Situation Analysis-Base Line Survey: Promoting Women’s Engagement in Peace and Security in Northern Nigeria

Background

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.

More than ten years after the passage of UN Security Council resolution 1325, there is widespread concern that progress made at the normative and policy levels has not been translated into significant improvements in the lives of women and girls in conflict and post-conflict countries. To address this, UN Women with funding support from the European Union, is implementing a programme that pilots a model for EU/UN collaboration on Women, Peace and Security matters in three states of Northern Nigeria, selected based on the findings of the base-line survey of five states.

The programme ‘Promoting Women’s Engagement in Peace and Security in Northern Nigeria’ supports the Nigerian Government (Federal level), three Northern States of Nigeria and four selected constituent Local Government Areas (LGAs) in each state to strengthen women’s leadership, advance gender equality and improve protection for women and children in conflict settings. It is composed of three inter-locked components, each with their own specific objective:

1) Strengthening women’s role in conflict prevention, peacemaking and peacebuilding;

2) Mitigating the impact of conflict upon women and girls; and

3) Establishing a conducive environment for effective implementation of UNSCR 1325 at national level and in selected states.

Interventions are coordinated through a results based strategy to raise the capacities of Nigerian institutions, women’s groups and gender equality advocates over a 3-year programme cycle.  The activities related to each thematic area (e.g., women’s leadership in peacemaking, improved rights-violation monitoring/reporting and protection services, and national implementation of women, peace and security and gender equality frameworks) aim to achieve a common objective while remaining flexible to fit the specificities of each State, once selected.

Justification:

The issue of women, peace and security came to the fore when in June 2001, the then Secretary General of the United Nations; Mr. Kofi Annan issued a very comprehensive report on conflict prevention that underscored the importance of gender equality, the costs of violent conflict and the roles of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in conflict prevention and their relationship to the United Nations. The report stressed the need to protect women’s human rights and called on the Security Council to include gender perspective in its work and integrate the protection of women’s human rights in conflict prevention and peacebuilding. More than ten years since the report was published, much anecdotal evidence exists with little in-depth analysis documented pointing to the impact of or the level of women’s engagement in peace building activities in Nigeria generally and Northern Nigeria in particular.

Since its independence in 1960, thousands of Nigerians have lost their lives in various levels of armed conflicts and violence.  Many more have become perpetually internally displaced.  Within the last two decades, Nigeria has grappled with a plethora of conflicts which have sapped enormous energy and resources meant for economic development and in improving the living standard of its citizens.  These conflicts have placed tremendous burdens on Nigerian communities especially women who suffer displacement, loss of families and means of livelihoods, various forms of gender-based violence, and trauma. The current insurgency and high level of insecurity, especially in the Northern Region of Nigeria undoubtedly calls for a more inclusive and strategic approach in resolving conflicts. Even though women suffer more from the various violent conflicts, and have huge potentials in fostering sustainable peace in the Nigeria, their involvement in the various peace building processes is grossly limited and often times undocumented.

Further, monitoring and evaluation provide information and facts that, when accepted and internalized, become knowledge that promotes learning. UN Women uses and applies learning from monitoring and evaluation to improve the overall performance and quality of results of ongoing and future projects, programmes and strategies.

More so, by expanding knowledge of women’s engagement in peace and security and their implication for gender equality and national development, policy makers will be empowered to make informed decisions that adequately capture women’s concerns and needs.   

Objectives of the assignment

The specific objectives of the assignment are as follows:

• To determine baseline information on the level and impact of women’s engagement in peace and security in Northern Nigeria;
• To revise the draft log-frame for the programme;
• To contribute to the Inception Phase Report.

Methodology: 

It is expected that the consultant would adopt participatory methodologies at every stage of the process involving all relevant stakeholders. This will involve gap analysis, focus group discussions (where appropriate), community dialogue, key informant interviews (KIIs) with selected Stakeholders, memoranda from relevant stakeholders(especially the Civil Society Organizations), Desk review of existing local, national and international documents and instruments in relevant areas amongst others to achieve expected project outputs.

