National Leading Expert on strengthening cooperation between ministries and departments on transformative change to prevent SGBV/VAWG institutionally (NATIONAL LEADING EXPERT)

Background

UN Women, the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women has been created to accelerate up the process of meeting the needs of women and girls across the world. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life.

Programme Description:  The Spotlight Initiative (SI), funded by European Union, comes at a key moment in Tajikistan, bringing the resources to leverage the increasing political will to strengthen institutions and to engage civil society to significantly increase and expand on the Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG) efforts done to date. Building on European Union’s (EU) “commitment to gender equality, human rights, the empowerment of women and girls and the eradication of gender based violence” it will contribute to a new way of collaborating to fill important legal gaps and institutional needs and change the norms and perceptions that will address root causes of SGBV and prevent VAWG in Tajikistan, while supporting women and girls survivors of violence, in a holistic and impact-oriented manner.

The overall vision of the Spotlight Initiative in Tajikistan is that women and girls enjoy their right to a life free of violence. The programme will contribute to the elimination of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) by responding to the needs of women and girls and addressing the underlying causes of violence against women and girls using a multi-sectoral and intersectional approach across the ecological model.

The Spotlight Initiative will accelerate Tajikistan's progress toward reaching its targets under the 2030 Agenda, particularly regarding SDG 5 on Gender Equality, but also SDG 3 “Health and Well-Being”, SDG 4 “Quality Education”, SDG 10 “Reduced Inequalities”, SDG 16 “Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions”, and SDG 17 on “Partnerships”. It will contribute to the National Development Strategy for the period from 2016 to 2030 and the Mid-term Development Programme for the period 2016-2020 and reinforce Tajikistan’s implementation of its commitments under the Beijing Platform for Action, the Concluding Observations of the CEDAW Committee, among other obligations.

The Programme is grounded on the core principle of leaving no one behind and reaching the furthest behind first.

In Tajikistan, despite the adoption of the Law of RT “On prevention of violence in the family” (2013), which is considered a progressive step in addressing violence against women and girls (VAWG), and the National Action Plan (NAP) on implementation of abovementioned law (2014-2023), Tajikistan does not yet have strong coordination and accountability mechanisms to promote gender equality and address sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). The limited role of responsible bodies to lead responsibility for prevention and response to SGBV is one of the problems of the SGBV coordination. In addition, these important legislative and policy measures have been undermined by lack of funding and serious institutional capacity gaps, impeding effective implementation. Both the Law and the NAP “fail to attribute clear tasks to each of agencies leading to weak coordination between the ministries it enumerates. The Action Plan does not specify deadlines for implementation or specific indicators for measuring impact and progress”.[1]

Institutional capacities: The systematic and generalized lack of knowledge and skills for consideration of gender issues and lack of critical thinking about the stereotypes and biases limit the capacity of national institutions in the justice, social, statistics, law enforcement and health sectors, employment-related institutions and at the community level to plan and implement programmes that prevent and respond to VAWG. The insufficient understanding of VAWG and gender equality issues by the law enforcement bodies and civil servants - and the attitudes of these individuals towards women and girls in general (and survivors of violence in particular) – limits the efforts and investment in the elimination of VAWG. Institutional strengthening requires a review of attitudes among civil servants towards VAWG, and CSOs highlighted the urgency for systematic and consistent training on EVAWG as a vital factor for increasing effectiveness in the elimination of VAWG.

The Spotlight Tajikistan Programme aims to effect change at the individual and inter-personal level, while shifting institutional practices and social norms which are more gender equitable and supporting legal and policy improvements and enforcement of existing legislation on VAWG, in line with international human rights standards.

Developing a comprehensive training package on gender mainstreaming, SGBV and transformative leadership – based on existing materials from the UN Family and other key development partners (such as the SDC/PVF) and according to the capacity assessment that will be conducted during the project baseline (not in this assignment) - for the capacity building of key ministries, agencies, parliament. Considering the need to mainstream and act with one voice and coordinated messages, this will include a Training of Trainers course to key partners and UN Agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA) as well in support of institutional strengthening in EVAW across stakeholders. Using the training package developed and based on the capacity assessment conducted, UN agencies- SI implementing partners will support the capacity development and institutional strengthening of the key ministries and committees- Ministry of Justice of RT (MoJ),  Ministry of Internal Affairs of RT (MoIA), RT Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of RT (MHSPP),  Ministry of Education and Science of RT (MoES) and the Committee on women and family affairs under the Government of RT (CWFA).

Using the training package developed by UN Women experts and based on the capacity assessment conducted, engaged UN agencies (UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and UN Women) will support the capacity development and institutional strengthening of the following key ministries, based on RUNOS’ mandates and entry points:

• UN Women will arrange training for MoES, MoHSP and CoWFA
• UNDP will arrange training for MoJ, MoIA (including the Police), and judiciary, aiming to develop a gender mainstreaming strategy (incorporated into existing internal documents) that will promote increased access of women to decision-making positions and support the development of accountability and monitoring mechanisms.

The educational program should help to foster proactive leadership from senior officials, including through setting effective systems, coordination and coherence of state efforts at vertical and horizontal levels; and support creation the functional platforms for collaboration with women’s human rights advocates and CSOs. Ministries and agencies will be supported in undertaking gender assessment of institutional capacities to address EVAWG and training and support will be delivered to selected key stakeholders. This training and support will be provided based on a package to be developed in consultation with these stakeholders and with participation from CSOs, which will then be delivered by the UN implementing agencies with best entry points into each ministry and agency (therefore leveraging their experience).

This intervention aims to ensure not only that key officials are better able to develop and deliver evidence-based programmes that prevent and respond to VAWG (especially for those groups of women and girls facing intersecting and multiple forms of discrimination), but also that these trainings are institutionalized.

In a first stage this individual awareness and institutional strengthening will operate mainly at the national level, engaging high-level duty bearers responsible for upholding the laws and supporting primarily women and girls at risk of SGBV. Finally, these efforts aim to support the institutionalization and effective and impactful operation of a multi-stakeholder coordination group at the national level, which will be refined in consultation with the Committee on women and family affairs under the Government of RT and key stakeholders.

UN Women in Tajikistan seeks for National Leading Expert on strengthening cooperation between ministries and departments on transformative change to prevent SGBV/VAWG institutionally (NATIONAL LEADING EXPERT).

[1] Women’s UN Report Network - Domestic violence in Tajikistan: time to right the wrongs, available at https://wunrn.com/2017/03/tajikistan-domestic-violence-report-many-victims-not-protected-or-supported/

Duties and Responsibilities

During this assignment, the incumbent will contribute to the strengthening institutional capacities through a holistic and integrated approach that includes: capacity needs assessment, development of a comprehensive educational package “Strengthening cooperation between ministries and departments on leadership transformation to achieve the goals of promoting the principles of gender equality and the elimination of gender-based violence”, testing the training programme with representatives of key state bodies: (1) Ministry of Justice of RT, (2) Ministry of Internal Affairs of RT, (3) RT Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of RT, (4) Ministry of Education and Science of RT, and (5) Committee on Women and Family Affairs under the Government of RT; conducting full-fledged training for 3 state agencies (Staff of CWFA GRT, MHSPP RT and MoES RT); and provision of TOT for engaged UN Agencies.

The scheme of work is seen as the following (also see Annex A. The scheme of cooperation):

1. National Leading Expert leads the entire process and is responsible for all final products of the assignment;
2. National Leading Expert coordinates and manages the work of 5 Local Sectorial Specialists; Local Sectorial Specialists are accountable to National Leading Expert;
3. National Leading Expert consults 5 focal points assigned by the Government, representing related state agencies.

The objective of this assignment is aimed to:

1. Deepen understanding and awareness of the partners concerning the principles of gender transformative programming in specific EVAW context to advance the rights and realities of specific groups of women and the obligations of the State Party in promoting and protecting women’s human rights in Tajikistan;
2. To contribute to improvement of internal gender policies of the institutions;
3. To catalyze strengthening of the state institutions’ coordination and collaboration on elimination of violence against women and girls’ issues.

a.            Scope of Work

Working in close cooperation with the representatives of related state sectors 1) Ministry of Justice of RT, (2) Ministry of Internal Affairs of RT, (3) RT Ministry of Health and Social Protection of the Population of RT, (4) Ministry of Education and Science of RT, and (5) Committee on Women and Family Affairs under the Government of RT; as well as consulting with UN Women, UNICEF, UNFPA and UNDP representatives engaged in Spotlight Initiative Programme,  the National Leading Expert will be responsible for the following:

• Assigning relevant tasks to 5 sectorial groups (see in the table below);
• Preparing institutional needs assessment instrument(s) in collaboration with hired by UN Women local sectorial specialists;
• Supporting sectorial specialists and assigned focal points of the ministries and committee to conduct the needs assessment (survey) in 5 state bodies on EVAW/ elimination of SGBV issues;
• Mapping institutional learning and procedural needs;
• Facilitating consultations with 5 sectors;
• Conducting focus groups’ discussions with related vulnerable populations that received services in indicated 5 sectorial bodies;
• Developing comprehensive educational package “Strengthening cooperation between ministries and departments on leadership transformation to achieve the goals of promoting the principles of gender equality and the elimination of gender-based violence”;
• Testing the module with support of assigned focal points of sectorial bodies and with hired 5 sectorial specialists;
• Provision of trainings for staff of 3 state bodies (shown in the table below);
• Provision of a Training of Trainers’ course to UN Agencies in support of institutional strengthening in EVAW across key institutions.

b. Expected deliverables and payment procedures:

Deliverables	Responsible from state side	Responsible from project side	Delivery dates
Action plan with tasks for 5 working groups (WGs) is submitted to UN Women. Each WG consists of: 25 persons from each engaged state agency) from 4 ministries and 1 committee 1 official representative of each agency as responsible contact points (5 focal points) 1 UN Women’ hired sectorial specialist (5 specialists in total)	Government of RT (GoT)	UN Women	13 February 2020
Draft Questionnaire or similar institutional needs assessment tool is submitted to UN Women		National Lead Expert (with support of hired sectorial specialists)	15 February 2020
Support is provided on organizing an assessment of staff needs through questionnaires of state agencies through 5 officially assigned focal points representing different sectors among 125 employees of these ministries and departments, (i.e. 25 respondents from each government agency)	With support of 5 hired sectorial specialists, and 5 focal points representing different sectors, assigned by GoT	National Lead Expert (with support of hired sectorial specialists)	Tbc, planned by 25 February 2020
Report on Needs assessment and mapping of capacity (125 respondents, by 25 from each of 5 structures) is submitted to UN Women	With support of 5 hired sectorial specialists, and 5 focal points representing different sectors, assigned by GoT	National Lead Expert (with support of hired sectorial specialists)	Planned by 29 February 2020
Minutes on technical consultations with 5 working groups by sectors submitted to UN Women	With support of 5 hired sectorial specialists, and 5 focal points representing different sectors, assigned by GoT	National Lead Expert (with support of hired sectorial specialists)	Planned by 29 February 2020
Report is submitted to UN Women on conducted 10 focus groups discussion (FGDs) regarding satisfaction of service users by provided state services on response to violence	With participation of responsible focal points assigned by the GoT	National Lead Expert (with support of hired sectorial specialists)	Planned by 2 March 2020
A comprehensive educational package “Strengthening cooperation between ministries and departments on leadership transformation to achieve the goals of promoting the principles of gender equality and the elimination of gender-based violence” is submitted to UN Women with the content of the general part, sectorial chapters and training module for trainers.		National Lead Expert (with support of hired sectorial specialists)	Planned by 5 March 2020
Report is submitted to UN Women on testing the training package among the control group for representatives of 5 sectorial working groups (25 participants, 5 people from each group) and providing feedback and recommendations to the main developer	With participation of responsible focal points assigned by the GoT	National Lead Expert (with support of hired sectorial specialists)	10 March 2020
Final version of educational package is submitted to UN Women		National Lead Expert (with support of hired sectorial specialists)	15 March 2020
Report on conducted 3 trainings to: Staff of CWFA GRT Staff of MHSPP RT Staff of MoES RT Is submitted to UN Women		National Lead Expert (with support of hired sectorial specialists)	25 March 2020
Report is provided to UN Women on conducted TOT for UN Agencies, engaged to the Spotlight Initiative Programme (UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, UN Women) for their further work with the state structures		National Lead Expert (with support of hired sectorial specialists)	25 March 2020

 

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Possesses the ability to work independently, under pressure and meet deadlines;
• Good knowledge of technical area;
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail;
• Experience in report writing.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced degree in gender issues, humanities, legal studies, human rights.

Working Experience:

• At least 5 years of practical experience in provision of interactive training to adult audience as a trainer/facilitator on institutional capacity building (including processes/ procedures/ home-workflow on gender policies);
• At least 5 years of experience in developing learning needs assessment tools and /or educational tools.
• Knowledge of the public administration, business processes of state structures on how to ensure that the related state sector has the operational ability to effectively respond to SGBV, f. ex. system-wide investments in institutional capacities, skills and knowledge of personnel to respond to incidents, protect victims, and investigate and refer cases, and placing accountability mechanism, incl. oversight mechanisms, recruitment criteria;
• Previous experience with UN or International agencies considered an asset;

Knowledge of languages:

• Proficient in written and oral Russian language; Tajik language is an asset.