Background
The Gender Team of the Bureau for Policy and Programme (BPPS) is the institutional anchor of UNDP’s work on gender equality and women’s empowerment. As the UN’s lead development agency, with extensive field presence, UNDP facilitates the integration of gender equality in the work of its Country Offices through core and non-core fund investments and has initiated and implemented numerous innovative initiatives that support program county work on gender equality and women’s empowerment. UNDP's work on gender is guided by the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the frameworks provided by the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The UNDP Gender Team works to implement gender equality as a core objective of UNDP through a two-pronged approach (i) mainstreaming gender across UNDP Outcomes; and, (ii) dedicated interventions that empower women and promote gender equality.
The Gender Equality Seal is a corporate quality assurance mechanism that measures and certifies the achievements and competence of Country Offices in advancing women's rights and gender equality.
The certification process of the Gender Equality Seal initiative is also a learning platform that helps Country Offices establish a baseline, fine-tune strategies, identify and address gaps and challenges, document innovations and showcase the impacts of interventions for gender equality. The certification process creates a space for building a shared understanding of the definitions, strategies and goals of gender mainstreaming, identifying gaps and possibilities for synergies, and exploring ways to address them.
The Gender Equality Seal has three levels of certification (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) and Country Offices are awarded a certain level of certification according to their gender equality accomplishments.
The purpose of these long-term agreements is to expand a pool of assessors for the Gender Equality Seal Certification process who will support the roll out and certification process in Country Offices and support country offices to improve gender mainstreaming.
Duties and Responsibilities
Before starting the support to country offices, the consultant will agree to participate in a virtual training of assessors on the Gender Equality Seal benchmarking matrix and methodology, to ensure quality of the services he/she will provide.
Under the overall supervision of the UNDP Gender Team Director or her designate, the Consultant during the certification process may be required to deliver the following duties:
Online assessment of Country Offices
- Review Country Offices/Units results and background documents (evidence) from the online assessment tool of the Gender Equality Seal.
- Complete a Benchmarking matrix and Report Recommendations Template
Advisory services for gender mainstreaming
- Provide advisory services to Country offices on gender mainstreaming/ improvement of projects/institutional development as needed through a mission in country or virtually (emails, webinars, trainings, etc.).
Hands on missions for certification process
- Develop an agenda and methodology for the assessment mission and negotiate the agenda with the selected Country Offices;
- Conduct a desk review of documents uploaded by Country Offices after the online assessment;
- Carry out the hands on assessment through: data collection through key informant interviews in the office; focus group discussions with staff, interviews, workshops (both within and across work teams and functional units); survey using free online survey tool such as Survey Monkey;
- Develop a report (6/8 pages max.) which should include a final score using a tool developed by the Gender Seal Certification Programme (UNDP Seal benchmarking tool); identify and develop recommendations; and recommended level of certification;
- Organize a meeting with senior management and the Gender Focal Team to agree and finalize grading and establish follow up actions;
- Submit the report and recommended level of certification of the Country office/Unit (Gold, Silver, Bronze) to the UNDP Gender Equality Seal Team.
Expected Deliverables
The following deliverables will be expected:
- Verification and validation of the results of the Country Office as entered in the online assessment tool,
- Final assessment report including scoring of benchmarks and recommendations for the Country Office based on the online tool assessment.
- Verification and validation of the results of Country Offices through the assessment mission;
- Final assessment report including scoring of benchmarks and recommendations for the Country Office based on the assessment mission;
- Effective advisory services on gender mainstreaming and institutional development to Country offices provided;
Travel
Experts shall be required to travel for a specific assessment and UNDP will arrange and cover the cost of the official travel in accordance to UNDP rules and procedures by providing tickets, travel allowances – daily subsistence allowance and terminal expenses. This may include, but is not limited to, travel to up to 3 countries per region (Africa, Latin America, Europe and CIS, Asia and Pacific and Arab States). Each expert is expected to undertake at least one mission on average and should expect to be hired for a specific region.
Competencies
Functional Competencies:
- Demonstrated capacity for strategic thinking, and expertise in global gender equality and mainstreaming strategies;
- Proven capacity to produce high quality qualitative research and ability to absorb, analyze and synthesize large amounts of complex information within tight deadlines;
- Demonstrated ability and willingness to work with people of different cultural, ethnic and religious background, different gender, and diverse political views.
