Location :
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KYRGYZSTAN
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Application Deadline :
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06-Sep-15
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Additional Category
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Women’s Empowerment
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Type of Contract :
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Individual Contract
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Post Level :
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International Consultant
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Languages Required :
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English
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Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start) |
21-Sep-2015
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Expected Duration of Assignment :
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Up to 150 fee days (part-time, preliminarily between
September 2015 and September 2016)
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Background
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UN Women was established by GA resolution 64/289 of 2 July
2010 on system-wide coherence, with a mandate to assist Member States and the
UN system to progress more effectively and efficiently towards the goal of
achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women. Since 2001 UN Women
(previously as UNIFEM) in Kyrgyzstan has implemented catalytic initiatives on
promoting women’s economic, political and social rights. In 2012 a full
Country Office was established.
The consultancy is in support of the UN Women
Kyrgyzstan Country Office’s Women, Peace and Security Cluster which
coordinates a joint project by UN Women, IOM and UNFPA that is funded by the
Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO). The project is aligned with the
Peacebuilding Priority Plan confirmed by Government of the Kyrgyz Republic
which resulted in funding in 2013 under the United Nations Peace and Recovery
Facility, PRF, and has now resulted in funding under the PBSO’s Immediate
Response Facility, IRF for the Gender in Society Perceptions Study (GSPS) /
KAP study that the incumbent will support with high-quality technical advice.
GSPS will engage a broad range of local actors, including
governmental, academic, and civil society actors to carry out a nationwide
study encompassing both quantitative and qualitative methods to gather
information on gender equality. Through the research process, the capacity of
state institutions, students, and civil society researchers will be enhanced
by means of specialized training on gender-sensitive research methods, Do-No-Harm principles,
and research ethics and the subsequent application of these skills in field
research. The final outcomes of the GSPS will be widely distributed among a
broad range of actors and findings will be integrated into national and regional
policy and programming through a series of workshops designed to link the
gender-relevant data to practicable interventions.
GSPS will identify critical threats to gender equality and
potential conflict triggers in order to establish a credible, reliable
evidence base for informed, targeted policymaking and programming for
equitable gender outcomes. The project will be led by UN Women which
will coordinate closely with partners UNFPA and IOM. The project partners
with the National Statistics Committee (NSC) for quantitative study (under
UNFPA supervision), and with analysts from state research institutions,
professors and students from universities, researchers and experts for
qualitative study (under UN Women supervision).
Rationale for the GSPS
Economic instability and disenfranchisement among youth,
along with related migration trends, represent some of the greatest threats
to gender equality and inclusive peacebuilding in the Kyrgyz Republic today.
As substantial portions of the country’s young population, particularly women
and men from rural areas, leave their communities to work abroad, family and
neighbourhood support structures decay, allowing root causes of conflict to
fester, including frustration with limited economic and social opportunities.
This further exacerbates the symptoms of gender inequality, such as
discrimination, violence, and exploitation of women and girls.
In the absence of effective mechanisms for countering
disenchantment and feelings of insecurity, many youth are turning to
alternative routes of economic and social activity including criminal
enterprises and radical religious groups. Women, in particular, suffer from
the lack of community support and assistance mechanisms as well as the risk
of exploitation. National fear of the exploitation of women and girls
resulted in growing support for the restriction of women’s liberties and
freedom of movement, their right to access basic services and full
participation in public life.
In addition, actors engaged in promoting gender equality
in Kyrgyzstan lack a credible evidence base for policy formulation. There is
a need to provide an evidence-based reliable source of information on risk
factors for gender inequality and threats to inclusive peacebuilding in order
to effectively respond to acute issues of women and girls through
gender-sensitive policies and programming. This project addresses the urgent
gendered aspects of peacebuilding expressed in Peace Building Fund
objectives, the 7-Point Action Plan on Gender-Responsive Peacebuilding, and
the National Action Plan on Security Council Resolution 1325. The GSPS would
explore and clarify the fundamental problems of faltering trust and human
security at the community level that were identified by the conflict analysis
in the Kyrgyz Republic 2013 Peacebuilding Priorities Plan.
Primary Project Outcome
Policy making and programming pursued by state
institutions, the United Nations Country Team, development partners and civil
society ensures gender equality promotion and inclusive peacebuilding. By
generating a substantial, reliable evidence base on the forms of gender
discrimination and community-level trends that pose risks to women’s
empowerment and prevent women’s full and meaningful participation in conflict
resolution, the GSPS will create the conditions for significantly more
effective and targeted interventions by government, UN agencies and other
international organizations participating in ongoing peacebuilding efforts,
NGOs, and other civil society representatives. This study will provide
concrete quantitative data on a range of gender equality indicators, inter
alia, proportion of women who have experienced gender discrimination in
specific government and non-governmental institutions, and the number of
women who exercise decision-making power at home, as well as qualitative
information that will contribute to a better understanding of the data.
