National Consultant (Domestic Energy & Clean Cooking Vacancy-Job Ref: JKNEUNWOMEN/2006/202472

National Consultant (Domestic Energy & Clean Cooking Vacancy-Job Ref: JKNEUNWOMEN/2006/202472
Niamey (Niger)
JOB DESCRIPTION

UN Women, the UN entity dedicated to gender equality and women’s empowerment, was established in 2010 to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls around the world. To this end, UN Women supports UN Member States in adopting international standards to achieve gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design the laws, policies, programs and services needed to ensure that these standards are effectively implemented and benefit women and girls everywhere. UN Women’s 5 priority areas of intervention are:

– Strengthen women’s leadership and participation;

– End violence against women;

– Integrate women into all aspects of peace and security processes;

– Strengthen the economic empowerment of women;

– and place gender equality at the heart of national planning and budgeting processes.

Clean cooking is a subject of great importance in many other African countries and particularly in Niger where 2/3 of the territory is desert. It represents a major challenge for sustainable development and public health. This concept aims to replace traditional methods with cleaner and more efficient alternatives, such as closed stoves that consume less fuel or solar, gas or electric stoves. These technologies can significantly reduce exposure to harmful emissions and reduce the environmental impact linked to wood collection and deforestation. It is therefore a crucial issue in the fight against climate change, especially in regions where access to modern, non-polluting cooking methods is limited.

In sub-Saharan Africa, only 10% of the population has access to such means, which has repercussions not only on the environment but also on the health of populations, particularly women and children. Today, more than 700 million Africans, most belonging to the poorest of the poorest, use highly polluting solid fuels such as coal, cow dung, wood and other biomass for cooking, thus affecting family health and the environment. In addition, the search for firewood represents a serious economic handicap for women who spend a lot of time on it, while taking risks for their own safety and health.

In Niger, the energy sector is dominated by the high consumption of the residential sector, which relies mainly on woody resources (wood and biomass residues). Deforestation has long been a problem for Niger, due to the dominant use of traditional biomass resources by the majority of the population. Almost all households (86% according to the 2020 AFREC energy report) use wood/charcoal as their main cooking fuel. This situation contributes to the increase in deforestation. Inadequate infrastructure could generate significant losses due to congestion, leading to low productivity. Limited infrastructure development in the energy sector has made it difficult to meet growing potential demand.

As highlighted in the 2019_SIE_UEMOA Report, biomass represents 67% of Niger’s energy production. Natural gas and solar PV account for 1% of the country’s energy production, and crude oil accounts for 29% of national production.

Reliance on traditional biomass resources has also led to gender inequalities in education and employment, with women traditionally responsible for daily firewood collection. Thus, given the central role that energy plays in the context of economic and social development, it is essential to be able to assess the vulnerabilities of the national energy system to climate change, deforestation as well as their impacts on public health, particularly that women to find innovative solutions and adaptation measures.

It is in this context that UN Women wishes to carry out an exploratory study to determine the potential, issues, challenges and opportunities for the promotion of clean cooking in Niger. Based on the results of this study, UN Women will develop a clean cooking program, as a development lever, which can act simultaneously in favor of climate, gender equality, health and improvement of living conditions of populations, particularly women, in Niger.

As part of this study, the consultant will use secondary data and the opinion survey to support the analyses.

Duties and Responsibilities
Under the strategic direction of the Country Resident Representative, with periodic reports, the consultant is expected to perform the following functions:

Develop a clearly detailed methodology;
Write the report of the exploratory study on clean cooking with programmatic orientations;
Produce a summary note as an advocacy support document;
Prepare a PowerPoint that highlights the key results of the study;
Organize a report validation workshop.
Deliverables

The inception report with a clear methodology is developed and validated with UN Women;
The report of the exploratory study on clean cooking with programmatic orientations is produced: [(i) proposals for priority areas for an impact program; (ii) production of photo databases and testimonies to attest to the types of cooking in Niger, including current innovations; (iii) analysis of government partners, NGOs or associations working in this sector, including the national and international legislative and regulatory framework; (iv) identification of possible sources of financing existing at the national and international level)];
The advocacy support document is developed;
The PowerPoint presenting the key results of the study is produced;
The report validation workshop is organized.

The execution schedule will be established by the consultant;

The calendar will be validated in agreement with the UN Women technical teams

Competencies
Fundamental values ​​:

Respect for diversity;
Integrity ;
Professionalism.
Basic skills :

Awareness and sensitivity to gender issues;
Accountability;
Creative problem solving;
Effective communication;
Inclusive collaboration;
Mobilization of stakeholders.
Functional skills :

Strong research and development skills;
Strong analytical skills on inequalities between Men and Women;
Strong writing and communication skills in French;
Experience in the use and application of technical tools for collecting and processing statistical data;
Strong commitment to knowledge sharing in a multicultural environment
Required Skills and Experience
Training:

The consultant must have:

Postgraduate university degree or equivalent in social sciences, environment or any other relevant discipline in the field of gender and climate change, renewable energies;
A Doctorate/PhD in the above fields is an asset.
Experiences:

Proven experience in producing basic analyzes and studies;
At least 5 years of experience in research and development, women’s empowerment, gender issues, renewable energies, climate change, environmental protection;
Have carried out at least 3 studies related to the questions raised.
Language requirement:

Fluency in French;
English is an asset.
All documents must be written in French and English.

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