Job: INTERNATIONAL EXPERT / TRAINER FOR JOURNALISTS ON GENDER SENSITIVE REPORTING AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ISSUES

Location: Tbilisi, Georgia
Deadline: Tuesday, 10 September 2013 

Description

INTERNATIONAL EXPERT / TRAINER FOR JOURNALISTS ON GENDER SENSITIVE REPORTING AND VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ISSUES

Location :

Tbilisi, GEORGIA

Application Deadline :

10-Sep-13

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Post Level :

International Consultant

Languages Required :

English  

Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start)

15-Sep-2013

Duration of Initial Contract :

10 working days

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Maximum 10 working days during the period from September 15, 2013 to November 15, 2013)

Background

Millions of women and girls worldwide suffer some form of gender-based violence, be it domestic violence, rape, female genital mutilation/cutting, dowry-related killing, trafficking, sexual violence in conflict-related situations, or other manifestations of abuse. In fact, for women and girls 16-44 years old, gender based violence is a major cause of death and disability.  Up to 70 per cent of women experience violence in their lifetime. 

States have an obligation to protect women from violence, to hold perpetrators accountable and to provide justice and remedies to victims/survivors. Eliminating violence against women remains one of the most serious challenges of our time. The knowledge base and tools to prevent and eliminate violence against women developed over the past decade must be utilized more systematically and effectively to eliminate all forms of violence against women. This requires clear political will, outspoken, visible and unwavering commitment at the highest levels of leadership of the State and the resolve, advocacy and practical action of individuals and communities.

With the generous support by the Swedish International Development Cooperation (Sida), the UN Joint Programme to Enhance Gender Equality in Georgia (hereinafter referred to as the “UNJP) has been launched in March 2012 implemented by UNDP, UN Women, and UNFPA. The overall goal of the programme is to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment through strengthening capacities in the government, civil society organizations and grassroots level. The overall goal will be achieved by realization of the following three outcomes:

• Enhanced women’s political and economic empowerment;
• Creation of an enabling environment to eliminate violence against women, especially domestic violence (DV);
• Creation of enabling environment to realize sexual and reproductive rights of the population.

UN Women leads work under the second outcome of the UNJP being responsible for the creation of an enabling environment to eliminate violence against women (VAWG), especially domestic violence (DV) in Georgia. In order to achieve this outcome, UN Women inter alia works at the grassroots level to support prevention as well as disclosure of the instances of domestic violence, aiming specifically to a) increase awareness among the target audiences of the problem of VAWG and DV in particular, b) encourage disclosure of the instances of DV and promote the use of the existing victim/survivor support services; c) prevent violence from occurring in the longer run by promoting zero tolerance with regard to VAWG in general and DV in particular.

In order to achieve the aforementioned ultimate goal, a communication strategy has been elaborated entailing: a clear message about applying a zero tolerance policy with regard to the practice of VAWG and DV targeting women and girls as well as men and boys. Due to the fact, that media plays a crucial role in shaping public opinion and attitudes and can moreover act as a catalyst for behavioral and attitudinal change and serve as a channel to reinforce or challenge gender or other stereotypes and norms as well as attitudes towards VAWG, DV and other social phenomena, UNJP is planning to conduct a media training on gender sensitive reporting and violence against women issues in October 2013. 

According to the study Gender Stereotypes in the Georgian Media  conducted by the Media Development Foundation (MDF) in 2011, stereotypical thinking and attitudes dominate in Georgian media. Coverage of women related issues does not address, but rather reinforces gender stereotypes. Journalists lack awareness of gender issues and, therefore, operate within the realm of gender stereotypes enhancing existing stereotypes through print, spoken text, video and photo images, as well as through non-gender sensitive coverage of different topics.

Furthermore, the study has shown, that violence against women, and stories about female criminals and suspects, are mainly offered in media if news occurs. As a rule, the coverage is limited to a simple descriptive news story. Media rarely offers a wider coverage of issues in the context, raises the problems, offers analysis, or tries to find solutions; qualified commentary is rarely offered. In addition to plain, superficial coverage of issues, the monitoring also revealed the traces of stereotypical thinking. In crime stories covered by media the most striking finding is the journalists’ unawareness with the principle of gender equality. Journalists often unreasonably identify the criminals’ or suspects’ gender. This is also the result of stereotypical thinking: woman is a virtuous, good-tempered creature that never commits crime.

According to the media monitoring report, due to the lack of education on gender issues, journalists unintentionally strengthen gender stereotypes. The reason is that they themselves are the carriers of these stereotypes, often sharing them, and spreading existing stereotypes among the society.

Bearing in mind that improved gender education of journalists is the key to ensure gender sensitive and ethical reporting, UNJP plans to undertake this capacity building effort to assist journalists and photo-reporters better understand the attitudes, prejudices, and biases which often come through in media messages; recognize and analyze the imbalance of women’s voices, as compared to those of men in the media; analyze facts, issues and data from a gender perspective as well as understand how to portray images of VAWG and DV in an ethical manner without reinforcing existing stereotypes and re-victimizing victims/survivors of VAWG and DV. Furthermore, interaction and dialogue between gender specialists and media professionals will be crucial in raising the interest of the media to use gender-transformative approaches while covering different social issues and in promoting an entire perspective, a gender vision within the media.