Through creating a clear and highly public understanding
of where the most compelling threats to progression towards gender equality
lie, the findings of the GSPS will simultaneously explain the modalities of
these potential conflict triggers, exert pressure on government and civil
society to effectively address these problem areas, and allow for informed,
evidence-based policymaking. They will also enable the UNCT, including the
implementing Recipient United Nations Organisations, to assess the
effectiveness of their ongoing peacebuilding projects and make adjustments in
future strategic planning and project design in order to directly address the
threats and risks identified by the GSPS for lasting peace and gender
equality. The results of this study will inform the development of the
upcoming United Nations Development Assistance Framework for the Kyrgyz
Republic, as well as the country programmes for UN Women, UNFPA, IOM, UNDP,
and others.
The programme’s goal formed the ground for the GSPS,
designed around the following three outputs:
The project result will be a fuller understanding of what
underpins the populations’ and disaggregated sub-groups’ (male/female; age;
urban/rural; ethnicity; province of residence; etc.) Knowledge, Attitude and
Practices about gender relations and the role of women and girls in areas
such as political participation, economic participation, a life free from
violence (access to justice); and access to social services; and the status
of women vis-Ã -vis men at the family and community level in the perceptions,
attitudes and practices of respondents. It will provide policy-makers with
intelligence on how to design policy and interventions to bridge any gap
between public attitudes towards gender equality and the Constitutional
guarantee of gender equality and human rights.
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Duties and Responsibilities
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Division of responsibilities
In implementing the GSPS, each of the three partner
agencies will contribute to the overall project. UN Women, as the lead
agency, will implement the qualitative research component, particularly the
identification, training, and supervision of the qualitative research design
team; the training and supervision of qualitative research teams across the
country as they collect data; and the supervision of the qualitative data
analysis. UNFPA will manage and monitor the quantitative research component,
implemented by NSC, and the quantitative data collection, input, cleaning,
and analysis. UN Women is also responsible for the integration of the
qualitative analysis with the analysis of quantitative data received from
UNFPA into the final study results to be presented to the public. IOM will
provide substantive expertise for the training of research teams on sensitive
interviewing techniques, confidentiality, and secure data storage and
management.
Scope of work
The overall objective of the GSPS is to establish household,
community and public level data and information on key risk factors for
gender inequality and threats for violence affecting women and girls (what is
known, believed and practiced).
Specific objectives of the GSPS are to:
GSPS thematic pillars preliminary will attend to:
The design phase of the study was led by the study team,
comprised of the International Research Consultant and a number of National
Research Consultants as part of the Research Working Group (RWG).
The study team has worked on developing the following
study materials for GSPS:
The purpose of the consultancy is to implement the
qualitative component of GSPS. A qualitative Field Research Team (FRT),
responsible for implementing the qualitative component of the study, i.e.
data collection and processing, will be formed and comprised of the Principal
Investigator, approximately 20 Field Researchers and up to 5 Quality Control
Supervisors (please note that the quantitative component of the study will be
implemented by the NSC). The Principal Investigator will be responsible for
overseeing and guiding the process of the field research, and coordinating
Quality Control Supervisors, Field Researchers and Team Leaders and
subsequent data analysis phase. Quality Control Supervisors will be
responsible for closely monitoring the data collection process by the Field
Researchers and making quality control checks of the data being collected.
Finally, Field Researchers will be collecting qualitative data through
interview and FGD guides (developed by the Research Working Group, as
described above) and processing that data for subsequent analysis.
The current thinking is that approximately 20 Qualitative
Field Researchers (with Russian, Kyrgyz, or Uzbek language knowledge) with a
track record of high-level qualitative research will be recruited and divided
into 5 sub-groups, with 4 Field Researchers per each sub-group. Each
sub-group will have a Team Leader, selected from the team of 4 Field
Researchers in the group. However, essentially the data collection will be
made by 2 Field Researchers – where one is a moderator and the other is a
note-taker and vice versa.
Geographical locations, where research will be conducted,
includes the following nine administrative units:
Field Researchers will visit multiple study sites across
the country. Every study site will involve interviews/FGDs with residents
across district, AO and village levels. Exact number of locations to be
visited are yet to be discussed with the Field Researchers.
