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 supports the Government’s national development agenda, which prioritizes the empowerment of women and girls and their contribution to all areas of economic, political, and social development.

Under the overarching SN 2022-2027, UN Women’s work in Nigeria focuses on four programmatic areas, including, governance and leadership, women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women, and women, peace and security and humanitarian action, and disaster risk reduction.

Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) and Harmful Practices (HP) remain pervasive in Nigeria and across West Africa.

VAWG, as a form of Gender-Based Violence (GBV), is widespread, with 30 percent of women aged 15-49 reporting experiences of sexual abuse.

There is a marked divide between girls and women in urban (33 percent) and rural (24 percent) areas. This situation can be attributed to factors including, but not limited to, widespread negative social norms, conflicts in the forms of insurgency and violent extremism leading to humanitarian crises, socio-economic downturns, global health crises such as COVID-19, and inadequate legislative and policy frameworks to prevent and respond to VAWG.

Nigeria and West Africa have the largest number of cases of Child Early and Forced Marriages in Africa and one of the highest prevalence rates globally, with 23 million girls and women married as children.

Currently, 43 percent of girls are married before age 18, and 17 percent are married before they turn 15. Once girls in Nigeria are married, very few (1.2% of girls aged 15-19) use contraception or have their contraception needs met (13.1%).

Nigeria accounts for the third-highest number of women and girls who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM), reported at a 25 percent prevalence rate. Harmful practices occur in the context of limited knowledge and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) information and services, with complications of early childbearing and obstructed labor such as obstetric fistula.

An estimated 20,000 new cases of obstetric fistula occur every year.

Despite these challenges, there are multiple opportunities to address VAWG in Nigeria.

The existence of legal frameworks and national coalitions to prevent and respond to VAWG are important opportunities that can be leveraged in designing interventions that address VAWG as a human rights violation and public health concern. In addition, there are varieties of women non-government organizations (NGOs) advocating the need to put a stop to a range of is­sues including FGM, child marriages, domestic violence, etc.

Also, efforts to meaningfully engage traditional and religious leaders to lead high-level advocacy, and policy dialogues and champion the transformation of social norms in Nigeria and ECOWAS.

Currently, UN Women is implementing a three-year (2023-2026) funding from the Ford Foundation known as the Faith and Cultural Leaders for Ending GBV by Advancing Advocacy, Policy and Social Norms Change in Nigeria and West Africa – LEAP project.

The project aims to partner meaningfully with powerful agents of social change, including relevant government institutions to shift underlying structures of power within communities, end harmful practices, address religious misconceptions, and transform cultural norms around violence against women and girls through policy dialogues and strategic engagements across the different spectrum of the society.

Reporting to the Deputy Country Representative, the Ending VAWG Policy Expert will directly support the implementation of the LEAP project and provide advice on strengthening the meaningful engagement of traditional and faith leaders as well as other critical stakeholders on ending VAWG through advocacy, policy, and social norms change.

Additionally, the Expert will contribute to achieving the overall outcome of the EVAW thematic area of UN Women Country Office (CO).

Furthermore, the EVAW Policy Expert will provide technical support to the CO, relevant government agencies, and UN Women implementing partners in programming for women’s empowerment, promotion of women’s rights and prevention of violence against women and girls.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work

• Facilitate safe space dialogues between women-led CSOs, feminist organizations and traditional and faith leaders to develop joint advocacy activities on the implementation of relevant laws and policies relating to VAWG in Nigeria and West Africa

• Support high-level advocacy convening with influential women’s networks including the Nigeria Governors’ Spouses Forum (NGSF) and Africa Women Leaders’ Network (AWLN) to strengthen partnerships between governments, civil society organizations, international agencies, and other stakeholders working on GBV, leading to more coordinated and effective responses.

• Provide training and capacity-building programmes for traditional and religious leaders on EVAWG, SRHR, HP, and SGBV – human rights principles, recognizing signs of abuse, and learning how to provide support and referrals.

• Develop and, or strengthen service packages including referral pathways in constituencies and among communities overseen by traditional and religious leaders to guide response and prevention of violence in collaboration with GBV actors including security sector actors, community surveillance teams, medical personnel, etc

• Strengthen operational capacities of existing groups of traditional and religious leaders including COTLA in Nigeria and select countries in West Africa

• Contribute to the development of sustainability strategies/packages which may also lead to resource mobilization in the EVAW thematic area for the Country Office

Deliverables

• Organise and participate in 5 safe space dialogues.

  A report of the event showing the role as well as the recommendation will serve as evidence

• Organize 3 high-level convenings of AWLN, NGSF, and other groups.

  Meeting notes and next steps to be shared

• Follow up on next steps for high-level convening and ensuring that at least 50% is met.

• Presentation at 8 events on EVAWG, SRHR, HP, and SGBV with a report demonstrating evidence that learning has taken place

• Referral pathway developed in at least 3 communities

• COTLA membership increased by 30% with at least 50% of all members demonstrating knowledge of EVAWG, SRHR, HP, and SGBV
• Capacities of at least 2 traditional and religious groups built.
• Monitoring and evaluation framework and sustainability strategies/packages

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

Functional Competencies

• Good programme formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation skills
• Good budget and finance skills
• Good knowledge of Results Based Management
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions, and present findings and recommendations
• Good analytical skills
• Knowledge of UN programme management systems

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• A Master’s degree or equivalent in public administration, law, human rights, gender equality, management, social sciences or other related areas is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with five additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in managing complex and multi-component programme interventions with national partners, preferably related to EVAW/GBV thematic area is required.
• Experience in working with traditional and religious leaders in Africa
• Candidates must demonstrate facilitation and report writing skills
• Experience in coordinating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating development programmes and projects is desirable.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required.
• Experience in the use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

Application

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from:

https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc.

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment.

Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect.

UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law.

All employment is decided based on qualifications, competence, integrity, and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination.

All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

(Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)