Antecedentes

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.

UN Women is the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.  It is the UN organization committed to gender equality and the empowerment of women.  The UN Women Multi-Country Office- Caribbean (MCO) is located in Barbados, covering the English and Dutch speaking Caribbean, including Jamaica, where the MCO has a project presence.

Gender equality commitments in the HIV response have not translated into HIV policies, programmes and budgets that adequately respond to the needs and rights of women and girls. Women living with HIV face gaps and constraints in accessing prevention, treatment, and care and support services. Women, particularly those most affected by the epidemic, also largely remain on the margins of policy and decision-making spaces.  Therefore, UN Women has been working on HIV from a governance perspective – ensuring that national HIV and or health and development plans, policies, budgets and evaluation frameworks along with institutions, respond to priorities related to gender equality within the HIV and AIDS response.  Alongside, UN Women works to support WLHIV to lead and participate in the HIV response, which promotes women’s leadership in decision-making as well as equips them to lobby, advocate, and hold governments to account for implementation of commitments to gender equality in the context of HIV and AIDS. 

UN Women became the 11th Cosponsor of UNAIDS in June 2012. Joining UNAIDS as a cosponsor, UN Women commits to supporting the implementation of the UNAIDS Strategic Framework – “Getting to Zero” – which advances three strategic directions:  a) Revolutionizing HIV prevention; b) catalysing the next phase of treatment, care and support; and c) advancing human rights and gender equality. 

In Jamaica, under the UNAIDS Unified Budget, Accountability, and Results Framework (UBRAF), UN Women Multi-Country Office - Caribbean is partnering with the National Family Planning Board (NFPB) to ensure greater mainstreaming of gender equality issues into the national planning around HIV&AIDS; as well as to ensure greater awareness among teenage girls and boys, and stronger response to this target group, about girls’ vulnerability to STIs, HIV and unplanned pregnancies.

In addition, UN Women MCO is supporting the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities (CVC) in a multi-country project involving initiatives in Jamaica, The Bahamas and Belize, which is focused on two main components: a)to assess the degree to which the government of each country has executed its commitments to international agreements to address violence against women, gender equality and HIV and b) the sharing of these findings with selected CSOs in each country as well as providing capacity building in using a gender based and human rights approach in their civil society roles in responding to HIV&AIDS and gender-based violence.

Phase I of both partnerships is scheduled to end in December 2015, with a series of key actions being undertaken; and discussions on-going for Phase II of the partnership for 2016. To support the NFPB, CVC and UN Women in the timely delivery of commitments taken, UN Women will be recruiting a consultant to provide any necessary technical support to their implementation, and to support UN Women in the monitoring of contractual requirements, including financial and narrative reporting therein.

Deberes y responsabilidades

This consultancy provides for the monitoring of the implementation of these two projects, technical guidance as required to support the implementation, ensuring the completion of reports as per the contractual obligations. Specifically, the consultant will be responsible for:

• Maintaining regular contact with the two responsible parties (NFPB and CVC) to ensure the timely provision of daily technical support on gender equality and HIV&AIDS, as required. This includes meeting with project counterparts of the NFPB and CVC to outline current status of activities and expectations regarding completion of projects and reporting as outlined in project agreement;
• Monitor financial and narrative reporting requirements and overall partnership work plans, to ensure timely delivery of commitments and reporting requirements are met. This includes but is not limited to providing bi weekly updates to UN Women on status of agreements; supporting responsible parties in completing reports, as/if required; supporting UN Women in reviewing the narrative and financial reports submitted; identify key challenges and possible barriers to implementation and provide support in overcoming these challenges;
• Support partners in discussions of Phase II of partnerships, as appropriate.

Competencias

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.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Post-graduate degree, at least a Master’s degree, in public health, gender and development studies, social science.

Experience:

• At least 5 years’ experience, working on HIV/AIDS related projects and initiatives with both state and civil society partners;
• Demonstrated experience with HIV/AIDS related projects and initiatives in the Caribbean;
• Experience in Project Coordination or Management.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.

Deliverables:

Specific activities and deliverables:

• Based on Project Files and initial Meeting with Project designates deliver written summary of progress to date on each project;
• Provide short fortnightly update on progress on each project;
• Deliver to UN Women each agency’s third quarter reports;
• Deliver to UN Women each agency’s final fourth quarter report.

Remuneration

The consultancy fee will be negotiated before contracting. Each payment will be based on a predefined and formal agreement between UN Women and the consultant and will be disbursed based on satisfactory completion of agreed deliverables.

Hardware, software, and communication

The consultant must be equipped with a portable computer (laptop). The consultant 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 an estimated 30 working days from 5 October 2015 until 30 January 2016. The consultancy will be based in Jamaica.

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 error;
• 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:

• Post-graduate degree, at least a Master’s degree, in public health, gender and development studies, social science (10);
• At least 5 years’ experience, working on HIV/AIDS related projects and initiatives with both state and civil society partners (30);
• Demonstrated experience with HIV/AIDS related projects and initiatives in the Caribbean (10);
• Experience in Project Coordination or Management. (20).

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

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.