UNDP Jobs - 50880- Consultant to Draft Background Paper for UNDP Conf

Consultant to Draft Background Paper for UNDP Conference on Women and Poverty

Location :

Home-Based Assignment

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

24-Nov-2014

Application Deadline :

07-Nov-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

50 working days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

24 November 2014- 27 February 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

In 2015 the 59th Commission on the Status of Women will review progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), 20 years after its adoption at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. UNDP, in collaboration or in partnership with UN Women, will be convening an international conference to discuss progress made in addressing “Women and Poverty”. This event will be an opportunity to hear leading experts in the field and to learn from UNDP’s vast experience over the last twenty years supporting national efforts to promote women’s empowerment through social, economic, political and sustainable human development. It will bring together experts in the field of gender and poverty, policymakers and development practitioners from different parts of the world, as well as grassroots women leaders to reflect on the impact of the BPfA, examine the current situation, highlight some of the achievements and point out the remaining challenges.

The UNDP two-day conference on “Women and Poverty” (date and venue to be decided) will be held in mid-2015. It will highlight in particular global issues of concern and best practices directed at eradicating poverty and their impact on women. Specialists in the field will discuss progress made since the adoption of the BPfA, the multidimensional aspects of poverty and also examine their implications for sustainable and inclusive development and for a forward-looking post 2015 agenda. During the two-day conference there will be a high level segment that will look at the situation of women and poverty since the adoption of the BPfA followed by a series of sessions identifying current challenges, featuring innovative experiences and lessons learnt.

The Gender Team in the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) seeks a consultant with experience in the substantive area of gender and poverty to produce a background paper for the conference. The background paper will serve to orient the participants and will be published for wider distribution in English.

Duties and Responsibilities

Specific Deliverables/Activities

The background paper will present a global overview of women and poverty. It will consider the goals set-forth in the BPfA under this topic and discuss the progress achieved over the last twenty years as well as identify the major remaining challenges. It will be forward looking and provide pertinent policy recommendations that could be taken into account as the international community prepares for the Post 2015 development agenda. It will also address some specific issues that are currently the focus of the global discourse on women and poverty such as: the lack of access to employment and decent paid work, the burdens of unpaid work (or the so-called “unpaid care economy”) and the implications of time deficits for poverty, informal employment and the evolution of wages across occupations and the need for improved social protection, as well as policies to respond to the needs of women in poverty. The paper will be between 25-30 pages in length (excluding tables and graphs) and include an Executive Summary, Footnotes and List of References.

Expected Outputs

The consultant will be responsible for the following outputs and meeting the agreed to deadlines:

Draft detailed Outline of the background paper;
First Draft of background paper to be reviewed by peer group with footnotes and list of references;
Second Draft of background paper with all pertinent inputs/modifications to be reviewed by peer group;
Final Draft of background paper with all pertinent inputs/modifications, edited and ready for publication.

The consultant will be responsible also for the initial editing of the paper including rewriting and restructuring parts of texts to incorporate inputs from peer group and to ensure greater readability as necessary.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

In-depth knowledge of gender and poverty, Beijing Platform for Action, CEDAW and other relevant international instruments related to gender equality and women’s empowerment;
Proven analytical and writing skills;
Proven ability to deliver quality reports/papers in line with established deadlines.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Minimum Master’s degree in economics development studies, social sciences or other development -related area of study. (Ph. D. preferred).

Experience

Minimum 10 years’ experience as a researcher and analyst of gender issues and women in poverty;
Understanding of the United Nations system, operations and structures, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Language

Fluency and excellent analytical writing skills in English.
Second official UN language an asset.

Travel

International travel might be necessary in which case UNDP will arrange and cover expenses as per UNDP travel policies.

Financial Proposal

Contract will be based on a daily rate basis in US dollar. Payments are made to the Individual Consultant based on receipt of the Certificate for Payment (CoP) and acceptance of the work by the UNDP Responsible Staff that will be attached to the agreed deliverables.

Evaluation Method:

Cumulative Analysis - The financial quote will account 30% and technical assessment will account for 70% of the total evaluation score;
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):

Education and expertise of the consultant in subject matter– 30 points;
Quality and relevance of proposed outline– 20 points;
Quality of writing sample submitted (logical reasoning, tailored to audience, writing/styling) – 20 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:

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals

In addition to the online application, interested individual consultants must submit soft copies of the following documents to gender.team.bids@undp.org:

CV;
Proposed outline of the background paper (2-4 pages);
A sample of previous single-authored work (no longer than 15 pages).

Office and equipment

Consultant is required to have her/his own computer and communication facilities (access to internet, email service and telephone line).