Corporate Competencies:
- Demonstrated integrity by upholding the United Nations' values and ethical standards; treats all people fairly;
- Appreciate differences in values and learning from cultural diversity;
- Promotes UNDP vision, mission and strategic goals;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age-based sensitivity and adaptability;
- Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UNDP in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Masters or PhD in a development related discipline (women’s studies or gender and development).
Experience:
- Minimum of 7 years of comprehensive knowledge in gender and development, institutional development and gender mainstreaming or related fields; field experience will be considered an asset;
- Experience with UNDP and strong understanding of the UNDP, operations and structures, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s empowerment and field experience;
- Proven expertise on gender audits, evaluations and capacity assessments for gender mainstreaming.
Language:
- Fluency in spoken and written English.
- Ability to speak Spanish and/or French and/or the official language of the country to be assessed is essential.
Application submission process:
Applicants must submit their application through this online system using the following steps:
Step 1) Click “Apply Now” button and fill in the necessary information on the first page. You must:
- Explain why you are the most suitable candidate for the work (300 words maximum online);
- Provide names, titles and contact details (telephone and email) of 3 references. UNDP retains the right to contact references directly;
Step 2) Upload your CV or Personal History (P11) Form and then “Submit Application.” Please note only one document can be uploaded (scan all your documents into one single PDF file to attach). If only a CV is provided, UNDP may request the P11 Form at a later date. A completed P11 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 with this assignment.
UN Personal History form (UN P11) can be downloaded from here http://sas.undp.org/documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc
Step 3): Submission of Financial Proposal
Applicants are instructed to submit their all-inclusive lump sum daily fee in US Dollars for this consultancy to jesus.sanchez@undp.org , using the financial proposal template available here: http://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_file.cfm?doc_id=45780. The proposals should be sent via email with the following subject heading: “Financial Proposal – Gender Equality Seal Initiative Long Term Agreement" by the deadline of this vacancy.
In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal should be all-inclusive and include a breakdown. The term ‘all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel related expenses, communications, utilities, consumables, insurance, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the financial proposal.
Evaluation of Applicants:
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:
Technical Evaluation
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the Cumulative Analysis methodology [weighted scoring method], where 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 technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.
Technical Criteria weight: 70%.
Financial Criteria weight: 30%.UNDP applies a fair and transparent selection process that would take into account both the technical qualification of Individual Consultants as well as their price proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores.
The following criteria will be used in the Technical Evaluation:
Technical evaluation criteria will be rated with a score (totaling a maximum of 70 points).
Criteria A: Minimum of 7 years of comprehensive knowledge in gender and development, institutional development and gender mainstreaming or related fields; and field experience: (20 points)
Criteria B: Experience with UNDP and strong understanding of UNDP operations and structures, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s empowerment and field experience (25 points)
Criteria C: Proven expertise on gender audits, evaluations and/or capacity assessments for gender mainstreaming (25 points)
Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 (70%) points on the technical criteria will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.
Financial Proposal (30%)
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 (30 points)
µ = price of the lowest priced proposal
z = price of the proposal being evaluated
Framework Agreement
UNDP plans to enter into the Long-Term Agreement (LTA) with up to six top ranked successful Individual Contractor/s to assure resources availability at the required timefame and/or increased demand for services requested. The service of who will be used on an intermittent and repetitive basis when needed and based on the fixed unit price. Other prospective applicants that are not contracted, at the UNDP’s discretion, may be placed in the roster of consultants to be used based on an on-call basis for similar services.
Please note that the LTA does not form a financial obligation or commitment from UNDP at the time the LTA contract is signed, and that such an agreement is non-exclusive. When a specific need arises, the successful Individual Contractor/s will be approached and be provided with a specific TOR and deliverables (and time frame) but still within the scope of the responsibilities stated in the LTA. The successful Individual Contractor(s) is expected to provide Confirmation of Interest on the specific services required and submit Financial Proposal based on the agreed LTA Daily Rate Consultancy Fee. Financial commitments will only be established each time a Purchase Order for the specific services/TOR for Individual Contractor is committed.
This LTA has a cumulative ceiling amount that may accrue to the individual contractor during the life of the LTA, but said amount shall remain as an upper limit, and must not and cannot be interpreted nor understood as neither a financial commitment nor guarantee of business volume.
The duration of LTA will be for initial period of one year with possibility of extension up to two additional years subject to satisfactory performance and UNDP’s demand in services.
Annexes and References:
Individual Consultant's General Terms and Conditions are provided here: