Antecedentes

Over the past years, UN Women is providing support to national and local governments in strengthening democratic governance and advancing women’s rights through initiatives aimed at mainstreaming gender in national policy planning and budgeting and strengthening of the national mechanism for gender equality. In the frame of the Government of Albania and UN Programme of Cooperation (2012-2016), UN Women has been focused on supporting government efforts at integrating gender equality commitments in the Government priorities and national strategies.

Since 2007, the Government of Albania has started to implement the National Strategy for Development and Integration (NSDI) 2007-2013, a comprehensive set of 22 sectors and 17 cross-cutting strategies. It was the first attempt to put under the same strategic framework the development and European Integration policy agendas. The NSDI is a broad planning and monitoring framework which has aimed to ensure that the core policy and financial processes developed by the Government of Albania function in an integrated way. Likewise, the new NSDI 2015-2020 establishes the government’s medium to longer term goals, objectives and strategies for all sectors. The formulation of the new NSDI 2015-2020 constitutes an opportunity for further concretisation of the principle of gender equality. In parallel, the National Strategy on Gender Equality, Reduction of Gender-based Violence and Domestic Violence (2011-2015) adopted in 2011 has integrated the principle of gender mainstreaming in all sectors and areas, including recommendations to integrate it in the NSDI as the main framework for public policies in Albania.

Therefore as part of the efforts to achieve gender equality in Albania through gender mainstreaming into all the aspects of policy drafting and implementation, the GoA has expressed interest in developing the new National Strategy on Gender Equality, Reduction of Gender-based Violence and Domestic Violence (2016-2020), thus ensuring gender considerations become part of the process of developing and finalizing of NSDI 2015-2020.

As such, UN Women will continue to provide technical expertise to the Ministry of Social Welfare and Youth (MSWY) for the development of the new National Strategy on Gender Equality, Reduction of Gender-based Violence and Domestic Violence, as well as to the Department of Development, Programming, Financing and Foreign Aid, (DDPFFA) at Council of Ministers to support the new NSDI finalization process including advise on sector policy analysis. Technical advice will be provided by UN Women on gender policy analyses, gender-responsive planning and budgeting and gender-sensitive indicators to ensure that gender equality principle and Albanian’s international and national commitments are adhered to.

To support this process, UN Women will be recruiting an international gender expert, as a team leader to work with national experts in assisting respectively a) the MSWY in the assessment of the current and of drafting the new NSGE-GBV&DV 2016-2020 and its plan of action  https://www.dropbox.com/s/3cddrnb5gvie9ex/Annex%201.docx?dl=0 and b) the DDPFFA in the finalisation of the NSDI.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The overall objective of the international consultant is to serve as Team Leader to support the drafting of the new strategy on Gender Equality and Eradication of Gender Based Violence and Domestic Violence (NSGE-GBV-DV), 2016-2020.

Under the overall supervision of the Director of Social Policies at MSWY and Director of the Strategic Planning Unit at DDPFFA, and the UN Women Representative, the international gender expert will be working with the national experts and be responsible for the production of the following:

• Lead the development of the methodology and tools for conducting the assessment of the NSGE-GBV&DV 2011-2015 and its plan of action, and including the development of a detailed work plan for implementing the consultancy, including detailing the appropriate division of tasks among national experts for both strategies;
• Provide overall technical guidance in the assessment of the NSGE-GBV&DV, including detailing out the tools and methods to be utilized by the national experts and MSWY, that will lead the evaluation process;
• Within the revision of the NSGE-GBV&DV, facilitate the appropriate costing of the prioritized actions;
• Support the Government in establishing and/or strengthened the monitoring and evaluation framework of the NSGE-GBV&DV which is linked to the existing IPS and the National Indicators to Monitor the Status of Women and Gender Equality;
• Oversee the submission of the final revision assessment report of the NSGE-GBV&DV and Action Plan, as per the agreed upon work plan;
• Capture the experiences of revising the NSGE-GBV&DV for the purpose of possible replication within other national strategies under the National Strategy for Development and Integration;
• Provide concrete guidance to feed gender mainstreaming of the NSDI 2014-2020 based on the NSGE-GBV&DV revision and strategic direction;
• Provide overall technical guidance in preparation of the methodology for drafting the new NSGE-GBV&DV 2016-2020 and its action plan, including detailing out the tools and methods to be utilized by the national experts;
• Support the drafting process of the new NSGE-GBV&DV including the re-prioritization of actions under the strategic priority areas; ensuring the appropriate costing of re-prioritized actions; and strengthened monitoring framework within the NSGE-GBV&DV and its Action Plan;
• Conduct desk review of relevant documents developed during Phase I of the NSDI preparation, including Sector Policy Statements by Line Ministries, current sector and crosscutting strategies, NSDI 2007-2013;
• Monitoring Based Performance framework, reinforcing the use of sex-disaggregated data and gender indicators in sector and crosscutting strategies;
• In coordination with the national experts, provide inputs to the final NSDI draft (vision, goals, objectives) taking into account Albania’s GE international and national commitments (contained in the CEDAW, SAA, CoE and NSGE-GBV&DV and GE legislation);
• Prepare a detailed final report on the process followed and its outcomes.

