International Consultant on Women’s Access to Justice

Location :	Cairo, EGYPT
Application Deadline :	08-Sep-15
Type of Contract :	Individual Contract
Post Level :	International Consultant
Languages Required :	English
Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)	15-Sep-2015
Duration of Initial Contract :	5 Months

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 Egypt Country Office is based in Cairo, and works in the following priority areas: Leadership and Political Participation; Economic Empowerment; Ending Violence Against Women; Governance and National Planning. As UN Women increases its support to the national women’s machinery and relevant state authorities to improve accessibility of judicial remedies and processes for women, it is timely to support the National Council for Women to undertake a comprehensive baseline and understanding of how women seek to access justice through the formal and informal judicial channels and even informally through state actors (“semi-formal channels”) to inform long term development assistance. To date, there is an absence of a comprehensive, accurate and updated study specifically on the accessibility of formal and informal justice processes by women in civil matters such as inheritance and property ownership rights. A baseline understanding of how people seek to access justice through formal and informal systems and an analysis of the challenges and opportunities to improve access to such rights will contribute knowledge and information to support decision-making, planning and engagement. The relevance of multiple sources and systems of law is critical to understanding the experiences of women and identifying interventions that could improve women’s access to civil law remedies and their socio-economic rights. In cooperation with the National Council for Women, UN Women is commissioning a research study in two governorates identified as priority regions by the National Council for Women. This assessment study is a key activity that will contribute to Outcome 1 of UN Women’s project (in partnership with Japan) “Creating Social Forces in Pursuit of Women’s Rights” (2015-2016) and will support priority areas identified by the National Council for Women. This study analyzes whether women are able to use justice institutions to solve land, property and inheritance rights issues, what factors affect whether they can do so, and what reforms and programs could make justice institutions more responsive to their needs. The study will collect sample baseline data on the fundamentals of understanding women’s access to justice on civil issues which will contribute to a definite body of knowledge to inform Egypt’s policy-makers and development partners and which will guide future support to improve women’s access to inheritance and property rights. In the longer-term, the evidence will be utilized to develop strategies for systematic change in legislation and judicial, political and social forces that would achieve progressive legal reform on land, property and inheritance, and provide enabling conditions for women to navigate complexities of plural legal systems. Objective of the Research Study: To collect qualitative data on accessibility of justice services and remedies for women in the areas of land, property and inheritance rights in two selected governorates; To provide an assessment of how women access justice through formal and informal systems in the two Governorates, To analyze informal and customary systems with special attention to their strengths and weaknesses in providing civil justice services to women and their effectiveness at addressing the needs in land, property and inheritance.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of assignment UNWomen is recruiting an international consultant to lead and develop the design, implementation, analysis and validation of a multi-phase research study in accordance with requirements set forth in this Terms of Reference (TOR). The consultant will be contracted as a member of a team comprised of national research experts and will report directly to UN Women CO.  S/he will support and lead a research team in all aspects of the project (including field research, data analysis, report writing, and validation meetings). Duties and Responsibilities: Conduct secondary data analysis including literature and critical desktop review of available and relevant reports and information on gender justice and land, property and inheritance rights for the past 10 years; Identify and adapt research tools and methods (finalized by UN Women and the consultant) to each target area; Lead the team to carry out the agreed research plan in all selected governorates, including overseeing field research and conducting in-depth interviews and undertake field visits; Organize debriefing sessions carried out with the research teams in order to identify gaps and weaknesses in the research strategy and respond appropriately; Analyze data and participate in preliminary discussions of findings with experts and stakeholders; Produce a 40-50 page report that includes analysis of primary and secondary data that meets the objectives of this TOR. Serve as the focal point for liaising with state authorities and civil society directly engaged with the research; Facilitate logistical support for the research team, including travel authorizations; Work with UN Women’s media communications team on potential opportunities for photo, video stories and drafting of other communication products as needed; Organize and lead in validation meetings after the completion of the research in accordance to a timetable agreed upon with UN Women. Deliverables: Completion of recruitment of field researchers; Research plan and methodology completed; Field research completed and data collected, summarized and finalized; Report completed; validation of findings and additional write-ups, as necessary; Consultations organized and Action Plan developed for state authorities to implement recommendations from the Report.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles: Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct. Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff; Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity. Core Competencies: Ethics and Values: Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents. Organizational Awareness: Building support and political acumen; Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring: Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation. Working in Teams: Building and promoting effective teams. Communicating Information and Ideas: Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication. Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating an emotionally intelligent organization; Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreemente. Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards: Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:  Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking Functional Competencies: Creates, edits and presents information in clear and presentable formats, using appropriate IT functionality; Ability to contribute to change management and business re-engineering processes; Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities; Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints; Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective; Anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly; Ability to perform variety of administrative tasks related to human resources, finance, general administration, support, procurement, logistic; program support; ICT, collecting preparation of documentation and data input; In-depth knowledge of office software applications relating to word processing, data management, and presentation Thoroughly and methodically collects, verified and records data, demonstrating attention to detail and identifying and correcting errors on own initiative; maintains databases.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Minimum of Master’s degree in governance related field, including: Law, Gender Studies, Economics, Development, Public administration, Business Administration, Public Policy, Social Science, Political Science. Experience: Minimum 10 years’ of experience in rule of law, justice, security/policing, governance, development or closely related field; Proven experience on gender mainstreaming, gender justice, women’s access to justice, women’s rights, informal justice systems; Experience in qualitative and quantitative research methods is required; A strong background in gender programming is an advantage; Experience working in the MENA region an advantage; Knowledge of UN Women processes and programming is an asset. Experience of drafting user-friendly knowledge products such as books, articles, research papers, toolkits, guides, methodologies, analytical documents, policy papers and notes, project and program documents, baseline studies, desk reviews, comparative studies is an advantage. Language: Fluency in English, including excellent writing and communication skills; Arabic is an asset. Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Cumulative analysis When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation. Technical Criteria weight; 70% Financial Criteria weight; 30%. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation. Criteria Weight Technical: 70%: Criteria: Minimum 10 years’ of experience in rule of law and women’s access to justice, women’s rights, development and qualitative/ quantitative research methods is required (Weight: 30%. Maximum obtainable Points: 30); Criteria: Minimum of Master’s degree  in governance related field  including: Law, Gender Studies, Economics, Development, Public administration, Business Administration, Public Policy, Social Science, Political Science (Weight 30%; maximum obtainable points 30); Criteria: Excellent written and spoken English (Weight 10%; maximum obtainable points 10); Financial: Lowest financial proposal: 30%. Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical). The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30; "Lowest Bid Offered" refers to the lowest price offered by Offer or scoring at least 49 points in technical evaluation; A maximum total amount of USD 50,000 will be paid over monthly instalments based on agreed deliverables following submission to the satisfaction of UN Women of the above deliverables. All official travels will be implemented and paid by UN Women Egypt CO as per UN Women Travel rules and regulations; A maximum total amount of USD 4,500 will be paid monthly for living expenses. Application process: Documents to be included when submitting the proposal: Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications: Proposal To be included as part of the proposal: A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work; UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment; and Personal CV. Financial proposal: Proposed monthly fee.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.