National Legal Expert at UN Women

UN Women – 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.

We are recruiting to fill the position below:

Job Title: National Legal Expert

Location: Abuja, Nigeria
Advertised on behalf of: UN WOMEN
Additional Category: Gender Equality
Type of Contract: Individual Contract
Post Level: National Consultant
Duration of Initial Contract: 50 Working days

Background

• Over 2.5 billion women and girls around the world are affected by discriminatory laws and the lack of legal protections, often in multiple ways. Law reform more broadly, and the repeal or revision of discriminatory laws specifically, are inherent to the achievement of gender equality a requirement for realizing the transformative ambitions of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
• They are also among the specific commitments of States enshrined in relevant international conventions and United Nations standards and norms. Yet progress in eliminating discriminatory laws has been uneven.  In many cases, global, regional and national sources of support have not been fully harnessed to accelerate reforms. Key propellers have included the monitoring role of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW Committee), country visits of the United Nations Working Group on the issue of discrimination against women in law and in practice, the policies of regional and interregional bodies, statements of political will from national governments, ongoing investments in analysis of laws from a gender perspective, continued education of the judiciary on domestic application of international law, judicial activism in striking down unconstitutional or discriminatory laws, the active engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs), campaigns to galvanize awareness and the collection of data to track specific aspects of discriminatory laws.
• In line with the above, UN Women Nigeria intends to embark on a comprehensive legislative analysis from a gender perspective to provide an in-depth understanding of the current legal framework and the existence of gaps and discriminatory provisions, with the long-term vision of advocating for law reform to enact new laws or repeal or revise discriminatory legislation.
• The gender analysis will explore the vast spectrum of laws to assess their gender responsiveness and will highlight discriminatory provisions and gaps that would need to be repealed, amended or enactment through a law reform process.  Gender-sensitive legislation assumes “the integration of a gender perspective into all components of the legislative process – design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation to achieve the ultimate objective of equality between women and men.
• The legal analysis will look at discrimination in a broad sense – both on direct discrimination, namely, how the law explicitly treats women, men, girls and boys; and indirect discrimination that occurs when a law appears to be neutral on its face but has a discriminatory effect in practice on women because pre-existing inequalities are not addressed by the apparently neutral measure.
• The legal analysis will consist of a selective mapping of the national context for purposes of capturing all forms of legal frameworks (laws, legislative instruments, executive orders, case law and other relevant and related government texts) and not only those which reference gender, women or girls.
• The legal frameworks in question will cover all fields and sectors of law and will not be limited to legislation that is specifically related to women, girls or children. Each legal text will be pre-assessed, and a determination made as to how the provisions impact the achievement of gender equality.  The legal analysis will draw from international standards, such as the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the CEDAW Committee’s General Recommendation No. 28 on the Core Obligations of States Parties under Article 2 of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination

Duties and Responsibilities
Methodology and Scope of Work:

• Under the strategic guidance and supervision of UN Women Country Representative, with day-to-day reporting to the Deputy Country Representative, the consultant will undertake a comprehensive mapping of the legal landscape of Nigeria for purposes of capturing all forms of legal frameworks (Laws, legislative instruments, executive orders, case law and other relevant and related government legal frameworks).
• The legal texts in question must cover legislation that is specifically related to women and girls, as well as other fields and sectors. Each legal text will be analyzed to determine how their provisions impact upon the achievement of gender equality. The report outline will cover the following:
  • The plural legal, political, social, economic and cultural context of Nigeria
  • Nigeria’s commitments to global, regional and sub-regional frameworks which advance gender equality;
  • The extent to which these commitments have been translated into domestic law, identifiable gaps in the content of existing laws as well as implementation and the reasons for such gaps;
  • An analysis of other sectoral laws and how these impact on the achievement of gender equality;
  • Whether and how the laws in question explicitly treat women and men or girls and boys differently and/or indirectly based on being facially neutral on its face but discriminatory in effect due to pre-existing inequalities that are not addressed by the apparently neutral measure.
  • Following the above narrative, the consultant will annex to the report, a table which encapsulates (1) the titles and dates of all the laws under investigation; (2) the sections which are explicitly or implicitly discriminatory; (3) gaps in the law; (4) the basis for arriving at these conclusions and (4) recommended actions to relevant stakeholders

Deliverables:

• Conduct a legal analysis from a gender perspective of agreed sectors of national legislation.
• Undertake consultations with key stakeholders to identify the sectoral laws for revision.
• Comprehensive report including the annex mentioned in II.6.

