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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: TA International
Post Level: P-4
Duration of Initial Contract: 1 an renouvelable
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. In Nigeria, UN Women’s work is guided by its three-pronged mandate: 1) normative support to the Nigerian government, including federal & state ministries of Women Affairs, in championing initiatives and implementing policies, systems and practices that advance women’s rights; 2) programmatic interventions across four priority areas: Women, Peace, Security and Humanitarian Action (WPSHA), Economic Empowerment and Resilience, Leadership and Political Participation, and Ending Violence Against Women; 3) Coordination of gender-focused networks and platforms within the UN system and development community to promote and advance gender equality in line with the development and humanitarian objectives.
Conflicts across different regions in Nigeria present significant challenges to the security sector. These have all resulted in the increased deployment of security personnel-primarily military- to undertake internal operations across the country. Nigeria’s National Action Plan (NAP) for implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 acknowledges the need to promote gender-responsive security sector reforms, although full-scale implementation remains a challenge to date. According to the available statistics, women account for only 3% of military personnel, and the absence of a gender policy to guide recruitment is a key barrier to achieving more gender balance in the military. However, the Nigeria Armed Forces, and the Nigeria Security Sector Institutions (SSIs) more broadly, have adopted some measures to enhance gender-sensitivity and advance progress towards gender mainstreaming. Pre-deployment training includes some components on gender, particularly on sexual exploitation and abuse, but this is not comprehensive, systematic, or standardized.
In addition, a Women’s Corps was established in 2018, but the terms of reference of the Corps are yet to be clearly defined. Gender Advisers have also been appointed at Headquarters to drive various efforts. At an operational level, there are key gaps, including guidelines for gender-responsive screening DDRR processes. The Nigerian Police Force has also made some advancements towards gender mainstreaming. In 2011, the proportion of female police officers stood at 12.41%. However, this modest progress is even less so reflected within higher ranks, where only 5% of senior officers are women. Nevertheless, the police force has established specialized structures for preventing and responding to gender-based violence (GBV), and a gender policy was developed in 2010, which has been poorly implemented. Other gender-responsive reforms include the introduction of a recruitment target for women, a review of its internal regulations to counter discriminatory provisions, the formation of a Gender Unit specialized to respond to cases of gender-based violence, and gender-sensitive training.
Despite a number of ongoing measures by SSIs and partners amidst increasing commitment to gender-responsive operations and security institutions, gaps and challenges remain. Consultations with various security actors highlight continued needs with regards to tailored training and operational guidelines for the nature of contexts and operations being undertaken.
UN Women has in its previous and current programming undertaken baseline studies in various states of the North East, Middle Belt, and at a federal level which have assessed the representation of women within the various security services, knowledge of gender and related issues amongst security personnel, and community-security relations. These studies indicate that more needs to be done with regards to addressing issues of women’s representation across the security services; strengthening knowledge and capacity with regards to gender-responsive security; and developing mechanisms and guidelines to support security personnel in-mission. In particular, the situation in the North East provides an opportunity to test and support efforts to make operations more gender-responsive. The lack of deployment of women in operations in the North East, a long-standing operation which is currently shifting to a focus on major population hubs, coupled with anecdotal evidence of not only high levels of sexual and gender-based violence but also sexual exploitation and abuse from security personnel, indicate a need to strengthen community engagement and dialogue as well as preventative measures for security personnel currently deployed or deploying in these contexts.
As per the above and related gaps identified, UN Women is looking to build its security sector portfolio at two levels of intervention: one at policy level, and the other on an operational level. The policy level work will address institutional-level policy gaps, underpinned by a comprehensive gender audit of the key security sector institutions. The audit will provide the basis for developing or reviewing a Gender Policy to ensure gender mainstreaming internally as well as in security operations and activities. The challenging nature the internal security operations being undertaken currently also necessitates development of operational guidelines and institutionalizing fit for purpose training within existing security training and research institutions.
The project will then work closely with SSI-affiliated training institutions and mechanisms to ensure ownership and sustainability by anchoring the initiative in national institutions. While the overwhelming focus will be on the Nigerian Army, given the longer-term imperative to move towards a law enforcement/public order policing approach, the Nigeria Police Force and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps will also be important partners. The second tier of implementation will include an operational/field level component. There will be a specific focus on women’s meaningful and equitable participation in civil-military engagement to ensure their voices are heard and security concerns addressed, that they are proportionately represented in decision-making fora and that their concerns and needs are adequately addressed, in particular, to enhance their access to resources and safety as the crisis transitions to recovery and development.
UN Women will recruit an International Policy Specialist to provide technical support for the start-up and implementation of its security sector programming, oversee the further development of UN Women Nigeria Country Office’s security sector portfolio, provide capacity building to government counterparts, establish and strengthen partnerships, and develop relevant knowledge products on gender and security sector in Nigeria with a view to strengthening a gender-responsive policy environment and gender-responsive operations in Nigeria. Under the strategic guidance of the Country Representative, and with day-to-day reporting to the UN Women Deputy Representative and collaboration with programme staff, the Policy Specialist will also provide overall technical leadership of UN Women’s WPSHA portfolio and facilitate synergy and coherence between the different interventions underway in the Country Office.
Duties and Responsibilities
Lead the implementation and technical support to key project deliverables:
Oversee the development of programmes on gender, security, and peacebuilding for the Country Office:
Provide technical advice and support to WPSHA programme, Country Office, national partners and other stakeholders:
Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with national stakeholders, regional/ international actors and development partners:
Advocate and facilitate knowledge building and management and communication:
Key Performance Indicators:
Required Skills and Experience
Education and certification:
Expérience:
Language requirements:
Competencies
Core Values:
Core Competencies:
Functional Competencies:
Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results-based management
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