National Consultant to conduct Leaving No One Behind (LNoB) Assessment

Consultant

Contract

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Background

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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Women and girls’ well-being is grossly affected by humanitarian and rapid development work. Addressing the needs of women and girls as presented in development and humanitarian action at every level requires an inclusive and deliberate response with emphasis on those most affected and those at risk of being left behind. UN Women stays committed to the full realization of human rights, equity and equality of all people facing intersecting and gender-based forms of discrimination and exclusion. Translating the Leaving No one behind [LNoB] principle into action presents an opportunity for collaboration among actors in government and non-government to address the biases and exclusion practices that affect women and men including preventing them from realizing their rights to health, education, empowerment, inclusion, voice and meaningful participation.

UW Women Country office in Uganda undertakes to deliver and translate the LNoB principle into results. In this regard, the CO seeks to hire the services of a consultant to undertake a comprehensive LNoB Assessment to establish the inherent biases, exclusion practices, institutional frameworks, perceived attributes and other setbacks due to climate change, natural hazards, violence, conflict, displacement, health emergencies, economic downturns, commodity and service pricing that lead to mistreatment, exclusion and discrimination among others.

Rationale

UN Women developed and commenced implementation of a new Generation Strategic Note aligned to the Global UN women Strategic Plan, the Country level United Nations Sustainable Development Framework (UNSDCF) and National Development Plan (NDP III) – all covering the period 2022-2025. To ensure equitable, non-discrimination and inclusive programming, UNWomen Uganda Office undertakes to conduct a comprehensive Leaving No One Behind Assessment to illustrate with evidence - who is left behind? Or at risk of being left behind. The assessment is expected present an analysis of the interplay of factors causing and reinforcing inequality and discrimination; document the inherent biases, exclusion practices, perceived attributes that lead to exclusion; the factors accounting for spatial isolation, vulnerability, inferior and sometimes missing public services, and any other infrastructure gaps due to place of residence or geographical location; profile some of the governance and institutional frameworks that affect the participation of certain populations; as well as establish any setbacks due to the impacts of climate change, natural hazards, violence, conflict, displacement, health emergencies, economic downturns, commodity and service price, or other shocks?

In 2020, Uganda was hard hit by the Covid-19 outbreak. Women and girls, men and boys including persons with Disabilities (PWDs), adolescent girls and young people, refugees and other marginalized communities were greatly affected by the outbreak due to interruptions in access to opportunities, prejudice and the unfair distribution of resources for risk reduction and incident management. The situation for women and girls was confounded by the unequal power relationships and social expectations at home and community levels. Most families reported a partial or total loss of income for the over 18-months of total lockdown that started March 2020 and put many people under additional stress. Due to differential gaps in education, access to information and technology, spatial distribution of infrastructure and social services among others, some people have remained excluded from development and humanitarian assistance programmes. Laws, policies and frameworks have not sufficiently provided for inclusion and meaningful participation of all persons in decision making for humanitarian and development work. These and more scenarios persist yet with longer term implication for growth, health and wellbeing of people in Uganda.

Additionally, the country is faced with the risk of slow and unequal economic growth, loss of jobs for youth and women that was exacerbated by the COVID-19 outbreak, financial exclusion, low literacy and school completion rates for female learners across levels and food insecurity1 especially for those affected by humanitarian crises. These circumstances render the need for evidence to support government and humanitarian service efforts to create opportunities for inclusive economic growth.

Leave no one behind (LNOB) is the central, transformative promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and one the six Guiding Principles of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework. It represents the unequivocal commitment of all UN Member State to eradicate poverty in all its forms, end discrimination and exclusion, and reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people behind and undermine the potential of individuals and of humanity as a whole.

LNOB not only entails reaching the poorest of the poor but requires combating discrimination and rising inequalities within and amongst countries, and their root causes. As such, operationalizing the commitment to LNOB in Uganda requires a comprehensive approach with a series of steps, including identifying those left behind and why; identifying effective measures to address root causes; monitoring and measuring progress; and ensuring accountability for LNOB. Under the direct supervision of the Leaving No One Behind Specialist and overall guidance of the deputy representative, the Consultants will be responsible for collecting relevant data and information, reviewing existing relevant frameworks, laws and policies to establish who is left behind, why and where these subpopulation groups are considering both development and humanitarian settings.

Purpose

The principal objective of this assignment is to conduct a comprehensive assessment to establish who is left behind in development and humanitarian work – and analyze the data using a multi-dimensionalapproach to zero down on who among those left behind faces severe and intersecting forms of vulnerability. The assignment will also go further to triangulate the data with a view to establish who is left furthest behind and why.

Duties and Responsibilities

I. SCOPE OF WORK AND SPECIFIC TASKS

Geographic Scope:

The scope of the assessment is national level with specific focus on women and girls/youth in their diversity covering both development and humanitarian contexts.

Specific Tasks:

a. Compile inception report detailing the study approach, tools and review pathway.

b. Establish and document the factors causing and reinforcing inequality and discrimination; document the inherent biases, exclusion practices, perceived attributes that lead to exclusion; the factors accounting for spatial isolation, vulnerability, inferior and sometimes missing public services, and any other infrastructure gaps due to place of residence or geographical location.

c. Profile some of the governance and institutional frameworks that affect the participation of certain populations including women and girls.

d. Establish any setbacks due to the impacts of climate change, natural hazards, violence, conflict, displacement, health emergencies, economic downturns, commodity and service price, or other shocks relevant.

e. Lead in conducting review meetings with national and district level stakeholders including Government, the UN, CSOs and other development partners.

f. Make recommendations [by LNoB factor analyzed] to reduce inequality and promote equity in the short, medium and long term.

g. Compile a 10-pager summary report of the assessment findings and a short PowerPoint slide for ease of dissemination.

II. EXPECTED Deliverables

The National consultant will be responsible for the following deliverable as articulated in the below deliverables matrix:·

Deliverables, Timelines and Payment Plan

Key Tasks

Deliverable

Timeframe

Dates

Payment

%

Conduct inception conversation with relevant UN Women staff; Carry out desk review; design methodology;

Compile and submit inception report detailing study approach, tools and review pathway.

Inception report, methodology and tools

05 working days

December 2022

20%

Carry out field consultations, Prepare and share draft 1 for review and guidance by the study reference Team

• 1st draft report
• PowerPoint presentation for engagement with UN Women

10 working days

December 2022

40%

Incorporate all inputs and comments and share draft 2 with UN Women Task

leader

Draft 2 for final comments

07 working days

November 2022

25%

Wider Stakeholder Validation

• Revamped PowerPoint document for presentation to Stakeholders
• Report of consultations

03 working days

January 2022

Incorporate final comments and submit final report.

• Final Assessment Report and recommendations for addressing the factors identified.
• Final PowerPoint presentation for socialization of the issues with relevant stakeholders

05 working days

January 2022

15%

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• Ability to synthesize programme performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making
• Strong analytical skills
• Good interpersonal skills and capacity to liaise with parties concerned
• Strong facilitation, writing and presentation skills
• Excellent verbal and written English and Amharic.

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS

• Fluency in English is required
• Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

Interested applicants must submit

• Signed Curriculum vitae with contact details of 03 clients for whom you have rendered preferably similar services.
• Proof of previous written work in English.
• Application with separate Resume, clearly described technical proposal and financial proposal for all anticipated activities including travel to West Nile for data collection.
• Only applications with all items mentioned above will be considered.

NB: All raw data files, consent forms and relevant documentation must be returned to UN Women Uganda before release of final payment.

CONFIDENTIALITY AND PROPRIETARY INTERESTS:

The Consultant shall not either during the term or after termination of the assignment, disclose any proprietary or confidential information related to the consultancy service without prior written consent. Proprietary interests on all materials and documents prepared by the consultants under the assignment shall become and remain properties of UN Women.

Required Skills and Experience

III. QUALIFICATION AND EXPERIENCE

The selected consultant should fulfill the following requirements:

Education

Master’s degree in public health, economics, development studies, gender studies or any other relevant field preferably with both national and international consultancy experience in the mentioned areas.

Experience

• A minimum of 10 years of experience working with gender programme design, action research and analysis
• Previous experience in conducting gender analysis studies
• Working knowledge of policy and/or programming in human rights, non-discrimination and equality are a requirement
• Previous experience in assessment and analysis of programs in both development and humanitarian settings is required.
• Excellent analytical, management and coordination skills.
• Excellent understanding of Uganda’s development planning landscape including for humanitarian settings.

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