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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of its efforts, UN Women is mandated to lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming are translated into action. It is also mandated to provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Zanzibar has recently embraced the Blue Economy (BE) as a pathway to sustainable and inclusive development. This involves the utilisation of maritime and marine resources to support gender inclusive and sustainable economic growth as well as creating employment opportunities for women and youth. Moreover, the Zanzibar Blue Economy Policy 2021 has identified, among others, key sectoral priorities, which include tourism; fisheries; seaweed farming; mariculture; maritime transport, infrastructure, and services; maritime safety and security; offshore renewable energy; and oil and gas development.

UN Women has been working closely with the Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries to mainstream Gender in the Blue Economy Policy and its implementation. UN Women’s 2020 Baseline study on Women’s Economic Empowerment in Fisheries in the Blue Economy of the Indian Ocean Rim reinforces the need for the formal recognition of women’s contributions to the growth and sustainability of this industry and identified a number of issues to be addressed for women’s involvement in the sector.

In this effort, UN WOMEN, is supporting the Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries (MoBEF) to address environmental and systemic gender inequalities, discriminatory social norms, and barriers that women face in the blue economy sector. In this regards, UN Women in collaboration with UNDP, UNEP and development partners is supporting the Government of Zanzibar in the development of a participatory, and social- and gender inclusive Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) process that is aimed at improving livelihoods for women and youth and reducing gender inequalities through a multi-sectoral integration of the ocean-based economies. The Joint UN supported MSP (Marine Spatial Plan) Pilot initiative will provide the MoBEF with a roadmap of strategies, activities, and pathways to benefit women and their communities , enhance gender inclusive sustainable economic prosperity, ensure women’s leadership and effective participation in the MSP process, in improving conservation of the ocean, and increase efforts in climate adaptation.

Building on this, UN Women seeks the services of a national expert to support women’s engagement in Marine spatial Planning and development in Zanzibar. The national consultant will work under the guidance of an international consultant to be hired through a separate contract by UN Women. The two consultants will work as a team, with the international consultant as lead responsible for overall quality assurance.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the UN Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Programme Specialist, and the international the consultant ,the national consultant will undertake the following assignments in collaboration with, the Ministry of Blue Economy and Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry for Community Development , Elderly, Gender and Children ), UN Agencies, Development Partners, Women in marine communities, private sector, women’s rights organizaitons and other stakeholders in Zanzibar:

Deliverables:

Gender and stakeholders Analysis of the Blue Economy policy implementation
A detailed Gender Strategy and action plan for BE MSP
Presentation of the gender strategy to government partners,UN Agencies and relevant CSOs in a 1- day validation workshop in Zanzibar.
Report and feedback from the gender strategy validation workshop
A concept note for a four-year UN Women project on investing in women in the blue economy sector in Zanzibar with MSP considerations
Brief report and inputs submitted to the UN Joint drafting team drafting Marine Spatial Planning in track changes
Contribute towards the development of UN Women new Country Strategic Note, in relation to Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Blue Economy.