Timelines:

• The consultant will undertake the assignment in consultation with relevant government departments and ministries, Civil society organizations, and UN Women and will deliver on the following products over a period of 50 days between the period 01 October – 30 November 2020.

Education and Certification
Expected skills and experiences of the evaluation expert is mentioned below:

• Master’s degree in Law. A PhD will be an added value.

Experience:

• At least 10 years’ experience on the legal landscape of Nigeria from a gender perspective and ability to undertake a gender analysis of national legislation and policy documents;
• Proven knowledge of international practices, legislations and policies; and instruments, including women’s rights; and /or the protection of human rights;
• Experience in managing and facilitating high-level dialogues, round table discussions, consultations, with stakeholders at both grassroots and national levels;
• Experience of working with CSOs initiatives and government;
• Proven experience to collect, analyze and interpret complex qualitative and quantitative data;
• Excellent command of English is required;
• Previous professional experience with development agencies and the United Nations would be considered an asset.

Required Skills and Experience:

• The assignment is expected to be carried out by one individual consultant. The expert can form a team to carry out the commission, however the contract will be made with the expert and overall responsibilities for the service will be upon the expert.
• The consultant needs to be independent in terms of using office spaces, equipment, utility and other logistics. UN Women facilities may not be available unless specified.

Competencies
Technical Competencies:

• Experience in issues related to gender equality, legal reforms and women’s rights

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to pragmatically apply in-depth knowledge and experience of issues and practices in the fields of judiciary systems; legal reform; gender equality
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
• Strong communications skills (written and oral)

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;

Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Skills and Experience of the National Consultant

• The assignment is expected to be carried out by one individual consultant. The expert can form a team to carry out the commission, however the contract will be made with the expert and overall responsibilities for the service will be upon the expert.
• The consultant needs to be independent in terms of using office spaces, equipment, utility and other logistics. UN Women facilities may not be available unless specified.

Expected skills and experiences of the evaluation expert is mentioned below:

• Master’s degree in law. A PhD will be an added value.
• At least 10 years’ experience on the legal landscape of Nigeria from a gender perspective and ability to undertake a gender analysis of national legislation and policy documents;
• Proven knowledge of international practices, legislations and policies; and instruments, including women’s rights; and/or the protection of human rights;
• Experience in managing and facilitating high-level dialogues, round table discussions, consultations, with stakeholders at both grassroots and national levels;
• Experience of working with CSOs initiatives and government;
• Proven experience to collect, analyze and interpret complex qualitative and quantitative data;
• Excellent command of English is required;
• Previous professional experience with development agencies and the United Nations would be considered an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of the other UN official language is an asset.

Technical Qualification Evaluation Criteria
The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Evaluation Criteria – Obtainable Score:

• Academic qualifications – 10
• At least 10 years’ experience in legal and gender analysis of national legislation and policy documents – 25
• Traceable record of work on similar projects – 20
• Proven knowledge of international practices, legislations and policies; and instruments on violence against women; and / or the protection of human rights – 25
• Experience in managing and facilitating high-level dialogues, round table discussions, consultations, with stakeholders at both grassroots and national levels; – 20

Deliverables – Deadlines – (Payment Schedule)

• Methodology developed and shared – September 2020
• Draft an inception report for the analysis of legislation from a gender perspective – October 2020
• Conduct consultations – October 2020
• Develop draft report on the legislation analysis from a gender perspective – October 2020 (65%)
• Facilitate a validation workshop to present legislation analysis findings – November 2020
• Provide a final report and brief on the legislation analysis from a gender perspective – November 2020
• Final comprehensive report – November 2020 (35%)

Application Closing Date
15th September, 2020. (Midnight New York, USA)