Consultancy – Testing the femicide statistical framework for use in Kenya and generate estimates of femicide for the years 2020 to 2023

Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women Eastern & Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) maintains a large presence in Eastern and Southern Africa region, covering 13 countries with program presence in Somalia and Zambia. If the UN Statistics Divisons’ classification is used, the region has 28 countries. In accordance with the UN Women Strategic Note, which is premised on the Africa Strategy, UN Women works to advance social, economic and political rights and the protection of women and girls from violence including harmful practices. The program also focusses on those from marginalized, excluded and under-represented groups, including rural women, women with disabilities, women living with or affected by HIV, women survivors of violence, women migrants, elderly women and others.

To date, most of the gender data and statistics work that has been done in the region has been under the umbrella of the global Making Every Woman and Girl Count (Women Count) programme. The Women Count Africa regional project has been crafted around three primary objectives:

• Creating an enabling environment
• Increasing data production
• Improving data accessibility and use

Currently, the program is in its second Phase (2023-2025), and it expands its support towards the strengthening of administrative data systems in the continent in particular data systems that support gender issues such as Gender Based Violence (GBV) including femicide. In addition to developing training materials for GBV prevalence surveys, UNODC and UN Women have developed a statistical framework for measuring gender-related killing of women and girls(femicide/feminicide) which was endorsed by the United Nations Statistical Commission in March 2022. Besides the statistical definition of such killings, the framework identifies a typology of gender-related killings of women and girls (femicide/feminicide) and the list of variables that can be used to identify and count the various types of such killings.

To this end, UN Women ESA-Regional Office is planning to hire a national consultant to test the femicide framework and to generate estimates of femicide for the years 2020 to 2023 in Kenya.

Scope of Work

This project is designed to support Kenya’s efforts in building stronger national capacities to collect, analyze, and report reliable data on femicide in a standardized and comprehensive manner. At its core, the initiative seeks to uncover and document the strengths, gaps, and opportunities within the current data ecosystem. It also aims to highlight good practices and offer practical, actionable recommendations to improve the way femicide data is managed in the country.

1. A key focus of the project will be a thorough review of existing policy and legal frameworks that define femicide in Kenya. This will help establish an understanding of how femicide cases are classified, initiated, and processed within the justice system.
2. To build a stronger foundation for evidence-based policymaking, the project will also conduct a comprehensive review of existing data sources on intentional homicide and femicide and assess existing procedures around evidence collection, prosecutorial decision-making, and judicial outcomes in femicide cases.
3. In collaboration with key stakeholders, the UNODC/UN Women Statistical Framework for Measuring Femicide will be reviewed, with the goal of contextualizing and adapting it to Kenya’s legal and institutional context. This process will also ensure that Kenya’s national data collection practices are aligned with international standards while remaining locally relevant.
4. Based on the adapted framework and national data requirements, a standardized data collection tool/template will be developed. This tool will be piloted to test its usability, relevance, and efficiency.
5. Once tested and refined, the tool will be used to compile and analyze historical femicide data for the years 2020–2023. The analysis will take into consideration data disaggregation by victim and perpetrator characteristics, as well as contextual information surrounding each case.

Goals and objectives

The overall goal of the project is to contribute towards a better understanding, measurement and reporting on femicide in Kenya by testing the UNODC and UN Women femicide statistical framework.

More specific objectives are to:

1. Assess the availability and quality of data on intentional homicides in Kenya, disaggregated by victim and perpetrator characteristics, as well as the contextual details of each occurrence.
2. Test and adapt the UNODC/UN Women Statistical Framework for Measuring Femicide within the Kenyan context.
3. Develop and pilot a standardized femicide data collection tool/template aligned with the UNODC/UN Women framework and the Kenyan context.
4. Generate historical femicide statistics for the years 2020 to 2023 in Kenya.
5. Identify and document good practices and successful strategies that can be adopted or scaled up to strengthen the femicide data management system in Kenya.

Deliverables:

1. Inception report outlining the work plan, methodology, data sources and stakeholder engagement strategy.
2. Organize and facilitate multi-stakeholder consultative and validation workshops.
3. Reports and presentations from the consultative and validation workshops.
4. Data collection tool/template to systematically capture femicide data with a user manual and training materials, aligned with the UNODC/UN Women Statistical Framework for Measuring femicide and Kenyan context.
5. Final report summarizing findings from testing the femicide framework including the data sources, challenges, identified gaps and strategic recommendations on scaling up mechanisms for collecting, measuring and reporting on feminicide data in Kenya.
6. Femicide statistical estimates for the years 2020 to 2023.

Deliverables

No of days

• Inception Report
• Preparation and facilitation of a consultative stakeholder engagement workshop
• Bi lateral Consultation with relevant users and producers of femicide statistics to:
  1. Socialize the femicide framework
• Develop, review, test, and finalize the data collection tool/template

10 days

• Data collection and analysis:
  1. Data assessment and framework testing
• Data compilation and analysis using available data and generation of femicide estimates

8 days

• Preparation of the report
• Preparation and facilitation of a validation workshop to share the findings

12 days

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:

Functional Competencies

• Demonstrable statistical and related experience in the East and Southern Africa region.
• Demonstrated knowledge or experience in organizing information and materials for knowledge sharing and learning.
• Knowledge of the Sustainable Development Goals and national efforts to implement them is strongly preferred.
• Excellent reporting and writing skills.
• Ability to document methodologies and prepare comprehensive training materials.
• Advanced analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement abilities.

Education and Certification:

• Masters degree in law, sociology, criminology, development studies, statistics or any other related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree
• Certification in statistics or demography will be an advantage.

Experience:

• At least 7 years’ experience in statistics and data is required;
• Experience working on gender-based violence and/or criminal justice system required;
• Experience in gender and or GBV related research and statistics is desirable;
• Experience in working with the international agencies in the field of data and statistics is desirable;
• Demonstrable experience in developing and implementing data collection in a statistical or administrative setting is desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

Statements :

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.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.

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