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.

The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) is the regional body established by 16 Southern African member states to promote regional integration, build on democratic principles, and equitable and sustainable development. SADC recognizes that for people to achieve peace, freedom and realize their full potential, their lives must be free from violence. SADC in its Revised Regional Indicative Strategic Development Plan 2015-2020 (RISDP) and the Strategic Indicative Plan of the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation (SIPO) recognized the importance of prevention and reduction of GBV and included the development of the regional GBV strategy to facilitate the implementation and monitoring of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development as one of its priorities. The SADC Ministers responsible for Gender Equality and Women’s Affairs in July 2018 approved the SADC Regional Strategy and Framework of Action for Addressing GBV. In the same year 2018, the SADC-Parliamentary Forum’s Regional Women’s Parliamentary Caucus (RWPC) at the Forum’s 44th Plenary Assembly Session held in Maputo, Mozambique (26 November to 10 December 2018), passed a resolution to develop a model law on gender-based violence to be utilized by SADC Member States to prevent, address and eradicate these forms of violence. The motion was unanimously adopted. Consensus was also reached by stakeholders working in this area to proceed with the development of a SADC Model Law on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and in 2022 the Model Law was adopted. To date the regional body has proceeded in efforts to strengthen its support to member states to utilise the Model Law through interventions such as developing a Guide to Using the SADC Model Law on Gender Based Violence.

Despite these initiatives, challenges still exist in addressing gender-based violence including weak institutional arrangements for coordinating a SADC Region multi-sectoral, multilevel and decentralized GBV response and the lack of member states capacity to:

• Implement effective GBV prevention and response programmes in line with the GBV regional strategy;
• Strengthen the research and documentation on GBV, including its impact on socioeconomic development;
• Generate harmonised data on GBV including prevalence.

To respond to the challenge of limited data and dispersed gender data and the limited capacity of member states to implement the regional GBV strategy, UN Women will engage a consultant to ensure harmonized data collection and analysis including the inclusion of standard EVAW indicators in Monitoring and Evaluation Frameworks for Gender Equality. UN Women (via its East and Southern Africa Regional and South Africa Multi-Country Offices) is also supporting SADC in its mid-term review of its Regional Strategy and Framework of Action for addressing GBV. Specifically, UN Women will support a research consultant to undertake a secondary analysis of existing reports from the SADC Member States to assess progress against the SADC GBV Strategy and come up with member states/country summaries.

The consultant will work closely with the SADC Secretariat, UN Women and other key stakeholders during the mid-term review process.

The consultant will report to the Head of Program at UN Women SAMCO and will be supported by UN Women’s ESARO Regional Policy Specialist for EVAWG, the HIV Program Specialist based at SAMCO, and the Program Specialist for EVAWG, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

Duties and Responsibilities

Description of Responsibilities:

The Consultant will be engaged to undertake the following:

1. Inception Report: A detailed inception report reflecting the approach, methodology and tools, and workplan with timeliness for conducting the in-depth analysis. The inception report will be presented to UN Women, SADC and the Reference Group prior to commencement of the research;
2. Undertake an in-depth secondary analysis of reports from the SADC member states to assess progress of member states in the implementation of the SADC Regional GBV Strategy Indicators. This will be done through consultative virtual meetings with selected SADC member states (up to 6 member states will be selected under the guidance of SADC);
3. Undertake desk reviews of relevant documents including, but not limited to the VNRs, UN VAW Database, National Beijing +30 reports and other relevant sources to assess progress of SADC member states in implementation of the SADC Regional Strategy and framework of Action for addressing GBV (2018-2030) and identify country level challenges in implementation of the Strategy;
4. Generate country summaries of performance against GBV strategy indicators for the period under review- 2018-2024;
5. Draft report on status of implementation of the SADC Strategy for the selected countries.

Deliverables:

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. Consultant is expected to conduct desk reviews and utilize digital platforms for the consultative meetings with stakeholders as applicable.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

• Technical credibility in conducting Gender equality analysis;
• Resilience and adaptability;
• Communication skills;
• Flexibility and ability to adapt to change;
• Ability to produce high quality products.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Gender and Human Rights, Law, Social Sciences or a related field is required;
• A first-level university degree in combination with eight additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;
• Knowledge of research would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible work experience in Gender and Human Rights, Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, Law and Development Studies;
• Experience in conducting research on Gender, Laws, Policies and legal frameworks is required;
• Excellent analytical skills with strong drive for results and capacity to work independently;
• Excellent English communication and writing skills.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of any other UN official language is an asset.

Application Process:

• Interested candidates will submit an expression of interest with their application.
• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment.
• Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. They will then be requested to submit a proposal for further consideration.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Diversity and Inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

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.