Gender and Capacity Building Expert, Local Consultant

Background

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. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, the 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. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Women, Peace and Security is one of the key areas of UN Women’s work which is guided by a robust set of internationally agreed norms. Ten UN Security Council Resolutions (UNSCR) form the foundation of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS)  agenda namely 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889(2029), 1960(2010), 2106(2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), 2467(2019), and 2493(2019). These resolutions and related thematic and country-specific decisions by the Security Council and other bodies such as the UN General Assembly, the Peacebuilding Commission, and the Human Rights Council,  promote gender equality by providing for the protection of women from conflict related sexual violence, and reaffirming  the importance of women’s full and equal participation in conflict prevention,  resolution, peacebuilding, peacekeeping, humanitarian response and in post-conflict reconstruction and governance.

The key actors responsible for the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda are the United Nations and its entities, Member States and their national governments, all parties involved in the armed conflict and Civil society, especially women’s groups. In national governments, Ministries of Defense, Interior, Justice, Finance, Gender and Foreign Affairs in particular, have special duties in relation to implementation. Similarly, Civil Society, especially women’s groups, also plays a central role in implementation through advocacy, monitoring and service provision.

The WPS agenda is “transformative” as it seeks to address the root causes and impact of armed conflict, including gender inequality, as a pre-requisite for long-term stability and the defense sector particularly the army plays a key role in that sense. In order to strengthen the capacity of the defense to effectively contribute to mobilise the transformative potential of the WPS agenda, UN Women Country Office in Mozambique (CO) is implementing a European Union (EU) funded project “Promoting the WPS Agenda with Military Actors”. The project entails enhancing women’s participation in the defense sector including in the decision making and making sure that armed forces are better prepared to, based on a gender analysis, to integrate a gender perspective in the planning and conduct of operations and activities in stability operations, conflict, and post-conflict settings.

Based on the above, UN Women CO in Mozambique intends to recruit a consultant to provide technical expertise for mainstreaming of gender in the defense sector including armed forces.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overal guidance of the Country Office Representative and direct supervision of the Programme Specialist and working closely with the assigned defense and military forces focal points to transfer knowledge,  the consultant is expected to carry out the following tasks:

1. Support collection of project baseline data to inform the revision of the project M&E Framework and develop M&E Plan
2. Conduct the assessment and provide recommendations on the gender responsiveness of the defense sector including in the planning and conduct of operations, as well as the barriers to the recruitment, retention, deployment, promotion, and career development of women. Develop a strategy and action plan together with the Mozambique Ministry of defense and armed forces to improve the situation and create the basis for monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the plan. The Assessment shall use as reference the DCAF Self-Assessment Guide for the Police, Armed Forces and Justice Sector.
3. Organize and facilitate/co-facilitate consultation meetings between the defense sector and civil society organizations particularly women’s organizations, the parliament, human rights commission, Ministry of Gender and all other relevant stakeholders to provide inputs into the   findings of the assessment and follow up actions.
4. Propose   selection criteria and suitable number of participants (minimum 30), coordinate with designated defense sector focal person/s for the list of participants[3] and dates of the trainings and timely link up with UN Women Country Office to organize the logistics .  The trainings should have a training of trainers (TOT) approach to equip participants to cascade the training.
5. Organize and facilitate/co-facilitate gender awareness raising of key military leadership, key decision makers as well as orientation and gender training for all focal points and military planners for developing policies and planning the conduct of operations in collaboration with the armed forces training academy and the men engagement consultant to include a module on gender and masculinities in the trainings.
6. Organize  and facilitate awareness raising  of Civil Society Organizations  (CSOs), particularly community based women’s organizations, the Parliament and the Commission of Human Rights on defense sector responsibilities on gender equality  within the context of the UN Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security to support  oversight  and  support  investigation of  allegations of  violation of women and girls rights by the armed forces in the community, as well as, internally within the armed forces a sport of professional conduct standards and prevention of sexual harassment
7. Capacity building  on gender mainstreaming    including  integrating a gender perspective into procedures, training of personnel with responsibilities to enforce internal control, raising general awareness on conduct and discipline including Zero-Tolerance to  violence against women and girls and of GBV in general  perpetrated by DSF members including sexual harassment and abuse, and strengthening reporting, accountability and referral mechanisms for the treatment of GBV cases both within the  defense forces and  vis-à-vis  civilian women and girls in collaboration with the armed forces training academy.
8. Review, develop,  harmonize and institutionalize  training packages  on gender equality including  on prevention of and protection against  violence against women  and girls and GBV, training a pool of trainers  from all defense branches   (army, navy, airfare, academic institutions and training  centers)  and support the training of military forces including those in operations  during the programme lifespan in collaboration with the armed forces training academy and the gender and male engagement consultant.
9. Assess women's participation in the military and security sectors, support development and implementation of prioritized strategic measures to address barriers to inclusion, access and retention of women and equality of opportunities to progress in the career and leadership ranks including training on gender transformative leadership for women in decision making.
10. Development of policies on gender equality and the prevention of sexual harassment and abuse within the defense sector including reporting, accountability and referral mechanisms and training of personnel for operationalization in collaboration with the Armed Forces training academy and dissemination in a user-friendly format
11. Liaise with the consultant on gender and male engagement to deliver content on subject in relevant training activities.

Deliverables

The payments will be done in instalments upon submission and approval of the deliverables.

Working closely with a dedicated consultant assigned by UN Women

 https://www.dcaf.ch/sites/default/files/publications/documents/self_assessment_guide.pdf

The gender balance principle should be sough as well as participants of branches of the armed forces and military academies

The order of deliverables shall be revisited as required in consultation with the Defense Sector and UN Women

The trainings shall include staff from military academic institutions.

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

• Timeliness,
• Responsibility,
• Initiative,
• Communication,
• Accuracy,
• Quality of the products delivered.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Gender/women's studies, Peace and Security Studies, Peace and Development, Journalism, Sociology, Human Rights or related field is required.

Experience and skills

• A minimum of 7 years of demonstrable working experience in area of training on gender within depth knowledge of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda at the Global and National Level
• In depth knowledge of the country context including national gender policy, legal and institutional frameworks.
• Proven research track record and curriculum development
• Demonstrated ability and experience to facilitate trainings for adults, senior experts and officials in the areas outlined. The consultant should especially have an experience giving creative and engaging trainings.
• Experience in working with the security sector or sensitive audiences including senior government and decision makers
• An ideal candidate should have creativity, strong organizational ability, capacity to deliver on time, excellent presentation skill and be responsive to feedback.        

Languages:

Strong command of written and oral English/Portuguese is mandatory. Knowledge of a Mozambique local language is an asset.

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.