UN WOMEN Jobs - 50783- International Consultant

International Consultant – Costing and Budgeting of the Gender Equality Priorities of the St. Lucia Public Assistance Programme

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Home-based with travel to Saint Lucia

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

10-Nov-2014

Application Deadline :

31-Oct-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

10 November - 31 March 2015

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

To ensure enhanced coordination and a comprehensive level of support to the countries of the Eastern Caribbean, the UN Women Multi-Country Office for the Caribbean and the UNICEF Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area, and other UN agencies have come together under a Joint Programme (2013-2015) which seeks to enhance equity, income equality and reduce poverty by rolling out social protection floor initiatives and child and gender responsive social protection reform in Barbados and the OECS.

The specific objectives of the programme are:

Support national governments in establishing and implementing social protection floors for preventing and alleviating poverty, vulnerability and social exclusion in Barbados and the OECS;
Improve national social protection legal and policy framework for Barbados and the OECS;
Strengthen national capacities in child and gender responsive social protection; monitoring and evaluation systems for social protection and; active labour market programmes in Barbados and the OECS.

A striking feature of the social assistance landscape is the number and variety of programs involved in the provision of social assistance in each country reviewed. These include cash transfers, near-cash programs (e.g., food stamps and voucher), in-kind transfers and services, active labour market programs, community-based programs, social care services and targeted housing programs. All these social assistance programs that serve, or could serve a risk management function however, while there is considerable scope for the strengthening of social safety nets, at the same time, there are significant challenges to providing an effective social safety net.

In 2009 – 2010, UNICEF and UN Women in partnership with the World Bank supported the governments of six countries in the OECS sub-region to conduct national social safety net assessments. These assessments have triggered social protection reform in the sub-region. The main recommendations from the assessment were oriented at transforming social safety nets into an efficient and effective Social Protection System that rationalises the use of resources and clearly defines the interrelations between every intervention.

In St. Lucia, which is one of the countries in the OECS sub-region undergoing a social protection reform process, rationalisation and harmonisation of the various social safety net programmes is a high priority. A draft Social Protection Policy has been prepared and plans are underway to harmonise the Public Assistance Programme, (PAP) which provides cash transfers to poor and indigent persons and the Koudemain Ste. Lisi programme which provides mainly psycho-social support to indigent persons. It is envisaged that a Programme Document and Operations Manual will be developed to serve as key guiding documents for the harmonised Public Assistance Programme.

As part of its technical support to the Ministry of Social Transformation, Local Government and Community Empowerment in St. Lucia, UN Women will be supporting the conduct of a Gender Aware Beneficiary Analysis (GABA) of the Public Assistance Programme (PAP), the results of which are intended to inform the harmonisation of the PAP and Koudemain Ste. Lisi programmes.

Through the conduct of the GABA, actions intended to address disparities between men and women and boys and girls in access to the services provided by the PAP, will be identified, costed, with recommendations put forward for earmarking financial resources to ensure their implementation. Using gender responsive budgeting tools and approaches, the GABA will identify and map the entire cycle of the beneficiaries’ interface with the PAP in order to rigorously assess the bottlenecks in policies and operations of the programme. The GABA will clarify beneficiaries’ experiences in engaging with the PAP, starting from the application stage and/or the initial point at which the beneficiaries interact with the programme. Disparities that may exist between men and women and boys and girls in access to the services provided will be identified, with time-bound and costed interventions and actions proposed to effectively reduce and eliminate them.

St. Lucia’s current transition to a performance-based approach to budgeting provides an excellent opportunity to ensure that the costed gender equality priorities of the harmonised PAP are included in the annual budget request of the Ministry of Social Transformation to the Ministry of Finance, in a manner that conforms to this new budgeting planning approach. Performance-based approaches to budgeting are intended to create a critical link between policy, planning, budgeting and results. The draft Social Protection Policy’s stated commitment to the adequate, timely and sustainable delivery of social protection services, in a gender equitable and child sensitive way will be further supported through the identification of concrete actions through the conduct of the GABA and the development of the Costing and Budgeting Framework (2015 – 2019) for Gender Equality Priorities for St. Lucia’s Public Assistance Programme. The GABA and the development of this Framework, will therefore articulate this critical link between the St. Lucia Social Protection Policy, the performance-based budgeting framework and the PAP service delivery mechanisms, in a costed results chain.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives

Informed by the results of the GABA, and in consultation with the National Consultant and Ministry of Social Transformation staff, the consultant will identify concrete interventions and actions to address disparities between men and women in the PAP service delivery frameworks and operations; and develop a robust methodology for costing these interventions. The results of this work will be a Costing and Budgeting Framework (2015 – 2019) for Gender Equality Priorities for St. Lucia’s Public Assistance Programme (PAP). This Framework will contribute to the achievement of the overall goal of the draft St. Lucia Social Protection Policy which is to “provide a framework which promotes equity and which enhances the well-being and capacity of poor and vulnerable households and populations in St. Lucia…” (p. 19, draft St. Lucia Social Protection Policy).

