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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997 (as UNIFEM). UN Women Palestine focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In line with the Palestinian Government’s commitment to fight Violence Against Women (VAW) as set in the National Strategy to Combat VAW, and in full partnership with the Palestinian Attorney General Office (AGO); UN Women is currently implementing the UNDP/UN Women Joint Programme (JP) “Strengthening the Rule of Law in the oPt: Justice and Security for the Palestinian People" (2014-2017). The Programme supports the process of institutionalization and capacity development of the justice and security sectors. Under this Programme UN Women is working in close cooperation and coordination with the AGO on organisational development, gender mainstreaming, and capacity building, and with the Police Family & Juvenile Protection Unit (FJPU).

Within the framework of the UNDP/ UN Women Rule of Law joint programme, UN Women is seeking to hire an experienced consultant to increase the knowledge and enhance the skills of Palestinian prosecutors specialised on Violence against Women and Girls cases and the FJPU staff with regards to investigative techniques, strategies and approaches recommended to use when addressing Sexual and gender based violence cases. This will enable the prosecutors and the police members to effectively collect evidence and prepare court cases with the aim to hold offenders of SGBV crimes accountable.  

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of UN Women Special Representative, the direct supervision of the UN Women Rule of Law Project Specialist, and working in close cooperation and coordination with the Justice and Security analysts and the gender focal points at the AGO and PCP, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Finalise a detailed work plan including the training outline for each (AGO & FJPU), and share with UN Women for approval;
• Meet with UN Women, AGO and FJPU to update on progresses and challenges of the assignment;
• Conduct the capacity building training for Specialised Prosecutors;
• Conduct the capacity building training for the FJPU staff;
• Provide an evaluation summary for UN Women of both trainings based on pre and post capacity assessment analysis; and
• Develop and submit a final report to UN Women including recommendations for further trainings.

The training will include the following topics:

• Realities and patterns associated with sexual assault including common assumption about victims of SGBV, importance of focusing the investigation on the suspect rather than the victim, the population that is most vulnerable to assault; suspect behavior and methods that prevent damage to the credibility of the victim;

How to effectively preparing the case; utilizing best techniques and strategies in the following areas:

• The interview of the victim of SGBV;
• The documentation of the interview;
• The interrogation of the suspect; and
• The crime scene, crime scene associative injuries, etc.;
• How to effectively prepare the case for the court, including investigative techniques to strengthen an investigation, strategies to counter a defense by the suspect of consent, benefits of creating a timeline of the events in a sexual assault case, including the key events that should be identified, evaluating sufficiency of evidence, evaluating relevance of indirect evidence to support charges, witnesses, witness statements and others.

Key deliverables:

• A detailed work plan including the training outline for the training sessions with the Palestinian Prosecutors specialised on VAW and FJPU staff members;
• A capacity assessment summary based on pre and post workshop evaluations. A final training report highlighting achieved results, challenges and opportunities, in addition to recommendations for further capacity building interventions.

Competencies

Core Values/Guidling Principles:

Integrity:

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

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity:

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

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrating / safeguarding ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awarerness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:

• Initiative-taking; coaching and mentoring ability.

Working in Teams:

• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

• Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively.

Self-mangement and emotional intelligence:

• Creating synergies through self-control

Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:

• Managing conflict.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

• Learning and sharing knowledge and encouraging the learning of others.

Functional Competencies:

• Sound knowledge of international standards on human rights, gender, junvenile and women's rights;
• Strong experience in developing and delivering professional trainings;
• Proven Experience in the field of justice and security trainings;
• Strong capacity to establish, build and sustain effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective; anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly;
• Strong ability to effectively interact with technical and non- technical end usersin acooperative and helpful manner; and
• Strong capacity in consensus building, networking and lobbying for changing inequality and creating equal opportunities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university studies in development, human rights, criminology, law, sociology or related discipline.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in the field of training and training material development;
• Experience in delivering training for professionals in the security and/or justice system is a strong asset;
• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience in GBV, VAW, protection and/or juvenile justice;
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in the area of investigation in relation to GBV and sexual assault crimes;
• At least 2 previous assignments related to capacity enhancement of justice and/or security sector actors in the Arab region, preferable in Palestine (please make clear reference of this requirement in the CV/P11); and
• Experience with the UN system or/and International Organisations would be considered a strong asset.

Language

• Fluency in English, Arabic language is an asset.

Application procedure

This SSA modality is governed by UN Women General Terms and Conditions. UN Women will only be able to respond to applicants who meet the minimum requirements.

Candidates should clearly indicate how they meet the above mentioned criteria in their applications.

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application all scanned in white and black in PDF form and uploaded at once. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials:

• P11 Or CV including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted; and
• A sample of  a previous assignment for the Investigation training

Candidates should have the ability to quickly submit degree certificates and medical certification (of good health) should they be short-listed in consideration of this consultancy.

Evaluation of applicants

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications mentioned above; and financial proposal. A contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer receives the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 50 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation (70%) – max. 70 points:

• Relevant education; max 10 points
• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in the field of training and training material development; max 10 points
• Experience in delivering training for professionals in the security and / or justice system is a strong asset; max 10 points
• A minimum of 10 years of professional experience in GBV, VAW,protection and/or juvenile justice; max 10 points
• A minimum of 5 years of experience in the area of investigation in relation to GBV and sexual assault crimes; max 10 points
• At least 2 previous assignments related to capacity enhancement of justice and/ or security sector actors in the Arab region, preferable in Palestine: max 5 points
• Experience with the UN system or/and International Organisations would be considered a strong asset: max 5 points
• A sample of  a previous assignment for the Investigation training; max 10 points

Financial Evaluation (30%) – max. 30 points:

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. A suggested formula is as follows:

p = 30 (µ/z)

Using the following values:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated