Research Consultant: Gender Partnership Programme

Background

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the global organization of parliaments. It was founded in 1889 as the first multilateral political organization in the world, encouraging cooperation and dialogue between all nations. Today, the IPU comprises 180 national Member Parliaments and 14 regional parliamentary bodies. The IPU promotes democratic governance, institutions and values, working with parliaments and parliamentarians to articulate and respond to the needs and aspirations of the people. It works for peace, democracy, human rights, gender equality, youth empowerment, climate action and sustainable development through political dialogue, cooperation and parliamentary action.

The IPU recognizes gender equality as a key component of democracy and works to achieve the equal participation of men and women in politics. It provides support to parliaments in advancing gender equality, increasing women’s political participation and leadership, and in transforming themselves into gender-sensitive institutions that deliver on women’s rights. In recent years, it has focused on the question of harassment and violence against women in parliament.

In 2016, the IPU published a first study on sexism, harassment and violence against women parliamentarians. To deepen documentation and understanding of the issue, the IPU has started a series of regional studies. The regional studies aim to enrich research and enhance the quality of the analysis of sexism, harassment and violence against women in parliament by exploring and taking into consideration the specific context of each region.

In 2018, a study on sexism, harassment and violence against women in parliaments in Europe was carried out in partnership with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The second in the series of regional studies focused on parliaments in Africa, and was carried out in 2021 with the African Parliamentary Union. The next regional study will focus on the parliaments of the Asia-Pacific region and subregions, and will be carried out in partnership with other inter‑parliamentary organizations that are being identified.

Objectives

The study will aim to document and assess the prevalence of different forms and manifestations of sexist behaviours and gender-based violence as experienced by female members of parliaments and female parliamentary staff in the Asia-Pacific region. It will also endeavour to examine the good practices that parliamentary institutions in the Asia-Pacific region have put in place to prevent and combat sexism and gender-based violence in their work environment.

The study will also seek to show, through case studies in the four Asia-Pacific subregions (namely East Asia, The Pacific, South-East Asia, and South Asia), how the contexts in which women parliamentarians work in each subregion can influence the forms, intensity and impact of violence to which they are exposed.

Tasks

The Research Consultant will assist the IPU Gender Partnership Programme in carrying out the regional study on sexism, harassment and violence against women in parliaments in the Asia-Pacific region. The Research Consultant will be part of a research team responsible for the development and implementation of the study. The research team will include four other researchers, made available by partner inter-parliamentary organizations and based in different regions worldwide who will communicate regularly online. The research team will be supervised by a Research Team Leader, who is already part of the IPU’s Gender Partnership team.

For the purpose of this study, the Research Consultant will carry out confidential interviews with women parliamentarians and women parliamentary staff from the Asia-Pacific region. The interviews will be based on a written questionnaire. The Research Consultant will also conduct semi-structured interviews based on a series of open-ended, in-depth questions with women parliamentarians who have faced or are facing violence. Most interviews will be carried out during IPU Assemblies and other meetings, as well as by telephone and through online communication platforms.

In coordination with the other research team members, the Research Consultant will be responsible for:

- Liaising with IPU Members and partner organizations to reach out to a large number of women parliamentarians and women parliamentary staff in the Asia-Pacific region.
- Contacting women parliamentarians and women parliamentary staff, informing them about the study, encouraging them and getting their agreement to participate.
- Drawing up a schedule of interviews and arranging interpretation in Asia-Pacific languages where needed.
- Carefully collecting and transcribing the data and information collected from the respondents during the interviews, and entering the data and information into an online platform designed for this purpose.

As the information may be of a sensitive nature, all consultants who are part of