Tasks
Under the overall guidance of the Representative of UN
Women Kyrgyz Republic Country Office and regular coordination and day-to-day
work with the Project Coordinator, the Principal Investigator will oversee
the qualitative data collection, processing and analysis phases of the study.
Specifically the Principal Investigator will:
The Consultant will participate in the below mentioned
Activities:
Activity 1. Review the final versions of study materials
The Principle Investigator will review the final version
of study materials – desk review report, study protocol, research tools
(questionnaire for quantitative component and interview/group discussion
guides for qualitative component), quality control and monitoring plan, study
analysis plan.
Activity 2. Coordinate a training on study implementation
for Field Researchers
The Principal Investigator will coordinate a five-day
training on study implementation for Field Researchers, which will be
delivered by Quality Control Supervisors, who will conduct thematic sessions
relevant to pillars methodology, content and use of interview and FGDs
guides, quality control procedures and other topics to familiarise Field
Researchers with the study. The Principal Investigator will coordinate the
distribution of training sessions between the Quality Control Supervisors.
During this training the Field Researchers will be briefed on background and
aims of the study, and provided with general guidelines on data collection
and data processing. In addition, within the framework of this training, an
IOM expert will provide training sessions on interviewing techniques for
sensitive topics, gender-sensitive interviewing, confidentiality and
Do-No-Harm principles for the researchers.
Upon the completion of the training and prior to starting
the actual field study, each Field Researcher will need to pass a written
test and an actual practical field interview/FGD exercise, possibly during
piloting (see Activity 3 below). A Quality Control Supervisor will develop a
written theoretical test and a guideline for the actual practical field
interview/FGD exercise as per the relevant thematic pillar. With all the
contributions from other Quality Control Supervisors there will be one common
theoretical and practical test developed for Field Researchers, guided by the
Principal Investigator. IOM will also contribute to this test by integrating
relevant themes from their part of the training. As a result of the testing,
the Quality Control Supervisor together with the Principal Investigator will
confirm the suitability and recommend the field researchers for data
collection to UN Women. As a result of the testing, those who pass the test
will proceed to actual data collection and data processing. Please note that
not all potential Field Researchers who participate in the training will be
selected for inclusion in the final field research team. Selection for
inclusion in the final field research team will be merit-based.
Activity 3. Pilot the study and finalise the interview/FGD
guides
Principal Investigator and Quality Control Supervisors
will be responsible for leading the study pilot. The Field Researcher in
close coordination with Quality Control Supervisor and under general guidance
by the Principal Investigator will pilot a research on a small number of
individuals in order to determine whether the data collected is relevant and
if there are questions that need to be revised before the actual field work.
The piloting will identify not only which questions both the
interviewers or interviewees did not comprehend or which caused confusion;
which questions are too sensitive to ask; how to improve the ways questions
are formulated; and other aspects of study implementation such as logistics,
finance matters, data processing and data analysis. The Field Researcher
together with the Quality Control Supervisor will be responsible to identify
all shortcomings during the piloting and provide a detailed feedback to the
Principal Investigator. Based on the results of the piloting the shortcomings
will be addressed and integrated into the finalised versions of interview/FGD
guides or other study materials if needed by the Quality Control Supervisors
and the Principal Investigator.
Activity 4. Oversee data collection phase and coordinate
Field Study Team
Data collection will start from identifying potential
participants of the research as per the study protocol. The Field Researcher
will outreach to local community members to recruit potential participants
for each field site. Field Researchers will first explain the goal of the
study as per pre-developed field mission guidelines that are designed to be
sensitive to the social and cultural contexts. Prior to starting
interviews/FGDs, individual consent to participate in the interview/FGD
should be obtained by the Field Researchers. Once consent is confirmed, the
Field Researchers may proceed with the interview and/or FGDs. The in-depth
interview takes the form of a conversation in which the researcher probes
deeply to uncover new clues, to open up new dimensions of a problem, or to
secure vivid, accurate and detailed accounts that are based on the personal
experience of the subject. The focus group allows for a specific type of
group in terms of its purpose, size and composition, to identify group norms,
elicit opinions about group norms, discover variety within a population, etc.
Upon completing interviews/FGDs the data usually consist
of:
Pre-analytical notes - transforming the collected data
(i.e. data from audio recordings and/or the field notes), summarising,
cataloguing, ordering and reducing data in the analytical form as per the
analytical plan and structure of the study).
For the purpose of this research, exact requirements on
data provision from interviews/FGDs will be advised by the Principal
Investigator with confirmation from UN Women.
