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 UN Women Somalia Strategic Note 2022-2025 articulates the entity’s strategic direction, objectives, and approaches to support efforts to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, including women’s full enjoyment of their human rights. It outlines how UN-Women will leverage its normative support functions, UN system coordination and operational activities, as mandated by its founding resolution, in an integrated and mutually reinforcing manner in support of transformative results. The SN also contributes to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda as well as other normative frameworks including the UNSCR 1325, CSW, Beijing declarations etc. Accordingly, UN Women Somalia program focuses, among others on key areas under the triple nexus mandate, encompassing normative, coordination, and operational activities.

UN Women Somalia is currently implementing the Women, Peace and Protection (WPP) program jointly with UNDP and UNSOM. The joint program adheres to Somali government’s National Development (NDP-9) 2020-2024 and its primary objective of creating a secure environment, open politics and reconciliation and contributes to fostering national healing, reconciliation, unity and equality and aims at ensuring that matters relating to impunity, revenge and other triggers of violence are addressed through legal and government directed processes in line with the Provisional Constitution of the Federal Republic of Somalia and other national laws. The project will reinforce the National Action Plan (NAP) on United Nations Security Council resolution (UNSCR 1325), as well as the implementation plan of the Joint Communiqué on the Prevention of Sexual Violence in Conflict (SVC). Similarly, the Programme focuses on WPS and human rights advancements, as articulated in the vision of the relevant to Pillars II – IV of the National Reconciliation Framework (NRF) that focuses on restoring community relationships, building trust in government institutions and also aims to address gaps of the NRF on WPS and human rights, which were not factored in the consultations and development of the NRF.

The WPP joint program also supports the Somali government to advance its commitment to WPS agenda, through effective implementation of the first National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 developed by the Ministry of Women and the Human Rights Development (MoWHRD) with UN Women and the Government of Sweden support. Following the adoption of the national action plans through the Peace Building Fund (PBF) and the Somalia Joint Fund (SJF) technical support is provided in development and adoption of the ‘Local Action Plans’ by the 5 Federal Member States and Banadir. In this background, UN Women Somalia is seeking to hire an International Consultant to support an assessment of the progress made so far on implementation of the NAP and LAPs in Somalia.

The consultant will be reporting to the Country Program Manager, and will be working closely and supported by WPP Program Specialists, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The main objective of this assignment is to review and document the progress made on the implementation of the NAP and LAPs and recommend improvements necessary for better implementation.

Specific Objectives:

• Assess the relevance of the current interventions, strategy, and approach in the implementation of the NAP and LAPs
• Assess the quality of the stakeholder’s interventions and coordination mechanism that has been established at various levels, at the national, state and community level.
• Identify and validate lessons learned, best practices and strategies for replication for the design and implementation in of NAP and LAPs
• Identify challenges encountered during the implementation of the NAP and LAPs and propose mitigation strategy for consideration.
• Where necessary, propose revision to the NAP and LAPs to align with national priorities and alignment of the LAPs to the NAP.

Deliverables

Task 1: Desk review and inception meeting:

• Conduct a desk review of existing relevant documents and reports from State and Non-State actors related to peace and security, including the Somalia National Action Plan and Local Action Plans;
• Conduct preliminary consultations with relevant members of the implementation structures (National Steering Committee and state-level Steering Committees on UNSCR 1325 etc;
• Develop and submit an inception report inclusive of methodology and consultancy work plan.

Task 2: Data Collection and Analysis:

• Develop a standardized data collection tool;
• Oversee data collection at the national and selected states;
• Analyze data collected and draw conclusions and recommendations from data on the Participation & Promotion, Prevention, Protection and Relief and Recovery under the WPS agenda;
• Provide qualitative information by developing 4 case studies/best practices on each of the four pillars of WPS.

Task 3: Validation of Preliminary findings:

• Draft preliminary report with findings on progress made, challenges faced and recommendations for overcoming challenges more effective implementation of Somalia National Action Plan and Local Action Plans;
• Hold a one-day working validation meeting key stakeholders in Mogadishu.

Task 4: Finalization of deliverables:

• Address comments/inputs received from the validation workshop;
• Finalization of key deliverables

Upon receipt of the deliverables and prior to the payment of the first installment, the deliverables and related reports and documents will be reviewed and approved by UN Women. The period of review is one week after receipt.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This consultancy is based in Mogadishu with 20 days of field-based work. The consultant will travel to Mogadishu and Federal Member States as far as the UN Security allows.

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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

Functional competencies:

• Strong programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills;
• Strong knowledge of Results Based Management;
• Strong knowledge of women, peace and security;
• Strong analytical skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in gender/women’s studies, peace studies, international development, conflict studies, law, access to justice, social sciences, human rights, or a related field required

• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 5 years progressively responsible experience in conflict prevention and peacebuilding programming, training, and/or analysis with significant experience mainstreaming gender into analysis processes;
• Technical expertise working on the Women, Peace and Security agenda;
• Strong understanding of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, normative frameworks, and WPS programming
• Demonstrated experience in doing research and analysis on areas of gender, development, peace and security and demonstrate publications;
• Demonstrated working relationships with state and non-state actors at the national and sub-national levels, peace actors, women’s human rights and gender equality organizations, development partners that can be activated for the purposes of the data collections and analysis;
• Demonstrated excellent written and oral communications skills in English;
• Ability to work independently and deliver on tight timelines.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of Somali is an asset.

All applications must include (as an attachment) a completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc

Please note that the system will only allow one attachment and candidates are required to include in the P-11 form links for their previously published reports and articles completed within the last two years. Applications without the completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Notes:

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