Consultant to Document Women’s Experiences in Somalia’s 2021 Elections

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Application deadline 2 years ago: Tuesday 28 Sep 2021 at 23:59 UTC

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Contract

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Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations System’s efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Women’s leadership and participation is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work as mandated in its inception, recognizing the integral role of women in strong and stable democratic processes. To promote the leadership and participation of women in decision-making processes, UN Women is required to work throughout the electoral cycle with women, parliaments, electoral management bodies, political parties, media, and other institutions. UN Women Somalia is supporting gender mainstreaming and women’s political participation in Somalia’s coming election, working with key electoral stakeholders and government institutions. In this regard the Country office is seeking the services of a consultant to support the production of a report that will document women’s experiences in the 2021 elections, lessons learnt, and recommendations for improving women’s participation in elective office throughout the next government and future elections.

The assignment is a gender audit of the elections. Through this report, women’s voices and experiences will be show cased; the challenges of women aspirants, candidates, voters, and supporters highlighted, progress and critical emerging issues experienced in the elections, the impact of the electoral system on women’s equitable participation in the elections, and recommendations for improving the status quo.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant is expected to assist with documenting the progress, achievements and challenges faced by women in the run up, during the 2021 elections in a report to support learning and documentation of women’s experiences.

Specific Tasks and Responsibilities:

Under the overall supervision of the Country Programme Manager, the Consultant will be expected to undertake the following tasks:

  • An evidenced based assessment of the impact of the electoral system on the participation and selection of female candidates in the 2021 parliamentary and local government elections at Federal level and in the FMSs including, Jubaland, Hershabelle, Southwest, Puntland, Galmudug and Somaliland;
  • Review election monitoring and observation reports;
  • Interviews with key informants on the challenges that women aspirants, voters and candidates face in the 2021 elections. Particular attention to be paid but not limited to violence against women, social norms related to women’s engagement in politics, financing, political parties’ gender responsiveness, manifestos, candidate nomination and implementation of legal frameworks;
  • Interview female politicians on their achievements, failures, lessons learnt and identified areas that require support to achieve equitable participation of men and women in politics;
  • Produce a report which documents the gender equitable responsiveness of the Somali electoral system and women’s experiences in the 2021 electoral processes and recommendations for the future.

Deliverables and Payment Schedule:

Deliverable

Payment Schedule

Produce an inception report that includes the methodology to be used, key frameworks to be used in the analysis of the impact of the electoral system, stakeholders to be interviewed, and type of interviews to be conducted.

60%

Document the extent to which the electoral process has been gender responsive in terms of implementation of legislative frameworks and policies (including clan involvement), monitoring, response, and reporting.

Produce a report with human interest stories, group achievements, individual stories captured from various women candidates, voters, party supporters and other actors, challenges, lessons learned and significant achievements in navigating the challenges and opportunities in the electoral processes.

40%

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

Functional Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling the United Nations' values and ethical standards;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the UN and UN Women;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Demonstrates good knowledge of gender and elections in East and Southern Africa;
  • Excellent report writing skills related to electoral processes, gender, and governance issues;
  • Conversant with key gender and governance instruments and Women Peace and Security at international, continental, and regional levels;
  • Strong facilitation skills – ability to guide discussions with audiences of varying seniority and backgrounds.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

  • Master’s degree in Law, international development, gender studies, political sciences, or any other related field.

Work Experience:

  • At least 7 years of demonstrated relevant experience in leading or working with women’s organizations, civil society organisations, government, and UN agencies on Women’s Political Participation or designing strategic interventions on elections;
  • Prior experience in conducting research projects on governance, women’s rights, election observation, monitoring, reporting or other election related issues;
  • Co-author to or lead author in reports or publications that have made a significant contribution to knowledge on governance related issues especially on women’s engagement and participation in politics, review of electoral systems, gender review of regional and national laws, election related violence and discriminatory practices etc.

Language:

  • Fluency in English and Arabic is required;
  • Knowledge of any other UN official working language is an asset.

UNWOMEN is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org