International Consultant-Conduct Impact Assessment of Association for Women’s Sanctuary and Development (AWSAD’s) overall program intervention: “Ending Violence Against Women and Girls” in O

Consultant Human Rights

Overview

Conduct impact assessment of AWSAD’s program intervention focused on VAWG in Ethiopia.

You have:

• Master's degree in Social Science, Gender Studies, Social work, International relations, Law, Sociology, or a related field.
• Minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in research, impact assessment, and program evaluation.
• Experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative data analysis and synthesizing information into analytical written documents.
• Substantive knowledge and understanding of gender and development, ending violence against women and girls.
• Strong background in conducting sensitive research with strong skills on safety and ethical considerations.
• Previous experience working with the UN is an asset.
• Fluency in English.
• Full command of Microsoft applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and data encoding software.

Contract

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Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women) mandate provides for support to catalytic and innovative programs which promote gender equality, women’s empowerment, and human rights in Ethiopia. One of UN Women’s result area in Ethiopia is that “Women and girls live a life free from violence”, with one of the key outputs being “Availability and accessibility of quality essential services for women and girls survivors increased” to ensure strengthened response, including services to women and girls’ survivors of violence using multi-sectoral and human rights approaches, and ultimately contributing to a strengthened national response mechanism.

Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) is one of the most systematic, widespread human rights violations faced globally. It may occur against any woman or girl, regardless of her country of origin, age or socioeconomic status. VAWG is increasingly recognized as a threat to democracy, a barrier to lasting peace, a burden on national economies and impediment to sustainable development. The root causes of VAWG are gender inequality and related social norms that perpetuate unequal power relations between men and women. According to the 2016 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey (EDHS), nearly one-quarter (23 percent) of women has experienced physical violence and one in ten women (10 percent) has experienced sexual violence. Over one-third (34 percent) of ever-married women have experienced spousal violence, including physical or sexual or emotional violence.

Ethiopia ratified many of the international instruments that promote and protect the rights of women, including Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). The country put in place legal and policy provisions such as the Revised Family law and the Criminal Code which enshrined in the 1995 Constitution. In this connection, there are institutional level reforms such as the establishment of Women, Children and Youth Affairs Offices, the Child and Women related crime prosecution units within the Federal Attorney General (FAG) and regional Attorney Generals, the special investigation and prosecution units within the various police stations, a Special Bench for VAWG cases within the Federal Criminal Court and Child-friendly courts. However, despite these legislative and institutional provisions, support for the rehabilitation and reintegration of survivors of violence is still limited which puts survivors continue to suffer from the physical and mental impacts of violence.

To respond to this, UN Women Ethiopia Country Office (ECO) under the outcome area, “Women and girls who experience violence can use available, accessible and quality essential services so the impact of violence is addressed, and perpetrators are held accountable,” has been working with the Association for Women’s Sanctuary and Development (AWSAD) since 2011. UN Women and AWSAD project entitled Enhancing Psychosocial Support and Economic Empowerment of survivors of Violence Against Women in Oromia region enabled the establishment and operationalization of two shelters in Adama, Oromia region, where the first one was established in January 2011 and the second in September 2015, respectively. Adama town was selected because of the high prevalence of violence in the town and the region. The nationwide survey on Domestic Violence conducted by the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association confirmed that Adama and its surrounding has the highest percentage of domestic violence in Ethiopia. The same study showed that wife beating is about 90 percent. The town was also one of the highest HIV infection rates in Ethiopia as it is situated on the highway to Djibouti and there is a high amount of immigrant workers.

The project with AWSAD was designed to address the gaps in services for women and girls’ survivors of VAWG through the provision of holistic service which includes temporary shelter, meal, counseling, medical treatment, basic literacy education, legal follow up and various skills trainings. The shelters enable survivors to physically and mentally rehabilitated from the consequences of violence, become economically independent, and successfully reintegrated into the society. In addition to the provision of shelter services, the project also intervenes at the community level to address the root causes of VAWG, e.g. unequal power relations between men and women as well as negative social norms entrenched in the society. To this end, AWSAD implements the SASA! (Sensitize, Awareness, Support and Action) Community Approach to mobilize the community in the intervention kebeles. Moreover, in selected primary schools, capacity building trainings are provided for students (boys and girls) on life skills, Gender, and reproductive health. With the aim of enhancing the capacity of service providers such as Police, Public Prosecutors, Judges and Bureau of Women, Children and Youth Affairs, AWSAD provides trainings on essential service provisions to survivors, case management, referral linkage and stress and burn out management.

