Junior Research/Data Analysts to contribute to a Gender Country Profile for Jordan (Multiple positions)

Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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 center 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. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Within the framework of the Gender Partners Coordination Group co-chaired by the EU Delegation in Jordan and UN Women, the proposed assignment for the conduction of a Gender Country Profile is hereby commissioned as a tool to provide a timely and effective understanding of the operating context from a gender perspective to national and international partners. The exercise is also aimed at informing policy and programme development in response to the Government of Jordan’s priorities on gender equality and women’s empowerment. To this end, UN Women Jordan is hiring a team of experts to develop the Gender Country Profile. The team will be led by a Senior Gender Expert that will be supported in data collection by two Junior Analysts (data/research).

In line with the approach of relevant stakeholders, the European Commission defines a Gender Country Profile as the study of differences in the conditions, needs, participation rates, access to resources and development, control of assets, decision-making powers, etc. between girls/women and boys/men in their assigned gender roles. Then, it is important to understand these differences in each particular country in order to ensure that actions funded by development partners tackle gender inequalities and discrimination where needed and benefit equally girls, women, boys and men. Gender should not be a barrier to benefitting from international development actions.

The Evaluation of EU Support to Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in Partner Countries (April 2015)[1] highlights as one of its conclusions that “the limited use of country-level Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment contextual analysis significantly weakens strategy and programme relevance and undermines the EU’s ability to achieve significant GEWE results. This represents a binding constraint to improved performance”. In this regard, the GAP II “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment: Transforming the Lives of Girls and Women through EU External Relations 2016-2020”[2], formally adopted by the Council in October 2015, has among its four pivotal areas, a horizontal one addressed to shift the Commission services’ and the EEAS’ institutional culture to more effectively deliver on EU commitments. To fulfil this priority, one of the objectives reflected in the GAP II relates to the use of robust gender evidence to inform all EU external spending, programming and policy making (Objective number 4). To this end, all EUD/ Units should have a gender analysis at the correct level of intervention (this will be context specific and might be, for example, sector level, project level or national level). Proposed interventions also build on the outcomes of the 4th Union for the Mediterranean Ministerial Conference on Strengthening the Role of Women in Society[3] (Cairo, 27 November 2017) and the resulting Ministerial Declaration[4] which included a set of recommendations to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in the region, including Jordan.

Context overview

Since the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)[5] in 1992, Jordan has introduced new policies to promote implementation. In addition to considerable investments in the education and health sectors that largely benefitted women and girls, important women’s rights advances have been made in Jordan. More recently, a landmark parliamentary decision in August 2017 adopted a package of amendments to the Penal Code which included the abrogation of Article 308, which had exonerated rapists if they married their victims. Similarly, amendments to the Labor code are being considered. In December 2017, the Government of Jordan also adopted its first National Action Plan to implement UNSCr 1325 (2000) on Women, Peace and Security.

However, Jordan’s gender equality index – as measured by the World Economic Forum, has rapidly declined over the last decade. In 2006 Jordan ranked 93rd out of 115 countries, and currently ranks 135th out of 144 countries[6]. By way of example, the female participation rate in the Jordanian labour market is one of the lowest in the world, standing at 13.3% of women in comparison to 60.3%[7] of men. In addition, only three percent of Jordanian women who are victims of violence state a willingness to seek support. Pressure on service delivery is also aggravated by the large refugee population hosted in the country, which is also comprising vulnerable women and girls.

Scope of Work

The Gender Country Profile should provide qualitative information, sex-age disaggregated data and analysis on the gender situation in the identified sectors in order to contribute to the policy dialogue and facilitate the development of gender-sensitive country strategies as well as programmes and projects throughout the whole project and programme cycle management. The following sectors are being identified for the scope of this exercise: Education, Livelihood & Employment, Food Security, Access to Basic Services, Health, Justice and Rule of Law, Social Protection, Environment and Energy, Private Sector and Access to Finance, Local Governance and Decentralization, Peace and Security. Youth, social norms, and the impact of the Syria crisis to Jordan are considered cross-cutting issues which need to be integrated in the sectoral analysis.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/sites/devco/files/evaluation-cooperation-ec-gender-1338-summary_en.pdf

[2] http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2015/10/26/fac-conclusions-gender-development/

[3] http://ufmsecretariat.org/ufm-ministerial-conference-strengthening-role-women-society/

[4] http://ufmsecretariat.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/womenfinaldeclaration.pdf

[5]http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/TreatyBodyExternal/Countries.aspx?CountryCode=JOR&Lang=EN

[6] http://reports.weforum.org/global-gender-gap-report-2017/dataexplorer/?doing_wp_cron=1528191092.4121689796447753906250#economy=JOR

