Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has a longstanding commitment to mainstreaming gender equality and promoting women’s empowerment in its work. UNDP’s work on gender is guided by the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the frameworks provided by the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).  As the UN’s lead development agency, with extensive field presence, UNDP has facilitated the integration of gender equality in the work of Country Offices through core and non-core fund investments and has initiated and implemented numerous innovative initiatives, some in partnership with UNW, that support both government and civil society work on gender issues.
 
The Gender Team is at the forefront of UNDP's commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment.  The Gender Team is part of the Bureau for Development Policy (BDP) which provides policy advice and technical support to all of UNDP’s operations. The Gender Team works to implement gender equality as a core objective of UNDP through a two-pronged approach (i) mainstreaming gender in all core practices; and, (ii) dedicated interventions that empower women and promote gender equality.  The Gender Team is also responsible for all corporate planning, for supporting corporate programming and reporting on gender and for supporting the Regional and Global Gender Steering and Implementation Committees. Finally, the Gender Team is responsible for support the Administrator and senior management in addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment in their convening and representational functions.
 
In order to advance UNDP’s mandate on gender equality and women’s empowerment, UNDP has a Corporate Gender Equality Strategy (GES) 2014-2017 which outlines in detail how UNDP will work towards gender equality in each of the goals and key results set out in the UNDP Strategic Plan 2014-2017. The Gender Equality Strategy 2014-2017 has just been finalized and a range of practical guidance tools are required to assist in rolling out the actions outlined in the GES.

Duties and Responsibilities

Through this consultancy, an expert will be selected under long term agreement mechanism to support the Director of UNDP’s Gender Team in rolling out the Gender Equality Strategy for UNDP. This will include:
 
Activities and Deliverables: 
  • Develop Corporate Guidance tools for UNDP programming in crisis and transition context including resilience based development;
  • Develop Strategic papers to position UNDP in global debates related to gender sensitivity in resilience based development;
  • Develop training tools and rolling out of training on gender equality, women’s empowerment tailored to specific transition context.
Expected Outputs and Results:
  • Corporate Guidance tools for UNDP Programming in crisis and transitional context including resilience based development developed;
  • Strategic Papers to position UNDP in global debates related to gender sensitivity in resilience based development developed;
  • Develop training tools and rolling out of training on gender equality, women’s empowerment tailored to specific transition context developed.

Competencies

  • Demonstrated analytical skills on gender and development, conflict prevention approaches;
  • Ability to work with a multi-disciplinary team and in a multi-cultural environment;
  • Excellent communication, presentation and writing skills.
  • Knowledge of UN system, in particular UN  mandates on conflict prevention, crises management, gender and peacebuilding.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:
  • Advanced university degree (Master’s degree or higher) in gender equality or related field, augmented with practical programming and policy experience in transition, crises, resilience or post conflict situations.
Years of Experience:
  • Minimum 15 years of experience in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment, specifically in crises, transition or post crises developmental context;
  • Extensive research, academic publications or applied policy experience in the field of gender in crises, transition, and resilience based development;
  • Experience in conducting policy advisory,  capacity development and training services to policy makers at the global, regional and national levels in the above fields;
  • Strong knowledge and experience of UNDP policies and programmes in the area of gender equality, women’s empowerment and the range of UN actions in peacebuilding,  peacemaking and resilience based development.
Language:
  • Fluency in English (written and oral);
  • Knowledge of another UN language is desirable.

General considerations:

Financial proposal

Contracts will be based on daily fee:

Please indicate your all-inclusive daily fee rate in US dollars. Payments are made to the Individual Consultant based on the number of days worked and satisfactory achievement of the specific and agreed deliverables.

Travel:

The expert shall be required to travel for specific tasks and UNDP will arrange and cover the cost of the official travels in accordance to UNDP rules and procedures by providing tickets, travel allowances – daily substance allowance and terminal expenses. This may include, but is not limited to, travel to New York, 1-2 countries in Africa, Asia, and the Arab States in particular.

The air ticket fare will always be “most direct, most economical” and any difference in price with the preferred route will be paid for by the expert.

Evaluation of applicants:

Method: Cumulative analysis method will be used to evaluate proposals.

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

  • Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
  • Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 (70%) points on technical part will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Criteria for technical evaluation (70 points maximum):

  • Criteria 1. Extensive research, and academic publication or applied policy experience in the field of gender in crises, transition, resilience base or post crises development context. (20 points);
  • Criteria 2. Experience of UNDP policies and programmes in the area of gender equality or with sister UN agencies in the above fields (10 points);
  • Criteria 3. Experience in conducting policy advisory,  capacity development and training services to policy makers at the global, regional and national levels in the above fields (25 points);
  • Criteria 4. Strong knowledge and experience of UNDP policies and programmes in the area of gender equality, women’s empowerment and the range of UN actions in peacebuilding, peacemaking and resilience based development; (15 points).

Criteria for financial evaluation (30 points maximum):

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

p = y (μ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal
μ = price of the lowest priced proposal
z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Important considerations:

General Conditions of the Services under the Long Term Agreement

The LTA does not necessarily mean that a contract with UNDP is guaranteed. This will depend on forthcoming needs as specified in this ToR. Where a request for services arises, UNDP shall directly contract the consultant from the roster without the need for further selection process. A specific Terms of Reference (ToR) outlining the outputs for each assignment shall be provided and an Individual Contract (IC) or Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), whichever is applicable, will be issued to the consultant, detailing the time frame. Conditions of a particular assignment may be negotiable. UNDP does not warrant that any quantity of services will be purchased during the term of this Agreement. Applicants hereby confirm that s/he has complied with the minimum break in service required before becoming eligible for an Individual Contract. S/he also fully understands that, if s/he is engaged as an Individual Contractor, s/he has no expectations or entitlements whatsoever to be re-instated or re-employed as a staff member.

UNDP Personal History Form

In addition, applicants will be requested to fill and sign a PH 11 Form and submit it together with Curriculum Vitae on the online application portal.  To note, a completed PH 11 Form will be required at the time a consultant signs an Individual Contract (IC) or his/her employer, if employed, signs a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) for work associated under this LTA.

 UN Personal History form (UN PH11) can be downloaded from here:(http://sas.undp.org/documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc.

Mechanism of Engagement

It is expected that the consultant(s) will sign a Long-Term Agreement (LTA) with UNDP totaling no more than 100 days (between from 22 April 2014 until 21 April 2015), which will be expected to be signed by 22 April 2014. An LTA is a framework agreement that aims to establish the terms and conditions of future contracts that may arise from the LTA. As such, an LTA does not imply a financial commitment on the part of UNDP and does not guarantee that a succeeding contract will be issued.  

When a request for services arises, UNDP shall directly engage the consultant without the need for further selection process. A specific Terms of Reference (ToR) outlining the outputs and detailed arrangement for each assignment shall be provided and an individual contract (I) or RLA, whichever is applicable, will be issued to the consultant, detailing the time frame.

When called upon to engage, the individual will have to sign an Individual Contract (IC) or his/her employer, if employed, will have to sign a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), whichever is preference of the individual on LTA. The length and timeline of the IC consultancy or RLA, whichever is applicable, will be based on the specific assignments (TORs), which can range from 1-2 business days (reviewing case studies, briefs, and inputs into strategy papers) or a longer term assignments, such as 3-4 weeks or a month to draft a set of strategic papers or participate in policy discussions, etc.

The consultant will be engaged in at least one of the following thematic areas:

  • Sustainable Development;
  • Democratic Governance;
  • Resilience Building.

Annexes

Annex 1- Individual Consultant General Terms and Conditions is provided here:

 http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20-%20General%20Conditions.pdf.