National Consultant, Assessing the Private Sector engagement in preventing and responding to violence against Women and Girls

Background

The European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN) are embarking on a new, global, multi-year initiative focused on eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls (VAWG) - the Spotlight Initiative. The Initiative is so named as it brings focused attention to this issue, moving it into the spotlight and placing it at the centre of efforts to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The name reminds us that violence often takes place in the dark, is denied or rendered invisible and that it cannot survive in the light. It also highlights the importance of targeted investments in women and girls to achieve sustainable development, making this renewed and unwavering commitment of the EU and the UN visible.

The Spotlight Initiative will deploy targeted, large-scale investments aimed at achieving significant improvements in the lives of women and girls. It will provide a unique opportunity to build an evidence base demonstrating that a significant, concerted and comprehensive investment in gender equality can make a transformative difference in the lives of women and girls (Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 and 16 in particular) as well as contribute to the achievement of all SDGs. The Initiative will respond to all forms of VAWG, with a focus on domestic and family violence, sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices, femicide, trafficking in human beings and sexual and economic (labour) exploitation. In line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Initiative will fully integrate the principle of ‘leaving no one behind’. In Mozambique the SLI will support a set of coherent interventions to bring sustainable results for women and girls in Mozambique across the following six pillars: 1) Legislative and Policy Framework; 2) Strengthening Institutions; 3) Prevention and Social Norms; 4) Delivery of Quality Services; 5) Data Availability and Capacities; and 6) Supporting the Women’s Movement.

Despite the past and on-going efforts made by the Government of Mozambique and its partners, sexual and gender-based violence and harmful practices remain pervasive and continue to be a threat to the realization of women and girls’ rights in the Country.

According to the 2011 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS 2011) in Mozambique more than one in three women (37.2%) have experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime with rates higher (42.8%) among young women aged 20-24. Furthermore, 6.9% of women have suffered sexual violence in the last 12 months with rates higher in urban (7.9%) than in rural areas (6.4%) and among young women (17.5%). Mozambique has also the 10th highest early marriage rate in the world with almost half (48%) of women aged 20-24 who were married before age 18 (55.7% rural areas and 36.1% urban). Girls and women experience severe sexual and reproductive health consequences, including early and unwanted pregnancies with slightly more than 46% of adolescent girls aged between 15 and 19 years either pregnant or already with a child (IMASIDA, 2015). The adverse intergenerational effects of violence against women and girls (VAW/G) extend to children and society as a whole, place a heavy drag on the development of the country and inhibit its ability to realize the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development and its Goals.

In response to this complex challenge, over the past decade the Government of Mozambique approved an ambitious legislative framework and started the implementation of policies and strategies to eliminate violence against women and girls, including:

• Law to prevent and fight domestic violence (2009)

Chapter on crimes against people, including domestic violence in the Penal Code (2015)

• Multi Sectoral Mechanism for Integrated Assistance to Women Victims of Violence (2012)
• National Strategy for the Prevention and Fight against Early Marriage (2015).

The Government is currently working on the finalization of the budgeted National Plan of Action to Prevent and Combat Violence against Women while the Civil Society strengthened its women’s network and in 2015 established the Coalition for the Elimination of Early Marriage (CECAP).

The Country Programme Outline (CPO) has defined the programmatic framework of the Spotlight Initiative’s investment in Mozambique in order to contribute to a Country where every woman and girl is free from all forms SGBV and harmful practices, and thus able to realize her sexual and reproductive health and rights.

Empowering women to participate fully in economic life is essential to building stronger economies and improving the quality of life for both women, men and society as whole. The private sector has a central and active role to play in achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Development is about how the society choose to do business and how we reflect principles of equality into everyday lives; allowing these principles of equality to translate into and reflect in our cultures, values, performance and business practices.

Accelerating SGBV Response in the Mozambican Private Sector is an enabling action and accelerator to the gender-responsive and gender-transformative impact of the Spotlight Initiative investments in Outcomes 3 and 4. The focus in this activity is to fill a key gap in prevention and response to SGBV and HP by expanding engagement with the private sector to make the workplace a safe public space and to create the foundation for access to essential services that can be facilitated through employer/workplace protocols.

