Background

The UN Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women (“UN Trust Fund”) was established through UN General Assembly Resolution 50/166 in 1996 UN Women as its Administrator on behalf of the UN system. The UN Trust Fund is a leading global multi-lateral mechanism supporting national efforts to end one of the most widespread human rights violations in the world.

The UN Trust Fund’s annual grant-making process, through its widely publicized Call for Proposals, operates on core principles of ensuring an open, fair, transparent, competitive and merit-based process. The UN Trust Fund focuses on supporting country and local implementation of laws, policies and action plans to address violence against women, while maintaining flexibility in terms of responsiveness to a wide range of forms of violence, national and emerging priorities and needs, and diverse approaches. By 2012, the UN Trust Fund had supported 351 programmes in 128 countries and territories with over US$ 86 million.

On 17 November 2012, the UN Trust Fund launched its annual Call for Proposals for a nine-week period spanning 17 November 2012 – 21 January 2013 (see UN Trust Fund Call at https://grants.unwomen.org).  Online applications for proposals will be accepted from governments, civil society organizations and United Nations Country Teams in English, French, and Spanish.

Duties and Responsibilities

Activities and Deliverables:

The UN Women Sub-regional Office for Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) is seeking the services of one or two short-term consultants (this will depend on the number of applications received) to screen incoming applications through an online system and make recommendations based on criteria set forth by the UN Trust Fund. 

The consultant is expected to have sound knowledge of gender-based violence and will review applications submitted by governments and civil society organizations from the EECA sub-region/region. The consultancy will last 10-15 working days (exact number of days will be determined based on the number of concept notes to be reviewed and will be identified before signing the contract) within the period of January 25 till February 18, 2013. The deliverables under the present consultancy shall include the following:

  • Verifying that each proposal complies with the elements stipulated in the 2012 Call document and cross-checking that all supporting documentation received is accurate. 
  • Providing an objective assessment of applications based on guidelines and criteria set by the UN Trust Fund; [deliverable 1: assessment of all applications is completed in line with set requirements]
  • Recommending the top 10 applications (if applicable, i.e. in case of larger amount of applications received from EECA, in collaboration with another consultant reviewing the same set of applications), and providing the necessary justifications for their selection; [deliverable 2: top 10 applications recommended]
  • Providing a summary of recommendations for each recommended application, based on the Fund’s criteria and an assessment of the needs, quality, and rationale of the proposal; [deliverable 3: summary recommendations for top 10 applications developed]
  • Preparing an introductory note for each of the countries where the recommended initiatives would be implemented. The note should include a brief country context, the relevant provisions against violence against women in each country (legal framework and policies), and the main institutions involved in the implementation of these provisions; [deliverable 4: introductory note for each country finalized]
  • Preparing an analytical brief that documents trends and emerging topics in the field of violence against women as can be observed from the demand for UN Trust Fund resources specific to the region, including highlighting any lessons learned or feedback from the application review process itself. [deliverable 5: analytical brief developed]

Management Arrangements:

The consultant/s will work under direct supervision of the UN Women EECA SRO Programme Specialist.

Evaluation:

UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that takes into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals. The contract shall be awarded to the expert who is the most technically qualified and provides the best value for money.

Technical evaluation criteria:

Criteria / Maximum points:

  • Either an advanced university degree in Gender, Development Studies or related field and a minimum of 5 years experience in the field of women’s rights; or a Bachelor’s degree with over 10 years experience in the field of women’s rights - 150;
  • Knowledge of women’s rights and gender issues globally, expertise on violence against women programming - 80;
  • Prior experience in grant-making and in the United Nations System and/or non-governmental organizations is an asset - 70;
  • Proficiency in English, Russian is an asset
    (English – 30; English and Russian – 50) - 50.

Maximum total technical scoring: 350

Only candidates who reached at least 245 points will be qualified for financial evaluation.

Financial Evaluation:

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula:

                                                                         B = T +  Clow / C x 150,

where
T – is the total technical score awarded to the evaluated proposal (only to those proposals that pass 70% of technical evaluation);
C – is the price of the evaluated proposal; and
Clow – is the lowest of all evaluated proposal prices among responsive proposals.
150 is the maximum financial points obtainable.
 
Winning candidate:
 
The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Competencies

  • Knowledge of women’s rights and gender issues globally, expertise on violence against women programming;
  • Prior experience in grant-making and in the United Nations System and/or non-governmental organizations is an asset.

Required Skills and Experience

Key requirements:

  • Either an advanced university degree in Gender, Development Studies or related field and a minimum of 5 years experience in the field of women’s rights; or a Bachelor’s degree with over 10 years experience in the field of women’s rights;
  • Excellent written and spoken fluency in English. Russian is an asset.

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

All online applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from
 http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/P_11_form_UNwomen.doc.

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.