Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) Expert

Result of Service The UN is recruiting an international consultant to achieve three key objectives: a) Risk assessment conducted in respect of sexual exploitation and abuse, making full use of existing risk management tools of the UN, duly adapted to the country context. The assignment should include a full risk assessment matrix including its scope, context, criteria for risk assessment, as well as a management plan for the next 5-years (2021-2026) for treatment and monitoring of SEA, based on identified potential risks. Furthermore, the process of undertaking the assessment should be duly participatory and an opportunity for internal capacity building of different UN inter-agency groups, in particular of the IAT-PSEA and of the Gender and Human Rights Thematic Group. b) Complaints Mechanism Review and promotion: Taking account of individual UN entity PSEA Complaints mechanisms, review the level of awareness and accessibility of systems; develop a common system for ensuring that relevant systems are accessible to associated staff, via marketing and orientation materials. c) PSEA Orientation: Design and facilitate orientation for approximately 50 staff from across UN entities, in a series of 3-4 workshops of max 1 day each, to provide detailed orientation on PSEA principles, preventative actions, and complaints systems, using interactive training techniques.

Work Location Gaborone, Botswana

Expected duration 3 months

Duties and Responsibilities The United Nations (UN), along with Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) alliances and other international organizations, have issued directives from the highest levels endorsing standards of Zero Tolerance for SEA (particularly through the United Nations Secretary-General’s Bulletin on Special Measures for the Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse 2003/13). As the Secretary-General (SG) has made clear, sexual exploitation and abuse is not confined to peacekeeping or humanitarian settings alone, it also occurs in development settings.

The United Nations SG’s report on Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse: A new approach from Feb 2017 calls for new efforts to end abuses committed by those serving under the United Nations flag in any capacity and “bring this scourge to heel”. The strategy emphasizes, for the first time, a system-wide approach focusing on: putting victims first, ending impunity, engaging civil society and other external partners, and raising awareness on the issue.

As part of this system wide approach, The UN SG has asked Agencies, Funds and Programs (AFP) to adopt new measures and strengthen existing ones to better prevent, detect, report and take action against personnel who commit these abuses. All UN AFPs must have dedicated strategies and protocols for SEA and place top priority on their enforcement.

To ensure the Botswana UN Country Team (UNCT) is advancing its PSEA efforts in an effective and coordinated manner, the RC led the establishment of an Inter-Agency Team on PSEA (IAT-PSEA) in early 2021. The Group is currently led by the RC, who is ultimately accountable to report to the SG on PSEA actions in Botswana. The IAT-PSEA is composed of PSEA focal points from different UN entities and serves as the primary body for coordination and oversight on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse by international and national personnel of the UN and specific associated entities. The IAT has developed a 2022 PSEA Work Plan representing the UN’s collective commitments. The Work Plan follows the Country level checklist on the minimum actions required for PSEA and encompasses activities around 3 strategic areas: (i) Preventive Action; (ii) Risk Mitigation and Response Measures and (iii) Governance of the IAT- PSEA. The United Nations (UN), along with Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) alliances and other international organizations, have issued directives from the highest levels endorsing standards of Zero Tolerance for SEA (particularly through the United Nations Secretary-General’s Bulletin on Special Measures for the Protection from Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse 2003/13). As the Secretary-General (SG) has made clear, sexual exploitation and abuse is not confined to peacekeeping or humanitarian settings alone, it also occurs in development settings.

The United Nations SG’s report on Special measures for protection from sexual exploitation and abuse: A new approach from Feb 2017 calls for new efforts to end abuses committed by those serving under the United Nations flag in any capacity and “bring this scourge to heel”. The strategy emphasizes, for the first time, a system-wide approach focusing on: putting victims first, ending impunity, engaging civil society and other external partners, and raising awareness on the issue.

As part of this system wide approach, The UN SG has asked Agencies, Funds and Programs (AFP) to adopt new measures and strengthen existing ones to better prevent, detect, report and take action against personnel who commit these abuses. All UN AFPs must have dedicated strategies and protocols for SEA and place top priority on their enforcement.

To ensure the Botswana UN Country Team (UNCT) is advancing its PSEA efforts in an effective and coordinated manner, the RC led the establishment of an Inter-Agency Team on PSEA (IAT-PSEA) in early 2021. The Group is currently led by the RC, who is ultimately accountable to report to the SG on PSEA actions in Botswana. The IAT-PSEA is composed of PSEA focal points from different UN entities and serves as the primary body for coordination and oversight on protection from sexual exploitation and abuse by international and national personnel of the UN and specific associated entities. The IAT has developed a 2022 PSEA Work Plan representing the UN’s collective commitments. The Work Plan follows the Country level checklist on the minimum actions required for PSEA and encompasses activities around 3 strategic areas: (i) Preventive Action; (ii) Risk Mitigation and Response Measures and (iii) Governance of the IAT- PSEA. Under the Prevention area, one of the key activities prioritized for 2022 is the development and follow up of a country Risk Assessment on SEA as part of the UN system wide responsibility. According to the UN Misconduct Risk Management Tools (2019), the Risk Management process helps UNCT to address SEA more effectively in three ways: - Enables UNCT to be proactive in addressing SEA. By anticipating future threats, the UN agencies are better able to take mitigating actions to reduce or remove threats. - Supports UNCT to make better informed decisions on SEA. For example, by providing a good understanding of risks and why they happen, UNCT leadership is better able to decide how to prevent SEA. Similarly, by identifying which risks are a priority, UNCT leadership can decide where to focus attention and the agencies’ resources. - Provides a concrete way to hold UNCT leadership and managers accountable on SEA by clearly identifying who is responsible for addressing specific risks and what actions they must take. Planning and risk management are core management functions. It is instrumental to align the understanding of objectives and related risks at different levels in the Organization, provide management with the necessary tools to identify the risks that may affect the functioning of their operations, understand the root causes of risk and design adequate response strategies to prevent and mitigate them. Risk management supports better decision-making on conduct and discipline issues. By understanding which forms of misconduct their personnel are most likely to engage in and why, the UNCT can take more informed decisions about how to prevent misconduct and the capacity building initiatives needed to tackle potential existing gaps. Once the risks of misconduct in the organization are identified and recorded in the risk registry, they will contribute to the development of a work plan, describing how the organization will prevent and mitigate the risks of misconduct by its personnel, reinforce internal control systems where needed, to prevent and mitigate these risks, implement a continual improvement cycle that will be informed by the risk register, provide information to update the register itself and enforce UN standards of conduct when misconduct occurs. The risk register describes the main risks to the successful achievement of the UNCT’s annual workplan and how these risks will be mitigated and managed. Information from the existing PSEA Work Plan can be lifted and included into a broader workplan for the 2022-2026 period, covering all forms of misconduct. The risk assessment should capture key elements from the most relevant UN Risk Assessment Tools and be adapted to the specific country context of Botswana. It is important for the assessment to be aligned with the UN Comprehensive Country Analysis (CCA) developed in 2021, and the new 5 year UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (CF), so that the risk management plan is aligned with opportunities identified by the CF’s results framework and the Business Operation Strategy for the next 5-years. The UNCT in Botswana includes 22 UN Entities, both resident and based in multi-country offices outside Botswana. Most of the UN agencies with physical presence in Botswana are hosted at the UN House, while the others - FAO, UNESCO, UNHCR and UNICEF occupy different offices in the city of Gaborone. UNHCR is the only one with an office outside Gaborone, in the refugee camp. According to available information, the UN in Botswana counts on 167 staff. Of the total 167, 121 are national (66 female and 55 male) and 46 are international (23 female and 23 male).

Under the guidance of the Botswana Inter-Agency Team on PSEA and in line with the most relevant PSEA training and capacity assessment tools and guidelines, and with the Risk Management Toolkits created to follow up on the implementation of the UN Sexual Exploitation and Abuse Action Plan, the consultant will deliver a Risk Assessment and an integrated 5-years plan, including the following task and sections: 1. Develop the SEA Situation Analysis and identify SEA-related risks and causes 2. Create the SEA Risk Profile in Botswana, which describes all the forms of potential misconduct of UN personnel in the country, the underlying risk factors, and an assessment of which risks and causes are most severe. This can be used as a visual dashboard – a Risk Register - to explain which risks are most severe and should be the focus of the UN attention in Botswana; 3. Create the SEA Risk Treatment Logframe through which, for each risk, mitigation treatment options are recommend, a timeline for treatment, the expected effect from the treatment, who is responsible for the treatment and the status, within the UNCT. This document/section serves as a useful management tool to discuss progress in implementing the risk assessment management plan; 4. Based on the result of the RA develop a UNCT PSEA strategy for the next 5-years, including proposal of procedures of internal complaint and victim assistance mechanism; 5. Review the current Complaints mechanisms of each UN entity based in Botswana, and assess the level of staff awareness of the mechanisms, as well as the accessibility to staff. 6. Based on above, develop system and materials to ensure awareness and accessibility of Complaints systems. 7. Design and facilitate PSEA orientation for approx. 50 staff over 3-4 sessions.

Qualifications/special skills Academic Qualifications: Bachelors degree in Social Sciences, Psychology or related field is required . Additional Gender or Social Development studies relevant for the task is desirable Experience: A minimum of 8 years’ experience of working with development or humanitarian organisations is required . Professional experience of leading PSEA related activities in NGOs or the UN system (for example, assessments, training, investigations, developing complaints mechanisms, leading PSEA portfolio.) Experience of designing and facilitating staff orientation and training, preferably on PSEA/ GBV issues is desirable Language: Fluency in oral and written English is required .

No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.