Jobs

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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Afghanistan is one of the world’s most complex emergencies and the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Afghan people are grappling with the impact of conflict, poverty, economic decline, and natural disasters. In this context, Afghan women and girls face unique vulnerabilities and require urgent support as gender inequality is interwoven with conflict dynamics and humanitarian needs. It is essential that Afghan women and girls can continue to shape the development of their country, and that their gains are protected. UN Women remains fully committed to supporting Afghan women and girls and to putting them at the centre of the global response to the crisis in Afghanistan.

UN Women has been in Afghanistan for two decades. UN Women’s programming approach is informed by analysis of the political, economic, and humanitarian situation, risks to and capacities of partner organisations, and needs of Afghan women and girls. UN Women Afghanistan currently has four key programme priorities: (1) Gender in Humanitarian Action, (2) Ending Violence Against Women, (3) Women’s Economic Empowerment, and (4) Women, Peace, and Security.

UN Women is committed to continue to provide life-saving services for survivors, in coordination and collaboration with development and humanitarian partners. UN Women works through partnerships at national and provincial levels, in addition to investing directly in community-based service delivery at district levels. The works focuses on strengthening capacities, building peer networks and structures at national and provincial levels to ensure a home-grown approach that can be sustained over time. 

Based on dialogues with national and provincial de-facto authorities, there is a shared recognition of the need for such services, and with an openness to approve the provision of services for women by women to respond to the pressing and critical needs of women and girls, including urgent humanitarian and social and economic empowerment needs.

Objective

UN Women Afghanistan is looking for an International Consultant on a Retainer Contract to support the EVAW unit in Research, Programme Design and Capacity Building for Ending Violence Against Women Prevention and Response, and to provide support for the effective implementation of UN Women EVAW programmes across target provinces in Afghanistan and the delivery of results in accordance with an agreed work plan.

The International Consultant will provide technical EVAW advice and strategic inputs by developing models for integrating prevention into current multi-donor response programmes of UN Women Afghanistan, developing a partner engagement strategy, and developing an EVAW programme design.  Under the supervision of the EVAW Programme Manager, the consultant will work in close collaboration with UN Women programme team and provincial coordinators, project staff, implementing partners, other UN agencies, and civil society stakeholders to coordinate a pool of international and national consultants ensuring a high quality of evidence-based VAW prevention and response strategies and knowledge products, and in ensuring successful EVAWG programme implementation.

UNDP Bhutan supports the Royal Government, CSOs, Private Sector, other development partners and the people of Bhutan in pursuit of equitable, inclusive and sustainable development. Bhutan will be graduating from the Least Developed Countries status by 2023 and with the transition into the new era of lower middle-income country, the developmental challenges faced by the country will become more complex, which could compromise the achievements made thus far. UNDP Strategic Plan 2018-2021 embraces the complexity of development and commits the organization to helping countries find faster, more durable solutions to achieve Agenda 2030. Important development trends like urbanization, climate change, and inequality pose significant challenges on our path to achieve the 2030 agenda of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The challenges faced by the Country in the 21st century is different from the ones experienced in the past, it has become highly complex and interdependent, which requires a shift from a linear, single bullet approach to a more holistic approach in Systems Thinking /Design.

To support government in addressing complex 21st century issues/challenges, UNDP Bhutan Country Office has embarked on a new development pathway, to be more proactive, agile and flexible in providing relevant solutions to its partners. UNDP CO as part of the new approach has formed a joint initiative comprising ofthree units (Accelerator Unit, Governance Unit and Economist) within the Country Office. The joint workplan will assist the country office in advancing its strategic priorities of youth unemployment, development finance, public sector innovation, supporting 13th Five Year Plan and justice sector.

Bhutan has established a comprehensive legal and institutional framework to advance the rule of law and access to justice. Since the 1950s, the development of the legal and judicial sector has progressed at a remarkable pace which was further accelerated with the professionalization of the judiciary from the 1990s and the creation of Office of Legal Affairs in 1999 which was later replaced as the Office of Attorney General (OAG) in 2006. The 2008 Constitution guarantees separation of powers and judicial independence, a democratically elected parliament, a well-qualified and effective judiciary and Attorney-General’s office and a system of mediation at local level.

Significant investments to advance the justice sector and strengthen the rule of law in Bhutan are underway, with a Justice sector strategic plan (developed in 2018) providing a strategic framework for action and prioritized thematic action areas defined under its five strategic goals. These goals include:

1. Justice Sector Leadership, Governance, and Collaboration are Effective;
2. Justice Service Providers are Competent and Motivated;
3. Justice Services are Responsive, Efficient, and Accountable;
4. Justice Sector Services are Accessible and Inclusive; and
5. Infrastructure is Adequate to Deliver Justice Services More Efficiently.

Well-functioning governance systems and institutions are at the heart of Bhutan’s 12th Five Year Plan (FYP) 2018-2023 vision of a “just, harmonious and sustainable society through enhanced decentralization”, and are critical for building resilience that will allow the country to better prepare for, respond to, and recover from crises such as COVID-19 while addressing existing and emerging vulnerabilities.

In order to respond to the rapidly evolving governance developments and findings from the impact analysis of the COVID-19 crisis on vulnerable populations, governance institutions and social contract, building on the multi-year framework, UNDP Bhutan has identified a set of strategic interventions from the IGF that will be funded by UNDP’s Governance, Peacebuilding, Crisis and Resilience (GPCR) funding window.

The strategic outcome envisaged, in line with the CPD Outcome 1 (UNSDPF Outcome 3), is that by 2023, Government institutions provide equal opportunities for all, and women and vulnerable groups hold leaders accountable.

Contributing to the above outcome are four outputs:

1. Central and local governments engage with citizens for an equitable, effective and transparent service delivery
2. Increased access, inclusion, transparency and accountability in the justice sector
3. Parliament drives progress towards fundamental rights protection, sustainable development and GNH
4. Innovation and partnerships are leveraged for efficient, transparent and accountable governance.

Output 2 is an integral part of the MYF and supports the implementation of the JSSP to strengthen access to justice, including through leveraging digital solutions to better respond and recover from the COVID pandemic.