RE-Advertise, National Consultant to Provide Technical Support to the UN Women Country Office on Gender Mainstreaming in Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment and Resilience Strategy for the

Contract

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Background

The rapid escalation and intensification of an armed insurgency in Cabo Delgado has made the northernmost of Mozambique’s eleven provinces the focus of growing national and international attention. Ad-hoc attacks on police and administration units in October 2017 in Mocímboa da Praia district have since become more targeted and gained in range and sophistication. The group, locally known as al-Shabab[1] and referred to as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama, has attacked rural villages and settlements, as well as selected state targets, such as police stations and administrative buildings in Mocímboa da Praia, Nangade, Quissanga and Macomia districts, and more recently, education and healthcare facilities. The violence has had deadly consequences in terms of lives lost, the destruction of human and physical capital, and in terms of a mounting humanitarian and displacement crisis. By end-January 2021, more than three years after the start of the insurgency, 766 incidents of conflict in Cabo Delgado have been recorded, with over 3,800 fatalities from the conflict, both as a result of organized violence and as a result of civilian targeting, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).[2] By end-November 2020, 171 schools had been destroyed,[3] and by end-September, more than one third of Cabo Delgado’s 130 health units had been destroyed or shut down.[4] The number of internally displaced people stood at nearly 670,000 by December 2020,[5] according to United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and Government estimates. Local governments are now increasingly being run by military personnel or police, given that public servants have also fled. The humanitarian crisis is further reinforced by the impacts of Cyclone Kenneth in April 2019, with little reconstruction having taken place since and many still displaced.

Although little is known about the insurgents or their intentions, there is evidence that the movement has its own religious, political, and societal agenda. There are also indications of rising radicalisation among local youth and of foreign fighters with links to international violent extremist groups joining the movement. The conflict is also reportedly being fuelled by external factors, including the illicit trade of minerals and resources, via porous borders, open coastal areas, and captured institutions, with the United.

Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) suggesting that the drug trade is linked to the insurgency. The conflict risks spilling over into the neighbouring provinces of Niassa and Nampula; it is also increasingly gaining a regional dimension, and the first incidence of maritime piracy related conflict was reported in November 2020.[6]

The increased violence in Cabo Delgado has caused unprecedented violations and abuses of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of civilians. There has been increasing reports of killings, injuries, destruction of property, sexual and gender-based violence, abductions as well as forced recruitment. Unlawful arrests and suspected enforced disappearances of imams, journalists, businesspeople, and human rights defenders have also been reported. In addition, there is evidence that the conflict, terrorism and violent extremism is having a unique and disproportionate impacts on women and girls. Women of all ages are increasingly becoming a target of extremist violence and terrorist acts, including the use of sexual violence and slavery to undermine their essential freedoms and rights. Terrorist groups also leverage on traditional gender norms and dynamics within certain societies to enforce violence and perpetuate extremist acts.

In addition, on the basis of diagnostics carried out by the partner institutions, including the World Bank Group´s Risk and Resilience Assessment (RRA), the following key factors of fragility have been identified in Northern Mozambique:

• Political and economic exclusion, and from the sharing of the peace dividend, has fostered a sense of alienation and disenfranchisement among certain groups, and is reflected in uneven patterns of exclusion.
• The youth, many of whom have low levels of education and skills and are largely in a status of “waithood”, remain particularly marginalised and disenfranchised, while women face challenges related to exclusion from political and economic opportunities, amidst high rates of GBV.
• Uneven delivery of basic services and inequalities in per capita spending have deepened the marginalisation of the region and highlighted its development deficit.
• Limited confidence in the state to protect citizens and deliver justice in light of allegations of corruption and human rights violations by the security forces, and perceived lack of independent investigation and accountability.
• Perceptions of unfairness in the distribution of the benefits of resources and extractives, and challenges related to governance and management of these resources, generate grievances along a number of vectors, including: in relation to limited benefits to the population, and particularly to the youth, from investments in resource extraction, while land dispossession, insufficient resettlement schemes, lack of transparency in the award of concessions and land use titles have particularly impacted the rural population.
• Challenges related to the sustainable use of resources that provide a source of livelihood for many, include overexploitation, unsustainable practices, poor management of land, forests, water bodies, and minerals, lack of enforcement of regulations, and illicit smuggling.
• Key resilience factors in the North of Mozambique include the role of moderate religious actors in fostering resilience and in mediation, particularly in relation to the challenge of violent extremism, as well as that of civil society in opening up spaces for contestation and for advocacy.

