IOM recuits a Consultant – Social Researcher – Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
IOM :
Established in 1951, IOM is a Related Organization of the United Nations, and as the leading UN agency in the field of migration, works closely with governmental, intergovernmental and non-governmental partners. IOM is dedicated to promoting humane and orderly migration for the benefit of all. It does so by providing services and advice to governments and migrants.
Context :
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United National Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) are partnering to conduct in a formative research to understand social norms that hinders women to participate in leadership position and perpetuate gender inequality within the Rohingya population in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. This research proposes to create a broader and more in-depth mapping of gendered social norms and how they define the gender roles of men and women, including influence or limit women’s ability and opportunity to create conformity (as a leader) within their settings and existing women’s leadership capacity gaps for the development and improvement of training packages, empowerment initiatives, and social norms transformation work that is on-going and will continue to develop with the Rohingya people. Moreover, It would also map how [gender] norms, roles and power dynamics are shifting owing to new realities in displacement, including how these shifts are/ can be influenced.
Additionally, as new governance structures and livelihood programming seek to more actively engage women and girls’ participation in public spheres, humanitarian stakeholders need to ensure that women have the necessary skills, capacity, and enabling environment to participate as equal members in these fora and that social norms permit them to without exposing them to backlash. Whether through livelihood programming, empowerment interventions, or new governance structures, understanding how social norms shape the reality and scope of behavioral action that women and girls can take is necessary for us in order to ensure opportunities for women and girls within the response are situated “within reach” and identify longer term strategies for changing harmful social gender norms that prevent them from taking on leadership roles. Given the low rates of literacy within the Rohingya community and lack of skill training that many Rohingya women had prior to the displacement, there is also need for us to better understand what “soft skills” are required by aspiring Rohingya female leaders. Which and how much training on negotiation tactics, literacy, vocational skills training, and confidence building are needed and identified by women. Equally important is the need to establish what is required for other community members and governance structures to include women in the leadership positions, value their inputs in the decision-making processes, and to ensure their participation in these structures is meaningful and to prevent any negative backlash from the community and local leaders exposing the women to further harm.
IOM and UN Women believe this research will significantly contribute to the development of on-going work to improve and create more gender-responsive, inclusive and transformative governance structures, livelihood programs, and empowerment initiatives that all seek to engage women and girls in larger leadership roles and improve gender equality among the Rohingya population. Ultimately this work is necessary to actualize the Joint Response Plan’s commitment to protection and gender mainstreaming and accountability to affected populations by including them in process of program design. Improving our understanding of the qualities of leadership within the Rohingya context will allow for us to equip women and better position them to acquire such traits on one hand and to create enabling environment for them to actively participate in them on the other. Social norms and capacity mapping can further inform theories of change, build training programs to address capacity deficits, and design social norms transformative messaging and programming. This information is necessary to achieve the effectiveness of future programming but also in order to ensure that such programming takes into consideration the potential risks associated with challenging various norms. Understanding this is important therefore in both the process of transformation but also in ensuring the safety and security of Rohingya women and girls in programming.
Core Functions / Responsibilities :
With the purpose of designing, conducting and finalising the report for this research over a three-month period, UN Women and IOM are recruiting an Independent Researcher Consultant to be based in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.
An independent researcher with experience in gender and social norms, gender equality and women empowerment programming and barrier change analysis will be brought on board to conduct the detailed design of the research study and write a report over a three-month period. Key outputs will include a study that maps social norms and the capacity deficits that need to be addressed in order to effectively empower women into leadership positions. The research findings will be presented to the broader humanitarian community for consideration and enable programmers to ensure that their theories of change comprehensively address underlying dynamics. This will include sharing the preliminary research findings and recommendations will be further shared for inputs and feedback with the inter-sector Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group, the Protection Sector and the GBV Sub-Sector for the finalization. The outputs will also result in a suggested theory of change for leadership and empowerment outcomes that is linked to underlying causes identified in the study.
