UN WOMEN Jobs - 81453- International Consultant to Provide Extensive Supp

International Consultant to Provide Extensive Support to Romani Women to Get Involved in Electoral Processes

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Home based with travel to Chisinau, MOLDOVA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Nov-2018

Application Deadline :

23-Oct-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

11 months

Languages Required :

English Russian

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Up to 80 working days out of which 54– home-based, up to 26 days– missions to Moldova

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, 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.

In 2018, UN Women Moldova Country Office started to implement its new Strategic Note (SN) for 2018-2022, which is aligned with the Republic of Moldova–United Nations Partnership Framework for Sustainable Development 2018–2022 and the Global Strategic Plan of UN Women. Under its current SN, UN Women cooperates closely with the government, civil society, academia, private sector and the media to advance social, economic and political rights and opportunities for women and girls, placing special focus on those from marginalized, excluded and under-represented groups. These include rural women, Romani women, women with disabilities, women living with or affected by HIV, women survivors of violence, women migrants, young women, elderly women and others. UN Women’s operation in Moldova focuses on bringing about concrete change in the lives of women and the society towards the long-term impact of achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in the country.

Women and girls constitute more than half of Moldova’s population, yet they are under-represented in the bodies that make key decisions affecting their lives. Despite an increase in women’s representation in the Parliament and at local level over the past years, the country did not reach its related MDG 2015 targets and the value of the Political Empowerment Sub-index of the Gender Gap Index is still low (0.176 – placing Moldova on 72th place). Although general women’s representation in decision making process is comparable low, the representation of women from underrepresented groups, including Romani women, is practically inexistent.

The lack of updated official statistical data on number of Roma in the Republic of Moldova hampers undertaking of an objective analysis of the situation in this regard. Some administrative sources and researches report different data on the Roma population in the country, which varies from 14,000 to 200, 000 . Roma face multiple barriers against social inclusion, and access to employment, education, health care and other services. There is a high degree of intolerance and hostility towards Roma held by the majority population. According to a 2014 UN comprehensive study on the situation of Romani women in Moldova, Romani women represent one of the most vulnerable groups in the Republic of Moldova. Routinely they have lower levels of education, much higher rates of unemployment, significant lower level of income and poorer health than the rest of the population. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW Committee) in its 2013 Concluding Observations to Republic of Moldova expressed concerns that disadvantaged groups of women, including Romani women and women with disabilities, are, in practice, almost completely excluded from political and public life and recommended introducing procedures to ensure their effective participation in elected offices and appointed bodies, as well as effective measures, including Temporary Special Measures, in order to accelerate the realization of substantive equality for them. While there have been some encouraging advancements, including the election in 2015 of the first two Romani women as local councilors, the participation of Romani women is lower in comparison with both Roma men and non-Roma women.

In June 2016, the Government of the Republic of Moldova approved the Action Plan to Support Roma Ethnic Group in the Republic of Moldova for 2016-2020, preceded by public consultations with civil society and relevant stakeholders on the Action Plan’s content. Using this opportunity, some Romani women activists were involved in elaboration of the normative framework and strongly advocated for including provisions in the Action Plan on Romani women’s empowerment and gender equality. Despite these efforts, the Action Plan does not contain specific provisions or activities focused on Romani women’s empowerment or strengthening their capacities to become active participants in public and political life.

In December 2013, an informal network of Romani women and girls was constituted, aimed at strengthening the de facto realization of rights of Romani women and girls in the Republic of Moldova. UN Women, through its programmes, provided support to the Network in order to strengthen its capacities to act as unified voice for the rights of Romani women, to increase its membership among Romani women from more communities and to provide them with information, skills and networking opportunities. UN Women, through the joint UN Programme Women in Politics (implemented in 2014-2017), also provided comprehensive support in identifying and capacitating Romani women to run for the 2015 local elections, which resulted in the historic development that for the first time in the history of Moldova, 2 Romani women got elected as local councilors. UN Women further supported them and other Roma activists in different communities to mobilize more Roma women to engage civically in local decision-making processes, such as town hall meetings.

In anticipation of the upcoming local elections in 2019, there is a need for targeted interventions to support interested Romani women to enter the world of politics and run for political office through training, mentorship, career advising and peer networking, building on the past experiences which have led to effective political participation of Roma women. In this respect, UN Women intends to hire an International Consultant to provide support to Romani women to become more actively involved in political life.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the UN Women Programme Coordinator on Women in Leadership (WIL), International Consultant will be responsible to provide extensive support to Romani women to become more actively involved in political life, including to 50 Romani women across the country, who are willing stand for political office and to be candidates at the local elections.

The International Consultant will work in close collaboration with a specialized company/organization engaged by UN Women, which will be directly involved in delivery of a capacity building program for up to 50 Romani women from across the country. The capacity building program will be composed of different tools, like support to run locally for office, capacity building, mentorship, coaching and raising awareness, and will be provided during the entire local election cycle: pre-election, election and post-election phases.

In all its activities, the International Consultant should be guided by the cross-party, non-partisan and equity principles.

