Consultant to develop a Flagship Program Proposal on Women’s Political Participation and Leadership

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.

Women’s political participation and leadership is a priority area of focus for the UN Women Nigeria Country Office. Nigeria has ratified and is party to several international and regional instruments on women’s rights such as Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, as well as the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. However, critical challenges remain in the application and domestication of such frameworks and in the meantime, Nigeria ranks among the lowest in Africa for women’s representation in government.  

For women to be able to lead and participate fully in helping build back better in a post-COVID-19 context, there is an urgent need to strengthen women’s political leadership by recognizing and removing barriers to their effective participation. Current programming recognizes and seeks to build on opportunities presented by several ongoing and mutually reinforcing legislative reform processes including a constitutional review process, the passage of the Gender and Equal Opportunities Bill and reform of the Electoral Act. Collectively, these processes create an entry point for the introduction of gender equality principles including language and affirmative action in Nigeria’s legislature. Furthermore, women and young women’s leadership, in particular, has played a significant role in recent calls for governance reforms in Nigeria as well as the COVID-19 response in spite of substantial exclusion of women from mainstream national COVID-19 recovery mechanisms. To strengthen the capacity of a diverse and intergenerational cadre of women leaders, key investments are needed in the areas of political party processes and policies to enable the active participation of women in political processes.

Nigeria is a deeply patriarchal society, where cultural and attitudinal barriers are among the main constraints to women’s voice and political agency, while placing women at a socio-economic disadvantage to men. Patriarchal norms perpetuate the notion that women have no place in public life. Such views are amplified by the media’s negative portrayal of women candidates. Moreover, in addition to experiencing the usual levels of political violence that takes place between contesting individuals and parties, women candidates face additional forms of gender-based violence, which is cited as a major deterrent to women candidates entering politics. Within this area, there is scope to leverage on the capacities of existing women’s mediation networks to support structures such as the Women’s Situation Room to address violence against women in politics (VAWIP).

Within this context, UN Women seeks to recruit a consultant to develop a full-fledged proposal document for a four-year (2021 – 2024) flagship program on women’s political participation and leadership. The proposal that will build on previous interventions and emerging opportunities to strengthen women’s political leadership in Nigeria across the following areas: strengthening of legislative frameworks and institutional arrangements; nurturing of diverse and capable women political leaders; engagement with key stakeholder groups including male allies and media as well as; increased collaboration across identified networks to address VAWIP.

The activities of this consultancy will be undertaken under the overall strategic guidance and direction of UN Women’s Country Representative, and with day-to-day reporting to the Deputy Representative. The consultant will work in close collaboration with UN Women Regional Adviser for Governance and Women’s Political Participation. The consultant will also work with the Country Office’s women political empowerment (WPE) team, government officials, multi and bi-lateral donors and civil society ensuring successful UN Women strategy under Women’s Political Participation and Leadership.       

Summary of Key Functions:

Elaborate a Flagship Program Proposal Document on Women’s Political Participation and Leadership

• Undertake a desk review and mapping of key ongoing initiatives to support women’s political participation in Nigeria
• Review lessons learned from UN Women’s own program interventions to support women’s political participation in recent years
• Undertake consultations with partner institutions and agencies to inform the project proposal
• Analyze opportunities for building synergies with ongoing program initiatives
• Consult UN Women thematic teams to identify areas for synergy particularly under Women, Peace, Security and Humanitarian Action and the EU-UN joint Spotlight Initiative
• Engage UN Women functional teams including communications, monitoring and evaluation, and disability and inclusion to support full integration in the proposal
• Elaborate a draft project proposal on women’s political participation line with UN Women guidelines for flagship program development
• Coordinate the process of validation, revision and finalization of the draft proposal with detailed budget
• Research opportunities and avenues for expanding resource mobilization partnerships

Key Deliverables

1. Proposal document for a flagship program for Women’s Political Participation and Leadership with the following key components: Program rationale; Strategy for change; linkages to ongoing initiatives; outlined outcomes, outputs activities; results framework and a robust accountability and monitoring and evaluation framework; and budget for four years (2021-2024)
2. Summary document outlining key aspects of the program proposal document

CORE VALUES / GUIDING PRINCIPLES

• Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
• Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
• Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

CORE COMPETENCIES

• Ethics and Values: Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity
• Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment
• Development and Innovation: Take charge of self-development and take initiative
• Work in teams: Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Communicating and Information Sharing: Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication
• Self-management and Emotional Intelligence: Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others 
• Conflict Management: Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
• Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge
• Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES

• Ability to lead formulation of development programs and projects.

• Ability to build strong relationships and focus on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.

• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice.

• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills

• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Education

• Master’s Degree in Political Science, International Relations, Gender, Applied Anthropology, or in other related Social Sciences.

Experience

• Minimum 7 years relevant experience at the national or international level in managing project and programs. Experience working in the field of women’s political participation and leadership in decision-making is required.
• Prior experience developing program proposals with the UN System and in Nigeria will be an asset. 

Language requriements

• Fluency in English is required