Afghanistan: 62728 - Consultant to Develop Briefing Paper for CSW60- Attaining Sustainable Development Goals and Gender Equality in Afghanistan-SSA

Background:

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.

UN Women is dedicated to advance gender equality and women’s human rights in Afghanistan. Staff and consultants of UN Women Afghanistan are expected to contribute to a professional working environment in which the strengthening of national capacities and human potential is prioritized. Respect for diversity and human dignity is required, as is the active pursuit of a collaborative and inclusive approach to both internal and external stakeholders, including colleagues and partners.

The 60th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women will be organized during 14-24 March 2015, at UN Headquarters in New York. This year’s theme for CSW60 is, ‘women’s empowerment and its links with Sustainable Development Goals’, and the review theme for this year will be ‘Elimination and Prevention of Violence Against women’, based on the outcomes of the CSW57. Afghanistan has been a regular participant in the CSW events on regular basis in recent past. With the CSW60, Ministry of Women Affairs, and the other line ministries would like to undertake a more proactive role, thereby, lead a side event, ‘Women rights achievements and fear to lose them: women participation in the peace process; State and International Community responsibility’, and also share about the current discourse around gender equality and women’s rights in Afghanistan.

For this purpose, The CSW side event organizing committee, and UN Women would like to produce briefing papers to provide a broad overview of the country’s achievements, challenges and opportunities to attain the Sustainable Development Goals, and a set of recommendations for the State and the international community so as to positively contribute to attaining the SDGs.

A set of two papers is envisaged, i.e. (i) Planet 30/30: Status of Afghanistan vis a vis Sustainable Development Goals – achievement, challenges and priority policy actions, and (ii) Planet 30/30: Status of Afghanistan vis a vis attaining the Goal 5 (Gender Equality) of the SDGs.

An external expert is sought through this call to prepare two 4 to 5 page each briefing papers for the two subjects mentioned above.Description of Responsibilities :

Scope of Work

In light of the above, the Consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Draft two briefing papers on the assigned issue, incorporating a socio-legal perspective. The brief should also include where appropriate, examples of how and where the legislative reforms are needed for further action by the MoJ, MoWA, and other relevant line ministries;


• The briefing paper should base the paper on the global articulation of the SDG aspiration, status of MDG implementation in Afghanistan, followed by situational analysis of achievements, challenges and opportunities for Afghanistan to attain the SDGs as deemed by the global commitments;


• The brief should be developed in close consultation with the UN Women team in Afghanistan.

Deliverables:

• Submission of an outline of briefing paper for approval by UN Women;


• Submission of first draft with inputs from UN Women team;


• Submission of final version, incorporating previous recommendations/amendments/additional feedback from UN Women.

Timeframes and Institutional Arrangements

The consultant will be engaged for a maximum of 5 working days within 20 days for each of the papers. The contract is based on fees per day tied to satisfactory achievement of deliverables as per the scope of assignment and deliverables table. Payments will be made upon receipt of deliverable reports, certified by supervisor and approved by the Country Representative.

Application process

All interested candidates should apply online through the given link

He/she must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate the qualifications:

• Cover letter: (not more than 450 words) explaining their suitability for the work and a brief description of approach to work/methodology;


• Financial proposal: indicate fee per day;


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  Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references and signed UN Women P11 form.Competencies :

  
  


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  Ability to work under pressure and follow deadlines;

  
  


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  Strong and proven integrity;

  
  


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  Demonstrated sensitivity, discretion, tact and courtesy in relation to gender equality and women’s rights, development principles and projects;

  
  


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  Commitment to upholding the organizational values and principles of UN Women Afghanistan.Qualifications :

  
  

Education:

• Master’s Degree or Doctorate in Gender, Human Rights, Social Science and other relevant studies with a minimum of 4 years of experience in applied research.

Experience:

• Minimum 4 years experience in the field of Islamic/shari’a law and gender justice;


• Sound knowledge of national, regional and international standards on women’s rights and related instruments;


• Proven evidence (i.e. publications/research) in relevant issues a strong asset;


• Familiarity with MDGs, SDGs and discourse on the same in Afghanistan.

Language:

• Professional fluency in written and spoken English.