Tasks

Duties and responsibilities of the International Consultant:

• Provide advice to specialized company/organization hired by UN Women in development of the overall methodology for the support program for Romani women who expressed their interest to run locally for office. The methodology should specify identification of beneficiaries in Roma communities; support programme for participants, undertaking of the homework. The methodology should outline expected overall objectives, results and means to reach them; timeframe and work plan; topics for each of the three training sessions; ways of identification of Romani women, including call for applications and methods for ensuring its wide outreach among the target group. The methodology will be shared with UN Women and adjusted based on feedback received.

• Provide advice to specialized company/organization in development of call for applications and selection criteria in order to identify to 50 Romani women willing to run for local elections.

• Prepare and deliver up to 4 training sessions for up to 50 Romani women willing to run for local elections, which will be determined in consultations with UN Women (each training session will be delivered twice for both groups of 25 Romani women). It is desirable International Consultant to attend the first and the last out of the 3 training sessions to be delivered. The International Consultant will be responsible to advice the company on preparation of accompanying training materials (PTTs, handouts, agendas, evaluation questionnaires) and will be fully responsible for developing the training materials for delivered sessions by her/him. The specialized company/organization will be responsible for overall development and delivery of 3 two-days training sessions for up to 50 Romani women. Proposed topics may include, but not limited to: the decision to run for office; women’s political participation, with a focus on Romani women and the specificities, challenges and opportunities of being a Romani woman candidate; political parties and independent candidates; electoral legal framework; electoral campaign tools; communications within electoral campaign; campaigning plan; campaigning team; etc.

Note: For a most efficient capacity building, learning process and information sharing it is recommended to create smaller groups for training comprising up to 25 participants in a group.

• Some training sessions delivered by the international consultant within the capacity building programme should be dedicated to existing Romani women role models who succeeded to enter into politics or to run their own affairs. The International Consultant should provide examples of Romani women leaders acting at national and/or international levels, living or being born in countries with a similar background as the Republic of Moldova (i.e. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Romania, the Ukraine, Georgia, etc.).

• Support the company/organization to strategize on the best ways of provision of coaching for participants willing to run for elections, like recommendations on what will work and international best practices of similar assignments. The coaching will be provided to each individual participant who decided to run for elections locally, both by joining a political party or as independent candidates.

• Plan a mission to Moldova within pre-electoral period with the aim to support political participation of Romani women in electoral cycle as voters. In total 15 communities will be targeted. The list of communities will be developed and consulted with UN Women. The International Consultant should plan and organize his/her visits in 15 targeted communities populated mostly by Roma in order to organize focus groups with Romani women to inform them about the local election process and to encourage them to vote. During the focus groups, the International Consultant should also discuss and identify the key challenges faced by Romani women in getting used of their electoral rights, like right to candidate, right to elect, right to participate in political life at the local level (participating within the meetings of local councils, right to be consulted on key community issues, right to submit a petition or request to city hall, etc.). Based on received information, the International Consultant should develop a report on key challenges and barriers faced by Romani women in using their electoral rights.

• Provide post-electoral one-day training and coaching to elected women or to women who highly scored in elections.

Competencies

Core Values:

Respect for Diversity
Integrity
Professionalism

Core Competencies:

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
Accountability
Creative Problem Solving
Effective Communication
Inclusive Collaboration
Stakeholder Engagement
Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

· Mature judgment and initiative;

· Ability to think out-of-the-box;

· Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women;

· Ability to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams;

· Ability to work under pressure against strict deadlines;

· Ability to present complex issues persuasively and simply;

· Displays cultural, gender, religion and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

I. Academic Qualifications:

Master’s degree in Law, International Law, Human Rights, Gender, Social Studies, Political Studies and other related fields. Additional points will be granted for PhD degree in the fields mentioned above.

II. Years of experience:

A minimum of 5 years of work experience on promoting the rights of Roma;
A minimum of 3 years of experience in organization of various capacity buildings, with a special focus on Roma rights;
Experience in gender equality issues, pertinent to Romani women;
Previous work experience in writing reports on the situation of Roma population will be considered an asset;
Proven experience in working with international organizations (successful experience in working with UN agencies is an asset).

III. Language skills:

Excellent command of English language.
Working knowledge of Romanian, Russian, Romani languages is an asset.

UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.

UN WOMEN 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.

APPLICATION INFORMATION Pr18/01771:

ALL THE APPLICATIONS SHALL BE SUBMITTED ONLINE ON LOCAL WEB SITE FOLLOWING THE LINK: http://sc.undp.md/jobdetails/1771/ . ALL THE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS, INCLUDING FINANCIAL OFFER TEMPLATE SHALL BE DOWNLOADED HERE: http://sc.undp.md/jobdetails/1771/ .

Interested candidates must submit via online submission system the following documents/ information to demonstrate their qualification:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

- Letter of Intent with justification of being the most suitable for the work, vision and working approach, specifically indicating experience of mobilization of excluded communities for participation and inclusion

- Duly filled Personal History Form (P11) and/or CV, including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and specific outputs obtained; P11 can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;

- Financial proposal (in USD) - Specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this Terms of Reference). The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (daily rate and number of anticipated working days and any other possible costs); The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of the lump sum amount (daily rate and number of anticipated working days). Please see TOR Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template and Annex II: Price Proposal Submission Form.

- The Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template and Annex II: Price Proposal Submission Form could be downloaded from here http://sc.undp.md/jobdetails/1771/ .

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, scan your documents into one single file.

Qualified women candidates are highly encouraged to apply.