TERMS OF REFERENCE
National Consultant for Rapid Gender Assessment
in UNICEF Belarus Country Programme 2016-2020
Type of contract: National individual consultancy
Duration: October 2017 – December 2017
1. Background and Justification
Gender equality is integral to UNICEF’s Strategic Plan as a normative principle and is central to its focus on equity. The Plan emphasizes the empowerment of girls and women as well as addressing gender-related barriers to achieving results. In the context UNICEF Country Office (CO) in Belarus assessed the Gender Mainstreaming in Country Programme (CP) for 2011-2015 and has identified achievements, gaps, and priorities in both, targeted gender interventions and gender mainstreaming. This is to be taken into consideration in preparing for the mid-term review of the CP 2016-2020 programme.
UNICEF Belarus represents the UN agencies in the National Council on Gender Policy under the Council of Ministers. UNICEF assembled its inputs to the 5th National Plan on Achieving Gender Equality for 2016-2020 that were fully incorporated in the plan. The Council of Ministries adopted the plan at the beginning of 2017.
UNICEF Belarus participated in the preparation of the confidential submission of the UNCT report to CEDAW Committee, ahead of submission of the state report on the implementation of the concluding observations.
UNICEF Belarus ensured that the state programme “Health of the Nation and Demographic Security” approved by the Council of Ministers in March 2016 contained measures to realize the intent of the gender policy. UNICEF successfully advocated for the introduction of parental leave for men; and counselling prior to abortion. Gender based violence, responsible parenting and family resilience, adolescence health and development, rights of young women and girls with disabilities are seen as the main areas of focus for gender programming.
The Government of Belarus has ratified the UNCRPD in October 2016. The Ministry of Labor and Social Protection does overall coordination of the development of the National Action Plan on the implementation of UNCRPD provisions. The National Plan is approved by the Council of Ministries in 2017. UNICEF emphasized the multiple discrimination of women and girls with disabilities and strongly recommended to include the interventions for elimination of discrimination towards girls with disabilities into the Plan of Action.
There are various manifestations of specific vulnerabilities of women and men, girls and boys and challenges for both sexes in the different areas. The gap in life expectancy in favor of women is far above the average for ECA region (11 years in 2013). In spite of a positive trends in mortality during the last decade, male adult mortality is three times higher than that of women. Unhealthy, addictive and risky men’s behavior leads to much higher mortality rates from cardio-vascular diseases, injuries, suicides and intentional self-harm. Maternal and infant mortality rates were reduced in Belarus to the level of developed countries. More concerns are related to high rates of morbidity among children along with poor health of pregnant women and high rate of children’s mortality due to external causes. Risky sexual behavior is associated with relatively high level of STIs, the spread of HIV infection (prevalence rate - 134.8 per 100,000 people and morbidity rate - 7.7 per 100,000 people as of 1 June 2014) with the growing number of HIV-infected women and children born to HIV-positive mothers (2,621 as of 1 June 2014).
Women in Belarus are better educated than men and this facilitates their active participation in the labour market. Childcare availability and affordability are also important for female employment. However, there are many concerns about continuing horizontal and vertical segregation in the labour market, women’s concentration in the middle level of the job hierarchy and lower-paid public sectors (gender pay gap was 26% in 2015), women’s limited involvement in business and entrepreneurship. The persistent gender wage gap force many women to work extra hours. Employers sometimes are not willing to hire women of reproductive age as specific privileges related to motherhood and parenting and stipulated by the Labour Code are mostly associated with women.
Women continued being underrepresented in senior positions in the Government and the diplomatic service. Only two out of 24 Ministers of the current Government are woman, and there are no women among the regional governors. But at the same time significant progress has been achieved in Belarus with regards to the proportion of seats in the National Assembly (30.5% in 2012). Nevertheless, the role of elected women in protecting women rights is rather limited.
Women are more vulnerable concerning double workload in the workplace and at home. Division of responsibilities for keeping households (household chores) is still unequal. There is a perpetuation of stereotypical roles of fathers and mothers. Fathers are less involved in parenting. Among persons taking parental leaves, only 1% are men. Fathers’ involvement in young children’s development, learning and school readiness activities is somewhat more limited. Only 68.4% children aged 36-59 months benefited from fathers’ engagement in one or more activities that promote learning and school readiness (MICS4). Fathers rarely have legal custody of their child by court order in case of divorce.
