Background

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.

Despite constraints, the global percentage of women in elected office continues to make incremental progress towards parity, whereby neither sex should have less than 40% representation in elected bodies. At the end of 2011, women made up on average 19.5% of the members of the single or lower national parliaments, while upper houses/senates consist of 18.7% women. Electoral systems and temporary special measures (TSMs) in some countries have been critical to driving this measure up. In the Caribbean, despite some progress, and a long history of political engagement, strong education, and dedicated public service, Caribbean women’s levels of participation in the elected and appointed positions (Upper and Lower House combined) is at only 19.46%.  For Jamaica, there are 6 women represented in the upper house and 5 women in the lower house, a total of 13 %, -- lower than the regional average.  

Political Parties, as a primary entry point to participate in political life, are crucial allies in efforts to increase women's full and transformative participation in decision-making processes. With the participation level of women in formal politics at a level far below projected goals from the Beijing Platform, it is these institutions that can catapult advances in gender equality through meaningful reform. Global studies show that in all political contexts, political parties are the single greatest enabler to advancing women’s leadership at the national and local level.

It is therefore essential for the realization of gender equality and women’s full and transformative participation in decision-making processes that political parties both take measures to ensure greater parity between women’s and men’s representation; and ensure that national gender equality concerns and women’s voice are integrated into political party structures and platforms. In recent years, the emergence of a ‘gender gap’ in voting behaviour — that is, women as a group voting differently from men, especially in developed countries — and the increasing importance of this ‘women’s vote’ suggests the emergence of an identifiable female constituency. Political parties are catching up to these voting patterns by shaping political platforms to appeal to women voters and by recruiting more women.

Drawing from the corporate strategy to date, the main support UN Women has provided around women’s leadership in Jamaica has been through support to civil society to advance awareness of the need for women’s full and transformative leadership. Through working with the regional network Caribbean Institute for Women in Leadership (CIWiL); the Jamaican NGO network, 51% Coalition; as well as through a grant under the UN Women Global Fund for Gender Equality to WMW, UN Women is supporting civil society in Jamaica to advance women’s participation by working with political parties, government, and media to raise awareness about the overall benefits to society of advancing women’s full and transformational leadership. The Jamaican NGOs are also working to enhance the accountability of political parties to realizing the international and national commitments taken towards gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Many factors limit women’s political participation in Jamaica including negative public perception rooted in traditional gender stereotypes, lack of access to useful networks for fundraising or building political support within political parties. The time, labour, and cost of care work and child bearing – also limit women’s entry into politics.

In Jamaica, UN Women’s discussions with political parties and gender equality activists posit that the following factors impact women’s political leadership and engagement:

  • Through awareness and capacity development, women’s political leadership needs to be fostered – and this includes a concept of leadership which cuts across both political participation and political representation – and focuses also on the capacity and positioning to shape political agendas, taking the lead in articulating these and participating in their translation into policy;
  • Male allies must be equally engaged in the process of advancing women’s leadership in the respective parties, so as to ensure that parties do not see this as a “women’s issue” but rather an issue of inclusive representation of the party’s overall mandate and contributing to inclusive governance;
  • Temporary Special Measures (TSMs) – there is a need to mobilise support within the political party for the adoption and implementation of temporary special measures to advance under-represented members society in the party structure, including women and young people. TSMs take many shapes, with a focus of creating an enabling environment for women’s participation. Each party’s context will shape the nature of the TSMs adopted;
  • Political party strategies need to recognize that two key roadblocks hinder young women from joining politics – the overriding masculine culture, and the lack of systematic support in balancing out women’s current roles in family life;
  • The masculine culture limits young women’s access to the decision-making circles within political parties, and to the political networks necessary to advance young politicians’ experience and exposure. This lack of access to political networks and party power structures ultimately limits women’s access to peer mentoring and media support so essential for successful candidate campaigning.

Vision 2030 Jamaica - National Development Plan and the National Policy for Gender Equality are the key strategic frameworks guiding the GOJ’s work in the gender equality and women’s empowerment.  The National Policy for Gender Equality which is aligned to Vision 2030 Jamaica aims to facilitate the integration of a gender perspective into all aspects of national plans, programmes, and legislation as a fully binding initiative and commitment. It promotes a gender approach and provides gender analysis that will be applied to all the activities within the public and private spheres to address historical imbalances and enable women to fully participate in areas in which they were previously denied or restricted.

Despite broad commitments to gender equality, Jamaica is not on course to achieving the MDG target of 30% women in the nation’s Parliament by 2015. In this regard, the issues surrounding quotas as temporary special measures (TSMs), are recognized as a relevant measure in Jamaica’s National Policy on Gender Equality. Although women make up 50.5% of the population, women currently account for only 11.1% of the members of Parliament (MPs), 11% of Cabinet Ministers, 23.8% of Senators, 16% of Local Government Councillors and 7.6% of Mayors.  Three motions were passed that directly address the need to remove barriers which prevent young women in particular, from accessing and/or choosing to participate in leadership and necessitated the establishment of joint select committees to review gender-related legislation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Deputy Representative and the direct supervision of the Jamaica National Programme Coordinator, and in consultation with the Steering Committee on Women in Politics the consultant will be required to produce the following deliverables:

  • Develop a baseline assessment methodology to assess party response and measures to improve women’s leadership. The assessment methodology, once cleared by UN Women, is to be approved by the Steering Committee on Women’s Leadership;
  •  Support the Political parties in conducting baseline assessments of the two parties’ current measures and status in advancing women’s leadership. The common results will be shared with the Steering Committee once cleared by UN Women;
  • Develop advocacy brief and core messages that highlight women’s political representation and participation in sustainable development;
  • Under the leadership of the Steering Committee develop draft common Zero Tolerance Policy and Complaints Resolution Mechanism on Sexual Harassment in Political Parties for steering Committee review;
  • Co-write with UN Women staff paper on Temporary Special Measures and women’s political participation in Plurality Voting Systems.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity and Fairness:

  • Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;

Professionalism:

  • Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work. Conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

  • Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Work in teams:

  • Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds;

Communicating and Information Sharing:

  • Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication;

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

  • Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others;

Conflict management:

  • Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution;

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

  • Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • A  Master’s degree in political science, Gender and Development, International relations and/or Development Studies.

Experience:

  • At least (5) years’ of relevant experience working in  political participation and gender equality;
  • Demonstrated experience working with parliaments and/or political parties;
  • Experience in Small Island Developing States and/or the Caribbean and Latin America and;
  • Experience in developing policies for political institutions.

Languages:

  • Fluency in English is required.

Official Travel and Other Requisites:

  • The Consultant will be expected to travel to Jamaica to complete the consultancy.

Deliverables:

Specific activities and deliverables:

  • Baseline assessment methodology to assess party response and Measures to Improve women’s Leadership;
  • Advocacy brief and core messages that highlight women’s political representation and participation in sustainable development;
  • draft common Zero Tolerance Policy and Complaints Resolution Mechanism on Sexual Harassment in Political Parties and;
  • Paper on Temporary Special Measures and women’s political participation in Plurality Voting Systems.

Remuneration:

  • Remuneration will be paid upon receipt of the invoice for each completed deliverable.

Hardware, software, and communication:

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

Timeframes and Institutional Arrangements:

  • The consultant will be engaged for a maximum of 35 working days from 1 November 2015 –  30 January 2016. The consultancy will be home-based.

Request for Quotation (RFQ)

We are seeking the services to support the coordination and implementation of access to justice projects in the Caribbean and kindly request you to submit your quotation as per terms of reference/specifications, detailed in Annex I of this RFQ. 