Globally, violence against women and girls has increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic as COVID-19 deepens economic and social stress for families, coupled with restricted movement and social isolation measures. Many women are being forced to lockdown at home with their abusers. The pandemic affected and interrupted essential services including medical care, psychosocial support or counseling, and access to shelters. Even outside the context of a pandemic, there are often significant barriers for survivors to access such services and COVID-19 has exacerbated these barriers.

OBJECTIVE AND JUSTIFICATION

According to the UN Women Country Portfolio Evaluation (CPE), UN Women ECO’s partnership with AWSAD was effective in creating safe spaces for survivors of violence through social and economic integration and provision of essential supports and services. The country evaluation also identified that the service model developed by AWSAD in Oromia region with ECO support, built comprehensive support to survivors, mobilized the community members, religious and traditional leaders to change social norms, as well as built the capacity of key woreda level officials such as police and Oromia Bureau of Women, Children and Youth Affairs. To this end, AWSAD’s intervention modelhas been replicated by other shelters in the country. Given the project has been running since 2011, the general objective of this assessment is to understand the overall impact of the project in the past nine years on the lives of the survivors, ex-residents of the shelters; how the prevention work brought the intended change at the community level as well as how sustainable the interventions are in ensuring smooth project phase out.

The specific objectives are:

• To examine the overall progress of the project in meeting the project goal and objectives specifically how it affected behavior and attitudes in individuals and the community.
• To examine the appropriateness and relevance of the strategies promoted and applied by AWSAD and to what extent the strategies led to wider scalability and program expansion.
• To identify the extent the project contributed to VAWG prevention in the target area, how the prevention work created safe spaces for community to dialogue on VAWG and how/if critical mass is created in the community to stand against VAWG.
• To identify the results achieved as a result of comprehensive services provided to survivors and to what extent the project has contributed to rehabilitation and reintegration of survivors.
• To assess the effectiveness of established partnership (including multisectoral coordination) and their contribution to prevention and response to VAWG
• To examine the extent to which local capacities developed or strengthened through the interventions.
• To examine whether the activities will continue and/or be scaled up by project beneficiaries and target groups and to what extent the intervention strengthened community ownership as well as identify evidence that demonstrate sustainability
• To identify if there were unintended results at community and service provision level that can be attributed to the interventions.
• To identify and document lessons learned, best practices, success stories, and major challenges, including the COVID19 context and then provide recommendations to inform the refinement of future programming.

Duties and Responsibilities

The international consultant will work closely with the national consultant to undertake the following tasks:

• Lead the development of inception report including the methodology for the Impact assessment and the tools for data collection
• Present the inception report at the inception meeting and incorporate inputs
• Lead the desk review/literature review of the available policies, programmes, procedures/regulations, reports, and other documents)
• Lead primary data collection using methodologies indicated and agreed in the Inception Report
• Ensure that pertinent organisations are contacted and provide information for the primary data collection and analysis
• On basis of primary and secondary data, compile and share a brief, analytical report with findings and recommendations, using clear examples and references and not assumptions, to UN Women Country Office in both hard and soft copies. The data processing and analysis need to triangulate the primary and secondary data rather than producing descriptive report. The consultant needs to use and refer to reliable data
• Lead the submission of draft Impact assessment report with full content mainly including findings and recommendations for review by UN Women
• Incorporate inputs and submit the revised assessment report
• Present the revised report at the validation workshop and reflect/clarify feedbacks provide
• Lead the integration of inputs and submit final assessment report to UN Women in both hard and soft copies.

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:

• Strong knowledge of gender equality and women’s rights issues
• Excellent level of conceptual and analytical capacity
• Ability to work in a team
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions, and present findings
• Ability to write in a clear and concise manner and to communicate effectively
• Demonstrates use of initiative and ability to make appropriate linkages in work requirements
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback
• Meets deadlines for delivery of products or services
• Able to work virtually, using communication technologies
• Ability to use ICT based solutions
• Strong interpersonal skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• The consultant must have master’s degree in Social Science, Gender Studies, Social work, International relations, Law, Sociology, or a related field)

Expierence

• The consultant must have a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience in research, impact assessment and program evaluation
• Experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative data analysis and synthesizing information into concise, analytical written documents. Substantive knowledge and understanding of gender and development, ending violence against women and girls
• Strong background in undertaking similar sensitive research’s with strong skills on safety and ethical considerations
• Previous experience working with the UN is an asset

Application procedure

• Cover letter to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
• Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
• UNWomen Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment.

Language

• Fluency in English
• Computer skills: full command of Microsoft applications (word, excel, PowerPoint) and data encoding software’s

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.

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Potential interview questions

Added 5 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: jobs.undp.org