In this context, to facilitate a coordinated and structured response to the crisis in the North, to build resilience, and to pave the way for longer-term recovery and growth, the Government of Mozambique (GoM) has requested support from the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), the World Bank (WBG), and the African Development Bank (AfDB) to develop a multi-sector strategy for the North of the country, namely the provinces of Nampula, Niassa, and Cabo Delgado, under the auspices of the Integrated Development Agency for the North (ADIN). The support will be based on the 2008 Joint Declaration on Post-Crisis Assessments and Recovery Planning which offers a framework and structure to ensure that technical support by partners to the GoM for its engagement in the North of Mozambique is coordinated and coherent and avoids risks of fragmentation and duplication. The declaration represents a commitment to work together in support of national ownership of the recovery and peacebuilding process and to coordinate the broader international response to crises. It enables joint support to assessing, planning, and mobilizing support for prevention, recovery, peacebuilding, and reconstruction and development in countries affected by crises. In conflict-affected contexts, this is accomplished through the joint Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment (RPBA) framework and approach. In this case, the outcome of the RPBA will be the production of the Development and Resilience Strategy for the North (henceforth “Strategy”).

The formulation of the Strategy is aimed at addressing the root causes of exclusion and inequality that have contributed to poverty and poor human capital, and that have created an enabling environment for the conflict and for recruitment into violent extremism. In terms of resilience, the Strategy will identify sources and types of resilience and define a process and elaborate pathways by which to reinforce governances’ structures and mechanisms, rebuild the social and economic fabric that reinforce the social contract, and support the capacities of local communities to manage and mitigate shocks. The formulation of the Strategy also presents an opportunity for partners to coordinate their technical support across the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) nexus, while building the capacity and ownership of ADIN.

Within the framework of Women, Peace and Security and the United Nations’ agenda on sustaining peace, UN Women seeks to add value to the current Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment and the formulation of the Resilience Strategy for the North by provide technical advisory services in order to ensure that both are gender responsive. UN Women seeks to work closely with the United Nations Country Team, EU and WBG to enable development of a gender-responsive RPBA and Strategy.

To this end, UN Women seeks to hire an experienced consultant to provide technical expertise and strategic advice in the Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment as well as the formulation of the Development and Resilience Strategy for the North process

[1] This organization shares the same name as the Somali and Kenyan extremist groups by the same name but is not affiliated with either. It is also known as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jama.

[2] https://acleddata.com/2021/01/17/cabo-ligado-weekly-4-10-january-2021

[3] Data is from Provincial Government of CD and Education Cluster HNO (November 2020).

[4] Achá, 2020.

[5] OCHA, Mozambique Situaition Report, 31 December 2020.

[6] https://acleddata.com/2020/12/01/cabo-ligado-weekly-23-29-november-2020/?utm_source=Armed+Conflict+Location+%26+Event+Data+Project&utm_campaign=4ad61ef1e9-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_09_21_06_50_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_26a454684a-4ad61ef1e9-319243213

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the Consultancy

The main objective of the consultancy is to provide technical support to the UN Women Country Office to ensure that the joint Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment in Mozambique is conducted in a gender-responsive manner and that the Development and Resilience Strategy for the North does not leave women and girls behind.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the UN Women Representative in Mozambique, and technical support of the UN Women Programme Specialist, currently leading gender subgroup in the RPBA, and relevant Programme Officers. The three key interlinked tasks include:

1. Provide quality and substantive contributions in a timely manner for the integration of gender in the overall assessment and drafting or revision of documents, participate in meetings, missions, working groups and discussions and the formulation of the Resilience Strategy for the North
2. Provide strategic advice to UN Women on the developments in regards to the two process (RPBA and the Resilience Strategy for the North) to ensure adequate attention to gender issues and support implementation
3. Provide technical inputs to all pillars at all stages of the Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment and the formulation of the Resilience Strategy for the North ensuring participation and voices of women and girls
4. Help identify niche of partnership to position UN Women in the implementation phase and entry points for resource mobilization

Deliverables

1. Regular Reports Meeting on the Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment and the formulation of the Resilience Strategy for the North,
2. Document with recommendations for UN Women positioning in regard to gender issues in the assessment and strategy development process (as part of the provision of strategic advice to UN Women),
3. Final report about the achievements and recommendations for implementation,

Work Schedule

Activities/Deliverable

Regular and timely and substantive inputs into documents and reports on the contributions, during the meetings, working groups and discussions on the Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment and the formulation of the Resilience Strategy for the North

Periodically development of a set of recommendations for UN Women positioning in regard to gender issues in the assessment and strategy development process (as part of the provision of strategic advice to UN Women)

Technical inputs at all stages of the Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment and the formulation of the Resilience Strategy for the North

Final report about the achievements and recommendations for implementation

*Preferably based in Maputo to allow for better participation in strategic meetings and missions

*Dates may be subject to change depending on evolution of the Recovery and Peacebuilding Assessment and Resilience Strategy for the North led by the UN Resident Coordinator´s Office in Mozambique

Competencies

Corporate Competences and Values

• Demonstrate integrity, values and ethics in accordance with UN Women norms
• Promote the vision, mission and strategic objectives of UN Women
• Show respect regardless the race/colour, sex, religion, nationality and age as well as be sensible to cultural adaptation capacity
• Consultant are expected to have personal and professional integrity and abided by the UN Code

Core Competences: advertise

- Awareness and Sensitivity to Gender Issues

- Accountability

- Creative Problem Solving

- Effective Communication

- Inclusive Collaboration

- Leading by Example

Functional Competences

• Knowledge of UNSCR 1325, its supporting resolutions, its aims, implications and vision
• Knowledge of legislation, programme and public policies on gender, women, peace and security, and women’s rights in general in Mozambique

• Demonstrated experience in gender and peace and security research

• Leadership and skills to work with autonomy and initiative

• Strong communications, advocacy and networking skills
• Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women's empowerment in country
• Strong country specific knowledge of governance, law and politics
• Strong knowledge of UN system, EU and WBG
• Strong knowledge of WPS and gender

Managing knowledge and learning

• Promote knowledge sharing and a learning culture;
• Team working; and
• Strong communication skills, oral and written in Portuguese and English; knowledge of local languages is an asset.

Ethical Code of Conduct

• Independence: Consultant shall ensure that independence of judgment is maintained, and that evaluation findings and recommendations are independently presented.
• Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organisation and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.
• Impartiality: Consultant shall operate in an impartial and unbiased manner and give a balanced presentation of strengths and weaknesses of the policy, program, project or organisational unit being evaluated.

• Conflict of Interest: Consultant are required to disclose in writing any past experience, which may give rise to a potential conflict of interest, and to deal honestly in resolving any conflict of interest which may arise.

• Honesty and Integrity: Consultant shall show honesty and integrity in their own behaviour, negotiating honestly the evaluation costs, tasks, limitations, scope of results likely to be obtained, while accurately presenting their procedures, data and findings and highlighting any limitations or uncertainties of interpretation within the evaluation.

• Competence: Consultant shall accurately represent their level of skills and knowledge and work only within the limits of their professional training and abilities in evaluation, declining assignments for which they do not have the skills and experience to complete successfully.
• Accountability: Consultant are accountable for the completion of the agreed evaluation deliverables within the 60-day timeframe and budget agreed, while operating in a cost-effective manner.
• Obligations to Participants: Consultant shall respect and protect the rights and welfare of human subjects and communities, in accordance with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights conventions. Consultant shall respect differences in culture, local customs, religious beliefs and practices, personal interaction, gender roles, disability, age and ethnicity, while using evaluation instruments appropriate to the cultural setting. Consultant shall ensure prospective participants are treated as autonomous agents, free to choose whether to participate in the evaluation, while ensuring that the relatively powerless are represented.

• Confidentiality: Consultant shall respect people’s right to provide information in confidence and make participants aware of the scope and limits of confidentiality, while ensuring that sensitive information cannot be traced to its source.

• Avoidance of Harm: Consultant shall act to minimise risks and harms to, and burdens on, those participating in the evaluation, without compromising the integrity of the evaluation findings.

• Accuracy, Completeness and Reliability: Consultant have an obligation to ensure that evaluation reports and presentations are accurate, complete and reliable. Consultant shall explicitly justify judgments, findings and conclusions and show their underlying rationale, so that stakeholders are in a position to assess them.
• Transparency: Consultant shall clearly communicate to stakeholders the purpose of the evaluation, the criteria applied and the intended use of findings. Consultant shall ensure that stakeholders have a say in shaping the evaluation and shall ensure that all documentation is readily available to and understood by stakeholders.
• Omissions and wrongdoing: Where consultant find evidence of wrong-doing or unethical conduct, they are obliged to report it to the proper oversight authority.
• The evaluator will have the final judgment on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation report, and the evaluator must be protected from pressures to change information in the report. If the evaluator identifies issues of wrongdoing, fraud or other unethical conduct, UN Women procedures must be followed, and confidentiality be maintained. The UN Women Legal Framework for Addressing Non-Compliance with UN Standards of Conduct defines misconduct and the mechanisms within UN Women for reporting and investigating it.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree) in gender studies, social sciences, human rights, peace and security or a related field.

Experience:

• At least 5 years’ experience in development work with specific emphasis on gender equality, women’s empowerment and gender justice;
• Recognised experience in the field of gender and development;
• Demonstrated strong knowledge of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda (including UNSCR 1325 and its subsequent resolutions);
• Experience working with the UN, EU and/or WBG (experience in Mozambique is an advantage);
• Experience conducting national assessments and developing national strategies;
• Institutional knowledge of the UN and UN Women will be an asset;
• Strong research and analytical skills; and
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems.

Required Languages:

Fluency in written and spoken English and Portuguese.

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