Consultant on Social and Gender Norms Change (Individual Consultant Retainer Contract), APRO, Bangkok, Thailand

The Position:

The Gender Team (GBV team) and Harmful Practice Prevention team (HP team) would like to hire a qualifed Individual Consultant to facilitate technical support to Country Offices in developing and implementing social and gender norms change interventions with the aim to contribute to ending gender-based violence and harmful practices. This consultancy is a retainer contract for 11 months which requires 150 workdays from the consultant. It is home-based work but the consultant will be required to travel to Bangkok, Thailand and to some countries in the Asia and Pacific region as needed.

The consultant will be report to the Technical Advisor, GBV of the United Nations Population Fund, Asia and the Pacific Regional Office (UNFPA APRO).

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person’s potential is fulfilled. UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.

Purpose of consultancy:

The purpose of the International Consultant is to support Country Offices’ capacity on addressing harmful social norms, particularly as it pertains to child marriage, female genital mutilation and gender-based violence.

Scope of work:

UNFPA’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 identified strengthening the capacity to address discriminatory gender and social norms as one of the six ‘interconnected outputs’ to support the three transformative results:

– Accelerated reduction in unmet needs for family planning
– Accelerated reduction in preventable maternal deaths
– Accelerated reduction in gender-based violence and harmful practices

The Strategic Plan identifies human rights and gender-transformative approaches, which include action to challenge discriminatory norms, as one of the key accelerators.

In reflection of such, UNFPA Asia Pacific Regional Office has identified gender and social norm change as a specific output for Regional Programem (2022- 2025) articulated as “By 2025, strengthened mechanisms and capacities of actors and institutions to address discriminatory gender and social norms to advance gender equality and women’s decision making”. In particular, UNFPA APRO aims to support its Country Offices in developing and strengthening implementation of context specific, evidence-based and innovative approaches to address social and gender norms that perpetuate gender based violence and harmful practices (particularly child marriage and female genital mutilation).
In line with this vision, UNFPA APRO seeks an Individual Consultant to facilitate technical support to Country Offices in developing and implementing social and gender norms change interventions with the aim to contribute to ending gender-based violence and harmful practices. In particular, the consultation will contribute to the following:

• Technical support to COs undertaking social and gender norms analysis (drivers analysis ) in reviewing framework/methodology and reports
• Conduct a comparative analysis of different social and gender norms toolkits developed by UNFPA and other UN agencies and develop an adapted guidance note for UNFPA Asia Pacific Country Offices
• Conceptualize and deliver virtual trainings on key resources and topics related to GBV/HP social norms analysis as it is linked to prevention of child marriage, female genital mutilation and gender-based violence
• Develop a framework for social and gender norm change measurement (linked to GBV, child marriage and FGM programming)
• Support documentation of promising practices from the region on social norms change and gender-transformative approaches for addressing child marriage and female genital mutilation
• Draft methodology for research to identify power holders and entry points (including drivers analysis for social and gender norms changes) for child marriage and female genital mutilation
• Develop a regional multi-stakeholder accountability framework on addressing FGM and its monitoring tool

Duration and working schedule:
The total duration of the consultancy will be 150 working days from the starting date of the contract to 15 June 2025. The selected consultant will develop a workplan in consultation with the UNFPA APRO GBV team.

Place where services are to be delivered:

Home based with travel to APRO and Country Offices, as needed.

Delivery dates and how work will be delivered:

While the key deliverables are mentioned below, others will be demand-driven from UNFPA Country Offices

Expected deliverables include, among others:

1. Guidance material on adapting and operationalizing an adapted toolkit on social and gender norms for GBV/HP prevention programming.
2. Social and gender norms (for GBV and HP) measurement framework.
3. Regional webinar (1) on addressing GBV and harmful practices through transforming harmful social and gender norms.
4. Country-level learning sessions (8) for GPECM and TUSIP countries to build capacity to operationalize social and norms analysis for child marriage and FGM prevention initiatives .
5. Technical review of documents, guidelines, training curricula and other material relevant to social norms and harmful practices.
6. Methodology (1) for multi-country study to identify power holders and key entry points for ECM and FGM at national, community and household levels.
7. Regional multi-stakeholder accountability framework on addressing FGM and its monitoring tool.
8. Documentation on promising practices and innovative approaches to addressing social and gender norms to end child marriage in Asia and the Pacific region.
9. Strategy for the engagement of faith-based organisation against harmful social and gender norms in Asia and the Pacific.

The fee will be paid on daily rate basis in 3 instalments upon accumulation of 40, 50 and 60 working days respectively on the basis of work completed towards deliverables specified above and acceptance by UNFPA APRO.

The payment will not be made until the corresponding deliverables are formally accepted and approved by UNFPA APRO.

Monitoring and progress control, including reporting requirements, periodicity format and deadline:

A work plan/delivery monitoring schedule will be determined by APRO and the Consultant at the outset of the consultancy. A tracking sheet will be used to note progress against the TOR deliverables and deadlines.

Expected travel:

Travels to the Regional Office (APRO) and/or UNFPA Country Offices or other venues are expected, with exact dates and duration to be determined based on the need at the time of deployment. Travel expenses will be covered by UNFPA as per UN Official Travel policy.

Inputs / services to be provided by UNFPA or implementing partner (e.g support services, office space, equipment), if applicable:

The consultant will use their personal laptop/computer. UNFPA APRO will link the consultant to Country Office Gender/GBV focal points wherever necessary.

Qualifications and Experience:

Education:

Master’s degree with specialisation in relevant area such as gender or GBV

Knowledge and Experience:

● At least ten years of specialised experience in GBV and harmful practices programming at an international level
● Demonstrated experience and knowledge of special and gender norms change interventions
● Working experience in the Asia Pacific Region and previous experience with UNFPA is preferred
● Strong writing and documentation skills
● Ability to work within a team structure or in isolation, flexible, and can cope with stressful workloads and working with limited resources.
● Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to work within different cultural environments
Languages:

English proficiency is mandatory.

UNFPA Work Environment:

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA’s workforce – click here to learn more.

Disclaimer:

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants’ bank accounts.