UN WOMEN Jobs - 53656- International Trainer/Consultant on “Gender Aspect

International Trainer/Consultant on “Gender Aspects of Mediation and Networking”

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Istanbul and Home-based, TURKEY

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

27-Mar-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

10 working days for the period of April-June, 2015

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

10 working days

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

UN Women Georgia Country Office has been supporting initiatives to increase the role of women in confidence building and conflict prevention processes. The initiatives aiming at people to people (p2p) diplomacy and confidence building among conflict divided communities (Georgia proper and its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia) have been implemented by UNIFEM since 2001 (UNIFEM has been one of the UN agencies the mandate and work of which has been carried forward by UN Women after its creation in 2010.The first women’s people to people diplomacy initiatives were supported in the Frameworks of UNIFEM regional project “Women for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding in the Southern Caucasus” in the period of 2001-2006.). Most recently, since 2010, in the framework of the project “Women for Equality, Peace and Development in Georgia” (WEPD) supported by the government of Norway, UN Women actively engaged different groups of IDP and conflict affected women as well as women’s NGO representatives across the ceasefire lines in confidence and peacebuilding initiatives. In this regard, UN Women has also established partnership with the South Caucasus regional office of the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) resulting in a number of joint initiatives, such as:

Workshop on "Advocacy and Reporting Strategies" with the participation of ten Georgian, Abkhaz and South Ossetian journalists in Yerevan, Armenia, in June 2012. The outcome of the training was the creation of a Russian language website (www.women-peace.net - according to Google Analytics, total page views were 5,369 and 1,613 entrances as of November 2013) where network members are sharing information and uploading articles/?video reports covering issues such as: lack of freedom of movement across the Administrative Boundary Lines (ABL) between Abkhazia and Georgia proper, barriers to visit cemeteries on religious days in conflict zones, the lack of health care facilities for women, etc.;
Training “Gender Aspects of Mediation and Role of Women in Conflict Resolution Processes” organized in November 2013 in Yerevan, Armenia. As a result of the training Georgian, Abkhaz, and South Ossetian participants (one man and 15 women) gained knowledge on challenges as well as best practices on the women’s engagement in peace-building, and learned about formats of official peace processes concerning conflict in Georgia such as the Geneva International Discussion (GID) and the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM) (The GID is in place since the ceasefire agreement after August 2008 War was reached.);
Training on “Gender Aspects of Mediation” was conducted in Istanbul in April 2014. The aim of the training was to strengthen the role of IDP and conflict-affected women in conflict-resolution and to enhance their confidence-building skills. The UN Women partner organization the Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) held a workshop with the participation of Abkhaz, Ossetian and Georgian women. As a result of the training, the idea of creating a regional women’s lobby around UNSCR 1325 for peacebuilding in the South Caucasus was established. Workshop participants also identified the principles for cooperation and the priorities for this regional network whose aim is to promote women’s role in peace and confidence-building. Participants also considered the potential involvement of women from Armenia and Azerbaijan to join this lobby.

The training in gender aspects of mediation conducted in Yerevan in November 2013 and in Istanbul in April, 2014 already contributed to the forming of a platform for IDP and conflict-affected women from different civil society organizations to start discussing joint, mostly humanitarian issues influencing lives of Abkhaz, South Ossetian and Georgian communities as a result of unresolved/frozen conflicts. UN Women in partnership with IWPR plans to further strengthen the capacity of women peace activists and gender equality advocates, especially women affected by conflicts and displacement. The goal is to create a pool of local gender experts / well informed advocates with knowledge and capacities to influence formal peace processes and successfully advocate for inclusion of women/ women’s interests in the confidence building and conflict resolution processes. It is also expected that these capacities can be successfully used in mediating local conflicts.

With this aim, another cycle of capacity development training in “Gender Aspects of Mediation and Networking” will be conducted in close cooperation by UN Women and IWPR. The training will be focused on mediation and networking skills’ building. Suggested three-day training will be organized in Istanbul by the end of March beginning of April 2015 (final decision on the timeline will be made together with the selected trainer). Participants will include 15 Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Abkhaz and South Ossetian, Ukrainian and Moldovan women peace activists and gender equality advocates. The proposed initiative will be fully in line with the UN SCR #1325 and further #2122 (2013) aiming to strengthen women’s role in all stages of conflict prevention.

The specific aims of the training will be:

to enhance participants’ knowledge and skills about networking to influence the peacebuilding processes at local and regional levels;
to enhance participants’ understanding, knowledge and confidence in women’s contributions to conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes;
to increase participants’ knowledge and skills in conflict mediation and leadership in order to influence and participate / advocate for participation of women as well as women’s needs in conflict resolution and peace building processes.