Over 22% of children live in single-parent families because of family breakdown, death of one of the parents and the situation is even worse taking into account external labor migration. Women are more likely to be heads of single parent households. Alcohol and substance abuse contribute to the families’ disruption and children’s exposure to neglect, abuse and deprivation of parental care. Deprivation of parental rights is the main cause for children becoming so called “social orphans”. In 2012, 20,967 children were recognized as being in “social danger” due to families’ dysfunctionality.
Domestic violence is a widespread phenomenon and tolerance to domestic violence in the society is quite high. According to the MICS4 findings, 11.8% of women age 15-49 years have experienced some form of violence (physical, psychological, economic or sexual) from their current or former husbands/partners. Instances of violence have experienced one in ten urban women (10.4%) and one in six rural women (16%). Two thirds (64.5%) of children age 2-14 years were subjected to psychological/physical punishment by parents or other adults in the household. The share of boys subjected to physical punishment is 5.8% higher than for the girls (37.2% and 31.4% respectively). Boys also more frequently than girls were subjected to psychological pressure by their parents (62.3% and 55.3% respectively).
Among main bottlenecks for gender equality in Belarus are: lack of specific legislation on domestic violence and legal definition of discrimination encompassing both its direct and indirect manifestations; challenges with enforcement of laws and by-laws; weak capacity of existing institutions dealing with gender equality issues to address structural impediments to gender equality; absence of an independent national human rights institution and effective complaints mechanisms; absence of holistic and systematic approach to transformation of gender stereotypes and limited government-NGOs cooperation in advancing gender mainstreaming. Growing influence of church insisting on traditional social roles and traditional family values is observed.
There is strong evidence that women and girls with disabilities face barriers in most areas of life. These barriers create situations of multiple and intersectorial forms of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities, in particular with regard to equal access to education, access to economic opportunities, access to social interaction, access to justice and equal recognition before the law, the ability to participate in political process and the ability to exercise control over one's life in various contexts, for example: in relation to health, including sexual and reproductive health, the right to personal life.
In international and national legislation and policies in the field of disability, aspects related to women and girls with disabilities have historically been ignored. In turn, laws and policies aimed at women traditionally ignore disability. This invisibility perpetuated the situation of multiple and intersectoral forms of discrimination against women and girls with disabilities, that is, women with disabilities and girls with disabilities are sexually and / or disfigured, or for other possible reasons.
2. PURPOSE/ Objective.
Purpose
Assessment of the gender equality considerations in the design, implementation and budgeting of the UNICEF Belarus 2016-2020 Country Program.
Specific Objectives
1. To assess the extent to which UNICEF Belarus during the period 2015-2017 has successfully worked to leverage resources, mobilize partnerships and act as a convener and mediator to promote gender equality within the Government and the wider development partnership.
2. To identify key opportunities for expanding gender interventions in UNICEF programming and partnerships for the period of 2017-2020.
3. To assess staff capacity for effective gender mainstreaming in programming under four main pillars of the CPD.
To serve to the above-mentioned objectives, the assessment will cover program areas as stipulated in the Annex 1.
3. Key Tasks:
3.1. Analyse the available national statistical and other data related to the main program priority areas of UNICEF CPD to highlight the gender equality gaps;
3.2. Review CRC, CRPD, UPR and CEDAW reports to identify relevant gender issues relevant to implementation of child rights agenda in Belarus;
3.3. Prepare a background desk review capturing gender equality gaps within UNICEF programming for 2016-2020;
3.4. Review UNICEF program interventions to identify gender equality dimensions of programming, both related to the National Gender Action Plan target and mainstreaming priorities and UNICEF Gender Action Plan;
3.5. Mapping of CSOs and national institutions (potential partners) working on gender issues or gender-related issues (e.g violence, positive parenting, rights of a girl child and women, sexual education, etc. ) defining their key activities and potential intersections for collaboration;
3.6. Accompany Gender Programme Review (GPR) team during the mission, establishing the mission agenda and organizing meetings with key informants (government, NGOs and other partners), and drafting segments of the GPR report;
3.7. Conduct UNICEF and other UN agencies staff training workshop to share GPR findings and develop action plans to support achievement of priority gender results.