The capacity development workshop will be conducted for print media journalists (10) and photo-reporters (10) with the following objectives:

• Raise awareness of the target group of women’s human rights and gender equality issues, focusing on ending VAWG and DV, including information on prevalence and forms of VAWG in Georgia;
• Develop capacities on story writing, ethical and gender sensitive coverage of VAWG and DV related materials;
• Improve skills to develop gender sensitive and ethical visual/photo material for VAWG and DV related issues.

In order to ensure active participation of journalists and follow-up to the workshop, the participants will be divided in 10 groups consisting of one journalist and one photo-reporter each to write a story accompanied with photo material on VAWG/DV. The 10 illustrated stories will be collected and displayed at an exhibition during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence campaign 2013, where 3 winning teams will be identified.

It is therefore, that UNJP is seeking collaboration with a prominent journalist with expertise in gender equality, women’s rights and VAWG and DV issues to conduct training for print media journalists and photo-reporters on gender-sensitive and ethical reporting in general and on VAWG and DV issues in particular. For this purpose, UN Women will recruit an International Expert / Trainer for Journalists on Gender Sensitive Reporting and Violence against Women Issues (hereinafter referred to as the “International Expert”).

Duties and Responsibilities

In more specific terms the International Expert under the overall guidance of UNJP / UN Women Component Manager will:

• Develop a training module for print media journalists and photo-reporters on gender-sensitive and ethical reporting in general and on VAWG and DV issues in particular;
• Coordinate with the National Consultant / Photographer who will conduct the section of the workshop on proper visualizing and portrayal of VAWG and DV issues in the development process of the training module and the workshop itself;
• Conduct a two-day workshop based on the training module for 10 print media journalists and 10 photo-reporters in Tbilisi;
• Develop a training report, including evaluation by the participants;
• Participate in the selection panel of three best stories with visual material on VAWG / DV issues developed by the participants of the workshop as a result of the training.

Key deliverables and time frame:

• A training module for print media journalists and photo-reporters on gender-sensitive and ethical reporting in general and on VAWG and DV issues in particular developed by September 20, 2013 (6 working days);
• A two-day workshop  in Tbilisi based on the training module for 10 print media journalists and 10 photo-reporters conducted by September 30, 2013 (2 working days);
• A training report developed by October 15, 2013 (1 working day);
• Participated in the selection panel of three best stories with visual material on VAWG / DV issues developed by the participants of the workshop as a result of the training by November 15, 2013 (1 working day).

Management Arrangements:

The contractor will work under the guidance of the UNJP / UN Women Component Manager and overall supervision of UN Women National Programme Officer in Georgia.

Financial arrangements:

The recruitment process will be conducted through an open call. Payment of the fees will be disbursed to the expert/trainer upon submission and approval of all the deliverables and certification by the UN JP Component Manager as per the following schedule:

• 
  
  First instalment – A training module for print media journalists and photo-reporters on gender-sensitive and ethical reporting in general and on VAWG and DV issues in particular developed and submitted by September 20, 2013 (maximum 6 working days);
• 
  
  Second instalment - a two-day workshop  in Tbilisi based on the training module for 10 print media journalists and 10 photo-reporters conducted by September 30, 2013 (maximum 2 working days); and a training report developed and submitted by October 15, 2013 ( maximum 1 working day);
• 
  
  Third instalment - Participated in the selection panel of three best stories with visual material on VAWG / DV issues developed by the participants of the workshop as a result of the training by November 15, 2013 (maximum 1 working day).

Competencies

• Sound understanding of gender equality, VAWG and DV issues;
• Understanding of the local political, cultural and social context.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Graduate Degree or higher in Journalism or related field.                                   

Experience:

• At least five years of experience in journalism;
• At least five years of experience in training of journalists on ethical reporting and related issues.

Language requirements:

• Fluency in English.

Evaluation Procedure: 
The candidates will be evaluated in two stages: technical evaluation and financial evaluation.

Technical evaluation criteria:

• Graduate Degree or higher in Journalism or related field - 80;
• At least five years of experience in journalism - 70;
• At least five years of experience in training of journalists on ethical reporting and related issues - 70;
• Sound understanding of gender equality, VAWG and DV issues - 70;
• Understanding of the local political, cultural and social context - 50;
• Proficiency in English - 10. 

Maximum total technical scoring: 350

Evaluation of financial proposal 
Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S Fmin / F * 150.

• S – score received on financial evaluation;
• Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;
• F – financial offer under consideration.

Winning candidate 
The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical
scoring + financial scoring).
 
Submission package:

• CV and P11 form;
• A letter of interest (in English);
• Financial proposal– lump sum budget in USD (including breakdown of this lump sum amount indicating all related costs to complete the mission: total remuneration, travel expenses (per diems, tickets, lodging and terminal expenses) in accordance to the sample below:

• Consultancy Fee;  
• umber of days;        
• Total  (USD);
• Travel (Airfare;)  
• Terminal Expenses; 
• Lodging; 
• Per Diem; 
• Other; 
• Total. 

*Each applicant will be required to submit an aggregated financial offer (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of the task).

In  July  2010, the  United  Nations General  Assembly   created UN Women, the  United  Nations  Entity for Gender  Equality and  the  Empowerment of Women.  The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater   impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the  UN system (DAW, OSAGI,  INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused  exclusively on gender equality and women's  empowerment.

*All applications must include the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://unwomen.unssc.org/files/UN_P11.doc 

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

More Info and Application