Debriefing is an essential part of the data collection
process. It should be organised by the team of 4 researchers at the end of
each day and based on the results of the interviews/FGDs during that day. The
Team Leader will lead the debriefing and collecting critical self-analysis
and general impressions of the Field Researchers (including himself/herself)
about the interviews/FGDs conducted. This will allow for the review of the
discussion guide and any adjustment necessary to make it more responsive to
the objectives and the flow of the discussion and ensure that the relevant
information is being collected. Debriefing notes shall be produced by the
Team Leader on the results of debriefings.
The Quality Control Supervisor will closely monitor and
ensure quality control during the data collection phase as per Monitoring and
Quality Control Plan and document the progress on a regular basis by
producing monthly monitoring and quality control reports and weekly updates,
which will be submitted to the Principal Investigator. Specifically, the
Quality Control Supervisor will randomly reviewinter alia audio
recordings, transcripts, field, pre-analytical and debriefing notes from
Field Researchers/Team Leaders as per his/her thematic pillar and provide
necessary feedback whether good mix of participants was ensured during the
recruitment, any major questions have not been asked, any perspective that
was not addressed during discussions. Quality Control Supervisors will also
randomly participate in interviews/FGDs as observers, during debriefing
sessions or other. The Quality Control Supervisors will adjust interview/FGD
guides if needed to better address study objectives and ensure that the
relevant information is being collected in agreement with team leaders and
the Principal Investigator.
The Principal Investigator will oversee the conduct of
qualitative research in accordance with the design of the study and
coordinate the Field Research Team ensuring timely submission of data and
relevant reports from Quality Control Supervisors and Field Researchers. The
Consultant will be responsible to report and obtain prior approval from UN
Women for any modification or deviation from previously approved study
materials (desk review report, study protocol and qualitative research
tools). The Principal Investigator will also provide prompt resolution of any
issues arising during the data collection. The data collection phase needs to
be documented by the Consultant with records retained, helping also to ensure
data confidentiality. Generally, the Principal Investigator will safeguard
the rights and protect the privacy of the research subjects and promote
ethical conduct in all aspects of the research process.
Activity 5. Oversee analysis phase and produce final
report
The Principal Investigator together with other analysts of
the study will lead the analysis phase of the study. During the process of
data interpretation, researchers will make reference to the study objectives,
the key study questions and an analysis plan and produce the final GSPS
report based on review of the findings, but also integrating analysis of quantitative (from
NCS) and qualitative components of the study. The report
will be then presented at the conference to a wider audience. There will be
nine administrative units where research will be conducted. Preliminary,
analytical reports will be drafted for each of the confirmed pillars for each
of the administrative units. An overall report will be also drafted to
present the research across all pillars and administrative unit. For each
pillar and administrative unit there will be a sufficient number of gender
disaggregated interactions with respondents, including with all ethnicities
significantly present in such an administrative unit.
Deliverables
Reviewed and finalised study materials:
Training for Field Researchers on study implementation is
coordinated:
Theoretical and practical test for Field Researchers:
Finalised interview/FGDs guides based on pilot:
Documented and filed study submissions during data
collection:
Monthly study progress reports:
Final GSPS report and analytical reports:
Final narrative report:
Timeline and Duration
The duration of the consultancy will be for up to 150
days. The Principal Investigator might be required to travel across
Kyrgyzstan. Below is set out the approximate timing and apportioning of fee
days:
Exact number of days per Activities will be discussed
between the Consultant and the UN Women.
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Competencies
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Required Skills and Experience
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Education:
Experience:
Language:
The Consultant shall promote a client-oriented approach
consistent with UN Women rules and regulations and commits to high standards
of quality, productivity and timeliness in the delivery of tasks. The
Consultant will meet and apply the highest standards of integrity and
impartiality.
The Consultant must be fully dedicated to the mandate and
the values of UN Women, particularly to promoting Gender Equality as a
strategy to reduce conflict, improve livelihoods and ensure fairness and
justice; to Women Empowerment underpinning Gender Equality promotion efforts;
to inter-ethnic tolerance and concord; and to respect for diversity.
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created
UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment
of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform
agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It
merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of
the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on
gender equality and women's empowerment.
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted! Candidates
can only be shortlisted if they profess to meet all the mandatory requirements
in the Job Description. All online applications must include (as an
attachment) the completed UN Women, UNDP or UN Personal History form (P11) in
English which can easily be found via web search http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/P_11_form_UNwomen.doc.
Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment
which must be the P11. Please carefully respond to the requirements of the
Job Description in the P11 that you submit.
Applications without the completed P-11 form are
incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment!
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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.
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