4. Proposed Methodology
The methodology to be used will build on the globally developed experience in Country Programme gender assessments and therefore will utilize the tools already developed by UNICEF, particularly Gender Review Core Package (2013), adapting them to the CO and the country’s specific reality.
Methods include:
Desk Review of the relevant documents and reports (2015-2017) (see Annex 2).
Meetings, Consultations and Interviews with relevant audiences:
· anonymous online self-assessment exercise (questionnaire);
· interviews with key UNICEF Programme staff;
· interviews with selected key persons at the UNICEF’s implementing partner organizations, including CSOs;
· interviews with CSOs’ representatives working in the area of gender equality.
3. DELIVERABLES TIMELINE:
*all written papers should be submitted in English
№ / 1. Task / Deliverables* / Timeframe for deliverable (deadline) / Consultancy Days1. / Analyse the available national statistical and other data related to the main program priority areas of UNICEF CP 2016-2020 to highlight the existing gender equality gaps / 1.1. Analytical brief (maximum of 2 pages) / 2-6 October, 2017 / 2.
3. 5
1.2. Set of infographics
1.3. PPP
2. / Review CRC, CRPD, UPR and CEDAW reports to identify relevant gender issues relevant to implementation of child rights agenda in Belarus / 2.1. Analytical brief on main essence of 4 reports (maximum 2 pages) / 4. 10-13 October, 2017 / 5. 4
2.2. List of recommendations for UNICEF with proposed practical actions to undertake in 2018-2020 (maximum 4 recommendations and actions )
3. / Prepare a background desk review capturing gender equality gaps within UNICEF CP 2016-2020 / 3.1. Written report (maximum 5 pages) including Executive summary / 6. 16-26 October, 2017 / 7.
8.
9. 10
3.3. PPP
4. / Review UNICEF CP interventions to identify gender equality dimensions of programming, both related to the National Gender Action Plan target and mainstreaming priorities and UNICEF Gender Action Plan / 4.1. Conduct interviews with Programme officers, Partnership officer, Communication officer and M&E officer / 10. 30 October, 2017 – 10 November / 10
4.2. Written report (maximum 5 pages)
4.2. List of recommendations for mainstreaming gender into the programming of UNICEF Belarus
4.3. PPP
5. / Mapping of CSOs and national institutions (potential partners) working on gender issues or gender-related issues (e.g violence, positive parenting, rights of a girl child and women, sexual education, etc. ) defining their key activities and potential intersections for collaboration / 5.1. Written overview of national stakeholders dealing with gender issues (maximum 1 page) / 11. 13-17 November, 2017 / 5
5.2. Mapping matrix
6. / Accompany Gender Programme Review (GPR) team during the mission, establishing the mission agenda and organizing meetings with key informants (government, NGOs and other partners), and drafting segments of the GPR report / 6.1. Support UNICEF in organization of the mission of UNICEF Regional Adviser on gender in November (27 Nov-4Dec) / 12. 20 November, 2017 - 4 December, 2017 / 7
6.2. Participate in all meetings and consultations of UNICEF regional adviser on gender in November
6.3.Upon the mission Prepare a draft of the GPR report with the main finding, including draft action plan to support achievement of priority gender results (maximum 4 pages, based on all previous deliverables and results of the mission)
6.4. PPP
7. / Support the UN GTG in conducting workshop for UNICEF and other UN agencies staff on main principles of gender mainstreaming in programming / 7.1. Support UN GTG in organization of the training / 13. TBD / 2
7.2. Co-facilitate the workshop
7.3. Written report on the workshop (maximum 2 pages)
Total number of working days for the consultancy: 43 working days
4. Supervision, Work Relations & Oversight
The UNICEF study team consist from ECD Specialist, M&E Specialist, UNICEF research consultant. ECD Specialist will do the overall supervision.
5. TRAVEL
If UNICEF determines that the Contractor needs to travel in order to perform his or her assignment, that travel shall be specified in the contract and the Contractor’s travel costs shall be set out in the contract: In cases where travel costs have not been set out in the individual contract, the consultant and individual contractors are expected to submit, within ten days of completion of a specific travel, a voucher for reimbursement of travel expenses to the Operations section. Reimbursements shall only be processed if travel was duly authorized in the individual contract or by an authorized manager of the contracting section, in writing and prior to the travel. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for assuming costs for obtaining visas and travel insurance.