Specific objectives of the formative research :
- Analysis of social norms related to women’s and girls’ participation in leadership and decision-making position in Rohingya communities;
- Identification of the most effective strategies to meaningfully engage women and girls in leadership and decision-making positions.
Research Questions :
- What are existing social gender norms and how do these determine the roles, duties, rights, responsibilities, accepted behaviours, opportunities and status of women, men, and adolescent boys and girls in relation to one another?
- How do Rohingya people understand leadership and what are leadership opportunities for women, men, and adolescent boys and girls? What examples of female leadership exist and what role models of female leadership currently exist for women and adolescent girls? What social norms currently exist that inhibit and/or promote women’s and girl’s access to leadership? What is the potential for the transformation of some of the norms that inhibit women’s and adolescent girls’ ability to act as leaders in public spheres?
- What do the reference networks look like for various groups? Who sets social expectations and who has influence over others? How can they be engaged to sensitively and safely transform social norms to include women and girls in leadership positions?
- What skills and capacities do women and girls need to acquire in order to act within leadership roles? How is their acquisition related to prevailing gender and social norms? What are the pathways and barriers to their acquiring them?
Methodological Approach :
Given the nature of the questions, a qualitative approach will be undertaken in order to better understand and answer the above questions. There is already a plethora of quantitative data collection within the humanitarian response and while such data is important in scoping breadth of many issues and problems, it is limited in terms of the depth at which it can answer the above. For the purposes of the research, “leadership” will broadly be understood and include ways in which women and girls may lead through participation in community groups and governance structures but also ways in which women may lead by taking active roles within the marketplace as entrepreneurs or within “less traditional” framings. It is important to methodologically leave this open to accommodate the Rohingya understandings of leadership and allow them to map existing role models.
Given the necessity of engaging perspectives of Rohingya women and girls, there are sensitivities that need to be considered considering the population’s exposure to recent traumatic events during displacement. Inquiry into social norms also takes time to build trust among participants to elicit open sharing and discussion, as no doubt some of the norms subject to inquiry will be linked to experiences or GBV risks. The research will be designed and conducted in a gender sensitive and conflict sensitive manner. Ensuring research participants are engaged in spaces where they can safely discuss these issues progressively, and in spaces where they have access to any necessary psycho-social counselling and GBV referral services is necessary. Therefore, research and engagement with women will occur through IOM’s Women and Girls Safe Spaces (WGSS) and UN Women’s Multi-Purpose Women Centres with support from Gender, GBV and Protection officers to help facilitate discussions and workshops with women. Larger engagement with male leaders and other men and adolescent boys in the community will occur through IOM’s site management teams who regularly hold FGDs and community engagement sessions with Imams, Mahjees and other leaders within the camps, as well as with UN Women’s partnerships with CiCs.
Tangible and Measurable Outputs of the Work Assignment :
- Formulation of a clear research methodology, including a workplan that enumerates all research related tasks;
- Frequent, formal consultation with the research steering committee;
- Research is conducted, report is drafted and finalized, and research findings are presented to the committee.
Realistic Delivery Dates and Details as to how the work must be delivered :
First moth :
- Research methodology, including a workplan, is finalized by designing and validating the questionnaire, establishing the scope (camp locations and respondents across camps) and applying ethical research guidelines and safety protocols;
- A literature review is completed.
Second moth :
- Research is conducted and a draft preliminary report is submitted to research steering committee for review and feedback.
Third month :
- Finalize report in coordination with the research steering committee;
- Present findings, in coordination with the research steering committee.
Performance indicators for evaluation of results
- Satisfactory and timely completion of tasks indicated in this ToR.
- A research report that can be used satisfactorily by IOM, UN Women and other relevant key stakeholders to inform programming.
Required Qualifications and Experience :
Education :
- Master’s degree related to humanitarian affairs, public health, psychology, gender and/or other relevant social sciences (e.g. development studies, political science, international relations) from an accredited academic institution or the equivalent combination of professional experience in a related area.
Experience :
- Minimum of five years’ experience with either the UN and/or NGO conducting similar programming and research/work with women and adolescent girls on Social Norms, especially in South and South-east Asian contexts;
- Demonstrated work experience with harmful social norms present in the Rohingya context, including child marriage, menstrual restrictions, and purdah;
- Experience with theory of change and program development for gender equality and women and girls empowerment programs;
- Experience working with populations of women and girls with similar cultural and human development indicators;
- Experience conducting development and humanitarian research on gender-related subjects with qualitative methodologies;
- Experience in the duty station of assignment is an asset.
Languages :
For this position, fluency in English is required (oral and written). Working knowledge of Bengali is an advantage.
Note :
The consultant must adhere to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) Data Protection Principles (IN/138) and maintain confidentiality.
The consultant will be responsible to follow IOM writing guidelines and latest glossaries in all given assignments for accurate translation.
The period of this consultancy is from July 2019 to August 2019. The successful candidate will be based at the UN Women/IOM Office in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh and provided with a desk and work station. The successful candidate is expected to travel as needed to the camps in Ukhiya and Teknaf. Travel costs and Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) will be provided by UN Women and IOM if and when needed in line with UN standard rates applied at that time. Travel Authorization will be granted to the successful candidate prior to the travel date and airfare will be provided by UN Women and IOM.
The successful candidate will adhere to UN Women and IOM Data Protection Principles, Research and Visitor Guidelines, especially guidelines for research GBV as well as UN Women and IOM’s Standards of Conduct as well IASC Guidelines for Gender in Humanitarian Action, Addressing Gender Based Violence in Emergencies, Centrality of Protection, Child Protection Minimum Standards, PSEA and Accountability for Affected Populations.
Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.
Evaluation criteria :
Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis:
- Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%];
- Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%].
A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified candidates who may be contacted for validation interview.
Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:
- Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
- The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
- The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price;
1 Accredited Universities are the ones listed in the UNESCO World Higher Education Database (https://whed.net/home.php).
Required Competencies :
The successful candidate is expected to demonstrate the following values and competencies:
Ungraded with Managerial Competencies
Values – all IOM staff members must abide by and demonstrate these three values:
- Inclusion and respect for diversity: respects and promotes individual and cultural differences; encourages diversity and inclusion wherever possible;
- Integrity and transparency: maintains high ethical standards and acts in a manner consistent with organizational principles/rules and standards of conduct;
- Professionalism: demonstrates ability to work in a composed, competent and committed manner and exercises careful judgment in meeting day-to-day challenges.
Core Competencies – behavioural indicators :
- Teamwork: develops and promotes effective collaboration within and across units to achieve shared goals and optimize results;
- Delivering results: produces and delivers quality results in a service-oriented and timely manner; is action oriented and committed to achieving agreed outcomes;
- Managing and sharing knowledge: continuously seeks to learn, share knowledge and
- Accountability: takes ownership for achieving the Organization’s priorities and assumes responsibility for own action and delegated work;
- Communication: encourages and contributes to clear and open communication; explains complex matters in an informative, inspiring and motivational way.
IOM’s competency framework can be found at this link. here
Competencies will be assessed during a competency-based interview.
Other :
The appointment is subject to funding confirmation.
Appointment will be subject to certification that the candidate is medically fit for appointment, accreditation, any residency or visa requirements, and security clearances.
No late applications will be accepted.
How to apply :
Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications via PRISM, IOM e-Recruitment system, by 25 June 2019 at the latest, referring to this advertisement.
IOM only accepts duly completed applications submitted through the IOM e-Recruitment system. The online tool also allows candidates to track the status of their application.
Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
For further information please refer to: www.iom.int/recruitment
Posting period:
From 19.06.2019 to 25.06.2019
No Fees:
IOM does not charge a fee at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, processing, training or other fee). IOM does not request any information related to bank accounts.
Requisition: CON 2019/37 – Consultant – Social Researcher – Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh (56026221)
Released
Posting: Posting NC56026222 (56026222) Released