Consultant: Implications of Intellectual Property Rights on Gender Roles and Responsibilities in Farming Practices in Latin America

Description:

Location: Home Based
Application Deadline: 05-Dec-08
Type of Contract: SSA
Languages Required: English
Starting Date (date when the selected candidate is expected to start): 15-Dec-2008
Duration of Initial Contract : 45 days (including travel if required)

The Inclusive Globalization Cluster of the Poverty Group (PG) of the Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) through its IP, Trade and Biodiversity project proposes to conduct a study titled Implications of Intellectual Property Rights on gender roles and responsibilities in farming practices: Case studies from Latin America. This study shall be the first knowledge product under the Impact Issues component of the project.

Farming practices in most developing countries rely on informal exchange of knowledge and seed-sharing for ensuring food security and maintenance of agricultural biodiversity. The World Trade Organization’s intellectual property agreement (TRIPS) and other bilateral and regional trade agreements may impact these practices by introducing monopolistic and exclusive rights regimes into the area of plants and plant varieties. In this context, among the major groups affected by these changes brought forth in the multilateral and regional trade arena are women farmers. For example, TRIPS or strong patent type protection for plant varieties and genetic resources affects women’s roles and responsibilities in agriculture, contributions to food security, roles in maintaining traditional knowledge in health care and medicines, and reproductive health. Women produce about 50% of all food in the world and rural women in particular tend to use the forest as a source for a wide variety of plants and plant products to supplement the basic diet of the household, especially during food shortages. Privatization of biological resources directly affects women, who lack resources to purchase them and are left relying on shrinking and increasingly degraded common property resources. As a result, creating gender specific safeguards with respect to plant rights will result not only in greater security for women, but will also ensure maintenance of agricultural biodiversity and continued food security for societies at large.

The project will produce two case studies in two communities in the Latin/Central American region that examine and analyze the following:

• Establishing gender concentrated practices in areas related to biodiversity- farming (collection and management of seeds); traditional knowledge (custodians and practitioners);
• Practical impacts of international Intellectual Property rules on these specific gender roles and responsibilities; and
• Existing mechanisms, if any, to safeguard affected groups from the said impacts.
• Make recommendations based on findings above

The starting point must be the intellectual property rights from a gender equality perspective,. The aim of the study is to highlight the interface between gender equality and intellectual property rights; serve as a short guide using the case studies, lessons learned and good practices (which are basically biodiversity related practices that impact on gender equality); and make recommendations for future action.

Duties and Responsibilities:

The Consultant will undertake the following duties:

• Prepare and submit a detailed concept paper using the said TOR and personal expertise that shall form the background to the final study. The concept paper shall identify among other issues the two communities that shall form the basis of the final case studies.
• In addition to understanding and being an expert in issues of intellectual property rights and biodiversity, the consultant must possess awareness of the gender-specific dimensions of intellectual property rights and biodiversity. He/she must be willing to do ground work on identifying and interacting with two indigenous farming communities, conduct gender analysis and involve gender experts’ comments into the final study and must prepare a scoping study to establish the same.

The consultant shall follow three step/level methodology towards establishing the final study:

• Ground/grass root level work- where the consultant identifies two community groups from two different sub-regions of Latin America where functions, such as collection and management of plant varieties, farming, and seed management, are conducted by women. This identification and further discussions with the identified communities will be made in consultation with the project managers in UNDP. The consultant must then establish the IPR-biodiversity interface at this level. (Community level)
• Comments from regional/national gender experts- on whether national intellectual property and trade priorities have affected/will affect the empowerment of women in the two communities. (National level)
• Establish very specifically the interface between IPR and biodiversity and what must be done at various levels so that the gender roles are not disrupted and continue to be empowered, for e.g. recommendations could be at various levels- Convention on Biodiversity (CBD), upcoming Access and Benefit Sharing regime (ABS) regime, national and regional free trade agreements (Multilateral level).

Duration: Forty-five (45) working days during the period: 15 December 2008 – 15 March 2009. This shall include travel.

Payment: The payment shall be made in the following manner:

• First tranche of 75% on satisfactory submission and completion of the three levels of work and submission of first draft of the study; and
• Second and final tranche of 25% on satisfactory submission of the final version of the study after having incorporated comments and inputs from experts through a peer review process.

Travel: Where the consultant is expected to travel to participate in scoping missions and meetings, travel-related expenses will be reimbursed by UNDP, based on the current practice and UNDP rates.

Reporting: The consultant shall liaise with Ms. Savita M Narasimhan (Consultant- IP, Trade and Biodiversity Project) and Ms. Luciana Mermet (Policy Specialist, Inclusive Globalisation Cluster) for any queries and assistance on a day-to-day basis. The consultant is expected to incorporate comments and suggestions from the cluster and other reviewers on the documents to be submitted.

Competencies:

• Strong intellectual property and biodiversity policy analysis skills from a human development perspective. Knowledge on Gender equality is a must.
• Though the study shall be produced in the English language, strong Spanish speaking skills in order to interact with communities.
• Previous experience in producing or facilitating intellectual property and biodiversity related knowledge products and services
• Strong and proven verbal and written communication skills
• Ability to work independently and manage competing priorities

Required Skills and Experience:

• Advanced university degree (Masters or equivalent) in economics, international economics/law, with at least 5 years experience on trade/IP issues;
• Understanding and experience on trade/IP issues, including in the regional context, especially applicable to the Latin American region, as well as familiarity with intellectual property, biodiversity, (including issues surrounding recent aspects and changes in the CBD, ABS and FTA discussions) and development challenges faced by individual Latin American economies; and
• Understanding of gender perspectives in intellectual property and biodiversity related practices- mainly farming and management of seeds.

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Application Deadline: 05 December 2008

Website: http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?job_id=7516