UN Women Recruitment for Consultant (Mapping of Political Parties and Gender Equality)

UN Women - In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In doing so, UN Member States took an historic step in accelerating the Organization's goals on 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, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

We are recruiting to fill the following positions below:

Job Title: Consultant - Mapping of Political Parties and Gender Equality: National Case Study (Gender Audit of Political Parties)

Location: Abuja
Type of Contract: Individual Contract
Post Level: National Consultant
Starting Date: date when the selected candidate is expected to start is13-Oct-2017
Duration of Initial Contract: 40 Working Days
Expected Duration of Assignment: 40 Working Days40 Working Days

Background
Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women will work 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 center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Women’s leadership and political participation is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work as mandated in its inception, recognizing the integral role of women in strong and stable democratic processes. Through its Leadership and Governance section, UN Women works to implement Goal 1 of the Entity’s Strategic Plan 2014-17 “Women lead and participate in all areas of decision-making”. UN Women’s theory of change for women’s political empowerment and leadership, based on the achievements of women in politics and lessons learned to date, envisions a four-pronged strategy: (1) support development and implementation of robust legal frameworks and administrative arrangements that promote gender balance and facilitate women’s participation; (2) expand the pool of qualified and capable women to run for election; (3) transform gender norms so that women are accepted as legitimate and effective leaders; and (4) support women leaders in gender-sensitive political institutions to attract, promote and retain women leaders, and highlight the constructive contribution they make to decision-making.

Aligned with this strategy, UN Women’s West and Central Africa Regional Office (WCARO) in Dakar, Senegal, launched a new, Multi-Country Programme in 2017, spanning four countries in the region: Central African Republic (CAR), Guinea, Liberia and Nigeria. The proportions of women in lower/single houses of parliament in these four countries (CAR – 8.7%; Guinea – 21.9%; Liberia – 12.3%; Nigeria – 5.6%) are below the sub-Saharan Africa average (23.8%), and have largely stagnated. A key component of the Programme therefore involves the provision of technical support to political parties – the main vehicle for women’s election to office – to enhance their capacity to promote gender balance in politics and become more gender sensitive institutions by: nominating more women candidates to winnable positions; adopting voluntary, gender-sensitive reforms to internal party processes and statutes; devising and implementing gender-sensitive policies and strategic plans; and devising codes of conduct which sanction discriminatory behaviour and harassment, among other strategies.

In this context, UN Women is seeking to engage a consultant to conduct and publish a “gender mapping” of political parties and prepare a country case study in Nigeria, which will examine the extent to which parties are gender-balanced and gender-sensitive institutions in the region, and identify priority needs and areas for technical support to be provided through the Programme.

Under the direct supervision of the UN Women Nigeria Country Office, and in close collaboration with the UN Women WCARO in Dakar and Women’s Political Participation Unit at HQ in New York, the Consultant will conduct a gender mapping of political parties and prepare a case study in Nigeria, with key findings to be published for sharing at regional level.

Duties and Responsibilities

• The Consultant will be responsible for: conducting a ”gender mapping” of all political parties represented in the national parliament; convening debriefing meetings with UN Women and political parties to discuss findings and recommendations; and producing a case study report of the findings in English , incorporarting feedback received from UN Women and political parties themselves.

Specifically, the Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks: