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.

The Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division (PPID) provides intellectual and strategic leadership on normative support and the delivery of integrated policy and program advice, including through policy analysis and gender mainstreaming. The Division leverages innovation, knowledge management, and cutting-edge technical expertise to support UN Women programmes and to build the capacity of partners to deliver results on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Women Peace, Security and Humanitarian Action Section (WPSHA) is responsible for providing technical support to UN Women Country Offices in several key areas including conflict prevention and peacebuilding, justice sector and security sector reform, promoting women's political participation and mainstreaming gender issues into governance reforms.

The Elsie Initiative Fund for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations (EIF) (https://elsiefund.org/), is hosted by UN Women under the WPSHA section in  PPID in the Headquarters based in New York, USA. The EIF aims to support and incentivize efforts to increase the meaningful participation of uniformed women in United Nations peace operations through financial assistance or financial incentives. It seeks to accelerate progress towards achieving the United Nations Security Council’s declared target of doubling the rate of women’s participation within police and military contingents by 2020 compared to 2015, as well as supporting targets to increase the proportion of women serving as military observers, staff officers and individual police officers.

Adequate due diligence of all project proposals is fundamental to managing the programmatic risks of the EIF. The EIF Terms of Reference (English https://elsiefund.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/tor-elsie-fund-english.pdf; French https://elsiefund.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/tor-elsie-fund-french.pdf) requires that countries contributing military and police officers to peace operations – known as Troop and Police Contributing Countries (T/PCCs), who are being considered for funding, are assessed against the United Nations Human Rights Due Diligence Policy on United Nations support to non-United Nations Security Forces (HRDDP) (English https://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/SP/AMeetings/20thsession/IdenticalLetterSG25Feb2013_en.pdf; French https://www.refworld.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rwmain/opendocpdf.pdf?reldoc=y&docid=537dd4da4)

see also Guidance Note English https://unsdg.un.org/resources/guidance-note-human-rights-due-diligence-policy-un-support-non-united-nations-security; French https://unsdg.un.org/sites/default/files/Inter-Agency-HRDDP-Guidance-Note-2015-Francais.pdf), prior to funds being disbursed.

The HRDDP, issued by the United Nations Secretary-General on 13 July 2011, is intended to serve as a risk management mechanism to ensure that any support provided by United Nations entities to non-United Nations security forces is consistent with the purposes and principles set out in the Charter of the United Nations and with its obligations under international law to respect, promote and encourage respect for international humanitarian, human rights and refugee law. One of the key components of implementing the HRDDP is the risk assessment. This provides a baseline analysis of risks for providing or not providing support to security institutions; it also identifies appropriate mitigating measures that can reduce these risks to acceptable levels. Based on the risk assessment, the project management, in consultation with internal and external partners as appropriate, decides whether support can be provided, and, when support is provided, ensures that mitigation measures are implemented and the conduct of the recipient receiving support is monitored in terms of their human rights obligations.

The EIF is considering supporting project proposals from the Senegal Gendarmerie and Police, as part of its first programming cycle launched in 2019. The proposals aim to increase the deployment of female military and/or police officers including identifying and overcoming barriers to deployment, delivering training and reinforcing equal opportunities policies and implementation. The Senegal Gendarmerie and Police deploy over 1,000 police officers with 12 per cent women ranking as the second highest police contributing country.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the EIF Manager, supported by the Communications and Knowledge Management specialist, each international consultant will be responsible for the following duties and responsibilities. In undertaking these tasks, the incumbent will be required to draw upon United Nations and other sources relevant to the assessment of the Senegal Gendarmerie and Police, including through a gender analysis. In particular, the respective incumbent will be required to undertake a document review of human rights reports produced by the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR), including the HRDDP risk assessments if available, reports of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), United Nations Treaty Bodies such as the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, and Special Procedures in particular the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, reports of the Secretary General to the Security Council on peace operations, reports of other United Nations mechanisms, offices or agencies (e.g. Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict), reports of United Nations commissions of inquiry, decisions of United Nations treaty bodies on individual cases, and UNODC Transnational Organized Crime Threat Assessments (see the United Nations Inter-Agency HRDDP Guidance Note (2015) - Sources of information for the risk assessment, pp. 20-21 for the list). The incumbent will also cover reports and individual cases related to sexual exploitation and abuse from the United Nations Conduct and Discipline Service (CDS) (https://conduct.unmissions.org/documents-standards) and the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight (OIOS).

Furthermore, the incumbent is required to include reports on sexual harassment and gender discrimination within the security institutions including reports on standards of conducts and civilian oversight mechanisms. Where at all possible, data should be disaggregated by age and sex to determine the groups that are most affected by violations and further validation with the affected groups should be undertaken.

The incumbent will also be expected to perform the following duties in consultation with the OHCHR headquarters, regional and country offices, the United Nations Country Team, UN Women regional and country offices, CDS, OIOS, United Nations protection cluster, national human rights institutions and international and national non-governmental organizations:

• Develop a comprehensive assessment of the risks related to the provision of financial support to the projects from the Senegal National Gendarmerie and Police.
• As part of the HRDDP risk assessment, identify and develop a comprehensive set of mitigation measures addressing the risks identified related to the projects from the above-mentioned security institutions.
• Develop a monitoring, evaluation and reporting framework for implementation of the mitigation  measures where necessary, as well as recommendations for field verification to ensure ongoing HRDDP compliance by the above-mentioned security institutions.
• Provide inputs to standardized documents for the EIF on HRDDP that are applicable to all projects under consideration (e.g. standardized matrix of risk assessment criteria specific to the type of projects eligible for support by the EIF, a standardized matrix of mitigation measures and an analytical framework to identify the level of risk, as well as, standard operating procedures for implementing, monitoring and evaluating the mitigation measures), as well as standardized templates to be used for internal processes and communication to beneficiaries and partners.

DELIVERABLES

The deliverables are to be written in either French or English and include the following:

Comprehensive HRDDP risk assessment report and mitigation measures

1. Based on the EIF HRDDP Implementation Tool, a comprehensive HRDDP risk assessment report for the Senegal Gendarmerie and Senegal Police, on the EIF’s financial support to be provided in accordance with the letter of interest and detailed project proposals:

2. The report should contain the elements to be considered for a risk assessment, listed in the text of the policy and on pages 18 to 20 of the Inter-Agency HRDDP Guidance Note (2015). The assessment should include violations for which women are particularly at risk such as sexual harassment within the uniformed services and sexual exploitation and abuse against community members:

• Human rights record
• Accountability record
• Prevention mechanisms
• Legislative / policy framework
• United Nation’s ability to influence and risk of not providing support
• Risks inherent to the kind of support envisaged

3. Action plan which includes a:

• comprehensive set of mitigation measures for each risk identified, or related to the implementation of projects by each security institution;
• detailed regular monitoring and reporting framework; and
• recommendations for field verification to ensure HRDDP compliance where required.

EIF HRDDP Implementation Tool

1. Provide inputs to standardized documents for the EIF on HRDDP that are applicable to all projects under consideration (e.g. standardized matrix of risk assessment criteria specific to the type of projects eligible for support by the EIF, a standardized matrix of mitigation measures and an analytical framework to identify the level of risk, as well as, standard operating procedures for implementing, monitoring and evaluating the mitigation measures), standardized templates to be used for internal processes and communication to beneficiaries and partners. This includes tailoring the HRDDP framework provided in the Inter-Agency HRDDP Guidance Note (2015) into the needs of the EIF as per the fund’s Terms of References and identified sample projects.

TIMEFRAME

REVIEW PERIOD

On receipt of each deliverable, a five-day review/approval period will be required to review, seek amendment where required, and approve outputs prior to authorizing any payment.

Competencies

UN WOMEN CORE VALUES:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

UN WOMEN CORE COMPETENCIES (Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies):

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

TECHNICAL / FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES

• Solid technical knowledge in the design and formulation of HRDDP related documents, processes and procedures;
• Knowledge of gender issues, especially in the context of peace operations and gender-based violence;
• Comprehensive knowledge of and exposure to a range of human rights issues, including related to the operation of security forces;
• Solid knowledge of the international legal framework, institutional mandates, policies and guidelines
• Ability to draft, edit and prepare clear and concise reports;
• Strong analytical and research skills, including ability to evaluate and integrate information from a variety of sources;
• Highly effective organization and planning skills and high attention to detail;
• Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain strong relationships and partnerships;
• Good level of computer literacy;
• Ability to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner; and
• Sound judgment with proven ability to work effectively under minimum supervision.

Required Skills and Experience

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATION

• An advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in international relations, human rights, international law, humanitarian law, political science, social sciences, gender studies or related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying work experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

WORK EXPERIENCE

• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in human rights, international law, gender or a related area is required.
• Experience with implementation of the HRDDP policy and risk assessment is required.
• Experience with developing an analytical framework from a gender perspective, analysing human rights-related documents, human rights monitoring or fact finding, research, reporting methodologies and report writing is required.
• Experience working in the Niger and/or Senegal is desirable.
• Experience working with security institutions is desirable.
• Experience on project development, management, and evaluation concepts and procedures is an advantage.
• Experience with inter-agency collaboration is an advantage.

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS

• Fluency in English and French (written and spoken) is required.

ASSESSMENT

• Evaluation of qualified candidates may include an assessment exercise which may be followed by a competency-based interview.

HOW TO APPLY

Please complete the UN Women P11: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=2740  and attach a sample assessment or similar report you have written.