National Consultant to support Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to finalize the 9th cycle CEDAW report

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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women in Bangladesh supports the government to implement commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. The new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2022-2026 was launched in 2021 and the corresponding UN Women Bangladesh Strategy Note (2022-2026), defining UN Women’s strategic engagement in Bangladesh, has also been finalized. The country strategy focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s access to decent and safe work; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as other threats to peace and security. UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in Bangladesh including the government, civil society and women’s organisations, youth, UN agencies and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), often referred to as the international bill of rights for women, provides a powerful framework and legal obligation for countries to move towards the achievement of Gender Equality and Women’s Rights. Bangladesh ratified CEDAW in 1984 and its optional protocol in 2000.

The government submitted its 8th Periodic CEDAW report in 2015 and attended the 65th CEDAW session in 2016. Based on the State Party Report and face to face presentation, the CEDAW committee shared their recommendations in the form of Concluding Observations in November 2016. The Government of Bangladesh accepted the Concluding Observations and committed to their implementation. The next cycle reporting was due in December 2020.

UN Women is seeking services from a highly qualified national consultant to support MoWCA to finalize the 9th cycle CEDAW report. The consultant is expected to work closely with UN Women and MoWCA.

II. Objective and Scopes of Work of the Consultant:

- Provide technical support to develop the 9th cycle CEDAW report.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities:

• Develop a workplan to finalize the CEDAW report

• Review secondary literature, collect information from relevant ministries, divisions, and departments to collect information for the report writing

• Follow reporting guideline and structure suggested by the UN CEDAW committee and concluding observations from the 8th cycle report

• Collect relevant official data from national statistical office

• Develop the final report in close collaboration with UN Women and MoWCA

Duration of the Assignment:

- The assignment will be between 01 May to 28 July 2022 (Maximum 25 working days) in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

Under overall guidance of UN Women Deputy Country Representative, Bangladesh, the selected consultant will report directly to Programme Analyst - GRG, UN Women Bangladesh.

Travel and DSA:

No DSA will be paid at the duty station, Dhaka, Bangladesh or while working remotely. If unforeseen travel outside the duty station is required for this assignment, upon prior agreement/approval from UN Women such travel expenses shall be borne by UN Women and the individual contractor/SSA shall receive a per-diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s) and actual travel cost.

Expected Deliverables and Payment Modalities

Payments will be made based on deliverables as follows

Items /Deliverables

Payment Schedule

Payment Milestone

Deliverable 01: An inception report, including detailed workplan and timeframe of activities, proposed agenda for the strategy development, learnings and progress reporting workshop, and brief outline of the expected follow-up report (Within 5 working days)

Deliverable 02: Develop a draft report based on secondary literature review and inputs from relevant ministries and divisions.

By 23 June 2022

50% of the total contract amount shall be paid upon submission of deliverables – 01 and 02 and all acceptance as certified by the UNW contract administrator

Deliverable 03: Develop and submit a final report-based inputs from UN Women and MoWCA.

By 17 July 2022

50% of the total contract amount shall be paid upon submission of deliverable 03 and all acceptance as certified by the UNW contract administrator.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Demonstrated development/programming skills particularly those that are pertinent to UN’s strategic priorities on gender issues and women’s rights, inclusive and sustainable economic development.
Demonstrated skills in monitoring and evaluation and / or knowledge management and reporting
Good knowledge of results-based management principles and approaches
Good analytical and report writing skills
Demonstrated good written communication skills in English

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values: Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity
Work in Teams: Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different nationality and cultural backgrounds.
Communications and Information Sharing: Facilitate and encourage open communications and strive for effective communication
Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree (or equivalent) in international law, human rights law, gender studies or related disciplines.

Technical Competencies:

At least 10 years work experience on women’s human rights and gender equality issues
Experience in providing technical support to the government on gender equality issues, particularly in normative/global reporting.
Strong understanding on gender equality issues, particularly in the areas such as gender and legislation, violence against women, women’s economic empowerment
Excellent report writing skills in English

Language

Excellent communications, analytical and writing skills in English.