International Consultant

Background

The AU has demonstrated its commitment to gender equality by adopting important decisions which form the basis of the AU Gender architecture such as the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa, the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa, the AU Gender Policy, the African Women’s Decade, and the Fund for African Women. The AU declared the theme of 2015 as the “Year of Women’s Empowerment and Development towards Agenda 2063” and 2016 as the “Year of Human Rights with Particular Focus on the Rights of Women”. Agenda 2063 also recognises the imperative of gender equality and underscores the importance of effective and meaningful participation and representation of women in decision-making structures as a major driver and enabler for the achievement of its goals.  In addition, the African Charter on Democracy, Election and Governance (ACDEG) also asserts that “State Parties shall take all possible measures to encourage the full and active participation of women in decision making processes at all levels”.

Despite the plethora of progressive norms and policy pronouncements on women’s political empowerment, the percentage of women in active political participation is still below the global and continental threshold. Women, notwithstanding the fact that they form the majority voters in many African countries, still encounter a lot of hurdles in getting elected and accessing political spaces. The problem continues to persist among elected women. Once in power, women are faced with new set of challenges and informal barriers that restrict their ability to effectively and meaningfully influence policy-making processes, especially when they form a small minority rather than a critical mass.

Due to these, achievements recorded in countries such as Rwanda, Mozambique and Senegal are being dwarfed by gaps in several other countries such as Nigeria (5.6%), Swaziland (6.2%), Benin (7.2%) and Congo (7.4%) who are among the world’s worst performers when it comes to women’s representation. Although there has been overall progress in women political participation, mainly in parliamentary representation, in the past few years some countries experienced a regression in the share of women parliamentarians. South Africa, Seychelles, Mauritius, Malawi, Nigeria and Ghana are among those countries.

SITUATING YOUNG WOMEN IN POLITICAL PROCESSES IN AFRICA

Harnessing the demographic dividend by investing in youth is a key imperative as they constitute 60% of Africa population. The youth can be a creative force, a dynamic source of innovations and can catalyse important changes in political systems, power-sharing dynamics and economic opportunities. Young women in particular, representing a significant proportion of the total population in Africa, have a distinct role to play in shaping the continent’s development, governance, peace and integration agenda. Furthermore, their relatability in politics can inspire participation among other young women who have previously been uninterested or felt marginalized.

However, evidence shows that the participation of young people in formal, institutional political processes is relatively low when compared to older citizens across the globe. Young women in particular are often overlooked in the political realm. They face particular difficulties as they must manoeuver the double burden of age and gender, which often results in them being marginalized and/or excluded on both fronts. A 2016 AfroBarometer research showed that young women’s political engagement in Africa lags behind that of their male peers, a finding that is consistent with results from the previous round of the surveys. The study affirmed that African women including young women are generally less likely than men to participate in political processes. Therefore, realizing women’s full emancipation and empowerment cannot be attained without deliberate and conscious efforts to address the specific concerns of young women and other marginalized groups in political leadership.

ABOUT THE PROPOSED CONSULTANCY

In an effort to track trends, progress, challenges, and prospects for enhancing young women’s participation in political processes, the African Union Africa Governance Architecture (AGA) Secretariat, in collaboration with partners including UN Women, organized a gender pre-forum on 1-3 November 2017 in Lusaka, Zambia at the sidelines of the sixth Annual High-Level Dialogue on Democracy, Human Rights and Governance in Africa under the theme “Building on Progress, Sustaining Gains: Enhancing Young Women’s Participation in Political Processes.” The Gender Pre-Forum aimed to review and address the state of young women’s meaningful participation in political processes, discuss progress made, the persisting challenges and propose solutions on how those gains can be sustained towards enhancing young women’s full participation and leadership in political process in Africa.

The UN Women office in Ethiopia Country Office as part of its key mandate to provide technical support to member states and the AU in the adoption, implementation and monitoring of commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE), supported the AUC in the development of a background paper in line with the theme of the gender pre-forum titled “Building on Progress, Sustaining Gains: Enhancing Young Women’s Participation in Political Processes.” The paper examined and critically analyzed the key trends, progress, challenges, opportunities and prospects for enhancing young women’s meaningful participation in political processes in Africa and informed the discussions at the gender forum. Given the importance of this research, AUC and UN Women propose to publish and disseminate among wide stakeholders to inform policy, programming and research in the area.

In view of developments around the area and with the view to ensuring that the background paper is contextually relevant, UN Women proposes to engage the services of an international consultant who is expected to carry out content editing of the current draft version and its accompanying policy brief as per the tasks outlined below.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will undertake the following tasks:

1. Produce high-quality (content and details) editing of the the Knowledge Product on titled  “Building on Progress, Sustaining the Gains: Young Women’s Participation in Political Processes in Africa” and accompanying policy brief.
   1. Substantive content diting using contextually relevant literature, available research studies and consolidated feedback from UN Women and AU thematic advisers
   2. Organizational editing, to clarify logic and presentation as well as in the right style for the intended audience
   3. Correcting typographical errors, punctuation, spelling, grammar and vocabulary
   4. Making corrections to ensure stylistic consistency, consistency in the use of terminologies, clarity of expression by re-writing where necessary
2. Check facts and ensure error-free texts, and raise any related queries with the researchers and the Program Officer
3. Ensure that all references and sources are accurately and consistently stipulated
4. Ensure that figures, charts, graphs, boxes and tables are correctly identified and cross-referenced in the texts, and that data from them are also accurately reflected in the document
5. Ensure that the formatting is consistent
6. Ensure correlation between the list of acronyms and their occurrence throughout the texts
7. Ensure that footnotes are consistently numbered, appropriately positioned and formatted

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Commitment to UN Women’s mission, vision, values and strategic goals.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Required Skills and Experience

Educational and experience

• Advanced degree in Social Sciences Research especially in Political Science, International Law, Gender, International Development and related fields;
• The consultant shall have at least 7 years of progressive and grounded relevant experience in national, sub-regional and regional policy advocacy, research, capacity building and programming initiatives on gender, leadership, democracy and governance in Africa.
• The consultant should have a well-established track record of conducting similar researches in the field of gender, governance, democracy and human rights in Africa;
• Experience working with intergovernmental organizations including the United Nations (UN) and African Union (AU)

Language and other skills

• Excellent knowledge of written and oral communication in English. Knowledge of French language is an asset
• Full command of Microsoft applications, particularly Word, and other relevant software.