In addition to the above, a complementary technical exercise in knowledge and skills-building in social budgeting approaches will be undertaken and led by UNICEF, targeting Ministry of Finance Staff. This social budgeting work will be embedded in the ongoing budgetary reform process currently underway. Activities will include learning and knowledge-building workshops and the development and adaptation of gender and child responsive budgeting tools, tailored to the St. Lucian context and using as much as possible, local and regional examples and cases. The UN Women International Consultant will be expected to co-facilitate these knowledge and skills-building workshops and contribute to the development of a social budgeting manual for the St. Lucia Ministry of Finance.

Duties and Responsibilities

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works 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.

Under the overall responsibility of the UN Women MCO-Caribbean Representative, day to day supervision of the National Consultant will be under the UN Women MCO- Caribbean Programme Specialist for Economic and Political Leadership.

Deliverables and Specific Activities:

Working in partnership with the National Consultant for the Gender Aware Beneficiary Analysis in St. Lucia the consultant will:

Undertake a desk review and analysis of the relevant social, economic and financial policy, programme and operational documents relevant for the PAP;
Review the results of the GABA and in consultation with the National Consultant and Ministry of Social Transformation staff, identify concrete interventions and actions to address disparities between men and women in the PAP service delivery frameworks and operations;
Develop a robust methodology for costing the identified interventions and actions to promote gender equality within the implementation timeframe of the St. Lucia Social Protection Policy and Strategic Plan of Action;
Develop the tools and instruments necessary to undertake the costing exercise;
Undertake the costing of actions to promote gender equality in the PAP service delivery and operations;
Develop a Costing and Budgeting Framework (2015 – 2019) for Gender Equality Priorities for St. Lucia’s Public Assistance Programme;
Work with the Ministry of Social Transformation officials to include costed gender equality actions, in the budget request to be submitted to the St. Lucia Ministry of Finance for fiscal year 2016.

Working in partnership with the UNICEF Social Budgeting consultant, the consultant will:

Develop the gender responsive budgeting tools to be utilised in two trainings by UN Women and UNICEF for Government staff;
Conduct the above training on GRB, based on the tools developed;
Design, develop and facilitate the gender-responsive budgeting components of one regional knowledge-building workshop on child and gender responsive budgeting to be convened by the OECS Commission with support from UNICEF and UN Women.

Competencies

Core values:

Demonstrates integrity and fairness;
Demonstrates professional competence and is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;
Displays cultural, gender, religious, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Post-graduate degree, at least a Master’s degree in Economics, Social Policy, Social Research, Gender Studies; Public Administration, Public Policy, or related field.

Experience:

At least seven years proven expertise in support of Gender and Development, and in the area of Gender-Responsive Budgeting;
Proven expertise in the application of gender responsive budgeting methodologies and tool development;
Expertise in Social Protection considered an asset;
Proven expertise in guiding gender sensitive policy development and monitoring, ideally in the area of social protection and poverty reduction;
Proven knowledge and capacity in gender analysis of policies and budgets;
Ability to work in an independent manner and organize the workflow efficiently;
Familiarity with the UN system, IMF and World Bank systems and programmes considered an asset;
Understanding/experience in Latin America and the Caribbean is considered an asset.

Language:

Fluency in spoken and written English.

The consultant contracted will be required to sign a statement of confidentiality and freedom from any conflict of interest with potential future contractors with respect to the TORs and work that they will be delivering.

Location and Duration:

The contract will run from 3 November 2014 until 31 March 2015;
The consultancy will be home-based with travel two to three times within the Caribbean.

Administrative Information

Payment

The consultancy fee will be negotiated before contracting. Each payment will be based on a predefined and formal agreement between UN Women and the consultant and will be disbursed based on satisfactory completion of agreed deliverables.

Hardware, software, and communication

The consultant must be equipped with a portable computer (laptop). The consultant must be reasonably accessible by email and telephone (preferably mobile). The use of reliable, internet-based communication (Skype or equivalent) is required.

Application for Consultancy

Please submit your application by 16:00 hours (AST) on 31 October 2014.

Applications must include:

A cover letter highlighting the specific post for which you are applying;
The completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
Detailed curriculum vitae including a description of main achievements;
A price proposal quoted in United States dollars (US$) indicating daily rates.

Applications should be submitted by email to the attention of Melissa Bohne, UN Women (melissa.bohne@unwomen.org)