By continuing to browse this site, you agree to our use of cookies. Read our privacy policy

National Consultant: Contextualization and development of Women Candidates Training Manual

Addis Ababa

  • Organization: UNWOMEN - United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
  • Location: Addis Ababa
  • Grade: Consultancy - National Consultant - Locally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Women's Empowerment and Gender Mainstreaming
    • Education, Learning and Training
    • Documentation and Information Management
  • Closing Date: Closed

Background

As the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN Women’s vision is of a world in which women and men have equal opportunities and capacities, where women are empowered and where principles of gender equality are firmly embedded in all efforts to advance development, peace and security. Globally, UN Women works to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s) a reality for women and girls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems; women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy; all women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence and ensure that women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience, and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action. In Ethiopia, UN Women is working on four priority areas: increasing women’s participation and representation in leadership, ending violence against women and girls; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting.

UN Women Ethiopia works to implement goal one of UN Women global Strategic Plan 2018-21 ‘women lead and participate in decision-making at all levels’ supporting governance systems as instrumental to achieving  gender equality and women’s empowerment. Research shows that women’s increased political participation and leadership results from a confluence of factors, including removal of legal and logistical barriers; implementation of supportive frameworks; promotion of women’s leadership through political party reform; support of CSOs and a positive shift in societal gender norms. Accordingly, women’s full and effective leadership at all levels of decision-making requires a four-pronged strategy: (1) Support development and implementation of robust legal frameworks and administrative arrangements that facilitate women’s participation (2) Expand the pool of qualified and capable women to run for election, (3) Transform gender norms so that women are accepted as legitimate and effective leaders. (4) Support women leaders in gender-sensitive political institutions, including parliament, political parties and 

Electoral Management Bodies (EMB’s), to attract, promote and retain women leaders, and highlight the constructive contribution they make to decision-making.

Aligned with this strategy, UN Women Ethiopia's women in leadership program aims to contribute to the overall goal of increasing the effective participation and representation of women in leadership, particularly focusing on the legislative and executive branch of the Government. UN Women Ethiopia has partnered with National Electoral Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) on the project titled “Support for Inclusive and Gender Responsive Electoral Process”  A key component of the project is the provision of technical support to the NEBE, the national electoral management body, and capacity building support to political parties as main vehicle for women’s election to office with a view to enhance their capacity to promote gender balance in politics and become more gender sensitive institutions. Political parties can do this by nominating more women candidates to stand for election; adopting voluntary, gender-sensitive reforms to internal party processes and statutes; devising and implementing gender-sensitive policies and strategic plans.

In Ethiopia, there is a significant improvement in the number of women attaining leadership positions. Conducive normative framework combined with the political will of the ruling party, Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front, to set aside a voluntary internal quota during national and local elections has enabled this gain. Particularly, following the 2015 elections Ethiopia surpassed the 30 percent core minimum representation threshold set at the global level by achieving a 38.8 percent representation in the House of Peoples Representative (Parliament). Also, Ethiopia achieved parity at the highest level of executive leadership where now the council of ministers have 50% female leadership. While the gender gap in leadership at the upper most levels of power seems to have been narrowed, it remains a critical issue in the country in every aspect including in leadership at various decision-making positions (in the civil service at federal level and in regional and local administrations); women’s low socio-economic and political status and participation in society remains a reality. At the same time, negative stereotypes towards women’s leadership role, lack of awareness regarding gender equality and the human rights of women are critical challenges observed at every level i.e. institutional, societal, community and individual level. 

There are around 132 political parties in Ethiopia that are expected to take part in the 2020 general election. On a recent interview held with the chairperson of NEBE it was noted that there are only one or two women in leadership position among 100 plus political parties in Ethiopia, indicating women’s participation in politics and decision-making mechanisms are much less and it is critical to increase women’s engagement. To tackle this challenge, NEBE in collaboration with UN Women Ethiopia organized two successive capacity building trainings for women members and leaders of political parties in Ethiopia.

Lack of contextualized standard training materials i.e. training curriculum, facilitators guide and learner’s handbook that could adequately guide resource persons to deliver and measure the impact of training content and lack of pool of trainers in the areas are among the challenges noted during the undertaking of the trainings. In order to fill these gaps, UN Women Ethiopia in collaboration with NEBE is seeking to hire two consultants (national and international) to develop and pilot training materials for women members and leaders of political parties. This TOR therefore is developed to guide the hiring of the national consultant.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of UN Women Ethiopia Women in Leadership and Governance Program Specialist and in close collaboration with NEBE, the consultants will undertake the following tasks:     

  • Undertake rapid capacity building needs assessment from sample political party female and male members to inform contextualization of training materials
  • Review and contextualize, based on the result of the needs assessment, relevant UN Women’s Training Materials including training curriculum and facilitators guide for women political candidates
  • Develop training curriculum, facilitators guide, learners guide, PPT presentations, Training Agenda, post and pre training assessment forms in English for later translation in to Amharic and other local vernaculars
  • Prepare a short report in the entire process, identify challenges and lessons learnt together with concrete recommendations on a way forward.

Competencies

  • Strong knowledge of UN programming and policy development;
  • Knowledge of gender issues and analytical work in international development;
  • Experience in results-based management and training;
  • Familiarity and previous experience in implementing gender markers;
  • Strong knowledge on gender mainstreaming, gender responsive planning and budgeting;
  • Experience in research and compilation of information to show results desired;
  • Excellent communication, writing skills, and analytical skills;
  • Sensitivity, understanding of diversity, work as a team.

Compliance to the UN Core Values:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women;
  • 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

Education

  • Advanced Degree in Social Sciences, Development Studies, Law, Human rights, Politics, Gender, Women studies or other relevant field and with formal research and analytical skills

Experience

  • Five years of experience working in the area of women’s rights, gender equality, women's empowerment and women's participation and representation in leadership and politics
  • Specific technical knowledge of training aspirant and vying women members of political parties in addition to strategies to enhance the equal participation and effective representation of women in leadership and politics
  • Experience in working with UN agencies or international organizations working to enhance the political participation of women is an asset
  • Excellent facilitation and communication skills
  • Experience with focus group discussions and key informant interview
  • Ability to deal with multi-stakeholder groups; as well as displaying cultural sensitivity
  • Ability to write training materials; as well as excellent writing skills (in English)
  • Experience in quantitative and qualitative data collection methods
  • Willingness and ability to travel to the different regions of the country to speak with political party members
  • Ability to work in a team.

Language

  • High proficiency in English
  • Fluent in Amharic and knowledge of additional local language is an asset.
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
This vacancy is now closed.
However, we have found similar vacancies for you: