Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women will work 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.

UN Women Training Centre (TC) as the UN leading centre of excellence in training for gender equality offers training for gender equality and women’s empowerment to UN Women staff and UN agencies, as well as to government, civil society and partners.

The Economic and Social Council, in its agreed conclusions 1997/2 on incorporating a gender perspective into all policies and programmes as well as its subsequent resolutions 2006/36, 2007/33, 2008/34 and 2009/12, stressed the critical importance of capacity building for successful gender mainstreaming within the United Nations System and called upon to intensify and coordinate all future UN efforts in this regard.

In line with UN Women’s role of leading and coordinating United Nations System efforts on gender equality and gender mainstreaming as per Resolution 64/289 adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (A/RES/64/289), the (TC) will coordinate the development of an on-line course for United Nations System Gender Focal Points in partnership with the International Training Centre of the International Labour Organization (ITC ILO), which has extensive experience in assisting countries in their social and economic development through gender-responsive training and learning.

Although the gender machinery varies, most UN agencies have developed a network of gender focal points (GFP) that can be found at various levels in the organization, both at HQ and in the field.  Some agencies have had GFP networks for over 10 years while others have implemented them more recently. Though gender equality has improved since 1997 in many regards, several challenges remain and involve the role of GFPs since in addition to forming part of their own agency structure; they often sit on interagency networks and gender thematic groups that form part of the UNCTs. 

In the coming years GFPs will face new challenges with the implementation of the System-Wide Action Plan for Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (SWAP). The SWAP, adopted by the UN Chief Executives Board for Coordination in 2012, sets clear targets for agencies on improving gender mainstreaming mechanisms and performance. 

The Blended Course for UN System Gender Focal Points is aimed at UN system GFPs and gender facilitators tasked with supporting and promoting gender integration in their work unit and agencies.  GFPs usually work in their own technical area of expertise and have the added responsibility of “facilitating” gender mainstreaming internally and often with external partners. They are not gender experts though they may (or may not) have a good knowledge on gender issues out of their own interest or other previous work experience. 

This three-month blended course will be developed and implemented based on existing courses and tools developed by ITC ILO and UN Women.

This blended course will provide gender focal points with an introduction to:

• Basic gender concepts;
• Thematic areas dealing with key gender and women’s issues;
• Gender architecture in the UN System, global norms;
• Gender mainstreaming tools.

The training will also promote the building of a community to encourage discussion and sharing of good practices. This community will also support access to resources and tools.

The online phase will consist of two modules of 10-15 hours of learning each and a face-to-face session lasting 13.5 hours.

The content of the course includes (but is not limited to) the following:

• Gender equality and development. Why?
• Agency’s mandate and policy on gender equality;
• Basic concepts;
• Thematic modules: Ending Violence Against Women, political participation, economic empowerment; 
• Global norms: CEDAW;
• The agency and the UN System. Mandate and policy on gender equality;
• What are the policies, strategies and action plans in place in the UN system? What is the gender machinery in place? 
• SWAP: how is the agency doing? How is it useful in the work I do?
•  UNCT Scorecard;
• Moving from gender-sensitive to gender-responsive and transformative policies and programmes;
• Gender mainstreaming Tools: Results Based Management, Gender markers, Gender equality and Human rights responsive evaluation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Training/Capacity Development Specialist, the consultant will be responsible for developing the content and methodologies for the online and face-to-face sections of this course based on the previous revision and adaptation of existing content and the production of new course content as necessary, including exercises for participants’ assessment and further reading. The consultant will share in the facilitation of the online and face-to-face phases together with UN Women Training Centre and ITC ILO Staff.

The consultant will be responsible for the delivery of products as per the following schedule:
   
Online and Face-to-face Course Content (tentative submission date 14 July 2013)

• Review identified resources;
• Virtual meetings with UN Women TC and ITC ILO;
• Produce an outline for eLearning and face-to-face modalities.

Draft content of e-modules (tentative submission date 12 August 2013)

• Adapt existing content for blended course;
• Develop new content as necessary.

Revised content of e-modules (tentative submission date 20 August 2013)

• Review with UN Women TC and ITC ILO;
• Incorporate changes as necessary.

Final version of e-modules content (tentative submission date 6 September 2013)

• Review with UN Women TC and ITC ILO;
• Incorporate changes as necessary.

Implementation of online phase (tentative submission date 23 September - 1 November 2013)

• Facilitate online activities (including modules, forum discussions, assessments, following up on participants, etc.).

Face-to-face programme content (tentative submission date 21 October 2013)

• Preparation of the face-to-face programme and activities.

Implementation of face-to-face section (tentative submission date 11-22 November 2013)

• Facilitation of specific activities.

Course documentation and evaluation (tentative submission date 9 December 2013)

• Prepare a report on training process and document lessons learned and recommendations for course improvement.

Competencies

Core values and Guiding Principles

Integrity:

• Demonstrate the values of United Nations and UN Women, act without consideration of personal gain, resist undue political pressure in decision-making, no abuse of power or authority, stand by decisions in the organization’s interest, and take action in cases of unprofessional or unethical behavior.

Professionalism:

• Show pride in work and achievements, demonstrate professional competence and mastery of subject matter, conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments and achieving results, motivated by professional rather than personal concerns, show persistence when faced with challenges, and remain calm in stressful situations.

Respect for Diversity:

• Work effectively with people from all backgrounds, treat all people with dignity and respect, treat men and women equally, show respect for and understand diverse opinions by examining own biases and behaviours to avoid stereotypical responses, and do not discriminate against any individual or group.

Core Competencies

Ethics and Values:

• Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents.

Organizational Awareness:

• Building support and political acumen.

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:

•  Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation.

Working in Teams:

• Building and promoting effective teams.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

• Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

• Creating an emotionally intelligent organization

Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:

• Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

• Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Fair and transparent decision-making; calculated risk-taking.

Functional Competencies

Technological Awareness:

• Experience in working in a multicultural and web-based environment;
• Fluency in office software, email, web-based applications and databases.

Client Orientation:

• Monitor ongoing developments inside and outside the client's environment to keep them informed and anticipate problems;
• Meet timeline for delivery of products or services to clients.

Planning and Organizing:

• Ability to plan own work and manage conflicting priorities;
• Ability to develop clear goals that are consistent with agreed strategies;
• Identifies priority activities and assignments and adjusts priorities as required.

Ability to organize, facilitate and participate in workshops:

• Outstanding networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills;
• Capacity to work with diverse partners including governments, donors and civil society;
• Interest and commitment to the empowerment of women particularly through gender training and capacity development;
• Ample knowledge of gender issues;
• In-depth substantive knowledge of gender training approaches is required.

Required Skills and Experience

This call is for a consultant or a team of consultants who will undertake development of the three courses. If it is a team, one of the consultants will be the team leader who will responsible for all deliverables and communications with the Training Centre. Each member of the team should present the following qualifications:

Education

• Master degree or equivalent in Gender, Education, or other related fields.

Experience

• A minimum of 8 years of experience in the fields of Gender and Training/Capacity Development.
• Experience in designing and delivering training for gender equality processes, design of learning materials and manuals, both for face-to-face and e-learning. 
• Experience within the UN system.

Language Requirements

• Excellent skills in written and spoken English is required.

Note:
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 applicants must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment. Each team should submit one cover letter and each team member should submit a complete Curriculum vitae and completed and signed Personal History (P11) Forms.

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Please combine all forms into one document to be attached. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.