Senior International Consultant for formulation of a Multi-year Programme for Women post conflict Peacebuilding, Reconciliation, Recovery and Resilience

Background

For several decades, the Central African Republic (CAR) has experienced recurrent crises which negatively affected the political, social and economic fabrics of the state. Poor governance, politicization of the Defense and Security Forces, weak institutions, deterioration of social and economic infrastructure (roads, bridges, energy and telecommunications), unequal distribution of resources and development dividends are among the ills that exacerbated the conflict. Several efforts have been made to restore peace, security and development. However, the successive violation of peace agreements by belligerent groups have hindered the task towards lasting stability. The consequences had negative impact on various vulnerable groups including children, elderly, handicaps and women. Women have particularly been largely targeted and victimized during the conflicts. Reports suggest that some women were enlisted in armed groups, others were reportedly displaced or kidnapped and humiliated, while others forcefully became single-parents because their husbands were fighters, away from their homes or killed during clashes.

Women’s rights continue to be abused and for instance many rural women double their efforts daily to cover the needs for drinking water during periods of scarcity, one of many factors in girls’ school dropout and victims of human trafficking. Gender inequalities remain high and there exists rampant child labor, especially young girls, and the contribution of women in the informal sector. Women's participation in economic production is assumed to be low: 74.5% for men and 58.6% for women. Gender-based violence is regularly perpetrated against women and girls, including rape, incest, sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and genital mutilation. Most female-headed households have poor access to both residential and physical assets. Confronted with the family and social demands and the visceral need for survival, over prolonged periods, their coping mechanism and resilience have eroded.

Several efforts have been made and are ongoing to promote long lasting peace and security in CAR. Over the past 7 years, several peace agreements have been signed including: the Libreville agreement (January 2013), the N’djamena declaration (April 2013), the Brazzaville Forum (July 2014) and the Sant’ Egidio agreement (June 2017) but have all fell short of implementation challenges by national stakeholders. Nevertheless, the African Initiative (led by the African Union and ECCAS) conducted consultations with local stakeholders including the Government, armed groups, civil society and neighboring countries of CAR to find amicable solutions. This process resulted in the consolidation of stakeholder demands and the acceptance of the principle of direct dialogue between the Government and the armed groups, civil society and victim associations acting as observers. At the end of this process, the Political Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation (APPR) in CAR, negotiated in Khartoum from 24 January to 5 February 2019, was signed in Bangui on 6 February 2019 by the 14-armed groups and the Government.

The agreement has renewed hopes for lasting peace in CAR, however challenges ahead remain huge in responding to the recovery needs faced by the country such as preparations for the return of IDPs and refugees, which may have lost IDs and legal documentations and whose integration may be associated with challenges in land acquisition intended for farming, residency and businesses. Local and international justice and governance mechanisms will be required to manage conflicts that arise over property rights (commercial and residential), market access, and other issues noted above. Meanwhile, with high poverty, there is a need to promote socio-economic recovery across the country, while promoting the culture of sustainable peace and social cohesion, engaging particularly for women and young population as outlined in bother the National Plan for Recovery, Peacebuilding and Reconciliation as well as the Political Accord for Peace and Reconciliation.

The APPR and the National Recovery and Peacebuilding Plan (2017/21) offer opportunities to address both structural conflict drivers but and the mitigation of current triggers that might continue to threaten long-term stability. The United Nations has developed its Assistance Framework (UNDF +) in alignment with the current socioeconomic and political context of CAR in conformity with the National Recovery and Peacebuilding Plan. Both strategic and programming framework, recognize that women are disproportionally affected by conflicts and require requisite attention in addressing their specific needs.

UN Women is mandated for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women. Its corporate, regional and national strategies focus on the following thematic areas (i) Leadership and political participation; (ii) economic empowerment; (iii) ending violence against women; (iv) humanitarian action; (v) peace and security; and governance and national planning. In this line, UNW developed “Flagship Programme” aligned with UN-Women’s Strategic Plan (2014-2017) along the following strategic impact areas: (i) women’s political empowerment, covering women leadership in politics and women’s access to justice; (ii) women’s economic empowerment, covering climate-resilient agriculture, equal opportunities for women entrepreneurships and income security and social protection; (iii) peace, security and humanitarian action; (iv) elimination of violence against women and (v) planning and budgeting. Both the Strategic Plan and it aligned flagship programmes provide a UNW-based framework ensuring gender-responsiveness in all UNW programming. 

Duties and Responsibilities

1 Purpose and Expected task of the Consultant

Considering the abovementioned context, characterized by fragility, total destruction of the country, limited the presence of local administration, lack of social services, insecurity and lack of population confidence in the capacity of the national administration and security apparatus, on one hand, and considering that over 1,9 million people are still in need of humanitarian assistance (including over 600,000 in IDP camps, 30,000 in host communities and more than 500,000 in neighbouring countries as refugees) on the hand and taking the opportunities offered by the APPR, the unfunded National Recovery and Peacebuilding Plan;  UN Women is well positioned to embark on a more holistic and comprehensive multi-year programme.

