Location : Home based
Application Deadline : 30-Jun-21 (Midnight New York, USA)
Time left : 6d 1h 53m
Type of Contract : Individual Contract
Post Level : National Consultant
Languages Required :
Arabic English
Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 18-Jul-2021
Duration of Initial Contract : Four months
Expected Duration of Assignment : 60 working days
UNDP 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.
UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
Background
Sudan is among the countries that has been overburdened with social norms and stereotypes that discriminate against women and girls. FGM practice accounted for 86% among age groups 15-49 years and 40% among age groups 0-14 years. Though women are in the frontline of being accused of practicing FGM, male’s acceptance to the practice assured how norms are sometimes perpetuated by women but favoring men’s interest and negatively affect women’s rights. Early marriage before completing 18 years constituted 38% and the normalization of violence has been clearly reflected in the attitudes and beliefs of women as 38% of them are accepting violence by husband as being justifiable.
Gender social norms combined with institutional and policy constraints have affected women’s labor force participation rate as it constitutes 28.9% compared to 70.8% of males’ participation rate. Women ‘s engagement in agriculture as laborers and farmers (80.7%) and in unpaid family work mostly in agriculture (51.8%) show how social norms have contributed to women’s categorization of work as an extension to unpaid care work.
Eastern Sudan is among the top states where culture and social norms have categorized women as care takers. Early marriage, high illiteracy rate, malnutrition and the high maternal mortality rate are all manifestations of how women lack decision making over their rights and how policies and legislations are not responsive to advancing women’s rights and gender equality. The reluctance to women’s work has been revealed from their low participation rate in the labor force compared to other states. The dominancy of few culturally conservative ethnic groups to some states and the ethnic diversity in other states have created some sort of discrepancies regarding cultural opposition towards women’s economic empowerment. While some ethnic groups are reluctant to women’s work, other ethnic groups have defined the gender roles in a manner that accept women’s work.
Justification
With the support of EU, UN Women in partnership with the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation are undertaking a project titled Women’s Empowerment for resilience, Inclusion, Sustainability and Environment in Eastern States. The project aims to create a conducive environment for the economic empowerment of women living in the most vulnerable situations in Khartoum, Kassala, Gedaref and Red Sea states. Specifically, the project objectives focus on improving access of young women and men, living in vulnerable situations, to a more inclusive market system, strengthen the capacity of institutions at Federal and State levels to enhance GEWE and reflect on the social norms and attitudes towards GEWE. Part of the tasks of the UN Women in the inception phase is to undertake gender assessment to understand the impact of social norms and gender stereotypes on WEE and to design tools to capture and measure the impact of social norms and how they are shifting as the result of the project’s implementation.
In this regard, UN Women which is the United Nations entity which is grounded in the vision of achieving gender equality and women empowerment is seeking to recruit three research assistants to work closely with the International and National consultant who will be hired to undertake gender assessment on the impact of social norms and stereotypes on women’s economic empowerment in Eastern Sudan. Each assistant researcher is expected to work in one of the Eastern states (Gedarif, Kassala, Red Sea).
Duties and Responsibilities
Overall objectives
Reflect on the impact caused by social norms and attitudes on women’s economic empowerment.
Specific objectives
Understand and identify the nature of the social norms including that deterring women’s economic empowerment in the studied communities;
Show how gender social norm evolved over time;
Identify how social norms cut across ethnicity, age, social status, education, and vulnerable social groups within the same community;
What social norms facilitate/deter women’s economic empowerment?
Identify men’s perception on the available social norms and its causes;
Reflect on women and men’s attitudes towards girls, boy’s education, domestic household work, women voices, and their ability to make home and outside decision, women control over financial and physical assets, women political participation at community, locality, and state level. women’s work, women’s suitable kind of work, child marriage, sexual violence;
Show the extent to which policy, institutional and legal frame affected the presence of social norms;
Design tools to capture and measure the impact of social norms and how they are shifting as the result of the project’s implementation.
Tasks and responsibilities of the Research Assistants
The research assistants are expected to perform the following tasks and responsibilities:
Work closely with the National consultant in identifying the targeted communities and other relevant stakeholders in the selected states in close consultations with UN Women and the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation.
Technically contribute to the designing of the questionnaires and interviews questions
Lead on organizing interview meetings and focus group discussion and other primary data collection techniques.
Collect the relevant data from the relevant stakeholders including the targeted communities
Revise the collected data and questionnaires on regular base to ensure accuracy of data and reduce the risk of having missing data or questionnaires not filled-in as required
Perform the data entry and carryout the analysis.
Deliverable
The research assistants are expected to deliver the followings to the national consultant:
Work plan to be submitted detailing the tasks against a timeframe.
Two-weeks Progress report submitted to the National consultant showing the progress made in the delivery of the tasks and any encountered challenges.
Weekly report on the progress made regarding the data collection
End of assignment report including the following as annexes: Spread sheet submitted to the national consultant showing in detail the tasks and the responsibilities that have been undertaken in the selected states of the assignment upon the completion of the tasks; Excel sheet including the interviewees’ names and their contacts.
Analysis of the raw data in software
Competencies
Core Values/Guiding Principles
Integrity:
Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
Professionalism:
Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:
Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.
Core Competencies
Ethics and Values:
Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.
Organizational Awareness:
Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
Development and Innovation:
Take charge of self-development and take initiative.
Work in teams:
Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
Communicating and Information Sharing:
Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.
Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:
Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.
Conflict Management:
Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:
Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.
Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:
Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.
Functional Competencies
Demonstrated development/programming skills particularly those that are pertinent to gender issues and women’s rights.
Good knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches.
Ability to apply gender analysis to programme planning.
Good analytical skills.
Good knowledge of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and gender analysis and mainstreaming strategies (such as gender-integrated approaches, and gender-targeted approaches) and tools.
Required Skills and Experience
Education Qualifications:
Master’s degree or equivalent in statistics, Economics, development, or any equivalent degree
Experience
Minimum 5 years of practical experience in conducting research and studies
Experience in working with communities in issues of relevance to social norms and stereotypes
Knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment
Sound practical knowledge of statistics and the use of software (SPSS, STATA, E. VIEWS and other statistical programmes for data entry
Language Requirements:
Adequate knowledge of English and strong knowledge of Arabic;
Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment .
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.
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