Call for Applications - Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Roster of Experts

Call for Applications - Ending Violence Against Women and Girls Roster of Experts

Organization: UNDP

Job Identification: 11234

Location: Multiple

Apply Before: 12/31/2023, 08:00 AM

Job Schedule: Part time

Job Function: Ending violence against women

Initial Contract Duration: Roster - actual assignment duration will depend on forthcoming needs

Vacancy Category: Consultancies

Job Description

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.

All qualified candidates with expertise in one or more of the areas of expertise outlined in the Vacancy Announcement are encouraged to apply. In addition, for this specific call for applicants for the UN Women Ending Violence against Women Roster, there is a particular need for candidates with one or more of the following qualifications:

• Candidates with substantive expertise in Gender Responsive Budgeting, Online Violence and/or technology-based solutions, Communications, data visualization, advocacy and/or campaigning related to EVAW
• Candidates with contextual professional experience in the following regions: Arab States, Central Asia and the Pacific. 
• Candidates with proficiency in Arabic and/or Russian  

A. Background/Context for required services 

UN Women is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women.  As a global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.  UN Women supports UN member states as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards.  It stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: (1) increasing women’s leadership and participation; (2) ending violence against women; (3) engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; (4) enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and (5) making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting. UN women coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality.

UN Women’s programming in ending violence against women and girls includes several flagship programmes and projects around the world, including for example, the Joint Global Programme on Essential Services for Women and Girls Subject to Violence, a partnership by UN Women, UNFPA, WHO, UNDP and UNODC; the EU- UN Spotlight Initiative, a partnership between the European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG), including harmful practices; the Safe Cities and Safe Public Spaces Initiative, among others.   

The Spotlight Initiative focuses on particular forms of VAWG that are prevalent or prominently emerge in specific regions: femicide in Latin America; sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), including sexual exploitation and trafficking against women and girls in Asia; sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), including harmful practices (HPs), and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in Sub-Saharan Africa; domestic/intimate partner violence (DV/IPV) in the Pacific; and domestic and family violence in the Caribbean. 

In the context of its VAW programming, UN Women is expanding its Global Roster of Specialists in Ending Violence against Women and Girls (EVAWG) for short-medium term consultancies to support various technical activities released under the Spotlight Initiative and other EVAW flagship programmes.x  The roster will comprise mid-level and senior level experts in VAWG, specifically related to one or more of the areas described below and will be called as needs arise.

B. Areas of expertise and related competencies (please note that not all applicants need to have experience in all of the areas below):

Legal and policy reform and drafting on VAW

• Experience of issues and practices in the fields of judiciary systems; legal reform; gender equality, including ending violence against women;
• Experience in reviewing laws, policies, regulations, and action plans related to SGBV/HP and SRHR and women’s and girls’ rights;
• Experience in developing mechanisms for monitoring compliance and ensuring accountability to set standards;
• Experience in law development and enforcement or prosecution service.

Essential services for VAW

• Experience working with institutions to strengthen national response to VAW from different sectors (e.g. police, justice, social services, health sector). For example, through the development and/or implementation of policies, frameworks, standard operating procedures, etc. in line with international standards; 
• Experience in estimating costs, and/or policy analyses related to VAW services. 
• Experience in VAW services provision landscape and relevant actors across different regions
• Experience in providing trainings to service providers in line with essential services package and handbook on gender-responsive police services guidelines.

Access to justice

• Substantive knowledge of and experience of jurisprudence, criminal, civil, informal and quasi justice systems, their impact on women and implications of programming within the context of UN Women’s mandate;
• Understanding of legislative framework reform processes (penal code, code of criminal procedure, etc)
• Professional understanding the dynamics of the justice chain, vertical and horizontal relationships within and across ministries and departments; knowledge of the interface between civil, criminal, informal and quasi justice; ability to undertake policy research, data collection and analysis; ability to produce operational, simple to use material and experience of working in development and post-conflict contexts. 

Prevention of VAW

• Comprehensive understanding of the prevention evidence-base and entry points for undertaking prevention work along the socio-ecological model;
• Knowledge of root causes, risk factors and social norms that enable violence against women;
• Familiarity with promising practices and programming to prevent violence against women.

Data for VAW

• Experience in conducting primary research (quantitative methods, qualitative methods) on violence against women, gender equality or related fields and/or strong knowledge and understanding of the methodological, ethical and safety standards for conducting research on violence against women;
• Ability to do quality assurance of reports and publications on violence against women research and data, in coordination with and input from multiple partners, with the view of using such reports and publications for advocacy, policy and programming;
• Experience with/good knowledge of challenges a requirement for monitoring systems related to violence against women and girls programmes, including through the use of administrative data from services providing support to survivors, i.e. health, justice, security, social services.  