Project Scope:

The Situation Analysis will be conducted in the five states involved in formulating the project i.e. Adamawa, Benue, Gombe, Kaduna and Plateau. The consultant in collaboration with UN Women and UNICEF will be required to select two urban and two rural LGAs cutting across the Senatorial Districts in each state for the conduct of the study. The final choice of the target states where implementation will take place will be informed principally by the findings of the study.

Main Task for the Consultant:

The Consultant is expected to carry out the following activities:

• Review relevant project documents (including Description of the Action and Logical Frame Work);
• Develop research tools which will be presented and approved by UN Women and UNICEF before the commencement of the field work.
• Situation Analysis to be carried out with a multidisciplinary team with expertise in gender, peace building, child protection and security sector reforms. The team will review related literature, embark on a field analysis of the current role as well as underlying socio-cultural and economic issues and social norms that determine women’s engagement in peace and security in Northern Nigeria amongst. The study will include visits to the selected states to gather information.
• Revise Draft Log Framework - Based on the baseline information gathered, the consultant shall be responsible for revising and finalizing the draft log frame for the Programme in such a way as to effectively measure progress towards achieving set objectives.
• Prepare section of the Inception Phase Report - The situation analysis constitutes an essential element of the programme aimed at promoting women’s participation in peace and security in Northern Nigeria. Thus, the consultant will contribute to the overall Inception report based on a format to be provided by UN Women.

The consultant is to be guided by the following questions in conducting the situation analysis and developing the Framework:

Specific objective 1: To promote women's engagement in peace building and conflict management processes, at all levels

1. How many women are actively participating in peace processes at national level and in target states;
2. Is their participation in formal or informal peace processes;
3. What is the traditional role of women in peace building;
4. Where is their impact felt the most;
5. Are there legal/policy frameworks that promote women’s participation in peace processes national level and in target states;
6. Are there religious or cultural norms that drive the women in peace process;
7. Is there a gender sensitive peace architecture at national level and in target states;
8. What are the key gender related elements of the Peace Architecture;
9. How effective has the Peace architecture been;
10. Is there a law/policy against Gender Based Violence (GBV) at national level and in target states;
11. Has the National Action Plan on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 been domesticated in target states;
12. Which laws promote respect for women’s rights at national level and in target states;
13. Are the laws being implemented;
14. If not what are the barriers;
15. Is there a database of women mediators at national level and in target states;
16. Is there any forum for engagement between at national level and in target states between women’s groups and security sector institutions;
17. What are the good practices on how to ensure that women and girls participate in peace processes; 
18. What are the identified risks associated with women in peace process and possible mitigation measures.

Specific objective 2: To increase access to reporting mechanisms and protection services for girls and women affected by human rights abuses, including gender based violence           

1. What are the local human rights monitoring and response mechanisms at state/LGA level? What do these mechanisms look like and what areas do they cover;
2. What are the capacities of the local human rights monitoring and response mechanisms (especially in terms of monitoring and responding to issues affecting children and women)? What training have they received and by who;
3. What initiatives at State and LGA level are ongoing and planned to address GBV? What do these initiatives look like;
4. Have there been any mapping of GBV in the selected states and LGAs? If so what were their findings;
5. Have there been any use of innovative technologies in the LGAs to identify human rights concerns including GBV? If so what does this look like; 
6. Are there any work currently ongoing, or in the past, at either Federal, State or LGA level to work with men and boys to address GBV, If so what do these initiatives look like and what have been their impact;
7. Are there any current public information campaign to address GBV in the selected states? What do these campaign look like and what has been their impact. 

Specific objective 3: To support a conducive environment for implementation of UNSCR 1325 at national level and in selected states

1. What is the level of implementation of the 1325 NAP at national level and in target states;
2. To what extent has the NAP protected the rights of women in target states;
3. Do Gender Equality Advocates in target states engage duty bearers on the need for passage of gender sensitive laws;
4. Are there any pending gender related Bills before the House of Assembly in target states;
5. Are there regular advocacy visits to law makers on the need to pass gender related Bills;
6. Are there journalists in the target states with the capacity for gender sensitive conflict reportage.

All bidders are to submit their technical proposal and financial proposals on separate envelopes showing their technical competence as an organization and the relevance of their organization to the research work as well as the qualifications of the proposed team implementing similar assignment in the past and relevance of their qualification to the assignment.

Deliverables:

• Programme Implementation Plan;
• Research Tools;
• Report of Situation Analysis on women’s engagement in Peace and Security in 3 states in Northern Nigeria. The report, among others should contain analysed data, names and contacts for groups responders; including tables and background information covering findings, conclusions and recommendations from the specific task;
• Revised Log frame;
• Final report (narrative and financial) of all activities conducted within the framework of the project with recommendations.

Evaluation of the Consultant / Firm:

Proposal of Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:
 

Technical Evaluation: (Total obtainable score – 70)

All proposals that passed through the preliminary evaluation will be scored out of 70 based on the criteria mentioned in the table below. To qualify in the technical evaluation a proposal must obtain minimum 70% of the total obtainable technical score or at least 49 points. Any proposal obtaining a score less than the minimum required score (49) will be technically disqualified. Proposals achieving 70% or more points in the technical evaluation will be considered for financial evaluation.
 

• Years of experience in national and/or international level in development field (15 marks);
• Capacity and experience on research, data analysis and statistical methods (25 marks);
• Extensive experiences on programme monitoring particularly (results based monitoring/evidence based reporting) (20 marks);
• Experience with UN system and its programme (10 marks).
•  

Applicants may also be invited for a face to face or telephone interview as part of the technical evaluation process. The interview shall not bear any additional score but shall be used to validate the scores given above by assessing the knowledge on the subject matter.

Financial Evaluation: (Total obtainable score – 30):

All technically qualified proposals will be scored out 30 based on the formula provided below. The maximum points (30) will be assigned to the lowest financial proposal. All other proposals receive points according to the following
formula:

p = y (μ/z)

Where:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal;
• μ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Supervision and Performance Evaluation:

The consultant will work under the direct guidance and supervision of the UN Women Head of Office and UNICEF. The consultant will regularly brief the UN Women Country Team and UNICEF on the progress. 

Based on clearance by the UN Women and Evaluation Group Chair, the consultancy fee will be paid at four installments as described below. The Consultant will receive the final remuneration after successful completion of assignment positively evaluated by UN Women.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years professional experience at national and/or international level in action research or similar fields;
• Experience in the area research, data analysis and statistical methods
• Extensive experience in designing results based monitoring frameworks particularly is required;
• Experience working with the UN system and understanding of UN Programmes is highly preferred;

Duration:

The duration of the consultancy will be two (2) months commencing from the date of contract signature. In case there is need of extension of contract duration, the consultant or firm should notify UN Women in writing at least 15 working days before the contract expires. UN Women will not entertain any costs extension other than the approved contract amount indicated on the selected proposal.

Remuneration:

All payments under the contract shall be made in accordance to the schedule indicated below:

Security:

The consultant who will visit the states must comply with completing the UN Security trainings (Basic Security in the Field II and Advance Security in the Field from the web https://dss.un.org/dssweb/WelcometoUNDSS/tabid/105/Default.aspx?returnurl=%2fdssweb%2f) before commencing the job. Further, the visiting consultant should also provide medical certificate of good health and fit to travel from a certified medical practitioner.

Please send your sealed proposals to the following address:

The Representative

UN Women

WAEC Building, 3^rd Floor, 10 Zambezi Crescent

PMB 2851, Maitama

Abuja, Nigeria