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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality are translated into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts while building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In line with the new global development framework of the Sustainable Development Goals; the United Nations Development Assistance Framework for Uganda 2016-2020, strategic intent 3 to achieve a sustainable and inclusive Economic Development for Uganda and in line with its strategic result area on Governance and National planning, UN Women in partnership with the Government of Uganda and development partners  seeks to address challenges to financing and accountability for implementation  of gender equality commitments in the Food Security  and Agricultural sectors.

Vision 2040 envisages a transformed Ugandan society from a predominantly peasant and low income country to a middle income country and to subsequently transition into an upper middle-income country to within 30 years. In this regard agricultural development occupies a central position in the Governments’ vision geared towards the envisaged economic and social transformation. Specifically the strategic objective (2) of the second National Development plan  is to increase sustainable production, productivity and value addition in key growth opportunities in the five year period. Notably the plan identifies Agriculture as a key growth opportunity and prioritizes investment including through increasing production and productivity and add value along the agricultural development value chain of ten selected  strategic agricultural commodities (coffee, tea, maize, fish, beans, cassava, dairy cattle, beef, cattle, poultry, bananas);  agricultural input market and the multiplication and certification of high quality seeds; migration from sector based to value chain based planning and budgeting for agriculture. In addition the Government also plans to make strategic investments for modernization of this sector to transform it into a springboard for socioeconomic transformation.

Whilst Agriculture has been and remains central to Uganda’s economic growth and poverty reduction, agriculture’s contribution to GDP has been declining from about 70 percent in 1980 to 29 percent in 2000 and 23 percent in 2011, about one-fourth of the total GDP. Despite decline in growth and performance of in the country’s agricultural sector, the number of people employed in the sector remains substantial accounting for 70 percent of national employment. The sector employs and provides livelihoods to 72 percent of the total labor force more than two thirds of the population, 77 percent of which are women. This contribution alone suggests that increasing agricultural production can bring significant benefits both for the agricultural sector and other sectors of the economy. However, according to the World Bank (2015), there is a gender agricultural productivity gap costing Uganda up to USD 65 million. This is a major concern given that women form a large proportion of agricultural labor force in Uganda forming 80 percent  of agricultural labor (IFAD) and in the Sub-Saharan Africa, ranging anywhere from 30 to 80 percent (FAO, 2011). Women farmers typically achieve yields 20–30 per cent lowers than men. However, the vast majority of studies suggest that women are just as efficient as men and would achieve the same yields if they had equal access to productive resources and services. Bridging this gender yield gap would boost food and nutrition security globally (FAO). This can potentially undermine efforts of achieving the NDP II strategic objective of increasing sustainable production, productivity and value addition by 2020 and the vision 2040.

Within this context UN Women is contracting an international consultant with technical expertise and experience to support strengthening capacity and integration of gender in the strategy, budget and performance monitoring for the Food security and Agricultural sector.  The immediate objective of this activity is to increase the volume of financing and effectiveness of gender equality and women’s empowerment in the agriculture and food security sector in Uganda by ensuring that the agriculture and food security strategy, budget and monitoring frameworks are informed by an evidenced-based analysis of the gender gaps and cost in the sector as well as evidence based strategies for addressing the gaps. The overall objective is to reduce poverty, increase profitable and sustainable agriculture, expand economic diversification, enhance food and income security as well as promote resilience and nutrition in Uganda.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The overall objective of the consultancy :

To integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment considerations in the Agriculture and Food Security sector in Uganda.

Key responsibilities:

The international consultant will work closely with a national consultant, and under the technical leadership of the international consultant the team will:

• Conduct a comprehensive gender analysis of the food security and agriculture sectors in Uganda;
• Develop/adapt analytical tools for mainstreaming gender in the food security and agriculture sectors in Uganda, with a focus on profitable and sustainable agricultural productivity, economic diversification and food and income security;
• Provide technical support to the relevant Government Ministries, Agencies and Departments as well as development partners in the design of a gender responsive M&E framework for the agriculture and food security sector (indicators, targets, results, and monitoring frameworks);
• Provide technical assistance to identification missions, seminars and meetings when needed to propose a clear set of gender equality and women’s empowerment related interventions.

Deliverables:

• Gender analytical tools and guidelines  for the food security and agriculture sector developed and adopted;
• Integrate GEWE in key strategy, budget and performance monitoring documents of the Food security and agricultural sector;
•  Gender responsive M&E framework designed for the Agriculture and food security sectors.

Competencias

Core Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards, commitment to UN WOMEN’s mission, vision, Core Values and strategic goals;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Ability to establish and maintain strategic partnerships with government institutions, donors, civil society partners and other UN agencies;
• Excellent interpersonal and professional communication and presentation skills and abilities;
• Has the ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and work independently within the area of responsibility and achieve planned results;
• Strong teamwork spirit and interpersonal skills demonstrated by the ability to gain the assistance and cooperation of others in a team endeavor;
• Ability to work in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity;
• Sound judgment and decision-making skills, with the ability to make effective timely decisions;
• Fostering Innovation and Empowerment/Performance Management;
• Team Work/Communications/Self-Management;
• Strategic Thinking/Results Orientation and Commitment to Excellence;
• Knowledge Sharing/Continuous Learning.

Technical Competencies:

• Excellent writing skills with demonstrable ability for preparing UN and donor reports;
• Strong gender analytical skills and strong understanding of the application of BPFA, CEDAW and other human rights instruments in programming;
• Strong analytical skills and research background on result-based program management and familiarity with donor reporting requirements;
• Excellent analytical and communication skills;
• A high level of professionalism and integrity to be demonstrated at all times;
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills;
• Must be able to work with minimum supervision.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• An advanced degree in Economics or other development fields such as Gender, Agriculture, Public policy, international development.

Experience:

• A minimum of ten (10) year experience in the field of agricultural economics and gender;
• Excellent facilitation skills;
• Good knowledge of the Ugandan economic and development framework;
• Experience in integrating gender in development frameworks;
• Experience in providing gender technical advice to government sectors and development partners;
• Experience designingof training program and development of training materials;
• Knowledge of Gender and Economic Policy in sub-Saharan Africa;
• Demonstrated work analyzing gender and economics dimensions.

Language:

• Knowledge of English is a must;
• Fluency in local language, an asset.

Evaluation:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

 Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Criteria – Maximum 70 points:

• Criteria A:  Relevance of Education – 15 points;
• Criteria B: Special skill (excellent communications, professionalism) Language, etc. - 5 Points;
• Criteria C: Relevance of experience in conducting similar assignment – 20 points;
• Criteria D: Description of Approach/ Methodology to complete the assignment– 30 points.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and availability using the template provided by UN Women (Annex II); http://www.ug.undp.org/content/uganda/en/home/operations/procurement.html
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and, telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.

Technical proposal:

• Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
• A methodology and work plan on how they will approach and complete the assignment, as well as comments on the ToRs. 

Financial Proposal:
indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per the deliverables expected to meet the objectives of the assignment. The link to template is; http://www.ug.undp.org/content/uganda/en/home/operations/procurement.html