[7] Department of Statistics, Q1 2017

Duties and Responsibilities

Expected outputs and Deliverables

The final output will be an analytical and operative document based on qualitative and quantitative documentary review and fresh new field research/analysis. The Junior Analysts will ensure that the data collection is systematically prepared and carried out as per the requirements for the Gender Country Profile, under the support and supervision of the Senior Gender Expert. The main tasks are outlined as follows;

• The methodology framework is expected to be explained concisely. Therefore, a framework including the structure of data collection, focus group guide, interview guide and development of a survey is expected to be provided within the first two months of the assignment. 
• In addition to the methodological framework, the Junior Analysts will support the Senior Gender Expert in producing a desk review. The desk review is expected to consist of a number of selected documents, that shall provide qualitative background information necessary for the core sections of the gender analysis. In this desk review, relevant recommendations and strategies that have not yet been addressed by recent policy (especially if generated by recent studies) may be compiled in a preliminary findings analysis. 
• In order to cover the national GEWE context, the validation of preliminary findings and additional information are expected to be discussed with relevant stakeholders in focus group discussions. These focus group discussions should encompass stakeholders such as NGOs, civil society, international development partners, international organizations, international financial institutions, line ministries, gender equality national machineries etc. They will take place in different Governorates of Jordan, in order to encompass a significant representation of the national spectrum of actors involved. Continuing the data collection, a relevant selection of stakeholders will be consulted through surveys and individual interviews. 
• After the data have been compiled and analyzed, the Junior Analysts will support in finalizing the first draft of the Gender Country Profile, to be submitted by April 2019.

Deliverables:

Duration and duty station for the assignment 

The expected duration of this consultancy is 7 months, with the expected starting date 1st of October 2018.  The place of assignment is Amman, Jordan, with expected travels in the field as required.

Competencies

Competencies:

• Awareness & Sensitivity regarding Gender Issues: UN Women’s mandate demonstrates a global commitment to gender equality and this requires every team member’s commitment to developing gender awareness and applying this sensitivity in their day to day activities. 
• Accountability: To achieve UN Women’s mandate requires that every individual takes ownership for achieving the organization’s priorities. Our success at UN Women is driven by the collective decisions each individual makes and their effort to deliver on these commitments. This means that each individual at UN Women is responsible for defining and delivering on the organizations priorities. 
• Creative Problem Solving: At UN Women we openly share ideas and identify creative solutions. We solve problems collaboratively by considering multiple perspectives and approaches. This means that we value different perspectives and collectively harness a wide range of viewpoints to identify innovative ways of doing things. 
• Effective Communication: At UN Women we seek to communicate effectively by conveying ideas and thoughts in a clear, concise and convincing way. We achieve this by developing a strong set of messages and choosing the mode of communication that is best-suited to the relevant audience while also accounting for key cultural differences. 
• Inclusive Collaboration: At UN Women we exemplify the principles of our mandate by engaging with all team members in an inclusive way and working collaboratively to achieve outcomes. Effectively working with others means supporting fellow team mates to be themselves at work, valuing differences and individual contributions. 
• Stakeholder Engagement: We achieve our priorities at UN Women by engaging internal and external stakeholders in the delivery of the mandate. This requires careful consideration of both the internal and external stakeholders as well as developing key relationships with these stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of the mandate. 
• Leading by Example: At UN Women all individuals are required to demonstrate a commitment to our values and mandate as well as consider how their behaviors influence the attitudes and thoughts of others. Leading by example is about helping all team members to deliver the most value to UN Women and working to overcome challenges. 

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications and skills

• University degree or equivalent with relevant work experience in statistics, research and analysis
• Good communication skills, both oral and written;
• Computer literacy (minimum MS Word, Excel, MIS).

Experience

• Minimum 3 years extensive experience in the context of data, research and analysis and a consultant from both short and long-term assignments on gender related studies;
• Extensive knowledge of the development context of the country Jordan and the region Arab States.
• Demonstrated experience of EU practices in development programmes
• Expertise in participatory methods.
• One of the experts must have expertise in participatory methods.
• Experience in data analysis is an asset
• All experts must be fluent in oral and written English
• One team member should be also fluent in oral and written Arabic.

Application instructions and Evaluation

Application instructions:

Applications from qualified and interested consultants should include the following:

1. Updated Curriculum Vitae (not more than 3 pages long)
2. A signed P11 form. This form can be downloaded at:  http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=2740
3. Technical proposal: Including at least the proposed methodology and the estimate implementation timelines.
4. Financial proposal: Indicating the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of cost by daily rate, including all envisaged travel costs. The proposal should be presented in USD only. All prices quoted should be exclusive of all taxes, since UN Women is exempt from taxes.

Fees and Schedule of Payments

The successful candidate will receive his/her payment, approved by the UNWOMEN Country Representative, based on satisfactory deliverables.