National Consultant- To Develop a Regional Gender Strategy and Coordination Framework for the Tigray Bureau of Women Affairs (BoWA)

Contract

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Background

Tigray region has endured more than two years of armed conflict, and it hosts the highest number of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Ethiopia, among which only 30% of the IDPs are hosted in collective and formal sites and the remaining have been living in urban displaced outside of camps exposed to different forms of protection risks due to their scattering among host communities. More than half, i.e., 53%; of the IDPs are women including pregnant women, breast feeding/ lactating mothers, IDPs in female headed households, IDPs and child headed households, unaccompanied children, individuals with disabilities, and individuals with mental illness (Source: CCCM Cluster Monthly Service Monitoring report, as of July 2023). The conflict has damaged most of Tigray’s infrastructure and service institutions, disrupted productive economic activities upon which women and girls depend on for their wellbeing and livelihoods. During the conflict, horrendous gender-based violence (GBV) targeting women and girls has been committed by armed groups, thus physical injuries, mental illness, trauma, sexually transmitted infections, HIV infection, unwanted pregnancy, depression, stigmatization of survivors, and increased divorce rates are the consequences. Following the signing of the cessation of hostilities agreement (CoHA) between the Federal Government of Ethiopia (FDRE) and Tigray People Liberation Front (TPLF) on 2 November 2022, the return of IDPs to the central, some parts of eastern, south eastern, and north western zones has been implemented despite the very limited institutional capacity, humanitarian assistance and recovery or development aid; and formal and informal social networks and social security programs of government and donors have also ceased to function in the region. Therefore, for better coordination of gender programming during development actions and humanitarian interventions that consider the agency and special needs of women and girls in the region, the BoWA of Tigray is seeking for a consultancy service to develop a specific gender strategy and coordination mechanism for gender specific humanitarian and development interventions in the region.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

BoWA of Tigray, as a lead government body that identifies strategic and direct needs of women and girls, design plans, strategies and policies to address the needs of women and girls, and coordinates gender specific responses in the region, requires a post-conflict gender strategy. The gender strategy shall identify the post-conflict priority needs of women and girls in the region, articulate strategic intervention areas and resource mobilization mechanisms, and define response and intervention coordination mechanisms across the region. In addition, the strategy shall identify capacity gaps and capacity building needs of the BoWA, women led and women rights organization (WLOs/WROs) and other civil society organizations present in Tigray. It is anticipated that the regional gender strategy and coordination framework will help the Regional Bureau of Women Affairs to better give orientation to the new and existing partners with a clear guidance informed by the participatory problem analysis and needs assessments expected to come out from the regional gender strategic planning processes.

Duties and Responsibilities

Expected outcome of the consultancy is the development of a comprehensive gender strategy with a coordination framework and an action plan reflecting gender as a major and cross-cutting issue in humanitarian and development actions and provide guidance for embedding, monitoring and therefore realizing the outcomes of the strategic plan and its implementation plan. Therefore, the consultant will:

1. Carry out a literature review of previous strategy documents on gender equality in the Tigray region and national strategy documents (National Humanitarian country team Strategy) son gender equality, amongst others; review post conflict situation of women and girls in Tigray
2. Submit an inception report proving a deep analytical understanding of the situation of women and girls in Tigray regional state and their unmet needs. The inception report will also include a proposed methodology as well as a provisional outline of the regional gender strategy and coordination
3. Incorporate review comments from BoWA and UN Women and other UN and non-UN stakeholders before proceeding to the next stages.
4. Organize consultations with various actors at regional level to understand the current context and situation of women and girls in the region. The strategic planning workshops with regional and local stakeholders on gender equality must ensure representation of actors working on humanitarian, development and Peace spheres and nexus
5. Submit a first draft of the strategy and time-bound costed action plan and presentation during a validation workshop with BoWA, stakeholders from government sectors, UN Women, UN sister agencies, CSO, WRO/WLO
6. Submit a final regional gender strategy document and a coordination framework after incorporating comments from stakeholders. The final documents will have to be approved by BoWA and UN Women.
7. Serve as the main presenter during the vulgarization of the strategy and coordination framework to Regional Stakeholders

DELIVERABLES

The total duration of this consultancy is 30 days. The selected consultant is expected to develop a work plan as per the below activities:

Deliverable

With the support from BoWA, hold consultative meeting and dicusssions with relevant stakeholders to gather intitial inputs for drafting the inception report

Apply all the methodologies stated in the inception report and submit comprehensive draft strategy, coordination mechanism, a costed action plan; summarizing major findings and analysis

In collaboration with BoWA organize and facilitate a workshp to present the draft strategy, coordination mechanisms, and an action plan to stakeholders and collect feedbacks

Develop final strategy, coordination mechanisms, and action plan incorporating all comments and submit to BoWA and UN women incorporating comments collected from stakeholders

Deadlines for each deliverable will be as agreed upon with UN Women and BoWA.

Competencies

Competency of the consultant (s)

The consultant should have strong deomnstarted experience related to drafting startegy, program management of gender equality, general protection and gender analysis, gender mainstreaming or women empowerment policies/projects/

ETHICS AND VALUES

• The consultant (s) shall be familiar with and sign the statements of the ethical code of conduct, anti-corruption, an anti-harassment policy and safegaurding policies.
• The consultant (s) shall demostrate absolute compliance with the UN PSEA policy and Code of Conduct.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Should hold MA/MSc/Mphil/ or PhD degree in Development Studies, Gender and Development, Human Rights, International Cooperation and Humanitrian Aid, Public Adminstration, Project Management, Economics, Social work, Social Policy or Sociology.

Experince

• Over 10 years of practical hand on experinces preferably in gender and gender based analysis, protection analsysis in the country/ the region, preparation and delivery of gender equality and equity strategies at both program and institutional/organizational levels.
• Experience on gender equality and women‘s empowerment; experience in gender mainstreaming in enterprise related projects (both with government and non-government) is an added advantage
• Sound familiarity with the context in Tigray region
• A proven track record of effectively carrying out or delivering assignments on time, working with government, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, international non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, and preferably with BoWA, BoSAR, and civil society organizations based in Tigray.
• Practical experience in gender assessments; and commitment to post-conflict social and economic empowerment of women and poverty reduction
• Experience, awareness and sensitive to different cultural contexts and social norms

Language

• Fluency in English and Tigrinya is mandatory (both writing and speaking);
• Knowledge of the current regional context is a mandatory

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) a completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment.
• NB: As part of the application, the consultant shall include a cover letter, a one-page proposed methodology and context of Tigray, a summative table on relevant assignments undertaken and references as well as stated role/s of each consultant (if more than one individual) in the stated assignments.

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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.)