Quotations may be submitted on or before 26 October, 2015 – 14:00 hours (Barbados local time) and via e-mail to the address below:

Quotations submitted by email must be limited to a maximum of 10 MB, virus-free and no more than 3 email transmissions.  They must be signed and in .pdf format, free from any form of virus or corrupted contents, or the quotations shall be rejected. 

It shall remain your responsibility to ensure that your quotation will reach the address above on or before the deadline.  Quotations that are received by UN WOMEN after the deadline indicated above, for whatever reason, shall not be considered for evaluation. 

Conditions:

  • Payment Terms - 30 days upon invoice;
  • Validity of Quotation - 60 days;
  • Preliminary Examination - Completeness of quotation: Partial bids not permitted;
  • Value Added Tax on Price Quotation - VAT and other applicable indirect taxes, must be specified separately;
  • Contact Person for Inquiries (Written inquiries only) - Inquiries may be submitted on or before October 22, 2015 - 16:00 hours (Barbados local time) and via e-mail to procurement.brb@unwomen.org.

At any time during the validity of the quotation, no price variation due to escalation, inflation, fluctuation in exchange rates, or any other market factors shall be accepted by UN WOMEN after it has received the quotation.At the time of award of Contract or Purchase Order, UN WOMEN reserves the right to vary (increase or decrease) the quantity of services and/or goods, by up to a maximum twenty five per cent (25%) of the total offer, without any change in the unit price or other terms and conditions. 

Any Contract or Purchase Order that will be issued as a result of this RFQ shall be subject to the General Conditions detailed in the following link: http://www.unwomen.org/~/media/commoncontent/procurement/unwomen-generalconditionsofcontract-services-en.pdf.  The mere act of submission of a quotation implies that the vendor accepts without question the General Conditions of UN WOMEN herein attached. The UN Women has set out a vendor protest procedure intended to afford an opportunity to appeal to persons or firms not awarded a purchase order or contract in a competitive procurement process. It is not available to non-responsive or non-timely proposers/bidders or when all proposals/bids are rejected. In the event that you believe you have not been fairly treated, you can find detailed information about vendor protest procedures in the following link: http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/procurement/vendor-protest-procedure.

Evaluation Procedure:

The evaluation will follow the subsequent procedure:

Stage 1: Preliminary examination

Prior to the detailed evaluation of each offer UN Women will undertake a preliminary examination of the offers in order to  determine whether the offers meet the administrative requirements.  UN Women may reject any offer during the preliminary examination which does not comply with the requirements set out in this solicitation document, without further consultation with the bidder. Offers will not be considered for further evaluation in cases where:

  • They are incomplete (i.e. does not include all required data and/or documents as specified);
  • The validity of the offer is not in accordance with the requirements;
  • The technical and financial documents have not been submitted;
  • If the bidder does not accept the correction of arithmetical errors;
  • Offers which are incomplete frivolous, clearly not compatible, or contain material deviations from or reservations to the terms of the contract, may in UN Women´s absolute discretion, be rejected or excluded from further consideration at any time during the evaluation, including after preliminary evaluation.

Stage 2: Technical Evaluation

The candidates must possess minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation (see Annex 1). Technical evaluation will be as follows:

  • Relevant experience working in  political participation and gender equality (20 points);
  • Demonstrated experience working with parliaments and/or political parties (20points);
  • Experience in Small island Developing States and/or the Caribbean and Latin America (20points) and;
  • Experience in developing policies for political institutions (10 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 70 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 49 points out of maximum 70 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Stage 3: Financial Evaluation:

  • Financial Evaluation should include the consultant’s daily fee and any travel costs associated with the consultancy;
  • Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30;
  • 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 consideration;
  • The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical score + financial score).

How To Apply:

A complete application consists of:

  • Detailed curriculum vitae including a description of main achievements;
  • Dully filled Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment;
  • Financial Proposals (in USD) - 1 proposal identifying Lump sum financial proposal/offer, aggregated including fee per day and a calculation of total fee by assessing how many days each deliverable will take to complete.

Only Short listed candidates will be contacted.

Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

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.