SSA Annoucement for the Consultant (Women`s Development)
 UNIFEM South Asia Regional Office
 Location: Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD)
 Last Date: November 26, 2010
 

Announcement No. UNIFEM/SRO/SSA/2010/015 

Starting date  :           16 November 2010

Closing date   :           26 November 2010

Organization: United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

Duty Station: New Delhi, India

Duration:  Six Months initially

Type of Contract: SSA – (Short Service Agreement)

SSA ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE CONSULTANT (WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT)

 AT MINISTRY OF WOMEN AND CHILD DEVELOPMENT (MWCD)

Background and Purpose

India ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) on 25^th June 1993 with one Reservation and two Declaratory Statements. By accepting the Convention, India has committed to undertake a series of measures to end discrimination against women in all forms, including:

• to incorporate the principle of equality of men and women in their legal system, abolish all discriminatory laws and adopt appropriate ones prohibiting discrimination against women;

• to establish tribunals and other public institutions to ensure the effective protection of women against discrimination; and
• To ensure elimination of all acts of discrimination against women by persons, organizations or enterprises.

The Government of India submitted its Initial Report on measures adopted to give effect to the provisions of the Convention in August 1998. The Committee considered the Report at its 22nd Session in 2000.India submitted its combined IInd and IIIrd periodic report in October 2005 for the period between 1997 to 2005. This was considered by the Committee at its 37^th session in 2007. The combined IVth and Vth periodic report is due in August 2010.

The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) is the nodal Ministry within the Government of India (GoI) for monitoring the implementation of provisions within CEDAW and reporting on the same to the UN CEDAW Committee.

The CEDAW Committee in its concluding observations to Government of India in January 2007 called upon the State party to undertake the following with regard to violence against women[1]:

v  Develop, in consultation with women’s groups, a coordinated and comprehensive plan to combat all forms of violence against women taking a life cycle approach

v  Take steps in partnership with states and union territories to fully and consistently implement and enforce the Domestic Violence Act and to ensure that all women victims of domestic violence, including scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, backward class and minority women, are able to benefit from the legislative framework and support systems in place and that perpetrators are effectively prosecuted under the Penal Code and adequately punished.

v  Sensitize public officials, especially law enforcement officials, the judiciary, health-care providers and social workers to all forms of violence against women, including domestic violence.

v  Collect adequate statistics on all forms of violence against women be collected in a consistent manner

v  Provide information, disaggregated by caste, minority status and ethnicity, in its next periodic report, on the number of cases of domestic violence reported to the police and other relevant authorities, the number of protection and other orders granted under the Domestic Violence Act and the number of convictions of perpetrators of domestic violence under the Penal Code.

v  Provide free legal services to poor and marginalized women in rural and tribal areas in addition to urban areas and to monitor the quality and impact of such services in regard to ensuring women’s access to justice. Provide information about access of women, including scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, backward class and minority women, to free legal services and the scope and effectiveness of such services in its next periodic report.

v  Widen the definition of rape in its Penal Code to reflect the realities of sexual abuse experienced by women and to remove the exception for marital rape from the definition of rape.

v  Criminalize all other forms of sexual abuse, including child sexual abuse.

v  Consult widely with women’s groups in its process of reform of laws and procedures relating to rape and sexual abuse.

v  Adopt appropriate measures to eliminate the practice of witch-hunting, prosecute and punish those involved, and provide for rehabilitation of, and compensation to, victimized women. Such measures be based on an analysis of its causes, including control over land

v  Create public awareness of forms of violence against women rooted in custom as an infringement of women’s human rights.

v  Put in place a mechanism to monitor effective enforcement of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities Act in order to ensure accountability and end impunity for crimes committed against Dalit women. Increase Dalit women’s legal literacy and improve their access to justice in bringing claims of discrimination and violation of rights - to report specifically on the impact of such initiatives in its next periodic report.

v  Ensure that adequate mechanisms and procedures for effective implementation and monitoring of the Pre-conception and Prenatal Diagnostic Technique (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act are established, including safeguards to prevent criminalization of women who are pressurized into seeking sex-selective abortions.

v  Initiate and monitor the reform of textbooks at the state level to eliminate all gender-based stereotypes and to strengthen its efforts, at the national, state and union territory levels, to combat the widespread acceptance of stereotypical roles of men and women. It recommends that gender issues and sensitivity training be made an integral and substantive component of all teachers training.

Activities and Deliverables

Working under the supervision of Joint Secretary (Women Development), MWCD the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

v  Support the Ministry’s monitoring and reporting commitments within CEDAW, which includes co-ordination with State Governments and line Ministries/ Departments to collect relevant information on the progress made in implementing the provisions of the Convention/ recent Concluding Comments.

v  Provide inputs to the Ministry’s responses to periodic submission of data and in preparation of material to aid the participation of the Government in various global events like the CSW/MDG Summit etc.

v  Provide technical support to the Ministry in adapting successful interventions / good practices in the realm of women’s empowerment for e.g. - Safer Cities Programme.

v  Support the Ministry’s work on implementing legislations

v  Support the Ministry’s engagement in bilateral and multilateral forums like the Women’s Empowerment Forum with the United States of America and the Women’s Forum within the India- Brazil- South Africa (IBSA) forum.

v  Support the Ministry’s performance management work through periodic documentation of its functions and targets.

v  Strengthen institutional capacity of the Ministry with respect to CEDAW monitoring and reporting by streamlining the maintenance and filing of relevant information and communication received by the Ministry.

v  Follow up on capacity assessment on CEDAW.

Expected Outputs

v  Ministry of Women and Child Development have increased their capacity to integrate gender equality into National (Development) Strategies, laws, and policies

Indicators

v  Evidence of Ministry of Women and Child Development ability to mobilize other government actors around gender equality priorities

v  Capacity assessment that demonstrate changes in knowledge, skills & abilities of MWCD

Required Competencies and Skills

1.      Postgraduate in social sciences, law or related field preferably having worked closely with Government departments

2.      Good knowledge of programming on gender and women’s rights issues

3.      Minimum 5-7 years of relevant experience

4.      Should be prepared to travel to participate in consultations with various stakeholders.

5.      Should be well versed with the use of computers and its programmes/applications

6.      Strong analytical and writing skills in English;

7.      Ability to work independently and with minimal supervision. 

Monitoring of assignment

The consultant will be supervised by Economic Advisor, MWCD.

Applications to this vacancy should be sent to: registry.unifem.in@unifem.org

Mentioning “SHORT TERM CONSULTANT – WOMEN’S DEVELOPMENT - MWCD” in the subject line. The last date for receipt of applications is COB 26 November 2010.

Candidates should also complete a United Nations Personal History Form (P.11), available at ( http://mirror.undp.org/angola/LinkRtf/p11.doc ). The completed P-11 form and detailed CV should be submitted along with the application.  

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted