Antecedentes

UN Women Georgia Country Office has been supporting increase of 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.[1] Most recently, since 2010, in the framework of 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.womenpeace.net)[2] 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 as the Geneva International Discussion (GID) and the Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM). [3]
  

The training in gender aspects of mediation conducted in Yerevan in November 2013 already contributed to forming 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 formal talks. 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 - strategies for increasing women’s role in peacebuilding” will be conducted in close cooperation by UN Women and IWPR. The training will be focused on mediation and advocacy skills’ building. Suggested four-day training will be organized in Istanbul in April 2014. Participants will include 16-18 Georgian, Abkhaz and South Ossetia women peace activists and gender equality advocates. Two participants from the Regional Women’s Lobby for Justice, Pease and Security in the South-eastern Europe (RWL) will be invited to share their experiences and good practice in a special session.[4] The proposed initiative will be fully in line with the UN SCR #2122 (2013) aiming to strengthen women’s role in all stages of conflict prevention.

• to enhance participants’ understanding, knowledge and confidence in women’s contributions to conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes;
• 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;
• to enhance knowledge about formal peace process relevant for the conflicts in Georgia (GID and IPRM).

UN Women WEPD project together with UN Women WPS Section intends to hire the international trainer/consultant to prepare and conduct the training in “Gender Aspects of Mediation - strategies for increasing women’s role in peacebuilding” for the group of selected 17-18 participants by IWPR. Selected trainer is expected to build their programme on the basis of United Nations Guidelines on Mediation. All aspects of training logistics will be taken care of IWPR Caucasus Programme.

Deberes y responsabilidades

• 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 - strategies for increasing women’s role in peacebuilding” 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 scenario are used for role plays and exercises;
• To ensure that the training materials reflect real women’s needs, practices, lessons learned and is conducive to real learning for women activists;
• To conduct four-day intensive training on “Gender Aspects of Mediation ” for 16-18  selected Georgian, Abkhaz and South Ossetian women with the aim to enhance participants’ understanding, knowledge and skills in women’s contributions to conflict resolution and peacebuilding processes; conflict mediation and leadership, and existing formal peace processes format in Georgia;
• 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 trainings, 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 gender and mediation and supporting increase of gender equality advocates’ and women’s capacity in mediation and peacebuilding;

Deliverables:

• Developed training needs assessment questioner, training module, agenda and methodology – April 4, 2014 (5 working days);
• Conducted four-day training for 16-18 selected human rights and gender equality activists/NGO representatives – by 16 April 2014 (4 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– 26 April, 2014 (2 working days).

Competencias

• 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.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Academic Qualifications:

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

Experience:

• At least ten years of proven track record of working on human rights and peace and justice issues, in particular on gender aspects of mediation and role of women in ongoing mediation and 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 and peacebuilding initiatives;
• Experience of and participation in peace negotiations will be an asset;
• Sound experience in conducting trainings or/and consultations on gender aspects of mediation and role of women in mediation and conflict resolution processes.

Language requirement:

• Proficiency in English.

Evaluation Procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria; technical and financial evaluation. 

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications): 

• Advanced university degree in International relations, Law, Gender, Development, Social Science or related field (under-Master’s – 20 points, Master’s – 30 points) - (Max 30 points);
  
• At least ten years of proven track record of working on human rights and peace and justice issues, in particular on gender aspects of mediation and role of women in ongoing mediation and 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 and peacebuilding initiatives. Experience of and participation in peace negotiations will be an asset (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).

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; Plus CV, Technical Proposal, and Financial offer.