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.
Somali region experienced severe droughts, worsened by climate change, conflicts and poverty, resulting chronic food insecurity and displacements. 3.9 million people in the region will require emergency food assistance in 2023 (WFP). According to DTM R34, there are over 1 million IDPs in the Somali region, 49% of them are women and girls. In the Somali region, 85% of population depends on climate sensitive livelihoods, particularly pastoralism and rainfed crop production. Women constitutes 45.6% of the Somali region’s population, nearly 85.6% of whom live in the rural areas as per the FDRE CSA population projection of Ethiopia 2014-2017. The contribution of rural women to the Somali regional state economy is enormous, as women constitute 70% of the workforce in agriculture, a sector that contributes, the largest contributor (69.6%) of the Somali region’s IDP as per the ten year’s development plan of Somali region 2021-2030. According to a gender study conducted by Oxfam in 2017 in the Somali region, the loss of livelihood and increased debt had a greater impact on women compared to men. Gender norms hinder women’s resilience capacity, as they face challenges in accessing finance and assets. Moreover, Dyer rains started in the zone in October, but the heaviest fall occurred on 27 to 29 of Oct 2023 and again on the 2nd of November 2023 heavy rainfall which covered all woredas of the zone recurred.
Floods have caused widespread destruction and displacement in Somali, Oromia, Southern Nations Nationalities & Peoples’, Southwest Ethiopia Peoples’ and Afar regions. More than 35,000 households are displaced whereby over 80% of them were women and girls including others with protection needs (PSN), 45 human lives lost, over 23,000 livestock perished, and more than 99,000 hectares of farmland destroyed in Somali Region alone. (OCHA, 12 May 2023).
Thousands of people displaced by floods brought on by the Belg/Gu rains from March to May 2024 are still waiting for assistance in the Somali Region. Furthermore, very limited response (ESNFI) has reached communities (about 2,000HHs) out of the more than 37,000 (F27,750&M9,250) flood affected households in the region. Shabelle Zone, is heavily impacted by recent floods with over 67,000 hectares of crop land damaged, the pause in food aid, and inflated food prices especially in cereals (by an estimated 35 per cent) due to growing imbalance between supply and demand among affected populations, and negatively affecting those struggling to recover from consecutive droughts. (OCHA, 03 Jul 2023).
Mersha, A.A, and van Laerhoven, F (2016). A gender approach to understanding the differentiated impact of barriers to adaptation: responses to climate change in rural Ethiopia.
Therefore, for better coordination of gender programming during development peace and humanitarian programming that consider the agency and special needs of women and girls in the Somali region, UN Women has been working in the development of the regional gender strategy in humanitarian action and coordination framework that will addresses the multi-faceted gender related impacts and responses that results from both man-made and natural catastrophes in the region. The Bureau of Women Children and Youth Affairs (BoWCYA) of Somali region with the support of UN Women is seeking for a national consultancy service to develop a specific gender strategy in humanitarian action and coordination framework for gender specific humanitarian development peace nexus interventions in the region.
GENERAL OBJECTIVE
Somali Region Bureau of Women children and Youth Affair (BoWCYA), as a lead government body that identifies strategic and direct needs of women and girls, design plans, strategies, and policies to address the needs of women and girls and coordinates gender specific responses in the region requires a post-conflict gender strategy. The gender strategy in humanitarian action shall identify the post-conflict priority needs of women and girls in the region, articulate strategic intervention areas and resource mobilization mechanisms, and define response and intervention coordination approaches and frameworks across the region. In addition, the strategy shall identify capacity gaps and capacity building needs of the BOWCYA, women led rights organization (WLOs/WROs) and other civil society organizations operating in the region.
OVERALL TASK AND FUNCTIONS
Expected outcome of the consultancy is the development of a comprehensive gender strategy in Humanitarian action with a coordination framework and an action plan reflecting gender as a major as well as cross-cutting issue in humanitarian and development actions through revitalizing with the Ethiopian Humanitarian gender strategy (EHCT), and provide guidance for embedding, monitoring, and therefore realizing the outcomes of the strategic plan and its implementation plan. Therefore, the consultant will:
Deliverables and Timeframe
The total duration of this consultancy is 40 days. The selected consultant/s is expected to develop a work plan as per below timelines:
Deliverable | Estimated Duration |
Organize consultative meeting and dicusssions with relevant stakeholders to gather intitial inputs for drafting the inception report | 5 days |
Submit inception report including proposed study target groups and methodology for review and approval, including draft outline of the strategy | 5 days |
Apply all the methodologies and submit comprehensive draft strategy, coordination mechanism, action plan summarizing key findings, analysis, and gender action and a response wide gender | 23 days |
Organize a workshp to presnet the dratf strategy, coordination mechanisms, and an action plan to stakeholders and collect feedbacks | 2 day |
Develop final strategy, coordination mechanisms, and action plan incorporating all comments and submit to BOWCYA and UN women incorporating comments collected from stakeholders | 5 days |
Core Values:
Core Competencies:
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:
Education
Experience
Languages:
How To Apply
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