NOTE: Signed Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and availability – https://www.ba.undp.org/content/dam/bosnia_and_herzegovina/docs/Operations/Jobs/Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx – Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability.docx – to be sent to e-mail ba.shared.hr@undp.org with Subject: Job ID 101456.
The main objective of the Women in Elections (WiE) project is to strengthen women’s leadership and participation in public and political life. Guided by the strict observance of the highest standards of political neutrality, the project applies the UN Gender Equality in Elected Office approach to help secure an enabling environment for getting more women elected across board, in all spheres of decision-making in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Strengthening women’s leadership and political participation applies the two-pronged approach- vertically by proposing structural adjustments to accommodate greater numbers of women in politics, as well as horizontally by nourishing the next generation of women leaders in communities through tailored networking and capacity building initiatives.
Women leaders, from all walks of life, all backgrounds and different experiences, knowledge, and skills, are seen as essential players of positive social transformation towards sustainable development goals, higher gender equality and better quality of life for citizens of BiH. Among the root causes of resistance, and even backlash towards women empowerment initiatives is the fact that these interventions on one hand heavily influence a highly gendered private sphere, traditional division of labour, and social norms, while on the other they threaten to disturb the locus of power within institutions, companies, processes that were previously regarded as gender neutral.[1] Also, evidence[2] shows that a lack of consultative processes, having no access to local knowledge (or failing to take it into account even when existent) and not taking into account masculinities, are among the top three reasons of limited impact of gender interventions, as well as failed solutions. In order to truly empower women and to maximise impact of gender equality interventions, these interventions should be based on evidence and insight into the context of Bosnia and Herzegovina which has its specific set of enablers and challenges.
In relation to this, one of project avenues for strengthening women’s leadership is the Women’s Forum for Development (WF4D). The WF4D is envisaged as a platform for action and consensus decision making[3], forging issue-based coalitions and establishing a mutual support mechanism that nourishes the next generation of women leaders. It is by having a pulse on context specific evidence about the root causes of gender inequalities that one can design effective solutions to transform gendered power relations, stereotypes, toxic masculinities, and work towards eliminating societal exclusion mechanisms. For full impact, the WF4D members need to have both, access to a reliable research and knowledge product base in a single place, and to map research that is needed, but still lacking. While doing so, it is important to have in mind the interdisciplinary nature of both gender and development, that together constitute the base of WF4D philosophy and field of intervention. WF4D is envisaged to operate on four different tracks: decent work, transformational leadership, care economy/social innovation and knowledge powerhouse.
The objective of this consultancy is to assist the project team to fully operationalize thematic track on Transformative Leadership of the WF4D and contribute to the debate on contribution of knowledge production and management from different fields relevant for women leadership and democratization. This should be done by drawing more broadly on the WF4D Framework while initiating new consultative processes and capitalizing on discussions with the key stakeholders to create a Roadmap for action.
[1] Hearn, J, Vasquez del Aguila, E. Hughson, M. Unsustainable Institutions of Men: Transnational Dispersed Centres, Gender Power, Contradictions – Routledge Advances in Feminist Studies and Intersectionality, 2019, p.26.
[2] Hughson, M. Knowledge Production at the Semiperiphery: A Gender Perspective, 2017, p.113.
[3] Consensus decision making is a creative and dynamic way of reaching agreement between all members of a group. Instead of simply voting for an item and having the majority of the group getting their way, a group using consensus is committed to finding solutions that everyone actively supports. This ensures that all opinions, ideas and concerns are taken into account, and it is as such a basic feminist principle for cooperation.