NATIONAL GENDER BASED AFFIRMATIVE ACTION POLICY, CONSULTANT

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women will work 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 will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. Over the last century, women have made significant advances in education, labour force participation and political activism across the globe, yet improvements in education, professional development and political participation have not translated into significant increases in female leadership in politics and business. While some women have risen to power, less than 19% legislators globally are women (www.quotaproject.org). Similarly in the corporate sphere, female representation falls with seniority, and in Africa only 3.2% of corporate leaders are women (Rohini Pande and Fode, "Gender quotas and Female Leadership", A review, April 2011). Kenya needs to put affirmative action in place in order to deliver on its CEDAW commitments, the MDGs and in the new aspirations captured in the constitution 2010. This is the status of women's representation in the national assembly since 1997 to date. The biggest difference to women's participation came after some form of affirmative action was introduced to Kenya. Number of seats held by women in the National assembly after the last three elections in Kenya. 1997 2002 2007 no: 9 17 22 % : 4.05 7.66 9.46 In non-agricultural employment for example, women make up less than 35% of the labour force in Kenya, and most of those are in the lower cadres. Studies show that quotas can and do increase female leadership in politics and the corporate sphere, secondly female leadership influences policy outcomes. Kenya has espoused affirmative action as a key strategy in ensuring women's participation. The first such initiative came in the form of a presidential directive (2006) in which the public sector was directed to implement a 30% affirmative action policy in recruitments and to periodically report on its implementation. The directive was captured in the gender indicators in the performance contracting processes and the Ministry of Gender has produced two reports on how the GoK and all ministries have implemented affirmative action. The Constitution of Kenya promulgated in 2010 broadened this commitment and entrenched it into law with notable key gains in areas highlighted below: Article 10 (2) (b) national values and principles of governance include equity, social justice, inclusiveness, equality, human rights, non-discrimination and protection of the marginalized. Elaborate Bill of Rights Chapter 4. Article 19 (2) purpose of recognizing and protecting HRs and to promote social justice which is important and relevant to women's struggle for gender equality and gender equity. Article 2 (5) and (6) provides the general rules of international law & any treaty or convention ratified by Kenya form part of the law of Kenya. Article 21 (4) imposes on the State the obligation to enact and implement legislation to fulfill its international obligations in respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms. Men & women have right to equal treatment & opportunities - politics, economic, cultural & social. Constitutional provision for principle of affirmative action to redress past patterns of discrimination. A common challenge in the implementation of the affirmative presidential directive of 2006 in Kenya has been lack of clear guidelines on how to implement the directive in specific sectors, and the lack of a proper monitoring framework to inform decision-making, it is unclear how sectors fared on with the affirmative action and most of the lessons that were emerging have not been captured adequately. It is against this background that the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Development (MoGCSD) is seeking one consultant to assist in developing a gender based affirmative action policy. The policy will include a set guidelines and steps on how to improve women's representation using affirmative action tools, and comprise a monitoring framework to track its results and implementation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Overall Goal: Strengthen the mechanisms for the implementation of the Kenya Constitution 2010 in areas related to women's representation and participation in all spheres of national development including politics, public and private sector employment and civil society. Specific objectives: Review and document best practices in affirmative action in three selected countries, including a country where affirmative action has been going on for a long time so as to provide a broader understanding. Review and document experience with affirmative action currently in Kenya , looking at existing policies and guidelines for promoting affirmative action in use in Kenya, e.g. in boards, in education, in the financial sectors. Identify key good practice as well as less successful affirmative action tools to be used as lessons learnt in the process of developing an affirmative action policy for Kenya. Relate the best practices and lessons learnt from countries with affirmative action provisions within the constitution of Kenya 2010 and share recommendations with stakeholders. Based on the outcome of the stakeholders forum, draft an affirmative action policy to be shared with stakeholders including the GSCG, for input before being presented to the Ministry who will eventually table it cabinet for approval. The policy will need to include: - Proposals on Mechanisms of realizing 30% Women's representation in all public appointments, politics, public and private sector employment and civil society. - Proposals on what legislation needs to be enacted to promote women's representation. - Suggestions and guidelines on how to address challenges related to recruiting women in high level decision making positions. - Identification of key sectors where women's representation has been particularly low in decision-making, and proposals on how to overcome this. - Suggestions and how to ensure affirmative action in the private sector. - Clear indicators and measurable means of verification. Scope of Work and methodology: The work builds on the ongoing reviews and policy development processes going on at the MoGCSD and within the Gender Sector Coordination Group (GSCG). The MoGCSD is currently developing an internal gender mainstreaming policy and is also in the process of reviewing the national gender policy for compliance with the Constitution. The national affirmative action policy will be informed by both of. Methodology: The review of case studies (at least three countries in the region and one other country) will be primarily through desk top and online work. A checklist specifying the methodology used should be produced to ensure that the case studies are comparable and that the key lessons can be easily extracted for discussions. Depending on budget considerations, a learning visit could be organised to one of the countries as suggested below. Country reports and summaries will need to be produced that will be shared with key stake-holders to enable discussion on best practice. The affirmative action implementation in Kenya will be done both by desk reviews and some primary research within the Government of Kenya (GoK ). Participation and presentation at GSCG meetings for peer review purposes. Stakeholder engagement via multiple sources as listed below ( Radio and Television Talk shows; interviews etc). A National stakeholder workshop. Time frame: The assignment is expected to start in Mid-August and end in Mid-October 2011: 28 days. Specific tasks: Review two of the four countries selected for the background cases and write up the case study( one of these will be Kenya). Work with the international consultant to plan the stakeholder consultative forum ( specific responsibility to ensure that the correct stakeholders are identified and invited to the meeting. Organize two additional stakeholder forums for participants that will be agreed with the Ministry and UN Women. Develop summary reports of the comments of the stakeholder workshops to be shared with lead consultant. Facilitate a peer review meeting with the Gender Sector Coordination Group and summarize comments for the international consultants. Contribute to the development of the final policy document. Key deliverables: Work-plan and guideline for case study development. 4 case studies (Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Sweden). Two stakeholder meeting reports. Affirmative action policy ready to be tabled in Parliament. The consulting team will be managed by the MoGCSD- answering to the deputy director; gender division and UN Women. The recruitment and contracting of consultants will be done by UN Women on behalf of the MoGCSD.

Competencies

CORE VALUES / GUIDING PRINCIPLES: Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct. Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity. CORE COMPETENCIES: Ethics and Values: Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity. Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment. Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring: Self-development, initiative-taking. Working in Teams: Acting as a team player and facilitating team work. Communicating Information and Ideas: Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively. Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating synergies through self-control. Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements: Managing conflict. Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of other. Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Informed and transparent decision making.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Masters degree (or equivalent) in Law or Social Sciences or economics. Experience: A minimum of five years experience in gender and women's empowerment work in Kenya. Academic or other writing on issues to do with Affirmative action will be an added advantage. Languages: Excellent command of English, including analytical writing skills and presentation skills. Knowledge of other UN languages will be considered an asset. Note: In your expression of interest- please INCLUDE your expected daily fee. 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.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.