National Consultant-Developing Regional Gender Strategy and Coordination Framework along Humanitarian Development and Peace nexus for Bureau of Women Children and Youth Affairs Office of Somali Regional State (BOWCYA) of Ethiopia.

Job Description

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works 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.

Somali region experienced severe droughts, worsened by climate change, conflicts and poverty, resulting chronic food insecurity and displacements. 3.9 million people in the region will require emergency food assistance in 2023 (WFP). According to DTM R34, there are over 1 million IDPs in the Somali region, 49% of them are women and girls. In the Somali region, 85% of population depends on climate sensitive livelihoods, particularly pastoralism and rainfed crop production. Women constitutes 45.6% of the Somali region’s population, nearly 85.6% of whom live in the rural areas as per the FDRE CSA population projection of Ethiopia 2014-2017. The contribution of rural women to the Somali regional state economy is enormous, as women constitute 70% of the workforce in agriculture, a sector that contributes, the largest contributor (69.6%) of the Somali region’s IDP as per the ten year’s development plan of Somali region 2021-2030. According to a gender study conducted by Oxfam in 2017 in the Somali region, the loss of livelihood and increased debt had a greater impact on women compared to men. Gender norms hinder women’s resilience capacity, as they face challenges in accessing finance and assets. Moreover, Dyer rains started in the zone in October, but the heaviest fall occurred on 27 to 29 of Oct 2023 and again on the 2nd of November 2023 heavy rainfall which covered all woredas of the zone recurred.

Floods have caused widespread destruction and displacement in Somali, Oromia, Southern Nations Nationalities & Peoples’, Southwest Ethiopia Peoples’ and Afar regions. More than 35,000 households are displaced whereby over 80% of them were women and girls including others with protection needs (PSN), 45 human lives lost, over 23,000 livestock perished, and more than 99,000 hectares of farmland destroyed in Somali Region alone. (OCHA, 12 May 2023).

Thousands of people displaced by floods brought on by the Belg/Gu rains from March to May 2024 are still waiting for assistance in the Somali Region. Furthermore, very limited response (ESNFI) has reached communities (about 2,000HHs) out of the more than 37,000 (F27,750&M9,250) flood affected households in the region. Shabelle Zone, is heavily impacted by recent floods with over 67,000 hectares of crop land damaged, the pause in food aid, and inflated food prices especially in cereals (by an estimated 35 per cent) due to growing imbalance between supply and demand among affected populations, and negatively affecting those struggling to recover from consecutive droughts. (OCHA, 03 Jul 2023).

Mersha, A.A, and van Laerhoven, F (2016). A gender approach to understanding the differentiated impact of barriers to adaptation: responses to climate change in rural Ethiopia.

Therefore, for better coordination of gender programming during development peace and humanitarian programming that consider the agency and special needs of women and girls in the Somali region, UN Women has been working in the development of the regional gender strategy in humanitarian action and coordination framework that will addresses the multi-faceted gender related impacts and responses that results from both man-made and natural catastrophes in the region. The Bureau of Women Children and Youth Affairs (BoWCYA) of Somali region with the support of UN Women is seeking for a national consultancy service to develop a specific gender strategy in humanitarian action and coordination framework for gender specific humanitarian development peace nexus interventions in the region.

GENERAL OBJECTIVE

Somali Region Bureau of Women children and Youth Affair (BoWCYA), as a lead government body that identifies strategic and direct needs of women and girls, design plans, strategies, and policies to address the needs of women and girls and coordinates gender specific responses in the region requires a post-conflict gender strategy. The gender strategy in humanitarian action shall identify the post-conflict priority needs of women and girls in the region, articulate strategic intervention areas and resource mobilization mechanisms, and define response and intervention coordination approaches and frameworks across the region. In addition, the strategy shall identify capacity gaps and capacity building needs of the BOWCYA, women led rights organization (WLOs/WROs) and other civil society organizations operating in the region.

Duties and Responsibilities

OVERALL TASK AND FUNCTIONS

Expected outcome of the consultancy is the development of a comprehensive gender strategy in Humanitarian action with a coordination framework and an action plan reflecting gender as a major as well as cross-cutting issue in humanitarian and development actions through revitalizing with the Ethiopian Humanitarian gender strategy (EHCT), and provide guidance for embedding, monitoring, and therefore realizing the outcomes of the strategic plan and its implementation plan. Therefore, the consultant will:

Carry out a literature review of past gender strategy documents of the Somali regional state and national (Ethiopian Humanitarian country team Gender Strategy), Ethiopian Gender roadmap, strategic documents on gender amongst others; and hold consultations with various actors at regional level to understand the current realities both manmade and natural calamities, in the region.
Submit an inception report outlining preliminary findings from consultations and documentation review and methodology for carrying out the task with a clear gender mainstreaming theory of change (TOC),
Present an outline of the Gender Strategy, Coordination framework, Action Plan, incorporating the inputs from the BoWCYA, Bureau of disaster risk management commission (DRMC), stakeholders from government sectors, UN Women, UN sister agencies, regional ICCG/OCHA, CSOs, WRO/WLO.
Submit a first draft of the strategy and time-bound action plan (costed) and presentation during a validation workshop with BOWCYA, stakeholders from government sectors, UN Women, UN sister agencies, CSO, WRO/WLO, and
And submit a well-crafted Gender strategy in Humanitarian action, coordination framework, an action plan that is costed incorporating comments on the first draft.
Skills and Qualifications
Competencies

Core Values:

Respect for Diversity
Integrity
Professionalism
Core Competencies:

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
Accountability
Creative Problem Solving
Effective Communication
Inclusive Collaboration
Stakeholder Engagement
Leading by Example
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

The consultant should have a demonstrated experience related to drafting strategy, program management of gender equality, general protection and gender analysis, gender mainstreaming or women empowerment policies.
Practical experience in gender assessments; and commitment to post-conflict social and economic empowerment of women and poverty reduction.
Experience, awareness and sensitive to different cultural contexts and social norms
Required Skills and Experience

Education

Should hold MA/MSc/Mphil/ or PhD degree in Development Study, Gender and Development, Human Rights, International Cooperation and Humanitrian Aid, Public Adminstration, Project Management, Economics, Social work, Social Policy, or Sociology.
Experience

Over 10 years of practical hand on experiences preferably in gender and gender-based analysis, protection analysis in the country/ the region, preparation and delivery of gender equality and equity strategies at both program and institutional/organizational levels.
Experience on gender equality and women empowerment; experience in gender mainstreaming and gedner integration through out the humanitarian programme cycle (HPC) in enterprise related projects (both with government and non-government) is an added advantage.
Sound familiarity with the context in Somali region.
A proven track record of effectively carrying out or delivering assignments on time, working with government, non-governmental organizations, community-based organizations, international non-governmental organizations, UN agencies, and preferably with BoWCYA, RDRMC, and civil society organizations based in Somali region.
Languages:

The consultant team must be able to fluently undertake the required services in English and Af-Somali (both writing and speaking).
knowledge of the current regional context is a mandatory.
How to apply
Personal CV or P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc )
A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)
Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns, or other materials.
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