Individual Consultant: Assessment of the Gender Responsiveness of Measures to Prevent and Respond to COVID-19 (National)

Job Description

Location: Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA

Application Deadline: 19-Aug-20 (Midnight New York, USA)
Time left: 8d 3h 55m

Additional Category: Gender Equality

Type of Contract: Individual Contract

Post Level: National Consultant

Languages Required: English

Starting Date:(date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 24-Aug-2020

Duration of Initial Contract: 32 working days during the period August to October, 2020

Expected Duration of Assignment: 32 working days during the period August to October, 2020

Background

The new strain of corona virus, named COVID-19, was first discovered in the city of Wuhan, China in January 2020. As of August 5, the virus has reached 216 countries with 18,354,342 confirmed cases and 696,147 total deaths globally . The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated Covid-19 as a pandemic. In addition to the increasing number of people affected by the virus, the pandemic has completely changed the social and economic fabric of the affected communities. Governments have been taking different measures to prevent and respond to the pandemic. These measures have ranged from travel restrictions, closure of schools, workplaces and business to complete lockdowns and stay at home orders.
Although the corona virus and the pandemic affect both men and women, evidence has shown that there are gendered differences. There is increasing evidence coming out that women are disproportionately affected by the pandemic than men. Every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID 19 are exacerbated for women and girls by virtue of their sex.
Compounded economic impacts are felt especially by women who generally earn less, save less, hold less secure jobs, and are more likely to be employed in the informal sector. Women also have less access to social protections and are the majority of single-parent households. Women’s capacity to absorb economic shocks is less than that of men due to lack of options that allows them to cope up with human made and natural disaster.
The health of women is adversely impacted through the reallocation of resources and priorities, including sexual and reproductive health services. Pregnant women are not getting the prenatal, perinatal and postpartum health care they need.
Unpaid care work has increased for women with children out-of-school, heightened care needs of older persons and overwhelmed health services. Many women may end up putting the needs of their families above their own, which effects their mental health and physical well-being.
Gender-based violence is increasing exponentially as COVID-19 deepens economic and social stress for families, coupled with restricted movement and social isolation measures. The pandemic has increased women’s unpaid care and domestic responsibilities taking care of the sick and childcare due to school closures. Data from different countries is indicating an increase in the number of gender-based violence especially domestic violence, sexual exploitation and harmful traditional practices such as child marriage. Some countries such as France, Cyprus and Singapore have documented 30-33% increases in reports of domestic violence cases since the pandemic started.
In Ethiopia, since the first case of Covid-19 was reported in March 2020, the number of confirmed cases has been rising first at a slow then at a much faster pace, with cases and number of cases showing increases from week to week. On August 5, the number of confirmed cases has climbed to 20,336 with 356 total death reported. The government has taken different measures to prevent the pandemic and mitigate the negative impact. In addition to preventive measures including issuing a state of emergency, travel restrictions, mandatory quarantines requirements, duty to wear protective masks, different organizations are also passing decisions planned on easing the negative impact of the pandemic on businesses and the population. Moreover, the government has been taking coordinated measures to mitigate the economic and social impact on the community, under a Ministerial Task Force and other coordinating platforms established for the purpose.
UN Women in collaboration with partners within the government and civil society has been supporting initiatives which will alleviate the negative impact of the pandemic on women including in the prevention, protection and response to violence against women; provision of food and sanitary items and personal protective equipment; support for women whose income has been affected and awareness creation on the pandemic and its disproportionate impact on women. Considering the unavailability of gender disaggregated data to effect evidence based advocacy, UN Women in collaboration with Ministry of Women, Children and Youth (MoWCY) and UN Women Eastern and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) is undertaking a survey which is aimed at assessing the impacts of COVID-19 on women and men including income, sanitation, health and safety and domestic responsibilities. In addition, it is also necessary to assess the gender responsiveness of the response efforts to ensure that gender is properly mainstreamed into the prevention, response and recovery measures that the government, Civil Society Organizations and international organizations are currently undertaking and are planning as part of COVID-19 related support.
Given the gravity and multifaceted nature of the pandemic on women and girls, preparedness and response plans need to have a strong gender dimension to guide strategic interventions at National level and recognize the specific and intersectional needs of the most vulnerable populations of women and girls. Based on the outcomes of the assessment UN Women and the Ministry also intend to provide training to sector representatives on gender responsive disaster response from COVID 19 perspective. This TOR is prepared to guide the recruitment of international consultant who will work in collaboration with a national consultant to support this assessment and the subsequent training.

Duties and Responsibilities

UN Women will recruit an international and national consultant for the assignment. While the consultants are expected to work as a team and are jointly responsible for the final assessment report, and they may share tasks among themselves, the national consultant will in particular have the following main tasks and responsibilities,

• Review of laws, plans, regulations, directives and other relevant documents issued to prevent and respond to the pandemic and as part of the recovery efforts
• Designing, testing and finalizing the qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and data collection tools in collaboration with the international consultant and translating to Amharic as necessary
• Collection and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data through electronic surveys and interview on response efforts
• Conducting interviews with relevant ministries to cross check the findings from major donors/players
• Presentation of findings and recommendations to relevant stakeholders
• Identification of training needs on gender responsiveness of the prevention, response and recovery efforts
• Supporting the development of a training manual for virtual capacity building
• Undertaking of virtual capacity building platform using a well-developed training manual and tools

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling UN Women values and ethical standards.
• Demonstrates a commitment to UN Women’s mission and vision.
• Able to work effectively within a team.
• Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability.
• Able to multi-task and juggle competing demands.
• Can assess and prioritize work needs quickly.
• Able to relate to external partners, including other international organizations and agencies, NGOs, grassroots community groups, etc.

Functional Competencies

• Sound expertise in gender equality and women’s empowerment, including in the mainstreaming of gender
• Communications or knowledge management experience an advantage.
• Academic and practical research experience.
• Outstanding networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills.
• Capacity to work with diverse partners including governments, donors and civil society.
• Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with people from varied cultures and professional backgrounds
• Ability to produce well-written documents demonstrating excellent interpersonal communication skills.

Experience in preparing training materials and conducting trainings

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in Economics, Law, Gender Studies, Sociology, development studies, International Relations, or relevant field and/or equivalent practical experience

Experience

• More than 5 years’ experience in development work and particularly on issues of gender mainstreaming, especially in emergency context and comprehensive background in consultancy work on gender equality and women’s empowerment
• Experience in conducting quantitative and qualitative data analysis and synthesizing information into concise, analytical written documents.
• Ability to carry out gender focused research and analysis that are able to contribute to the formulation of policies, procedures and guidelines on gender equality and the empowerment of women.
• Experience working with Governments and non-governmental organizations and knowledge of their working procedures
• Ability to establish and maintain productive relationships with partners and other stakeholder’s and responds positively to critical feedbacks and differing points of view.
• Demonstrated ability to produce well written, well researched and high-quality reports is essential.
• Experience in the preparation of training materials and facilitation of training on gender mainstreaming and conducting trainings

Language

• Fluency in oral and written English and Amharic is required.
• Working knowledge of other local languages is an asset.

NOTE
Interested individuals must submit their applications online through UN Women Online Recruitment System and must submit the following documents demonstrating their interest and qualification to conduct the assignment through email to: Bezawit Bekele at bezawit.bekele@unwomen.org CC: Esete Berile at esete.berile@unwomen.org
Technical Proposal - Two-page methodology (full methodology will form part of inception report if selected)
Financial Proposal - The prospective consultants will indicate all-inclusive lump sum contract amount for the assignment in USD per delivery/output

The term “All inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal. However, UN Women will cover the logistics costs for administering the training and necessary costs for the participants of the training.

Applicants should note that failure to fully comply with the application process and submit all required documentation will lead to disqualification.