Gender Responsive Budgeting

• Significant professional experience in both Local Development Finance and Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting / or participatory planning and budgeting in developing countries;
• Familiarity with best practice approaches in programme evaluation and with social research methods, including qualitative and quantitative approaches to data collection and analysis.

Monitoring & Evaluation

• Experience in monitoring and evaluating VAWG programmes. 
• Technical expertise in the principles of Theory Based programme M&E, impact assessment techniques, and data management and analysis; 
• Good knowledge of programme formulation and implementation and Results Based Management;
• Understanding of ethics related to data management, monitoring and evaluation.

Women’s Movement

• Strong understanding of gender equality and women's empowerment, especially related to community mobilization and movement building/strengthening;
• Experience in facilitating high-level events with government representatives, CSOs, and diverse actors
• Experience building strong partnerships with civil society organizations;
• Experience working with civil society in the area of VAW, including for example on management, coordination, capacity building, mapping exercisers, gap analyses, etc. 
• Ability to draft clear and concise technical documents including the development of quality knowledge products;
• Building Capacity of CSO’s on VAW on organizational strengthening.

Harmful Practices

• Comprehensive understanding of the intersection between addressing all forms of harmful practice against women and girls and key policy pillars of addressing violence against women and girls.
•  Significant professional experience in programming and policy to address violence against women and girls with demonstrated experience of work to address harmful practices.
• Experience working with multiple stakeholders to support programme delivery in diverse cultural contexts.

Trafficking in women and girls

• Comprehensive understanding of trafficking in women and girls as a form of gender-based violence, as well as understanding about demand and root causes of exploitation.
• Relevant experience working with National Referral Mechanism (NRM) as a framework for identifying victims of trafficking in persons and ensuring they receive the appropriate protection and support.
• Relevant experience working with stakeholders to support service delivery for victims and survivors of trafficking in women and girls.
• Relevant experience in policy and programming to address prevention and response to trafficking in women and girls.

Other areas

• General VAW;
• Emergency preparedness and GBV; 
• Proposal drafting on VAW.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

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 Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

• Proven technical competencies in working in the area of ending violence against women/girls
• Demonstrated experiences in implementing programmes on gender equality and VAW; and in formulating result oriented programme, monitoring programme based on indicators and quality reporting.  
• Proven organizational experiences in building strategic partnerships in countries with government agencies, women led organizations, CSOs, and other non-traditional partners.
• Demonstrated experience in developing quality research methodology involving multiple country consultations and extensive desktop review.
• Previous work in the target countries of Spotlight and other countries on VAW would be an advantage.
• Excellent knowledge of Results Based Management.

Qualifications:

• A Master’s degree in Social Science, Gender Studies, Anthropology, Management, Public Policy, or related social sciences; or a first-level university degree with additional 2 years of qualifying experience.
• At least 5 years of professional experience working in one or more of the following areas: legal and policy reform and drafting, VAWG and Data, VAWG and networking and advocacy, gender-based violence, public policy analysis/development, strategic and action planning, gender budgeting, data collection and data analysis, and gender equality/women’s empowerment training.
• Recognized expertise and experience in VAWG.
• Experience in the development and delivery of training programmes, toolkits, evaluation and monitoring matrices, and mentoring on VAWG.
• Knowledge on women’s human rights instruments (international and national).
• Fluency in English, Spanish or French is required. 
• Working Knowledge of one of the following languages is a strong asset: Portuguese, Russian or Arabic.
• Candidates will be able to select if they want to be tested in either English, Spanish, French or Arabic as part of the roster vetting process.
• Strong research, writing, analysis skills in the substantive area.

Applications Procedures:

• Cover letter which explains why you are the most suitable candidate for the inclusion in roster along with financial information as to your expected daily fee/rate. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application (be sure to clearly indicate the area(s) of expertise you would like to be considered for).
• Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Contracting Arrangements: 

Successful candidates will be included in UN Women’s technical expert roster for a period of 2 years. Entry into the expert roster system does not necessarily mean that a contract with UN Women is guaranteed. This will depend on forthcoming needs.

When a request for services arises, the UN Women office in need of services shall directly contract the consultant from the roster without the need for further selection processes. A specific Terms of Reference (ToR) outlining the outputs for each assignment shall be provided and, subject to agreement from the designated candidate, a Special Service Agreement (SSA) will be issued. Conditions of a particular assignment may be negotiable.

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Apply Now