EMHRN is seeking researcher for gender survey and audit (Offre en anglais) Retour vers les opportunités

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network (EMHRN) seeks to hire a researcher to produce a 20-page gender audit on the gender mainstreaming efforts of its membership in French.

Background

Discrimination against women and/or unequal status and opportunities for women is a globally widespread phenomenon, including in the Euro-Mediterranean region, where discriminatory laws, policies, and impunity for violence against women led the UNDP Arab Human Development report to conclude that the status of women was one of three main deficits that hinders development. The economic crisis in Europe and the Arab uprisings have influenced the position of women in societies across the Euro-Med region and brought the role of women to the core of societal debates. While these developments have led to backlashes for women’s rights, they also present a window of opportunity for the promotion of gender equality.

CSOs should seize this opportunity. While WROs obviously work on women’s right, they often work in isolation from other CSOs, including generalist HROs who see women’s rights and gender equality as the mandate of only the WROs or at least not as a priority for them.

One of the means to achieve gender equality is through gender mainstreaming[1]. EMHRN has adopted a Gender Equality Policy Paper (GEPP)[2] that outlines its commitments in this regard. It has conducted two Gender Audits in 2008 and 2012 respectively to assess how gender is mainstreamed into the structures and activities of the EMHRN. Furthermore, in 2014, a member of the Gender Working Group prepared an overview of the achievements, weaknesses and strengths of the EMHRN work on Gender Mainstreaming from 2006 to 2013.

All gender audits as well as the overview of the GM activities of the network over the past eight years have concluded, that while gender is relatively well integrated into the EMHRN structures such as statutes, by-laws, executive bodies and working groups, there is a gap in relation to the gender equality awareness and gender mainstreaming efforts of the EMHRN membership.

The EMHRN Gender Working Group (GWG) produced a Gender Mainstreaming Reference Kit[3] targeting specifically CSOs on how to gender mainstream their work and conducted some trainings on this basis. However, it became clear that a more comprehensive strategy would be needed in order to thoroughly address the shortcomings in gender equality in the region and the capacities (and needs) of the organisations to address them.

On this background, the EMHRN GWG suggested to conduct a survey among EMHRN member organisations to identify their needs and capacities to do gender mainstreaming. This survey will also lay the ground for a gender audit, focusing on gender equality awareness and gender mainstreaming efforts of the EMHRN membership, rather than – as the previous gender audits – on gender mainstreaming within the EMHRN alone.

Objective, content and methodology of the research

The main objective of this gender audit is – based on the survey among the EMHRN membership – to shed light on the commitments of the EMHRN membership with regard to gender equality, women’s rights and gender mainstreaming and assess how they have been implemented, as well as prepare the ground for the development of a EMHRN GM strategy to implement the Gender Equality Policy Paper.

ToRs that serve as guidelines for the development of the survey have been discussed and approved by a steering committee appointed by the GWG. The questionnaire for the survey has been developed by the Gender Programme Officer in cooperation and consultation with the GWG. The questionnaire has subsequently been distributed to all members of the EMHRN through the Gender Focal Points of its thematic working groups on Justice, Freedom of Association and Assembly, Migration and Asylum and Palestine, Israel and the Palestinians. These working groups encompass most of the membership of the EMHRN. The questionnaire has been launched and distributed at the working groups meetings of the above mentioned thematic working groups, accompanied by a letter explaining thoroughly the aim and importance of the questionnaire and the survey.

The Gender Programme Officer and Intern are currently collating the answered questionnaires from members and will conduct interviews with a selected group of members who have not completed the questionnaire in February 2015. Based on the data collected through the questionnaires and interviews, and if needed through additional follow-up interviews, the researcher will make a report, analysing the results of the survey, identifying (and categorising) clearly the needs, capacities, achievements and challenges to GM expressed by the different organisations. S/he will, in cooperation and consultation with the steering committee of the GWG and the Gender Programme Officer, make recommendations on how to address these challenges and needs, and how best to make use of any best practice compiled.

The research will be based on desk-work, possibly including some interviews with EMHRN members. The researcher is to submit a first draft of the report for consultation with the GM sub-committee of the Gender Working Group 3 weeks after the start of his/her assignment, and modify the content following their comments. The final draft will undergo final language editing by EMHRN communication department, when content has been approved by the Gender Programme Officer.

Target groups and use of the report

This gender audit will be used to inform the EMHRN general assembly about the status of gender mainstreaming in the network as well as enable the EMHRN to better support the gender mainstreaming efforts of its membership.

Practical Information

(1) Coordination: The researcher should work in coordination and agreement with the EMHRN Gender working group Coordinator and a sub-committee, composed of several members of the Gender WG.

(2) The research paper will be written in French, based on questionnaire replies in English and French (and maybe a few in Arabic) and should not exceed 20 pages (annexes excluded).

(3) Budget: A fee of 3,000 EUR is available for the researcher

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[1] As defined by the United Nations, gender mainstreaming is:‘. . . the process of assessing the implications for women and men of any planned action, including legislation, policies or programmes, in all areas and at all levels. It is a strategy for making women’s as well as men’s concerns and experiences an integral dimension of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of polices and programmes in all political, economic and societal spheres so that women and men benefit equally and inequality is not perpetuated’, ECOSOC report 1997

[2] http://www.euromedrights.org/eng/general-assembly/core-network-documents/, annex c of its current Strategy Paper for 2012-2018.

[3] http://www.euromedrights.org/eng/2009/07/14/educational-packs/