VAWP and elaborate on their applicability to Georgia’s existing normative framework on Human Rights, Gender Equality, and violence against women;
• to provide step-by-step recommendations for key stakeholders for conceptualizing and addressing VAWP.

The findings and recommendations of the study will be shared with the pertinent government institutions as well as political parties, civil society groups, and the expert community. The policy paper will follow the tentative outline:

• Executive Summary
• Introduction highlighting the main issues to be discussed and background
• Methodology
• Analysis of findings and evidence
• Case studies and best practices
• Policies options and recommendations
• Implementation plan and next steps
• Conclusions
• Comprehensive bibliography containing all major literature, reports, and policy documents referenced in the document
• Appendices

The consultant will be reporting to Project Analyst from the UN Women’s Governance & Participation in Public Life (G&PPL) portfolio and will be supported by Project Associate from the G&PPL programme, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

[1] Country Gender Equality Profile of Georgia, 2023, available at: https://georgia.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2024/02/country-gender-equality-profile-of-georgia-2023

[2] Example of a CGEP brief can be found here: https://georgia.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Field%20Office%20Georgia/Attachments/Publications/2020/Violence%20against%20women.pdf

Duties and Responsibilities

The national consultant will be responsible to:

• Design the methodology for the policy paper and outline for two issue briefs.
• Lead and coordinate the consultation meetings with multi-disciplinary stakeholders and experts in accordance with the approved methodology.
• Develop the preliminary draft of two issue briefs and the policy paper to be discussed with the UN Women team and other relevant stakeholders.
• Lead and coordinate the validation workshop.
• Develop the final versions of two issue briefs and the policy paper.
• Take part in the presentation of the paper and share its findings and recommendations with relevant stakeholders.

Deliverables

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy.

As part of this assignment, no travel will be necessary.

Competencies

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 

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:  

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values 

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 

• Technical credibility in policy research  
• Technical credibility in legislative analysis
• Business acumen
• Negotiation 
• Partnerships building 

Required Skills and Experience