National Expert in Agriculture Development

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. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programs and services needed to implement these standards. UN Women’s mandate (GA resolution 64/289) is to lead, coordinate and promote accountability of the UN system to deliver on gender equality and the empowerment of women with the primary objective of enhancing country-level coherence, ensuring coordinated interventions and securing positive impacts on the lives of women and girls, including those living in rural areas.

For decades, the international conventions have acknowledged the critical contribution of women in agriculture and rural development. Reports on the role of women in rural areas converge on the fact that rural women are key agents for achieving the economic, social, and environmental changes required in the developing world. However, rural women`s rights and priorities remain insufficiently addressed in legal frameworks, national and local development policies, rural programmes, and investment strategies at all levels worldwide.

In BiH, rural women make up 28,6% of total population and 49.8% of the total rural population are women. About 20.5% of the female workforce in BiH is engaged in the agriculture sector and in 2016 around 18% of family farms were registered as being female headed, although this number has been gradually increasing (for instance in the Republika Srpska in 2017 this percentage was 22.7%). However, according to 2018 research published by the Sarajevo Economic Institute there is a deeply gendered division of labour with women being less engaged in processes that are higher along the value chains, such as dealing with marketing and are concentrated at levels that involve less decision-making about and control over income earned from agriculture. There is also a significant gap in land and property ownership in favor of men (for instance, in 2019 38.3% of land registry records indicated women as owners or co-owners. Additionally, women`s business ventures located in rural areas are less diverse and even smaller in size. The constraints that entrepreneurs face in doing business in BiH impact women to a greater degree due to underlying gender inequalities related to limited networking opportunities, gender roles, stereotypes, and discrimination in society at large.

To support women’s economic empowerment, rural women, agriculture, rural development, and agri-entrepreneurship, UN Women in cooperation with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), started the project “Women Driving Resilience in Agriculture and Rural Areas”, supported by the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA). This Project aims at removing structural barriers, by introducing time and labor-saving technologies, innovative sources of financing, enabling women to be better prepared to cope with the challenges, improving their livelihoods and socio-economic position and the lives of their families in the rural areas. Addressing the structural barriers faced by women in agriculture and rural areas will require sustained engagement of all relevant stakeholders in BiH.

The project aims also at increasing the gender sensitivity of policies directed towards rural development and agriculture. It will focus on integrating gender responsive considerations into policy making and budgeting processes with the objectives to supporting women’s economic empowerment and including women and their needs in the processes of determining the priorities and steps for rural development. Also, it is important to examine the existing public subsidy mechanisms in agriculture which are currently not gender sensitive and do not recognize the need to engage more women into the formal economy. To address this, UN Women and FAO will develop gender sensitive criteria for pilot investments funded through the public subsidy mechanisms extended through the entity Ministries of Agriculture.

Under the “Women Driving Resilience in Agriculture and Rural Areas” project, UN Women is seeking for a local consultant to support UN Women and FAO to develop the pilot grant schemes in cooperation with Ministry of Agriculture of Republika Srpska and Federation BiH, with the aim of increasing financial opportunities for women in rural areas in BiH.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of this consultancy is to support capacities of the Ministries of Agriculture in FBIH and RS dedicated to improving position of women in agriculture and rural areas.

The immediate objective of this consultancy is to support implementation of the gender-sensitive funding criteria for the public subsidy mechanisms in Ministries of agriculture of FBiH and RS within the “Women Driving Resilience in Agriculture and Rural Areas” project.

Based on the above-described objectives of the assignment, under the direct supervision of UN Women WEE Programme Coordinator and overall supervision of UN Women Programme Specialist, the local consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks and responsibilities: 

• Provide support on further developing and integrating gender sensitive criteria into the existing subsidy mechanisms and provide continuous technical assistance and advise the Ministries of Agriculture throughout the pilot grant schemes implementation in cooperation with UN Women;
• Provide support in further development of the gender-sensitive indicators for existing subsidy mechanisms in the field of agriculture and rural development in Ministries of agriculture of RS and FBiH;
• Propose methodology for measuring implementation of the gender-sensitive indicators once the pilot grant schemes have been developed and implemented;
• Facilitate discussion about further legislative developments among the members of the Technical Working Groups of relevant Ministries and reach consensus among the members of both groups regarding the implementation of gender-sensitive criteria for the public subsidy mechanisms within Ministries of agriculture of FBiH and RS;
• Provide technical support to UN Women BiH in monitoring, evaluating and providing expert review of key analyses conducted by various consultants within the “Women Driving Resilience in Agriculture and Rural Areas” project;
• Develop training plan for women cooperatives and enterprises in 6 pilot areas in business development and management (including business plans development and application for loans/grants), so that they can better identify opportunities and negotiate with suppliers, customers and financiers;
• Conduct the analysis of modernization of women cooperatives, for them to expand into new products and markets and increase production and profitability.

Deliverables

The local consultant will be expected to complete the below tasks within the indicative timeframe:

The consultant should in the development of the deliverables allow time for deliverables to be reviewed and commented by UN Women before their finalization.

Under the direct supervision of the WEE Programme Coordinator, and overall supervision of UN Women’s Programme Specialist, the local expert will develop and deliver the above listed deliverables in accordance with the indicative timeframe. Payments will be processed based on approved deliverables and the schedule of payments outlined in the contract.

All deliverables of an acceptable standard and quality should be submitted to the UN Women in Bosnian.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

• This is a home-based consultancy.
• As part of this assignment, there will be a maximum of 5 trips to Sarajevo, the cost is to be covered by UN Women.

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master`s degree in agricultural studies, gender studies, social sciences or other degrees relevant to the requirements of the TOR.  SATISFACTORY/UNSATISFACTORY

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in agricultural development. (30 pts)
• Minimum of 3 years of professional experience in advancing gender equality projects. (30 pts)
• At least two trainings organized in the area of women in agriculture, gender sensitive criteria, support for development of women in rural areas, or similar. (20 pts)
• Previous experience in working with UN agencies will be considered an advantage. (10 pts)
• A PhD in the areas listed above will be considered as an asset. (10 pts)

Language

Fluency in BCS and English is required. Candidates to provide certificate of English knowledge (minimum B2) or sample of a part of study conducted in English (one to two pages maximum) SATISFACTORY/UNSATISFACTORY

How to Apply

• Personal CV or P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: )
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)