Consultancy - Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Gender/GBV. Johannesburg, South Africa

Background:

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) promotes the right of every woman, man and child to enjoy a healthy life and equal opportunity. UNFPA supports programme countries, through its Country Offices, in using population data for policies and programmes to reduce poverty and to ensure that every pregnancy is wanted, every birth is safe, every young person is free of HIV, and every girl and woman is treated with dignity and respect.
UNFPA makes critical contributions to promoting the broader gender equality agenda at global, regional and country levels using ICPD as the entry point. ICPD provides UNFPA with the responsibility to address some specific aspects of gender equality and given the Fund’s comparative advantage and expertise in a number of countries, and within the context of the United Nations system collaboration and partnerships. UNFPA will continue making a significant contribution to furthering the human rights of women and girls, with specific focus on reproductive health and rights, in response to country priorities and specificities.
The purpose of the consultancy is avail human resources to the ESARO gender unit to support the implementation of the Regional FGM programme. 

Scope of Work:

The UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting: Accelerating Change launched a second phase, in 17 countries covering Africa and the Middle East. Phase II began in January 2014 and will run until December 2017, in line with the strategic plans of both agencies.
The joint programme aims to build on the successes of past experiences undertaken at the regional and country levels to generate additional understanding on the abandonment of the practice and to coordinate and provide support to country office to enhance UNFPA response to the needs of National programmes.
While reaffirming the human rights based and culturally sensitive approach that stimulates change in social norms, implementing phase II requires the organization to strengthen services to prevent, protect and care for girls and women affected by FGM and to enforce laws and policies designed to end the practice.
The evaluation of phase I recommended to strengthen regional programmes for the elimination of FGM in all regions and additional resources were made available.  As part of the acceleration of the elimination of FGM ESARO will recruit an international consultant to provide the following:

1. Strategic Results

• Provide technical support on issues of gender equality, GBV and women’s human rights in the context of sexual and reproductive health within UNFPA as well as agency partners and stakeholders;
• Provide technical support to the country office Joint Programme on FGM/C focal points in the development of annual work plans to ensure the adequacy of both the hierarchy of results of programmes, and their use of performance and impact measurement methods and indicators;
• Support the utilization of programme indicators and indicator databases and update the database;
• Provide technical support for knowledge development, management and sharing activities;
• Provide thematic expertise on FGM in relation to human rights, reproductive health, HIV and gender, ensuring that the joint programme at the regional level is in line with the global guidelines for the joint UNFPA/UNICEF initiative and;
• Support the coordination of the Joint programme with UNICEF in the implementation of the initiatives in the region.

2. Capacity Development

Under the supervision of the Gender/GBV Regional Adviser, the IC will contribute to the:

• Capacity building on evidenced based programming and M&E;
• Capacity of country office staff and partners in the adoption and use of results based management, planning and reporting techniques and tools

3. Evidence, Knowledge Development & Dissemination

• Manage communication activities related to the Joint Programme on FGM/C in ESARO and country offices on the programme’s activities and knowledge products, while also identifying innovative ways to communicate and disseminate newly created tools and resources to staff and relevant partners;
• Responsible for synthesizing and documenting FGM/C activities and results, including through communication with country offices, ROs, HQ to feed into General Assembly, Human Rights Council and African Union reports, as well as the reports of the Secretary General;

4. Programme Management

• Undertake all logistical, administrative and financial arrangements required for the organization of technical workshops, interagency meetings, panel discussions, roundtables, steering committee and other events organized by the Joint Programme on FGM/C;
• Submit periodic financial and narrative reports on the joint programme;
• Coordinate with Country offices to mainstream and strengthen linkages between FGM/C abandonment activities and other programme areas such as SRH/HIV/FP and Child Marriage.

Work relations
The IC will work under the supervision of the Regional Gender/GBV Adviser interact with regional staff, especially the SRHR Unit, staff based in headquarters and at the country level. This programme requires close collaboration with UNICEF and other external partners and implementing partners.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Postgraduate university degree or equivalent in public health, social science, Gender and human rights.
• At least two years of increasingly responsible professional experience in gender, GBV, international development or social sciences.
• Proven ability to produce demonstrable results.
• Strong verbal and written communications skills in English, French is an asset.
• Field/country experience is required

How to Apply:

Candidates must send a letter of motivation and a CV/P11 to:  tall@unfpa.org

Notice: There is no application, processing or other fee at any stage of the application process. UNFPA does not solicit or screen for information in respect of HIV or AIDS and does not discriminate on the basis of HIV/AIDS status.