Competencias

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling UN values and ethical standards;
• Demonstrates professional competence and is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to pose questions, listen, evaluate and capture opinions, suggestions and comments, both orally and in writing, in a clear and persuasive style tailored to match different stakeholders;
• Ability to establish and maintain productive partnerships with national partners and pro-activeness in identifying of beneficiaries and partners’ needs, and matching them to appropriate solutions;
• Proactiveness and ability to discuss openly with all senior officials of the DDPFFA, Council of Ministers, other ministries and development partners;
• Efficiency in a multi-tasking and multi-cultural environment;
• Ability to work and adapt to a dynamic working environment, judgment, results-orientation, and ability to perform under pressure;
• Strong writing, communication and presentation skills in English;
• Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications, including excellent drafting and presentation skills.  (Power Point, Word, Excel).

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Advanced degree in gender and development, public policies, or related fields.

Work Experience:

• Over 10 years of international development experience with a particular emphasis on gender mainstreaming in national policies, strategic planning and monitoring public policies;
• Specific experience related to the strategic planning in the EU accession process and related expertise in goal setting and monitoring performance targets in service delivery sectors;
• Experience with similar assignments in other countries; previous experience in the region is an asset;
• Previous experience working with international organizations.

Language:

• Fluency in English (spoken and written).

Evaluation of applications:

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process. Applicants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications/skills and their financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive to and compliant with the ToR; and
• Having received the highest score out of below combined technical and financial criteria.

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
• b) having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical Criteria weight – 70%

Financial Criteria weight – 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Technical: Weight 70%   Max. Point 70:

• Education: Weight 15% Max. Point 10;
• International development expertise and experience on gender mainstreaming in national policies, strategies planning and monitoring public policies: Weight 20% Max. Point 20;
• Specific experience related to strategic planning in the EU accession process and related expertise in goal setting and monitoring performance targets in service delivery sectors: Weight 20% Max. Point 20;
• Experience in delivering trainings on statistics, policy making and budgeting with gender lenses: Weight 15% Max. Point 15
• Experience with similar assignments in other countries; previous experience in the region will be considered an asset; the expert should be proactive and have the ability to discuss openly with all senior officials of the DDPFFA, Council of Ministers, other ministries and development partners as well as to be capable of working and to collaborate with donor-funded advisors Weight 15% Max. Point 15;
• Demonstrated ability to lead a team: Weight 10% Max. Point 10.

Financial: Weight 30% Max. Point 30

Application procedures

Interested individual consultants are requested to apply electronically through the following link: http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm  no later than June 9th, 2015 and to submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Cover letter explaining the applicant’s interest in applying for the position;
• Filled P11 form including past experience in similar projects and contact details of referees (blank form can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/aboutus/employment/); Please, merge your completed Personal History form, financial proposal and cover letter, if applicable, into a single file when you submit your application via e-mail as indicated;
• The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount in US dollars (USD) (30 working days), and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in instalments or upon completion of the entire contract). In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including two [2] two missions to Tirana, Albania per diems, and number of working days). Given the nature of the work payments will be based upon a) delivery of the services specified in the TORs, and c) certification of performance.

Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials