Short-Term Consultancy - Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) Job Vacancy in Monrovia, Liberia

medica
mondiale is a German based feminist women’s rights organisation supporting
women and girls in war and conflict regions. medica mondiale provides
psychosocial and legal counselling and trauma sensitive medical consultation,
and enhances protection – both through its own projects and in co-operation
with local women’s organizations. At a political level, medica mondiale
actively advocates

the enforcement of women’s rights and interests and demands
consistent punishment of crimes as well as effective protection, justice and
political ownership for women survivors of sexual and gender based violence.

For
our programme in Liberia we are looking for a SHORT-TERM CONSULTANCY to develop
a strategy of improved access to justice for women with particular reference to
SGBV cases.

Background
Sexualized violence in war or the aftermath and its often long-lasting
consequences need to be addressed through a complex approach that tackles the
consequences on physical, psychosocial, economic, educational, legal and social
levels as well as through strategic linkages with line ministries and other
decision makers. Since 2006, medica mondiale has been working in the rural
areas in the South East of Liberia to implement a comprehensive programme
providing psycho social, legal counseling, medical consultation and community
outreach through a trauma sensitive approach. This programme is part of the
Reintegration and Recovery Program (RRP), a development programme of the
Republic of Liberia, addressing the needs of the population in the south
eastern counties of Grand Gedeh, River Gee and Sinoe. financed by the German
Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through the KfW
(German Development Bank), and is implemented by the three international
organizations Welthungerhilfe, ibis and medica mondiale.

medica
mondiale Liberia’s vision is to contribute to creating an inclusive society
with self-determined women committed to solidarity, co-creating at all levels
to shape and sustain a violence free, just and peaceful world.

The
way that we work to achieve this (our Mission) is through implementing
programmes with a feminist trauma sensitive approach that contributes to the
empowerment and transformation of women and girls especially survivors of
sexualized and all other forms of violence perpetrated against them during war
and in the aftermath. medica mondiale Liberia’s programme include direct
quality support to survivors, intensive capacity building and advocacy; we are
focusing our energies and resources on both recovery and prevention. An
evaluation of the mmL programme in 2011 identified the necessity for the mmL
programme to more thoroughly reflect the needs of women in accessing justice
that results in redress and accountability.

Currently,
medica mondiale Liberia is assisting survivors who request to access the formal
justice system through community outreach, legal counseling and support by
trained community advocates. Unfortunately, the legal system is very often
ineffective, corrupt and inefficient, and is failing to respond to the needs of
women and girls. Moreover, we need to better understand what women themselves
define as “justice” and what they themselves would see as a
“fair redress”. In our experience, women are often seeking access to
justice that is not limited to the formal justice system but includes informal
processes such as mediation and locally acceptable conflict resolution
mechanisms/methodologies; some of them already exist in the communities.

In
Liberia, there exist many different laws (e. g. Inheritance Laws and the act
amending the criminal laws to prosecute rape cases); frameworks or policies
e.g. Liberia Action Plan on 1325, Action Plan on SGBV etc. and legal
institutions such as Criminal Court “E” for rape cases that clearly
spell out the efforts of the Government to respond to the consequences and to
eradicate sexual and gender based violence in the country. Implementations of
these laws and policies are, however, very weak and seem often not to be working
in the interest of women and girls.

Objectives
The consultancy is to draft a strategy for the program component of medica
mondiale Liberia “access to justice for survivors of (s)gbv” in the
South East of Liberia.
1. The strategy will identify different means by which community women and
girls are able to access justice and get redress, both in the formal and
informal systems. 2. The strategy will outline how the formal and the informal
justice systems can be influenced to better protect the rights of women and
girls and to integrate human rights , particularly women’s rights perspectives.
The strategy will describe ways how to hold the formal system accountable and
how to increase access to accountable and speedy dispute resolution in the
traditional or “informal” systems. 3. The strategy should be based on
a thorough research about formal and existing informal justice mechanisms in
the Southeast and should take women’s perspectives and their own definitions of
“justice” into consideration. It should explore how women can
creatively influence both the traditional and the formal system based on their
needs and rights. 4. The strategy should include courses of action which avoids
compromising of cases under the traditional system as well as the formal system
and should also take cognizance of ongoing efforts by the government of
Liberia, civil society and partners to curtail rape and other SGBV crimes in
Liberia.

The research is expected to include but not limited to the following:

Participatory
research on women’s perception and own definitions of justice and redress
Research
on both the formal legal system and informal/traditional justice in South
East Liberia
Assess
alternative programmes that are currently on-going in Liberia
Research
alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in both the formal and
traditional system
Research
on chieftaincy systems in S.E. Liberia and assess the power relations between
the various positions within the traditional system, e.g. the relationship
between the Bodios and the Chiefs

Expected Outcome
Strategy and implementation outline for an access to justice approach of medica
mondiale in Liberia, underpinned with human rights values.

Expected output
1. Prepare a work plan and schedule of research activities and methodology,
agreed with medica mondiale Liberia and medica mondiale Headoffice.
2. A research report and strategy that includes the following:

Research
report and analysis
Strategy
for an access to justice approach in Southeast Liberia
Draft
Implementation plan
Monitoring
and evaluation strategy
Final
report

Scope of work

This
research is expected to start beginning of November with 5 days of desk
research, two days of field research and stakeholder meetings in Monrovia,
two weeks participatory research in at least 2 counties and one week
report and strategy writing. First draft report and strategy should be
submitted by December 7th, 2012.

Professional qualifications required

Excellent
research skills; experience with participatory research methods
Experience
of developing strategies that lead to effective programmes
At
least 5 years of experience in programming in the field of access to justice
for women
A
lawyer qualified in Liberian Law/or experienced in the field of access to
justice in the region
Knowledge
of human rights and gender
Knowledge
of alternative dispute resolution systems
High
degree of cross-cultural competence and diversity perspective
Knowledge
of the South East of Liberia would be an asset