an Individual National Consultant to support the Beijing Review in Uganda

Background

UN Women Organizational Context

The United Nations 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. UN Women provides support to Member States’ efforts and priorities in meeting their gender equality goals and for building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

BACKGROUND TO THE REVIEW

The BDPfA was adopted in 1995 by 189 Member States of the United Nations (UN) during the Fourth World Conference on Women. This Declaration reaffirmed the fundamental principle that the rights of women and girls are an inalienable, integral, and indivisible part of universal human rights. It spells out 12 Critical Areas of Concern to guide the mainstreaming of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) principles in laws, policies, strategies, and programmes. Accordingly, all Member States are called upon to undertake comprehensive national-level reviews of the progress made and challenges encountered in the implementation of the BDPfA and of the outcomes of the Twenty-Third special session of the General Assembly held in 2000. Governments are required to mobilize collective participation of relevant stakeholders at all levels on the preparations to benefit from their experience and expertise for the national reviews.

The review will be done in reference to Economic and Social Council resolution 2022/5, passed on 17 June 2022 on the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women. In that resolution, the Economic and Social Council decided that at its sixty-ninth session, in 2025, the Commission on the Status of Women will undertake a review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly, including an assessment of current challenges that affect the implementation of the Platform for Action and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and its contribution towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Council called upon all States to undertake comprehensive national-level reviews of the progress made and challenges encountered in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the outcomes of the twenty-third special session of the General Assembly. In 2025, the global community marks exactly thirtieth (30th) anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA 1995). The Sixty-Ninth session of the  (CSW69) shall review and appraise the implementation of the  (BDPfA) and the outcomes of the Twenty Third United Nations General Assembly (23rd UNGA). The review will include an assessment of the progress made, current challenges that affect the implementation of the BPfA and the achievement of Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE) and its contribution towards the full realization of the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The review process which begins in 2024 will culminate and feed into the global assessment at CSW69 in 2025. The review recognizes the effects of COVID19 pandemic on development as a whole that devastated and disrupted in multiple ways the world over. The impact continues to be felt by all, albeit in varying degrees. Uganda, like most Developing Countries (DCs) partly because of the limitations and challenges encountered in responding to and mitigating the side effects of COVID 19 among vulnerable categories of the population, especially women and girls, young people, and Persons with Disabilities (PWDs). Women and girls have been exposed to serious negative impacts such as escalated levels of violence in all its forms, limited access to sexual and reproductive health services, increased poverty, heavier burden of unpaid care work and escalated teenage pregnancy and child marriages. Insights from national consultative dialogues, surveys and other reports show a worrying increase in the number of teenage pregnancies and (GBV and human rights-related challenges and exacerbated inequalities across the country.

The review will therefore be conducted in a consultative and inclusive way to ensure capture of the views from all levels of government, civil society organizations, the private sector, the entities of the United Nations system and regional and international organizations, academia, the media, and other stakeholders along the twelve critical areas of intervention. The process should participatory and transparency throughout the national and sub-national levels, based on evidence available, while also producing tangible lessons and solutions, which should be followed by concrete action and collaboration towards the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the SDGs.

The consultant will work closely with the Ministry of Gender Labor and Social Development (MGLSD) with technical and financial support from UN Women. The review shall also seek to mobilize women and men of various age brackets, around a new and renewed dialogue for change, and actions to prevent and eliminate all forms of discrimination and violence against all women and girls as well as maximize positive masculinity. 

Duties and Responsibilities

PURPOSE:

The purpose of this consultancy is to review the government’s progress in the implementation of the recommendations from the Beijing review in 2019 and establish the changes made in the narratives to address and eradicate the root causes of discrimination, gender inequality, and chart a pathway for genuine and substantive equality, with equal rights and equal opportunities for women, men, boys, and girls.

OBJECTIVES OF THE BEIJING +30

The review aligns with the broader global effort to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by demonstrating the link between gender equality progress and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Therefore, the comprehensive national-level review will:

• To assess progress made and identify challenges encountered in the implementation. 
• To take stock of achievements, identify gaps and setbacks, and outline strategies for addressing those gaps and challenges.
• The findings will help to trigger renewed commitment by actors to develop clear strategies and set priority actions, with timelines, and resources for their implementation.
• To align and build synergies with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and galvanize its gender-responsive implementation and will involve as many stakeholders as possible.   
• To check the existence of high-quality gender disaggregated and up-to-date data.
• To captor existing coordination structures and aspects of multi-stakeholder participation (More details can be found in the attached global overall guide of this consultancy)

The main recommended phases of the review:

Inception Phase

• A well phased implementation Plan guide by the BPfA Guidance note with a clear methodology.
• Conduct an initial desk review of available documents, gather, and analyze programme data, conceptualize, and come up with a draft report,
• Interviews with key stakeholders to capture their views on the scope of implementation.
• Validation
• Final Review report

Management of the review

The review and quality assurance will be managed by UN Women Uganda Country Office in close collaboration with MGLSD technical team. The Consultant will be accountable to UN Women on behalf of the team and report to the Uganda Country Office.

I.Time frame and Deliverables 45 days

Competencies

Competencies.

• Pro-active, and dependable.

Required Skills and Experience