Background
The Combating Gender Based Violence in Bangladesh (CGBV) project recognizes that prevention of violence requires sustained and comprehensive action at individual, family, organizational and societal levels. The project will focus on primary prevention, stopping violence before it occurs, as it is a strategic approach to ending violence against women and girls. The project aims to generate knowledge and evidence to create evidence-based prevention interventions.
The project also builds on the knowledge, lessons learnt, experience and partnerships that UN Women in Bangladesh has gained by supporting small scale violence prevention projects since 2011. As part of the UN Trust Fund, a project titled, Safe School and Safe Community (SSSC) was implemented in 80 Higher Secondary schools of 4 districts on sexual harassment prevention from 2014-16. SSSC built the capacity of the schools to comply with the High Court Directive to prevent sexual harassment. UN Women is also working, since 2014, with 4 universities to prevent sexual harassment through student campaigns, building institutional capacities of universities & the University Grants Commission and advocacy, through its Building Capacity to Prevent Violence Against Women (BCPVAW) project.
Project Details
Program Area: Ending Violence Against Women
Implementation period: April 2018-September 2022
Duration of the Project: 4.5 years
Funding Organization: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Canada
Implementing partner: UN Women Bangladesh
Project Locations: Bogra, Patuakhali, Comilla
Violence against Women in Bangladesh:
Risk of violence and harassment in work or in public is a barrier to better opportunities for women and girls. Fear of violence is one of the reasons often cited by families, in rural Bangladesh, for removing girls from school and marrying them off while they are still children. The threat of harassment and resultant risk of ‘dishonor’ can prevent young women from attending tertiary education and keep women in low-value traditionally female occupations in or near the household.
There is no nationally representative study of violence against girls in the public sphere, but there are small scale studies that tell the story. Sexual harassment is a serious impediment to girls’ access to their way to school, college or social visits, and 45 percent of girls and 73 percent of their parents considered stopping education due to such harassment (Alam, Roy, and Ahmed 2009). A study by UN Women showed more than three quarters of female students of tertiary education institutes faced sexual harassment at least once (UN Women-HDRC, 2013).
Furthermore, domestic violence is very high in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics’ (BBS) Second National Survey of Violence Against Women found that 73 percent of ever-married women have experienced some form of violence from their spouses in their lifetime. More than one in four women reported experiencing sexual or physical violence in the past 12 months. Abusive relationships often have a socio-economic component, with household resources and financial decision making controlled by men. Socio-economic violence includes coercing women to turn over their earnings, denying them financial autonomy, withholding payment from them in a family business by relegating their productive work to ‘housewife duties’, or making them unfit to work through physical abuse.
The Combating Gender Based Violence in Bangladesh Project (CGBV):
The CGBV Project intends to create a holistic framework of integrated and mutually reinforcing interventions to address the underlying causes of violence against women and girls, improve their access to educational and economic opportunities, and promote their equal status in society.
CGBV will enhance the capacity of civil society to design, implement and sustain primary prevention of gendered violence, while also strengthening government mechanisms and strategies identified under Bangladesh’s 7th Five Year Plan and the National Women Development Policy. The project will generate evidence to build knowledge on prevention strategies. The CGVB will engage and capacitate local stakeholders and high-level leadership of key institutions such as local government, civil society organizations, women’s organizations, education institutions and workplaces.
More specifically, the programme aims at the following outcomes: i) strengthening national legal and policy framework to prevent violence against women; ii) promote favorable social norms, attitudes and behaviors to prevent violence against women; iii) policy and programming is increasingly informed by an expanded knowledge base on effective approaches to prevention of violence against women.
Evidence from research and programmatic experience shows that violence against women and girls in low-income and middle-income countries can be prevented through interventions that target the key drivers of violence in these settings—unequal gender-power relations—and the way these inequalities shape individual and collective attitudes, norms, and behaviours.
The CGBV initiative is proposed as a holistic effort, involving women, men, government, civil society, and the private sector, to create an environment, within families and outside, that supports women’s empowerment and equality. The change model recognizes that prevention of gender-based violence needs a long-term approach that addresses the belief systems and social and institutional practices that allow violent behaviour against women to continue.
To achieve this, UN Women developed a Prevention Strategy informed by a research and analysis of effective prevention interventions in Bangladesh. The Strategy addresses prevention interventions at national, districts and community level. These multi-level and multi-sectorial approach require the development of partnership agreements with several stakeholders that will be accompanied in designing the specific prevention intervention modules. Each module will be informed by evidence-based approaches and adapted to the specific context.
To achieve this, UN Women is seeking an international consultant to support the finalization and operationalization of the Prevention Strategy and design prevention interventions modules.
