CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: National Political and Leadership Consultants in West and Central Africa

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. UN Women works to implement its Strategic Plan 2018-2021, Outcome 2, which focuses: Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems. Specifically, UN Women focuses on increasing the number of women of all ages who are fully participating, leading and engaging in political institutions and processes; it also focuses on increasing the political participation and leadership of young women, indigenous women and women with disabilities. These efforts are designed to guide countries towards reaching Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 5.5: “ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.”

UN Women has developed a Manual for Political Leadership and Candidate Training. It is a tool for delivering a comprehensive training curriculum designed to support UN Women’s programmes on women’s political empowerment and leadership, specifically by helping expand the pool of qualified women willing to run a campaign, win and serve in elective office. The Manual is intended for use by UN Women Country Offices and the lead trainer(s)/implementing partners they select to deliver the training curriculum as part of broader women’s political participation programming implemented by UN Women. The curriculum is adaptable to women political aspirants and leaders in a variety of contexts. It is designed for women beginning their careers, and more experienced women politicians looking to sharpen their skills.

To expand its regional network of trainers who are qualified on women’s political participation, UN Women will organize a Training of Trainers (TOT) for qualified trainers working in West and Central Africa in November 2019 in Dakar, Senegal. Experienced trainers on gender equality, elections and women’s political participation will be selected through a competitive process. Participants will have the opportunity to learn UN Women’s curriculum, deliver some of its components and receive a certificate upon completion of the four-day programme. Select participants will have the opportunity to join UN Women’s roster of Political Leadership and Candidate trainers.

Roster OBJECTIVES

1. Expand the network of qualified trainers on political leadership and candidate training in West and Central Africa.
2. Help expand the pool of qualified women willing to run a campaign, win and serve in elective office in West and Central Africa.

ABOUT THE PROGRAMME

The training curriculum contains five Modules covering 18 sessions on core political leadership and campaign skill areas: (1) Preparation and leadership (Transformative leadership; the decision to run; “your story”; the constituency, the political landscape, office, and electoral laws; political parties; and running as a woman); (2) Communications (Creating a message; public speaking; creating a communications plan; promoting the interests of your political party; and talking about gender equality and women’s empowerment); (3) Fundraising and financial planning (Finding donors and asking for money; fundraising tools and plan; and women’s fundraising networks); (4) Voter contact (Goal setting and targeting; and voter/constituent engagement); and (5) Campaign management (Campaign plan; campaign team; and campaign budget).

The TOT will cover four days. On the first day, master and co-trainers will cover the core elements of each of the five Modules, adding exercises and content specific to training techniques and considerations. Participants, who will have received the Manual in advance of the TOT, will have the opportunity to deliver mini-versions of selected training sessions and activities on the remaining days.

Duration: 4 days from during November 2019 in Dakar, Senegal.

After attending the TOT, participants will:

• Be familiar with UN Women’s curriculum on women’s political leadership and candidate training;
• Know how to organize and run a training on political leadership and campaigning for women political aspirants and candidates;
• Understand the regional and global political context, including normative frameworks on political rights, for promoting gender balance in decision-making bodies;
• Possess knowledge on the core skill areas women need to engage in leadership contests and run competitive campaigns, including preparation, message and communications, voter contact and targeting, resource mobilization and campaign management;
• Possess ability to apply knowledge and skills as trainers for women’s political empowerment and leadership, specifically to support increasing technical skills of women to engage in leadership contests; and
• Have the opportunity to be considered to join UN Women’s roster of political leadership and candidate trainers – participation in the TOT, is not a guarantee of roster membership.

The TOT will be conducted in English and French

Full attendance in the TOT is required (32 qualifying hours) for a Certificate of Completion.

APPLICATION SUBMISSION & SELECTION PROCESS:

1. An updated P-11 Form (encouraged, although regular CVs are also acceptable), which can be obtained at: http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
2. Three (3) Professional References such as supervisors, co-trainers or former trainees

Selection criteria:

Applicants who meet the submission criteria and required experience will be considered. Applicants will be evaluated based on their technical qualifications as specified by the required experience in this Terms of Reference, their CVs, and answers provided in the written application form. Efforts will be made to ensure that women and men of all ages have equal opportunities for engagement and that a regional balance is achieved as much as possible.

Applicants will be notified of their selection on a rolling basis.

Post-TOT UN Women roster selection:

Selected participants will be invited to join UN Women’s roster of trainers on political leadership and campaign training. Those with demonstrated capacity to effectively understand, adapt, organize and deliver organize the training Manual, based on UN Women staff evaluations will be invited to join the roster.