The assignment builds on previous UN Women engagement with the private sector on ending violence against women (EVAW) and women’s economic empowerment (WEE). The private sector is a key actor in seeking solutions for GEWE related challenges including access to markets and outreach of prevention and response efforts.

Specifically, pre-launch interventions aims to engage professional services to analyze the existing environment in the private sector to engage on SGBV, HP, early marriage prevention and response including by adopting specific packages (low-cost/low-interest) that can support the livelihood opportunities of adolescent and young women at risk and victims of violence.  This package of activities lays the foundation for that longer term work including establishing a baseline for the engagement of the sector on SGBV, HP, early marriage and SRHR via an assessment of the status, potential and willingness of private sector to contribute to end SGBV, HP and SRHR in the targeted provinces and nationally as well as  the develop of an engagement and monitoring strategy comprising targeted communications to raise awareness and seeking the elimination of all forms of harassment in the workplace. A meeting with private sector actors will validate the assessment and engagement strategy and will be followed by specific outreach on the adoption of voluntary commitments and the design of specific financial packages for victims of violence. All proposed activities will be linked with existing programming on Safe Public Spaces, Women’s Empowerment Principles, HIV/AIDS and SRHR within and outside the private sector.

This set of complementary interventions is aligned with the SLI prefunding objective 3 “Build momentum for implementation and transformative results by narrow critical information gaps, expanding public awareness of SGBV and their role in its elimination and engaging with critical sectors such as the private sector to ensure a comprehensive response to SGBV in public spaces;” the Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development as it seeks to “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls - SDG#5” and “Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development - SDG#17”. This intervention is also aligned with UN Women Strategic Plan 2018 – 2021 which commits to “…enhance multi-stakeholder partnerships” by supporting “innovative platforms that strengthen the collaboration with Governments as well as with civil society and the private sector” (Paragraph 7).

In this context, UN Women, as part of the Spotlight Initiative, is seeking to hire a National Consultant to assist in Assessing the private sector engagement in preventing and responding to violence against women and girls. The National Consultant will work under the overall coordination of the UN Women Country Representative and direct supervision by the Women’s Economic Empowerment Portfolio Programme Officer.

Duties and Responsibilities

The goal of this assignment is to conduct a mapping of the ecosystem of private sector in Mozambique and assess their internal and external contribution to prevent and respond to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). The study will also provide a platform for presenting ongoing, successful business initiatives that aim to advance women’s empowerment, economic inclusion of survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Mozambique.

Specifically, the consultant is expected to:

• Map the Mozambican private sector initiatives for ending sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), promoting gender equality and examine how these activities can be scaled up;
• Sense private sector representative’s willingness to demonstrate their work fast-tracking women’s equal participation in the workforce;

• Based on existing initiatives design alternative models for the financing of businesses of SGBV survivors and the promotion of their integration in the corporates supply chain[1] (including monitoring strategy);

• Assess how business can help ensure survivor’s women access to finance and empowerment across the value chain;

• Support to early adoption by select private sector stakeholders of voluntary CEOs commitments to eliminate gender-based violence in the workplace and to commit to hiring survivors of violence; and

• Scope and identify both data and partnership opportunities between the Spotlight Initiative and the private sector.

  Guiding normative frameworks and references: include Mozambican Social Corporate Responsibility Provisions; Constitution of the Republic of Mozambique (CRM); the United Nations Global Compact´s multi-year strategy to drive business awareness and action in support of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 20130; Women´s Empowerment Principles (WEPs); UN Women Flagship Programming Initiatives; UN Women Africa Strategy (2018 - 2021); CEDAW (article 14); Beijing Platform for Action; SDGs; CSW56; UNFCCC & UNCCD gender provisions, UN Women Guidelines for Gender-Responsive Procurement.

