The equal participation of women in decision-making bodies have been ensured by the Maldives Constitution and laws as well as the international conventions. This is backed by commitment from member states to remove barriers that hinder women’s participation and to actively promote and ensure their representation and meaningful participation in all governance structures including the elected and appointed bodies. However, around the world, women continue to be underrepresented from decision making processes at local and national level. Globally, the percentage of women in national parliaments is 24.3% and only 20.1% hold ministerial positions[1].
Gender quality is a necessary foundation for achieving an inclusive, equitable and sustained development. Development is only effective when the diverse experiences, perspectives and talents of women have been included. Research has further proven that the proportion of women in parliament greatly influences the issues discussed and the legislations prioritised aims to bring positive communities for all groups in society especially children and women[2]. Faced with complex development challenges, legislative bodies with members from diverse backgrounds generally provided more innovative solutions to tackle problems.
Political parties play a key role in determining the political participation and representation of women in the political sphere. The power rests on them for recruitment and selection of candidates for parliament and island councils and for women’s involvement within the parties’ hierarchies as well. At present, women tend to be overrepresented at grassroots activity level but are largely excluded from decision making bodies within the parties which again impacts the issues included in their party manifestos. Another key factor is the social and cultural norms that continue to restrict women’s meaningful participation in all spheres of public life. This coupled with a lack of inclusive institutions/agencies causes women to face considerable challenges when contesting for elected positions.
UNDP through its Integrated Governance Programme (IGP) has been working towards creating an enabling environment for inclusive and participatory decision making at all levels. From the various works carried recommendations point towards collaborating with political parties to increase women’s meaningful engagement and representation in the political sphere. As such, UNDP is seeking the service of an international consultant to support the strengthening of Women’s Wings of political parties for increased engagement and participation of women in the political sphere.
[1] UN Women and Inter-Parliamentary Union, 2019. “Women in Politics: 2019”.
[2] UNDP and National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, 2012. “Empowering Women for Stronger Political Parties”.
Under the guidance of UNDP, the consultant will undertake the following tasks.
Diagnostic Assessment Toolkit:
Home Based
Male’ Based (or Home Based depending on the situation)
Male’ or Home Based
Male’ Based (or Home Based depending on the situation)
Home Based
Expected Outputs and Deliverables
The consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables.
The following table shows an indication of the duration for the deliverables;
Deliverables/ Outputs
Estimated Duration to Complete
Submit initial draft of the inception report
3 days
Conduct stakeholder consultations and submit final inception report
7 days
Develop the diagnostic assessment tool
7 days
Pilot the diagnostic assessment tool
8 days
Develop draft action plans for individual political parties
7 days
Facilitate validation workshops for each action plan with stakeholders
3 days
Submit the final action plans
5 days
Institutional Arrangement
The consultant will work under the guidance of UNDP and will be accountable to the assigned Programme Officer, IGP, for each deliverable as stipulated in the proposal. Meetings with UNDP senior management will be held as and when needed.
Duration: 40 days between June – August 2020
Duty Station: Maldives
Corporate Competencies
Functional Competencies
Education
Experience
Language requirement
Application process
Interested individuals must submit the following as proposals in order to demonstrate their qualifications.
Note: Please note that UNDP jobsite system allows only one uploading of application document, so please make sure that you merge all your documents into one single file.
This vacancy is archived.