Consultant to Conduct a Mapping on Laws and Services Related to Violence Against Women

Background

Although Gender Based Violence (GBV)/Violence Against Women (VAW) is a worldwide phenomenon cutting across cultures, religions, age groups, and socio-economic statuses, (1) GBV in the Arab States Region is most frequently manifested as reports of domestic violence, child, early, and forced marriage, (2) female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), (3) sex and labour trafficking, rape, sexual slavery, forced sex work and honour-based crimes, including mutilation, acid throwing, and femicide. (4) It is therefore an area of great concern to the Arab States, due in part to the following factors in the region:

Almost all Arab countries recognize women’s rights as human rights, and GBV/VAW, a serious and pervasive human rights violation and an extreme form of discrimination. Constitutional rights, civil rights, and political liberties overlap and intertwine; hence, they cannot be reviewed individually. The constitutions and positive laws of most Arab countries explicitly stipulate the principles of equality between men and women. However, contradictions do exist between constitutions and public life related laws on the one hand and laws managing private life, such as penal code and family laws that legalize discrimination and even violence in its different forms, jeopardizing all legal achievements and gender norm shifts related to gender equality.  In a number of countries, constitutions clearly state the prohibition of sex-based-discrimination, gender equality as a fundamental principle, and for some of them combating violence against women as a priority. Yet, the repeated weakness in providing protection and meaningful recourse for violations of human and legal rights of women and GBV survivors has led to growing needs for the adoption of stronger measures and legislation to protect women’s rights and increase women’s access to justice. The Kuwait Government represented by the General Secretariat of Supreme Council for Planning and Development (GSSCPD), UNDP, UN Women, and the Women Research Center at Kuwait University recognized the concerns and objectives of the Kuwaiti government and, as a result, developed a joint program, capitalizing on the experience of all parties to achieve Kuwait’s desired goal as a part of its mid-range national development plan 2015/2016 – 2019/2020. This programme will be supporting to the State of Kuwait in the implementation of SDG 5 on Gender Equality.

In respect of the elimination of violence against women, there appears to be no data available for analysis or any official national research project conducted to date.  While the consultation process conducted for this project indicates that there is a consensus among stakeholders that violence against women and girls is a concern, a consolidated approach to understand the scope of the challenge and address has not yet been established. Women are eligible to seek some medical and legal support through established channels, including the Social Development Office (SDO), who have contributed significantly to this area of work, but there is no dedicated office equipped with the personnel and institutional capacity required to address VAW and associated legal, medical and social concerns adequately.

In November 2015 a comprehensive study on laws, policies and practices related to GBV/VAW in the 20 countries in the Arab States (5) (including in Kuwait) was commissioned. The country level reports include the legal frameworks on domestic, local, and cultural/religious laws and de facto policies and practices that have an impact on, and relate to, GBV/VAW in its 5 different forms i.e. sexual violence (SV), physical violence, emotional and psychological violence, harmful traditional practices, and socio-economic violence in each of the 20 countries in the region. In addition, they contain an overview of the current GBV/VAW responses and the capacity of state and non-state actors in preventing, protecting and providing access to justice to those affected by GBV/VAW.

Building on this effort and in order to better support the implementation of the SDG project, UN Women is seeking to conduct a fact check of the legal framework on violence against women along with a mapping of existing response services addressing the needs of survivors. This will ensure the assessment reflects the most current laws, policies and practices as well as the main stakeholders working on violence against women in the Country, and at the same time hold a national consultation  with national stakeholders, such as  Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Interior, lawyers, prosecutors, judges, other key justice stakeholders, police, sharia court and other religious courts when relevant, legal aid providers, women’s groups, and people specialized and working on GBV/VAW in country. 

UNDP, UNFPA and UN Women are partnering to jointly ensure that this process is completed. In order to support such process, UN Women/UNDP/UNFPA is thus looking to engage a consultant to conduct the fact checking exercise for the country assessment, conduct a mapping of existing services and share the report findings during stakeholder consultations and incorporate proposed changes into a final version of the report and ensure that it is completed in order to allow for publishing.

Footnotes:

• A World Health Organization report in 2013 found that one in three women in the world will experience either physical or sexual violence by a partner or sexual violence by a non-partner within her life;
• According to the Population Reference Bureau, in the Arab region, one in seven girls marries before her 18th birthday;
• More than 133 million girls and women have experienced some form of FGM in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the harmful traditional practice still occurs. For more data on FGM see UNICEF global databases 2014, based on DHS, MICS and other nationally representative surveys;
• United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), Regional Strategy on Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence in the Arab States Region (2014-2017), 2014;
• The Study focuses on: Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, UAE, Yemen as well as Oman and Qatar.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

1. To conduct a desk review of the current draft of the Kuwait Gender Justice Assessment, in order to identify and update any potential inaccuracies, dated information due to legislative processes or other reasons (such as potential draft bills which might have passed into laws), inconsistencies between report chapters, to update legal language if necessary, and any other identified changes which might be required.
2. To conduct a qualitative research to map existing  VAW services  and Identify the key stakeholders on violence against women in Kuwait. The consultant should develop research tools to map available services for VAW response, conduct data collection in the field through qualitative tools and conduct a thematic analysis of the data.
3. To prepare a preliminary report to be presented to national stakeholders (to be identified by the consultant)
4. To present the results to the relevant stakeholders in consultation meetings.
5. To ensure that relevant feedback emanating from the consultation process is incorporated into the final version of the report.
6. Produce a list of updates made to the report to facilitate tracking by UNDP/UN Women/UNFPA.
7. Produce a final updated version of the Kuwait Gender Justice Assessment Report in English/ /Arabic and a mapping of existing services.

Deliverables:

• Output/Deliverable 1:   Review of the current draft of the Kuwait Gender Justice Assessment, in order to identify and update any potential inaccuracies, dated information due to legislative processes or other reasons (such as potential draft bills which might have passed into laws), inconsistencies between report chapters, and to update legal language if necessary, and any other identified changes which might be required. (7 days);
• Output/Deliverable 2:  Mapping of existing services for survivors of violence against women in Kuwait. (12 days, field work requiring travel to Kuwait);
• Output/ Deliverable 3: Preliminary report with two sections (1 on the laws and 2 on the mapping of services) to be shared for feedback. (6 days);
• Output/Deliverable 4:  Presentation of the Gender Justice Assessment report and mapping of services to the relevant stakeholders in consultation meetings. (consultant to identify list of participants, prepare meeting agenda, presentations and collect feedback from participants). (5 days);
• Output/Deliverable 5: Feedback emanating from the consultation process is incorporated into the final version of the report with list of updates made to the report. (4 days);
• Output/Deliverable 6: Final version of the law desk review and mapping of services delivered. (2 days);
• Output/Deliverable 7: Deliver 2 seminars at WRSC on major findings.. (4 days).

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: 

• Excellent written communication skills in English and Arabic, including editing;
• Demonstrated expertise of Kuwait national legal framework, in particular relating to gender equality, GBV/VAW, and human rights;
• Ability to consolidate information from multiple sources;
• Able to prepare strategic information for decision makers;
• Ability to work independently as well as good team player;
• Excellent time management and ability to produce outputs as per agreed deadlines.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master Degree of equivalent in Social sciences, Law, or Law and Gender Equality, Human Rights Law, or other related relevant academic degree.

Experience: 

• At least 10 years professional experience producing Human Rights analytical legal work, with emphasis on vulnerable or marginalized groups. Previous work focusing on GBV/VAW and legal frameworks relating to GBV/VAW is an asset;
• At least 5 years of extensive experience working on sensitive legal environment issues with governments, human rights bodies, civil society, development partners and community based organizations;
• Experience working in Kuwait or the gulf region on similar assignments.
• Demonstrated experience in producing reports relating to legal frameworks, in particular relating to Human Rights, Gender and Gender Based Violence;
• Verified practice on producing high quality publications.

Language:

• Complete fluency in Arabic (written and oral); English is a plus.

Presentation of offer:

      If interested in the ToR, please send to an offer with the following documents:

a)Cover Letter detailing why you consider yourself as the most suitable for the assignment;

b)Personal CV and P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;

c)Brief presentation of methodology for conducting the mapping of services for survivors of violence against women in Kuwait (1-2 pages);

d)Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, including travel costs, if any. 

Evaluation Criteria:                                        

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Applications will be screened and only candidates meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

• Master’s degree in Social sciences, Law, or Law and Gender Equality, Human Rights Law, or other related relevant academic degree;
• Language: Complete fluency in Arabic (written and oral) and English;
• Mandatory submission of UN Personal History form (P11);

• Brief description of why you consider yourself as the most suitable for the assignment;
• Competences and qualifications based on the UN P11 form submitted by each candidate;

Shortlisted Candidates will be interviewed and assessed against the following evaluation criteria.

Evaluation of Candidates (max 100 points):

• Relevant education requirements -10%;
• Previous experience in working in Kuwait or the Gulf region on similar assignment, including GBV and legal frameworks-10%;
• Proposed methodology for conducting the mapping on services for survivors of violence in Kuwait- 40%;
• Experience in conducting desk reviews, in-depth interviews and focus group discussions- 20%;
• Verified experience on producing high quality publications – 20%.

The final evaluation will combine the scores of the technical evaluation and financial proposal with the following weights assigned to each:

• Technical Evaluation: 70%;
• Financial proposal: 30%.