UN Women WEPD project in partnership with IWPR intends to hire an international trainer/consultant to prepare and conduct the training in “Gender Aspects of Mediation and Networking” for the group of selected 15 participants. Selected trainer is expected to build the training programme on the basis of United Nations Guidelines on Mediation.

Duties and Responsibilities

In further details the duties and responsibilities of the international trainer/consultant will be as follows:

To prepare a training needs assessment questioner to be filled out by all participants, detailed training module, agenda and methodology on “Gender Aspects of Mediation and Networking” and submit it for approval to UN Women;
To ensure that training module is adequate for the audience on the basis of the received filled in questionnaires and previous experience working on women, peace and security issues and that suitable case scenarios are used for the role plays and exercises;
To ensure that the training materials reflect women’s needs, some of the best across conflicts’ networking practices, lessons learned and is conducive to learning for women activists;
To conduct three-day intensive training on “Gender Aspects of Mediation and Networking” for 15 selected women with the aim to enhance participants’ understanding, knowledge and skills in women’s contributions to conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes; on how to create the network and how to contribute to the peacebuilding processes through such networking;
To elaborate the training evaluation questionnaire and ensure that all key substantive questions are included to help evaluate the level of the participants’ knowledge prior and after the training;
Submit a comprehensive final training report. The report shall include comprehensive information on conducted training, its evaluation based on filled in questionnaires and observations during the training;
Trainer shall ensure that final report includes recommendations for further work in the area of mediation and networking in order to increase the gender equality advocates’ and women’s capacity in networking and peacebuilding;

Deliverables:

Developed training needs assessment questioner, training module, agenda and methodology – March 25, 2014 (4 working days);
Conducted three-day training for 15 selected human rights and gender equality activists/NGO representatives – by 12 April 2015 (3 working days);
Submitted final narrative training report including information on conducted training sessions and learning outcomes, documented any significant training achievements, summery of evaluation based on filled in questionnaires and observations during the training and final recommendations for future work in the area– 20 April, 2015 (3 working days).

Competencies

Familiarity with UN and UN Women system.
Expertise in gender equality, women, peace and security, women and mediation and women’s rights issues as well as more broadly, human rights;
Proven ability to manage knowledge development processes including trainings and tools;
Demonstrate strong oral and written communication skills.
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Advanced university degree in International relations, Law, Gender, Development, Social Science or related field.

Year of Experience:

At least ten years of proven track record of working on human rights and peace and justice issues, in particular on the role of women in ongoing conflict resolutions processes;
Demonstrated experience of working with civil society representatives, women human rights activists, gender equality advocates from conflict-affect countries/regions to support confidence building, peacebuilding and networking initiatives.
Sound experience in conducting trainings or/and consultations on gender, mediation, networking, advocacy and role of women in conflict resolution processes;
Demonstrated ability to develop the training modules, materials (based on the submitted any relevant references, papers);

Language requirement:

Proficiency in English.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

Advanced university degree in International relations, Law, Gender, Development, Social Science or related field (under-Master’s – 20 pts, Master’s – 30 pts); - (Max 30 points);
At least ten years of proven track record of working on human rights and peace and justice issues, in particular on the role of women in ongoing conflict resolutions processes (Max 70 points);
Demonstrated experience of working with civil society representatives, women human rights activists, gender equality advocates from conflict-affect countries/regions to support confidence building, peacebuilding and networking initiatives (Max 80 points);
Sound experience in conducting trainings or/and consultations on gender aspects of mediation and role of women in mediation and conflict resolution processes (Max 80 points);
Demonstrated ability to develop the training modules, materials (based on the submitted any relevant references, papers) (Max 80 points);
Proficiency in English (Max 10 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the mandatory criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points under the technical evaluation will qualify to the next round of the financial evaluation.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150

S - score received on financial evaluation;
Fmin - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;
F - financial offer under the consideration.

Winning candidate:

The Winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management Arrangements:

The contractor will work under the guidance of the Programme Manager of “Women for Equality, Peace and Development in Georgia” project.

Financial arrangements:

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by the Programme Manager that the services have been satisfactorily performed:

Detailed work plan/methodology and training module/material– 50%
Final training report– 50%

Application Procedure:

All applications 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;
CV;
Proposed technical proposal explaining why candidate considers her/himself the most suitable for the work and providing a brief methodology concept-vision on how she/he will approach and conduct the work;
Financial proposal, including the lump sum and breakdown of daily fees and any other expenses essential to undertake the task (such as travel etc);
Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.