Under the direct supervision of the CAR Country Coordinator, and the overall oversight of the Deputy Regional Director, based in Dakar, UN Women is recruiting a Senior International Consultant (SIC) to develop a multi-year gender-responsive programme focusing but not limited to the following three interlinked programme areas:

1. Social and economic early recovery/stabilization: Focusing on women resilience in specific needs/areas, including the promotion of “durable solutions” for IDPs and refugees return, including access to social and economic services pertinent to women (health, water, adult literacy, micro-finance, health market etc…);
2. Women as Reconciliation and Peacemakers: Taking the Peace agreement as a framework to develop innovative way of women engagement and active participation in the monitoring and implementation of the peace agreement and implementation mechanisms. This could include all the issues related to women political participation; DDR, SSR…
3. Access to justice, including the transitional justice and reparation: This could include all the aspect of women protection, prevention of all forms of gender-based violence (addressing both the demand vs offer gaps). This could include women participation in the ongoing security sector reforms, including DDRR etc.
4. Knowledge Management, Research and Communication: In a very volatile and fragile context, changes (either positive or negative) happens rapidly ,It is important to consistently keep track and documents these changes, learn from the process and results and then inform in real time on going and future programming

More specifically, the SIC will assume the following key task

1. Conduct desk review on socio-political and economic context and how this context impact women peace, security and resilience;
2. Conduct in-country stakeholder’s consultation, including: Government officials (Ministry of Gender, Ministry of Humanitarian and National Reconciliation; Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Agriculture etc…); Development partners/potential donors (EU, Embassy of France/AFD; WB; African Development Bank, we could have also VTC with Yaoundé based embassies etc.); CSOs (mainly women organizations) and UN Agencies (UNDP, FAO, HCR, IOM, OCHA and MINUSCA DSRSGs - Peace Consolidation and RoL/Political Affairs). The purpose of SH consultation would be to assess the priority needs and define intervention based on priority areas and gap analysis;
3. Organize a workshop for key stakeholders, including UNW staff, government counterparts (TBD) and CSOs on emerging issues and programming areas;
4. Based on agreed, upon programming, areas, develop a full-fledged Multi-year Programme documents;
5. Based on the multi-year prodoc, draft a short concept note focusing on women’s IDP/refugees return (emergency/humanitarian response) in anticipation of 2019/20 Japan Supplementary Budget call for concept notes;
6. Draft Briefing Note/Talking Points for donor consultation/roadshow. (the Consultant might be invited to participate and present the programme to donors during roadshow).

2  Methodology

The assignment will be both Bangui-based and field mission for consultations for a total duration of the assignment in 30 days:

1. At least 5 days field mission for Stakeholders’ consultations for feasibility study (testing programme ideas) and focus areas/needs assessment; during this period, the consultant might be required to go in the field in one of the affected provinces depending on the prevailing security and availability of UN Flights;
2. Bangui-based 20 days. During this phase, the consultant is expected to draft the prodoc. He/she should keep contact with CAR office and RO/HQ Advisors for further guidance and information;
3. Presentation and validation of the proposed programme – 5 days. This step might be either in Bangui and/or in Dakar (to RO Management). In Bangui the presentation would be to the GoCAR/Stakeholders, including in-country Development Partners for their endorsement and lobbing for funding.

3 Expected Deliverables

1. A comprehensive and detailed Multi-year prodoc (in English); The Results and Resource Framework, including the Theory of Change (ToC) would be per components/outcome
2. Emergency/humanitarian response concept note for 2019/20 Japan Supplementary Budget (English);
3. Briefing note/talking points for GoCAR and/UNW Management roadshow (English and French).

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of gender equality and women's rights issues;
• Demonstrated ability to effectively forge partnerships with non-traditional partners, including the private sector;
• Understanding of shared-value based partnerships and individual giving a distinct advantage;
• Proven networking skills, and ability to mobilize support on behalf of UN Women;
• Proven record in projects/programme document proposal writing
• Excellent negotiating skills;
• Knowledge and understanding of UN system and familiarity with inter-governmental processes;
• Excellent IT skills, including databases, extranet and office software packages;

·Strong analytical and interpersonal skills.

Required Skills and Experience

 Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, business management, social sciences, public administration, international relations, communications, women's studies, or a related field is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Work Experience:

• At least 15 years of progressive senior programme development and management experience at the international level, particularly in strategic partnerships and pre-dominantly in post-conflict and conflict settings;
• Proven experience in successful development of partnerships, network-building, and/or resource mobilization;
• Extensive experience in clearly communicating results, evidence, and issues and in conducting research and policy analysis;
• Experience working with national/international bilateral partners on development projects/programmes;
• Experience working with private sector partners in post-conflict stabilization and development issues;
• Experience in the UN system and in the Western and Central Africa region is an advantage.
• The candidate should include a list of all the major programme documents they have produced, including donors at least in the last 3 years and references that we can contact.

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in English and French is required
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.