Duties and Responsibilities
Scope of Work:
Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Programme Specialist - Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW), the International Consultant will undertake the following tasks:
Objectives:
- To provide strategic inputs and technical support to implementing partners on CGBV programmes’ strategic areas of governance and advocacy for VAW (including on sexual harassment and other forms of sexual violence in public spaces), behaviour and social norm change; and
- o provide RBM and M&E support to CGBV partners on the implementation of the project’s M&E framework, use of tools, and generating evidence and learning for effective VAW prevention; and
- To develop and conduct trainings on prevention interventions and addressing sexual harassment and other forms of Sexual Violence against women and girls in universities (including on the women’s safety audit methodology).
Scope of work:
- Revision of the CGBV Results Framework and provision of inputs on baseline impact and outcome indicators (informed by risk and protective factors and the CGBV Programme Design);
- Development of the M&E Plan, tools and mechanisms;
- Strategic inputs, advise, and guide for strengthening the project’s evidence gathering and data gathering for M&E indicators for effective VAW prevention programming;
- Training and coaching of implementing partners on RBM, developing an M&E and Advocacy Plans, and use of CGBV M&E tools for the monitoring of key interventions;
- Inputs, advise and guidance on developing local governance and behaviour-change strategies;
- Support conduct of National CGBV Conference for project implementing partners on “Using and generating evidence on effective VAW Prevention”;
- Support to conduct prevention workshops, key messaging for social norm change, and other BCC and campaign strategies;
- Training of Trainers for conducting Women’s Safety Audit Walks in-school and community-based partners;
- Technical support on integrating women’s safety issues in local governance, including in using the Women’s Safety Audit Methodology for city development planning;
- Provide technical support for the overall design and implementation of the specific strategies and intervention at national, district and community level.
Duration of Work:
80 days spread across one year with 2-3 missions in country.
Supervision and performance evaluation:
The consultant will be directly supervised by UN Women Programme Specialist, Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW).
Expected deliverables:
- Review and revise the CGBV Results Framework and provide inputs on baseline impact and outcome indicators by June 2019;
- Development of the M&E Plan, tools and mechanisms by June 2019;
- Technical and strategic inputs, advise, and guide for strengthening the project’s evidence gathering and data gathering for M&E indicators for effective VAW prevention programming by June-September 2019;
- Support IPs in development of M&E Plan by July – September 2019,Train and coach implementing partners (IP) on RBM, M&E and use of CGBV M&E tools for the monitoring of key interventions;
- Support conduct of National CGBV Conference for all project implementing partners on “Using and generating evidence on effective VAW Prevention” by September 2019;
- Support the conduct of prevention workshops, key messaging for social norm change, and other BCC and campaign strategies by December 2019;
- Training of Trainers for conducting Women’s Safety Audit Walks in-school and community-based partners by December 2019;
- Support the conduct of prevention workshops, key messaging for social norm change by January 2020;
- Technical support on integrating women’s safety issues in local governance, including in using the Women’s Safety Audit Methodology for city development planning by March 2020;
- Inputs, advise and guidance on developing local governance and behaviour-change strategies by May 2020;
- Provide technical support for the overall design and implementation of the specific strategies and intervention at national, district and community level by May 2020.
Competencies
Core Competencies:
- Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
- Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
- Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
- Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Master’s degree in social sciences, public policy/administration, governance, gender studies or similar.;
Experiences:
- At least 10 years’ experience in issues related to gender equality and ending violence against women;
- Proven experience in developing VAW prevention interventions and strategies with a variety of partners;
- Experience in planning and facilitating high- level consultations, training and participatory strategy design;
- Experience in drafting EVAW related programme policies and strategies, especially on behavior change and social norms;
- Proven experience to conduct safety audits interventions to end sexual harassment;
- Previous professional experience with development agencies and the United Nations would be considered an asset.
Language
- Proficient in written and oral English, working level of (other language) is an asset;
Submission of application:
Interest candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application via UNDP job website, not later than 22 April 2019.
Submission package includes:
- A brief expression of interest: a brief narrative presenting your suitability for this assignment ;
- UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
- Sample work;
- Financial proposal: Propose the daily fees ( per date rate * 80 days) and travel and accommodation cost will be based on the UN Women Policy and Guideline.
Payments:
Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of deliverables and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed\;
Fund transfer modality:
Respective deliverables and documents will be reviewed by UN Women before processing any payment.
Payment schedule is as followings:
- 40% upon completion of Deliverable 1-5;
- 40% upon completion of Deliverable 6- 8;
- 20 % upon completion of Deliverables 9-11.
Please use "International Consultant to design VAW Prevention interventions models" as the subject heading of your application.
All applications must include (as an attachment) the CV and the financial proposal. Applications without financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. “Personal History Form - P 11” can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employme