  Present an Inception Report

• Draw a road map and detailed action plan for the entire consultancy and research (including a timeframe);

• The study (mapping and assessment) methodology will be developed by the consultant and presented for approval to UN Women. The methodology should use a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods that are appropriate to address the main study questions and account for complexity of gender relations and to ensure participatory and inclusive processes that are culturally appropriate. These methods should be responsive to human rights and gender equality principles and facilitate the engagement of key stakeholders. Measures will be taken to ensure the quality, reliability and validity of data and data collection tools. Limitations with respect to the sample (representativeness) should be stated clearly;

• Conduct a desk review of existing literature on the subject on global and local context;

• The inception report should identify possible members that will compose the study reference group.

1. Draft a Mapping Report on the private sector engagement  

2. Plan and coordinate all the activities for the primary data collection. Determine which value-chains, companies and key informants in the provinces of Nampula, Manica and Gaza (including selected districts) will be approached during the field work.

3. Data collection to follow participatory methodologies putting women and girl’s rights at the center of all analysis;

• Primary data collection should be undertaken through observations, site visit, individual key informant interviews and focal group discussions with representatives of relevant private sector institutions (duty bearers), development partners, beneficiaries (right holders) and key community players (community leaders, opinion makers) and civil society organizations seeking to address gender equality and human rights issues. The consultant will develop a sampling frame (area and population represented, rationale for selection, mechanics of selection, and limitations of the sample) and specify how it will address the diversity of stakeholders in the intervention.
• Produce the report on findings with the supervision of UN Women in a timely manner.

• Draft an alternative financing model of businesses of SGBV survivors and their integration in corporates’ supply chains

• Desk review current business models and women entrepreneurs share of supply chains

Review international experiences on affirmative procurement, gender-responsive procurement

• Based on lessons from international experiences, local private sector experience and the consultant own technical expertise design a guideline document on alternative model to financing SGBV survivors;

• The model will also have to lead to the ddevelopment of financial intermediary services for SGBV survivors at the local level (e.g. micro-finance, savings and loans groups, mobile phone services, rental/lease finance, weather insurance, support opening of rural branches of national banks, gender-responsive training of financial intermediaries, among other);

• Create (through lobby) a nucleus of Corporates committed to test/implement the model.

• Facilitate a Validation Seminar

• Prepare the presentation of findings and take note of all the recommendations made by the validation committee composed of key players in the private sector and gender equality activists;

• A long side with the United System in Mozambique and the EU, incorporate all the strong recommendations identified during the validation workshop into the final Mapping report and business model for financing.

  Present the Mapping Key Findings at a National Event

• Lead the translation and language check of the assignment deliverables (Mapping Report, Business Models) from Portuguese to English;

• Prepare the presentation

• Upon request conduct a presentation of the main findings in a national event.

1][1] Actions for the integration in the banking supply chain refer to the potential for banks and other sectors to undertake gender-responsive procurement and thus create sustainable markets for the services of enterprises led by SGBV survivors.

Competencies

Corporate Competences and Ethics

• Demonstrate integrity, values and ethics in accordance to UN Women norms

• Promote the vision, mission and strategic objectives of UN Women

• Show respect regardless the race/colour, sex, religion, nationality and age as well as be sensible to cultural adaptation capacity

• Consultant are expected to have personal and professional integrity and abided by the UN Code

Functional Competences

• Knowledge of legislation, programme and public policies on gender, women’s economic empowerment, and women’s rights in general in Mozambique

• Demonstrated experience in gender and economics related research

• Leadership and skills to work with autonomy and initiative

• Strong Advocacy skills

• Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women's empowerment in country
• Strong knowledge of UN system

Corporate Competences and Ethics

• Demonstrate integrity, values and ethics in accordance to UN Women norms

• Promote the vision, mission and strategic objectives of UN Women

• Show respect regardless the race/colour, sex, religion, nationality and age as well as be sensible to cultural adaptation capacity

• Consultant are expected to have personal and professional integrity and abided by the UN Code

Functional Competences

• Knowledge of legislation, programme and public policies on gender, women’s economic empowerment, and women’s rights in general in Mozambique

• Demonstrated experience in gender and economics related research

• Leadership and skills to work with autonomy and initiative

• Strong Advocacy skills

• Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women's empowerment in country
• Strong knowledge of UN system

Managing knowledge and learning

• Promote knowledge sharing and a learning culture;

• Team working; and

• Strong communication skills, oral and written in Portuguese and English; knowledge of local languages is an asset.

Ethical Code of Conduct

• Independence: Consultant shall ensure that independence of judgment is maintained, and that evaluation findings and recommendations are independently presented.

• Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

• Impartiality: Consultant shall operate in an impartial and unbiased manner and give a balanced presentation of strengths and weaknesses of the policy, program, project or organizational unit being evaluated.

• Conflict of Interest: Consultant are required to disclose in writing any past experience, which may give rise to a potential conflict of interest, and to deal honestly in resolving any conflict of interest which may arise.

• Honesty and Integrity: Consultant shall show honesty and integrity in their own behaviour, negotiating honestly the evaluation costs, tasks, limitations, scope of results likely to be obtained, while accurately presenting their procedures, data and findings and highlighting any limitations or uncertainties of interpretation within the evaluation.

• Competence: Consultant shall accurately represent their level of skills and knowledge and work only within the limits of their professional training and abilities in evaluation, declining assignments for which they do not have the skills and experience to complete successfully.

• Accountability: Consultant are accountable for the completion of the agreed evaluation deliverables within the 30 day timeframe and budget agreed, while operating in a cost-effective manner.

• Obligations to Participants: Consultant shall respect and protect the rights and welfare of human subjects and communities, in accordance with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other human rights conventions. Consultant shall respect differences in culture, local customs, religious beliefs and practices, personal interaction, gender roles, disability, age and ethnicity, while using evaluation instruments appropriate to the cultural setting. Consultant shall ensure prospective participants are treated as autonomous agents, free to choose whether to participate in the evaluation, while ensuring that the relatively powerless are represented.

• Confidentiality: Consultant shall respect people’s right to provide information in confidence and make participants aware of the scope and limits of confidentiality, while ensuring that sensitive information cannot be traced to its source.

• Avoidance of Harm: Consultant shall act to minimize risks and harms to, and burdens on, those participating in the evaluation, without compromising the integrity of the evaluation findings.

• Accuracy, Completeness and Reliability: Consultant have an obligation to ensure that evaluation reports and presentations are accurate, complete and reliable. Consultant shall explicitly justify judgments, findings and conclusions and show their underlying rationale, so that stakeholders are in a position to assess them.

• Transparency: Consultant shall clearly communicate to stakeholders the purpose of the evaluation, the criteria applied and the intended use of findings. Consultant shall ensure that stakeholders have a say in shaping the evaluation and shall ensure that all documentation is readily available to and understood by stakeholders.

• Omissions and wrongdoing: Where consultant finds evidence of wrong-doing or unethical conduct, they are obliged to report it to the proper oversight authority.

The evaluator will have the final judgment on the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the evaluation report, and the evaluator must be protected from pressures to change information in the report. If the evaluator identifies issues of wrongdoing, fraud or other unethical conduct, UN Women procedures must be followed, and confidentiality be maintained. The UN Women Legal Framework for Addressing Non-Compliance with UN Standards of Conduct defines misconduct and the mechanisms within UN Women for reporting and investigating it

Required Skills and Experience

Post-Graduate degree (Masters) in business administration, social corporate responsibility, development studies, Gender studies, development economics, sociology and related fields;

• Solid knowledge on the status of women’s rights, women’s economic empowerment, legislation and policies in the field of gender as well as on the existing gender equality machinery in Mozambique;

• Strong understanding of gender equality issues and its intersections with violence, business opportunities for women, HIV, etc.;
• Solid understanding of business administration, financial management, affirmative procurement regulations/practices;
• 10 years’ experience in conducting gender related research for lobby/advocacy purposes;
• Understanding of private sector context in Mozambique;
• Understanding of the legal and institutional frameworks on social corporate responsibility and global norms on fair trade;

Demonstrated ability and experience to plan, undertake and write quality research report (including collecting and analysing data within a given timeframe).

Fluency in Portuguese and English both spoken and written.

Good to Know:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for 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 (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment