Antecedentes

Gender inequality contributes to the spread of HIV. It can increase infection rates, and reduce the ability of women and girls to cope with the epidemic. Often women and girls have less information about HIV and fewer resources to take preventive measures. They face barriers to the negotiation of safer sex, because of unequal power dynamics with men. Sexual violence, a widespread violation of women’s rights, exacerbates the risk of HIV transmission. Evidence suggests that marriage can be a major risk factor, especially for young women and girls.

Although HIV and AIDS has decreased steadily within Western Europe in the last several years, the number of people newly diagnosed with HIV is increasing in the Europe and Central Asia region. According to 2014 UNAIDS GAP Report, an estimated 1.1 million adults and children are living with HIV and the number of people dying from AIDS-related causes in the region has significantly increased, increasing an estimated 21% between 2005 and 2011. The HIV epidemic continues to be concentrated among people who inject drugs (PWID), the population most severely affected by HIV in the region, although sex workers, prisoners, men who have sex with men and other populations are also living with HIV or are highly vulnerable to transmission. More than 131,000 new HIV cases have been reported in Europe and Central Asia region in 2012, 10,000 more than in 2011. The increase has been linked to numerous issues, including the lack of prevention measures, such as free condoms for sex workers and clean needles for drug users. Late diagnosis, low treatment coverage, and delayed initiation of HIV treatment also contribute to the increasing prevalence throughout the region. Unlike the HIV epidemic in Eastern and Southern Africa, the women at risk or highly vulnerable to HIV in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region are sex workers and the women sexual partners of men who inject drugs. 

There has been considerable work in the region conducted by the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDs (the UNAIDS Cosponsors and Secretariat), the Global Fund, the AIDS Alliance, Ukraine, The Open Society Foundation and other parts of civil society and academia to document the complexities of the HIV epidemic and its social, economic, and political impacts within countries throughout the region.  The UNAIDS Cosponsors and UNAIDS Regional Support Team have developed policies and advocacy strategies and programme support to countries based on the UNAIDS Division of Labour.  

Under the UNAIDS Division of Labour, UNDP and UNFPA co-convene the area that has a focus on “meeting the HIV needs of women and girls and stopping sexual and gender-based violence”.  The co-convening role requires the relevant agencies coordinate all work by the UNAIDS family under the Division of Labour heading, monitor implementation and are responsible for reporting consolidated results.  When UN Women became a Cosponsoring Organisation in 2012, it joined UNFPA and UNDP as a partner in this area of work.

UN Women joins UNDP and UNFPA in bringing a gender equality and human rights perspectives to work on women and HIV and AIDS, developing and promoting strategies that make clear links to factors propelling the epidemic, such as violence against women, denial of legal rights and women’s limited participation in decision-making. UN Women’s single most important strategy is incorporating HIV and the needs of women living with and at risk of HIV into national gender plans and gender budgeting, working with UNFPA and UNDP to empower women and guaranteeing their rights so that they can protect themselves from infection, overcome stigma, and gain greater access to treatment, care and support. UN Women contributes to holding governments accountable for implementation of their commitments to gender equality principles in the context of HIV and AIDS. This is supported by the community capacity strengthening work led by UNFPA and UNDP as Co-Convenors in empowering men who have sex with men, sex workers and transgender people, and partnering with UNODC on people who inject drugs, in addition to meeting the needs of women and girls. As Co-Convenors, they provide support to women living with HIV to lead and participate in the HIV response, which promotes women’s leadership in decision-making, and also equips them to lobby, advocate, and hold. 

In the ECA region, UN Women’s Multi-country Office in Kazakhstan is implementing a project (funded from Unified Budget Results and Accountability Framework (UBRAF)) aimed at integrating gender perspectives in respective national HIV and AIDS strategies. In this respect, networks of WLWH in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan countries are supported by a series of trainings to develop capacity to negotiate, influence to decision making, define/analyses evidences for specific needs of WLWH to further present at policy related dialogues. It is also planned to improve capacity for gender sensitive monitoring of AIDS response. 

The establishment of the UN Women’s Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, based in Istanbul, Turkey in 2014 has created an opportunity to step up UN Women’s capacity to address the HIV epidemic. UN Women’s strategic direction on addressing HIV and AIDS offers the opportunity to bring a regional perspective to the implementation of the UN Women’s Global Strategic Plan. 

Responding to this important issue, the UN Women ECA Regional Office in Istanbul wishes to hire an international consultant to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment and identify areas in which UN Women may be equipped to provide added value to strengthen the work of existing organisations, and networks of people to address identified gaps and challenges or entry points for strategic regional/sub-regional/multi-country initiatives, to be implemented in partnership with UNFPA and UNDP as co-convening UNAIDS Co-sponsors.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The international consultant will report to the Programme Specialist in UN Women ECA RO

The International Consultant’s assignment will constitute the following services:

Through a desk review, the consultant will prepare an assessment report on HIV and AIDS regional trends, issues, opportunities and challenges, and its impact on women and girls. The consultant will carry out a desk review and prepare a needs assessment report of the current social, economic, and political landscape of HIV and AIDS throughout the region and its impact on women and girls, and a stakeholder’s mapping study report outlining challenges, gaps and capacity constraints that are present among regional/sub-regional networks, as well as the programmatic reach, collaboration, accomplishments, and gaps among regional or sub-regional actors, including international organizations and donors that are working to address gender dimensions of HIV and AIDS needs, to highlight potential regional partners, including donors, and areas in which UN Women may be equipped to provide added value to strengthen the work of existing organizations, and networks of people to address identified gaps and challenges.

Based on the above two study reports, the consultant will assist UN Women ECA RO to prepare its strategy paper  on HIV and AIDS, outlining concrete sets of recommendations for UN Women’s engagement, in line with the UNAIDS Division of Labour, including advocacy strategy to address the gaps, potential joint interventions/programmes at regional/sub-regional/country levels with relevant partners, including Istanbul-based UN Agencies (UNFPA and UNDP), and to inform UN Women’s programmatic interventions in the area of HIV and AIDS within the region for the next 2 years.

The consultant will prepare the UN Women ECA RO’s 2015 Annual Report on UBRAF, which will expand upon previous annual reports and include current information gathered from existing programme interventions in the region in order to provide the most current and informative prospective on regional HIV and AIDS issues. A strong component of the work will be to coordinate the annual reporting exercise with other UNAIDS co-sponsors (UNDP, UNFPA) to identify the interventions with highest impact and build on these in the upcoming years (in-line with the developed internal UN Women position paper on HIV and AIDS and work-plan).

Assignment Deliverables:

Task:

The consultant will prepare a work plan for the assignment and an outline of: a) the assessment report on gaps, challenges and opportunities, and its impact on women and girls, b) stakeholders’ mapping study and submit for ECA RO’s approval.
Deliverable:

• An action oriented work-plan for the assignment; Outline of the needs assessment report (3-5 pages); Outline of the stakeholders’ mapping study (3-5 pages);
  Time-frame and estimated work input: 1 –5 September; app. 2 working days (home based).

Task:

• Through a desk review, the consultant will carry out a research and prepare a comprehensive needs assessment report of the current social, economic, and political landscape of HIV and AIDS throughout the region and its impact on women and girls, and a stakeholder’s mapping study report outlining challenges, gaps and capacity constraints that are present among regional/sub-regional networks, as well as the programmatic reach, collaboration, accomplishments, and gaps among regional or sub-regional actors, including the UNAIDS Cosponsors and Secretariat, international organizations and donors that are working to address gender dimensions of HIV and AIDS needs throughout the Europe and Central Asia region, to highlight potential regional partners, including donors, and areas in which UN Women may be equipped to provide added value to strengthen the work of existing organizations, and networks of people to address identified gaps and challenges.

Deliverable:

• A draft (20-30 page) needs assessment report, including an executive summary; A draft 10-15 page stakeholders’ mapping study;
• Time-frame and estimated work input: 5 September – 5 October 2015; app. 20 working days (home based).

Task:

• The consultant will validate the findings of the 2 reports with UN Women ECA RO, in consultation with UNDP and UNFPA Regional Offices in Istanbul and UNAIDS Regional Office in Moscow, to agree on the outline of the UNW strategy paper for HIV activities in ECA.

Deliverable:

• Final needs assessment report and mapping study report;
• Time-frame and estimated work input: 5 – 12 October (in Istanbul) 5 working days.

Task:

• Based on the consultation and feedback, the consultant will finalize the draft of the UN Women strategy paper on HIV and AIDS   for ECA RO for 2016-2017 with concrete sets of recommendations for UN Women’s engagement to address the gaps, including potential joint interventions/programmes with relevant partners at regional/sub-regional/country levels.

Deliverable:

•  A 10-15 pages strategy paper on HIV and AIDS, including concrete recommendations for regional/sub-regional/multi-country programmatic initiatives, including potential Joint initiatives/programmes with Istanbul-based UN Agencies for the period 2016-2017;
  Time-frame and estimated work input: 12 – 20 October 2015; app. 5 working days (home based).

Task:

• The consultant will develop the 2015 Annual Report for UBRAF for approval of ECA RO.

Deliverable:

• UN Women ECA RO’s 2015 Annual Report on HIV and AIDS, which will expand upon previous annual reports and include current information gathered from existing programmatic interventions;    
  Time-frame and estimated work input: 1 November – 20 December 2015; app. 3 working days (home based).

Task:

• The consultant will prepare an end of assignment report.

Deliverable:

• Maximum 10 pages consultancy assignment report; 
  Time-frame and estimated work input: 20 – 25 December 2015;  app. 1 working day (home based).

Estimated total: 36 working days

Payment schedule:

• 20% of the amount specified in the Financial Proposal will be disbursed upon submission of the approved assignment work-plan and outline of the study reports;
• 50% will be disbursed upon submission of the final study reports; and
• The remaining 30% following the approval of all deliverables and certification by the UN Women Programme Specialist at the Istanbul RO.

Review/approval time required to review/approve outputs prior to authorizing payments.

Competencias

• Strong interpersonal skills, communication and diplomatic skills, ability to work in a team;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Ability to work under pressure and stressful situations;
• Flexibility and adaptability to changes and tolerance to uncertainty;
• Strong teamwork.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Master’s degree in social sciences, law, public policy/administration, development studies, public health, gender studies or similar.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of experience  in gender expertise and substantive analysis in areas related to HIV and AIDS;
• Experience in providing gender expertise and substantive assistance in areas related to HIV and AIDS and the the challenges faced by women and girls living with and affected by HIVin Europe and Central Asia;
• Experience in preparing strategic positioning papers and undertake desk research;
• Excellent writing skills and experience developing analysis and report documents on gender-related issues;
• Previous professional experience with the United Nations in this or a related field would be considered an asset;
• Experience in working on relevant national and international gender equality standards.

Language:

• Written and oral proficiency in English is required;
• Knowledge of intermediate or higher level of Russian is an asset.

Evaluation of Applicants

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on a cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal.

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

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

The candidates must possess following minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation: 

Technical criteria – 70% of total evaluation – max 90 points:

Criterion A – Relevant education (Max points: 20)
Criterion B – Language skills (Max points: 10)

Criterion C – Relevant Experience (Max 60 in total for all of the following criterion):

• Proven ability to provide gender expertise and substantive assistance in areas related to HIV and AIDS and the the challenges faced by women and girls living with and affected by HIV in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (Max 15);
• Experience in undertaking desk research and studies (Max 10);
• Experience in preparing strategic positioning papers (Max 10);
• Excellent writing skills and experience developing analysis and report documents on gender-related issues (Max 10);
• Previous professional experience with the United Nations would be considered an asset (5 Max);
• Knowledge of relevant national and international gender equality standards (10 Max);

Only candidates who have obtained at least 70% of the points under the technical evaluation will qualify to be considered in the financial evaluation round.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30% of points for total score

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.

Application Procedure

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online via this website.

The application should contain:

• Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position. Please paste the letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the electronic application;
• Filled P11 form including past experience and contact details of referees (blank form can be downloaded from (http://unwomen.unssc.org/files/UN_P11.doc ); please upload the P11 instead of your CV;
• Financial Proposal (*) - Lump sum financial proposal/offer, aggregated  including all necessary travel expenses to Istanbul, travel ticket, fee per day and any other expenses essential to undertake the task;
• Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

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. 

The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR).