Re-advertisement National Consultant-Lead Researcher Gender assessment on the impact of social norms and stereotypes on women’s economic empowerment in Eastern Sudan - (Sudanese Nationals ON

Consultant

Overview

Lead a gender assessment on social norms affecting women's economic empowerment

You have:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in sociology, social psychology, gender/women’s studies, international development
• Minimum 5 years of practical experience in conducting research and studies on social anthropology, sociology, and gender
• Experience in working with communities in issues of relevance to social norms and stereotypes
• Knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment
• Knowledge of developing tools for women’s economic empowerment
• Experience of working with relevant stakeholders from the governmental and non-governmental institutions at the national and sub-national levels
• Previous experience of working with UN and other international organizations
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Office, Excel, Outlook, etc.)
• Fluency in English and Arabic

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

Sudan is among the countries that has been overburdened with social norms and stereotypes that discriminate against women and girls. FGM practice accounted for 86% among age groups 15-49 years and 40% among age groups 0-14 years. Though women are in the frontline of being accused of practicing FGM, male’s acceptance to the practice assured how norms are sometimes perpetuated by women but favoring men’s interest and negatively affect women’s rights. Early marriage before completing 18 years constituted 38% and the normalization of violence has been clearly reflected in the attitudes and beliefs of women as 38% of them are accepting violence by husband as being justifiable.

Gender social norms combined with institutional and policy constraints have affected women’s labor force participation rate as it constitutes 28.9% compared to 70.8% of males’ participation rate. Women ‘s engagement in agriculture as laborers and farmers (80.7%) and in unpaid family work mostly in agriculture (51.8%) show how social norms have contributed to women’s categorization of work as an extension to unpaid care work.

Eastern Sudan is among the top states where culture and social norms have categorized women as care takers. Early marriage, high illiteracy rate, malnutrition and the high maternal mortality rate are all manifestations of how women lack decision making over their rights and how policies and legislations are not responsive to advancing women’s rights and gender equality. The reluctance to women’s work has been revealed from their low participation rate in the labor force compared to other states. The dominancy of few culturally conservative ethnic groups to some states and the ethnic diversity in other states have created some sort of discrepancies regarding cultural opposition towards women’s economic empowerment. While some ethnic groups are reluctant to women’s work, other ethnic groups have defined the gender roles in a manner that accept women’s work.

Justification

With the support of EU, UN Women in partnership with the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation are undertaking a project titled Women’s Empowerment for resilience, Inclusion, Sustainability and Environment in Eastern States. The project aims to create a conducive environment for the economic empowerment of women living in the most vulnerable situations in Khartoum, Kassala, Gedaref and Red Sea states. Specifically, the project objectives focus on improving access of young women and men, living in vulnerable situations, to a more inclusive market system, strengthen the capacity of institutions at Federal and State levels to enhance GEWE and reflect on the social norms and attitudes towards GEWE. Part of the tasks of the UN Women in the inception phase is to undertake gender assessment to understand the impact of social norms and gender stereotypes on WEE and to design tools to capture and measure the impact of social norms and how they are shifting as the result of the project’s implementation.

In this regard, UN Women which is the United Nations entity which is grounded in the vision of achieving gender equality and women empowerment is seeking to recruit national consultant (Lead Researcher) to work closely with the international consultant and three assistant researchers who will be hired to undertake gender assessment on the impact of social norms and stereotypes on women’s economic empowerment in Eastern Sudan

Duties and Responsibilities

Overall objectives

• Reflect on the impact caused by social norms and attitudes on women’s economic empowerment

Specific objectives

• Understand and identify the nature of the social norms including that deterring women’s economic empowerment in the studied communities
• Show how gender social norm evolved over time
• Identify how social norms cut across ethnicity, age, social status, education, and vulnerable social groups within the same community
• Identify how gender social norms affect women’s economic empowerment
• What social norms facilitate/deter women’s economic empowerment?
• Identify men’s perception on the available social norms and its causes
• Reflect on women and men’s attitudes towards girls, boy’s education, domestic household work, women voices, and their ability to make home and outside decision, women control over financial and physical assets, women political participation at community, locality, and state level. women’s work, women’s suitable kind of work, child marriage, sexual violence
• Show the extent to which policy, institutional and legal frame affected the presence of social norms
• Design tools to capture and measure the impact of social norms and how they are shifting as the result of the project’s implementation

Tasks and responsibilities of the national consultant- Lead Researcher

The national consultant (lead researcher) is expected to perform the following tasks and responsibilities:

• Coordinate and work closely with the international consultant in identifying the targeted communities in the selected states in close consultations with UN Women and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation
• Work closely with the international consultant to develop the methodology of the study
• Carry out mapping of stakeholders to be interviewed
• Identify the entry points to the targeted communities and develop risk frame and mitigation strategy as well
• Undertake field visits to the selected communities, collect data and guarantee the inclusion criteria of the selected participants
• Manage data collection
• submit report to the international consultant on the result of the interviews to be compiled in the study’ report
• Supervise data entry and analysis
• Support the international consultant in developing the tools for capturing the social norms and the framework for measuring the impact of social norms after the project intervention
• Any other tasks deemed to be of interest of both consultants and mutually agreed on it

Deliverable:

The national consultant (lead researcher) is expected to deliver the followings:

• A written report submited to the international consultant including the results of the interviews of the field visits and stakeholders’ interviews
• The analysis of the raw data of the questionnaires entered in software

Competencies

Core Values/Guiding Principles Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Development and Innovation:

• Take charge of self-development and take initiative.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies

• Demonstrated development/programming skills particularly those that are pertinent to gender issues and women’s rights.
• Good knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches.
• Ability to apply gender analysis to programme planning.
• Good analytical skills.
• Good knowledge of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and gender analysis and mainstreaming strategies (such as gender-integrated approaches, and gender-targeted approaches) and tools.

Required Skills and Experience

• Education Qualifications

  Master’s degree or equivalent in sociology, social psychology, gender/ women’s studies, international development

• Experience

  • Minimum 5 years of practical experience in conducting research and studies on social anthropology, sociology, and gender
  • Experience in working with communities in issues of relevance to social norms and stereotypes
  • Knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment
  • Knowledge of developing tools for women’s economic empowerment
  • Experience of working with relevant stakeholders from the governmental and non-governmental institutions at the national and sub-national levels.
  • Previous experience of working with UN and the other international organizations is an asset.
  • Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Office, Excel, Outlook, etc).

• Language Requirements:

  Fluency in English and Arabic;

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.

UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment .

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.

Apply now

Potential interview questions

Added 4 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: jobs.undp.org