Consultant – Community Mobilizer for Project in Select Tea Gardens in Assam (Open to Indian Nationals Only) – UNDP India

Application Deadline 27-Mar-22 (Midnight New York, USA)

UNDP has worked in India since 1951 in almost all areas of human development, from democratic governance to poverty eradication, to sustainable energy and environmental management. UNDP’s programmes are aligned with national priorities and are reviewed and adjusted annually.

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.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

UN Women is the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. 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.

Location : Guwahati, Assam (4 Positions), INDIA
Additional Category : Gender Equality
Type of Contract : Individual Contract
Post Level : National Consultant
Languages Required : English
Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 01-Apr-2022
Duration of Initial Contract : 100 Days (Spread over April to August 2022)
Expected Duration of Assignment : 100 Days (Spread over April to August 2022)

As the UN agency with the mandate to work on gender equality, UN Women is responsible for leading and coordinating United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world and at the country level. UN Women is also expected to provide strong and coherent leadership in support of countries’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society, the nodal government agency, private sector, and other relevant actors.

Preliminary findings from a study on socio economic impacts of COVID 19 on women and girls in India reveal that the pandemic has resulted in exacerbating the already existing gendered nature of unpaid work at home. While both urban and rural respondents suffered an income drop resulting in livelihood uncertainty especially among the marginalised sections, women and girls given the informality of their labour are disproportionately impacted.

Additionally, the pandemic has strained even the most advanced health systems in the world. In Asia and the Pacific, 60 per cent of women report facing more barriers to seeing a doctor as a result of the pandemic. Given the prevalent socio-cultural norms, unequal power relations in intimate partner relationships, early evidence indicates an adverse gender impact including unwanted pregnancies.

While rates of all other crimes have gone down during the COVID-19 lockdown period, crimes against women have continued to be reported, including domestic violence. As per the latest National Crime Records Bureau data, Assam continues to report the highest rate of crime against women. In Assam, 32 percent (National Family Health Survey 5, 2019-20) of ever-married women in the age 18-49 years have ever experienced spousal violence, which is close to the global data of 1 in 3 women experiencing intimate partner violence. Women and girls who experience gender-based violence struggle to access healthcare and essential support services owing to restrictions on movement, closed clinics, and fear of contracting coronavirus.

The most marginalized women and girls may be excluded from critical, life-saving measures. Of particular concern to the COVID-19 pandemic are at-risk populations in vulnerable settings such as migrant women, women with disabilities, and rural women which are already underserved by services, and where information and strategies such as testing, handwashing, self-isolation and quarantine will be particularly difficult –if not impossible -due to lack of space, resources and services.

There is a critical need for targeted approaches to reach all social groups with COVID-19 prevention information and health services, as well as other critical essential services information (considering gender, age, disability, culturally aware approaches education, indigenous languages, LBTQI+ identity, and migration status).

UN Women is currently implementing a programme to forge and strengthen multi-sectoral partnerships in Assam, India (in the Tea estates) to effectively respond to the COVID-19 and pandemic through targeted interventions to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic and enhance women workers’ health, wellness, and safety in the tea sector, by focusing on the following Outcome and Outputs as stated below to generate best practices and lessons learned to inform a gender-responsive COVID-19 recovery:

Outcome: Locally owned women’s health, wellness and safety solutions identified and implemented

Output 1: Capacity of partners enhanced on women’s health and wellbeing and on measures to respond to escalating risks related to VAWG during COVID 19.

Output 2: Multi-stakeholder partnership platforms strengthened to identify and implement women’s health, wellness, and safety solutions

Output 3: Local data available on the impact of COVID 19 on women and girls in the tea sector in selected intervention areas in Assam

In this context, UN Women seeks to hire a consultant to carry out community mobilisation initiatives in select tea estates of Assam, on building awareness on gender-responsive COVID-19 recovery, women related laws, for women workers, adolescent girls, men and boys and schoolteachers. Under the guidance and supervision of the EVAW Programme Specialist, UN WOMEN, the Consultant will undertake key tasks and other responsibilities as may be assigned.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Develop a methodology and corresponding tools and session plans to carry out the mobilisation initiatives for women and men workers, adolescent girls and boys, and schoolteachers of select tea estates of Assam.
• Develop role play and skits on Gender sensitization in Assam as facilitated by UN Women.
• Develop role play and skits on COVID-19 recovery and response.
• Build a cadre of mobilisers locally from among the women and men, adolescent girls, and boys.
• With the support from the State Coordinator, document the initiatives and prepare a detailed report of same including the list of participants.

Expected Deliverables:

Deliverable 1: A Detailed workplan, methodology and execution of the following initiatives:

• Conduct mobilisation exercises and build leadership of women workers in all the select tea gardens of the 2 partners on gender-responsive COVID recovery, on prevention and response to domestic violence and sexual harassment at the workplace as laid out under the “Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005” and “The Sexual Harassment of Women at the Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013” and relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, respectively.
• Conduct sessions for adolescent girls and boys from select tea estates of Assam on Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 and COVID recovery.
• Conduct interactive awareness sessions with parents and schoolteachers in the community on COVID recovery, domestic violence, sexual harassment in workspaces and in public spaces, and child abuse/ sexual abuse.

Deliverable 2: Reports of each activity including agenda, list of participants, reflecting changes in awareness of the participants.

Competencies

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 organisation 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.

Organisational Awareness:

Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

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 behaviour 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.

Functional Competencies:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Minimum Secondary School and/or Bachelors in Arts/ Humanities/ Social Sciences/ Social Work /Gender Studies/Public Administration/Policy or related fields.

Experience:

• Minimum 2-5 years of professional experience as a community mobiliser.
• Previous demonstrable experience in working on women and child related laws.
• Experience of working with the tea industry desirable.
• Experience of working on gender related issues required.
• Experience of working in the development sector required.

Language Requirements:

Proficiency in English, Hindi, Assamese and understanding the local dialects will be an asset.

Application:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points).
• Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points).
• Working knowledge and experience of working on women related legislations and EVAW projects/programmes (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

Interviews – 100 Points

Please Note:

For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

Note:

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.