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In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In doing so, UN Member States took an historic step in accelerating the Organization’s goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda,...
Type of Contract: Individual Contract
Post Level: International Consultant
Duration of Initial Contract: 6 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.
Nigeria’s central role in ECOWAS, its large population and strong economy makes it a strategic player in West Africa and in sub-Saharan Africa more generally. However, Nigeria faces several security challenges including low-intensity conflicts over resource wealth, crimes and kidnappings and in recent years, the onset of the North-East insurgency. Nonetheless, the conflict between pastoralists and farmers, which stretch from the North-East, North-West, South West and South East of the country is estimated to have resulted in more deaths than the North-East insurgency. Although conflicts between nomadic herdsmen and sedentary farmers is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria, there has been an escalation both in the frequency and intensity of the conflicts over the last decade, and particularly in 2018. The southward movement of herdsmen in search of grazing land has resulted in increasing numbers of clashes with farming communities who accuse the herdsmen of deliberately grazing cattle on farmlands causing crop destruction.
Moreover, even though women are highly affected by conflict and they play diverse roles, their contribution to formal conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes has been overlooked, and their capacity under-utilized, leaving untapped an incredible tool for transformative change and sustainable peace. They are often seen only as victims of conflicts that need to be protected rather than agents of change for peace. This is due to cultural and religious norms limiting their roles. Women do tend to play the role of advising youth in their communities against acts that could escalate violent conflict therefore contradicting local conventional wisdom on women’s inadequacies to participate in peacebuilding activities. To the extent they are included, women from farmer communities tend to be more active as members of the peace committees than the women from the pastoralist communities. This notwithstanding, women from pastoralist communities are critical stakeholders that any project will need to effectively engage with in promoting peace. In addition, post-conflict economic and social disenfranchisement renders women and girls even more vulnerable to sexual and economic predation.
UN Women’s Work
UN Women has just completed implementation of a four-year programme, “Promoting Women’s Engagement in Peace and Security in Northern Nigeria (2014-2018)”. The Programme supported the Nigerian Government at Federal level and three Northern States (Adamawa, Plateau and Gombe), to strengthen women’s leadership, advance gender equality and improve protection for women and children in conflict settings. The Programme facilitated the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UNSCR 1325). UN Women has also worked closely with the Nigerian Government and the Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development to update the National Action Plan for the implementation of the UNSCR 1325 and other resolutions. The Plan makes provisions to address emerging peace and security issues in the country, from a gender perspective.
UN Women, in partnership with UNDP, FAO and OHCHR, has secured funding from the Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) to implement the project, ‘Integrated Approach to Building Peace in Nigeria’s Farmer-Herder Crisis in Benue, Nasarawa and Taraba States.’ The eighteen-month project started in January 2019 and will be concluded in June 2020. The project will support the aforementioned beneficiary States in addressing the farmer-herder crisis through enhancing their preventive capacities by promoting dialogue and proactive engagement; building mutually beneficial economic relationships between farmers and herders; improving the effectiveness of the security response through strengthened human rights monitoring and accountability; and providing an impartial and evidence-based narrative to defuse the politicized debate and help mobilize a broader response. UN Women’s critical role is to ensure that these processes and interventions are gender-responsive.
As part of this effort, UN Women is seeking to recruit a consultant to support start-up and implementation of a number of key deliverables. Working under the supervision of the Deputy Country Representative, with strategic reporting to the Country Representative, the consultant will undertake the following key tasks:
Duties and Responsibilities
Enhance Gender Mainstreaming:
Strengthen capacity/ Improve knowledge:
Promote Advocacy/Dialogue:
Key Deliverables:
Competencies
Key Performance Indicators:
Core Values:
Core Competencies:
Functional Competencies:
Required Skills and Experience
Education and Certification:
Experience:
Language Requirements:
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