Antecedentes

Gender inequalities are prominent in Albania and impact on all aspects of social, political and economic life, on access to productive resources, entitlements, services, and interpersonal relationships. Despite positive developments, such as the endorsement of a series of international commitments on gender equality and women’s rights, and the adoption of national gender legislation and gender policy, key policy debates and discourses do not yet sufficiently integrate gender equality issues. Statistical data as well as Albania’s reporting in the framework of the UN CEDAW Committee, Universal Periodic Review, Beijing, and EU Progress Reports have evidenced marked gender inequalities in development outcomes. Gender mainstreaming still needs to be coherently pursued in policy development, programming, planning, budgeting, implementation, and monitoring.The Government of Albania has identified gender equality as a cross-cutting strategic priority in the realization of democratic governance and sustainable development, and the eradication of gender-based violence and domestic violence is among the national priorities for the advancement of gender equality.

Over the past years, UN Women has been providing support to national and local governments in strengthening democratic governance and advancing women’s rights through initiatives aimed at mainstreaming gender equality goals into policy, national planning, and budgeting. In the framework of the Programme of Cooperation 2012-2016 between the Government of Albania (GoA) and UN in Albania, UN Women has focused on supporting government efforts in integrating gender equality goals into the Government’s priorities and national strategies. In the area of Public Finance Management, UN Women facilitated the official adoption of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) and has been providing sustained support in GRB application at central and municipal level.

In 2014, the European Council granted candidate status to Albania. Albania’s accession process is guided by the Enlargement Package of the European Commission, IPA II (2014-2020): following the EU Sector Wide Approach, priority areas include Employment, Social Policy, Economic governance, Public finance administration, and Public administration reform.

Economic governance has become one of the fundamental pillars in the enlargement process over the past years, and support to Economic Reform is among the priority areas of the European Commission’s Enlargement Package for Albania. The Commission provides targeted policy guidance for each candidate country on the reforms needed to foster macroeconomic stability, ensure fiscal sustainability and support long-term growth and competitiveness. Since October 2014, all enlargement countries are to enhance economic policy and its governance through the preparation of annual Economic Reform Programmes (ERPs). These programmes contain on the one hand a medium-term macro-economic and fiscal policy framework including supporting fiscal measures (sections 2 and 3) and on the other hand a comprehensive structural reform agenda outlining public policies concerning infrastructure, sector reforms, private sector development and business environment, technology and innovation, trade integration, labour market and poverty alleviation policies.

In coherence with the approach of the National Reform Programmes of the EU Member States, employment and social policies are a core factor in the coordination of fiscal, macroeconomic and structural policies. In the ERP, countries should identify the key employment and social challenges and present planned policy reforms for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth with regard to labour market and employment, human capital and skills and social inclusion and protection.

The ERP exercise as such aims to help candidate countries and potential candidates to develop their institutional and analytical capacities and to prepare them for participation in the EU’s multilateral surveillance and economic policy coordination procedures upon accession.

In 2015, the Commission published the results of reviewing and assessing the initial ERPs of a number of Western Balkan countries. In addition to an analysis, the Commission’s Overview also includes country-specific policy guidance related to both Part I and Part II of the ERP at the end of each country assessment chapter. The 2015 Commission’s overview contains a single reference to gender inequalities. It is made in the Albania Country Analysis in the context of the large gender differences in national labour force participation. Overall, the direct linkage between economic governance and its impact on gender inequalities still needs to be established.

Equality - in particular equality between women and men - and accountability to female and male citizens are guiding principles within the EU, specifically reflected in the EU Gender Equality acquis. In October 2015, the Commission adopted the EU Gender Action Plan II 2016-2020, covering the Commission’s services and the European External Action Service’s activities in partner countries. For the first time, explicit reference is made to the plan’s relevance in Enlargement countries. Objective 4 foresees robust gender evidence to be used to inform all EU external spending, programming and policy making. Objective 13 (education including VET), 14 (work), and 15 (access to productive resources) specifically address equality concerns significantly impacted by economic governance.

Through the recently established Gender Equality Facility in Albania Phase I (GEF), UN Women extends its support for gender mainstreaming to reform processes in EU IPA II structural and sector governance reform. This resounds in GEF Objective 1 “In line with EU Directives, sector strategies, and sector programmes including respective action plans are designed with Gender Sensitivity consistently”. In this context, UN Women/GEF has been invited by the Government of Albania and the EU Delegation in Tirana to provide technical expertise to ensure that gender sensitivity is established as a clear and explicit quality marker of Albania’s Economic Reform Programme.

To this end, UN Women will seek the services of an International Gender & Economic Reform/Policy Consultant to review and integrate priority gender equality elements into Albania’s draft “Economic Reform Programme” for 2016.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Under the overall supervision of the Team Leader of the UN Women Gender Equality Facility in Albania, the international gender & economic reform/policy consultant will engage in the gender-sensitive revision of (one or more) draft versions of Albania’s Economic Reform Programme, ensuring alignment with international and EU standards and best practice. This will entail:

• Scrutinizing one or more draft versions of Albania’s “Economic Reform Programme” and make relevant comments/suggestions and interventions wherever considered relevant in this document, in order to ensure that essential and major gender equality concerns, as well as indicators, are integrated and reflected, in line with international best practice and the EU’s and Albania’s legal and policy framework on gender equality;[1]
• Summarising and highlighting the key gender equality issues to be considered in Albania’s current and future economic governance reform process, and therefore to be reflected by respective reference and measures in the “Economic Reform Programme” document as such, as well as in related documents and measures
• Provide hands-on guidance on mainstreaming gender equality into the draft NERP directly to the Working Group in charge of drafting the NERP (during the possible field mission to Tirana - to be decided and confirmed).

Expected Outputs and Deliverables:

• Commented draft “Economic Reform Programme” (using the track changes function);
• Separate Technical Note summarizing key recommendations and proposed measures that need to be considered in Albania’s current and future economic governance reform process, including reference to the relevant international documents, and legal and policy framework in support of recommendations and measures proposed (short Technical Note, maximum 2 pages, bullet points encouraged);
• Hands-on guidance sessions on gender mainstreaming for a group of government officials in charge of drafting the NERP (in the case of mission to Tirana - to be decided at the time of signing the contract);
• Mission report (in case of mission to Tirana - to be decided at the time of signing the contract).

Institutional Arrangement:

The international consultant will work under direct supervision of the Team Leader of the UN Women Gender Equality Facility, who will also be responsible for communication of the travel dates, approval/acceptance of outputs, and performance evaluation. Ultimate oversight rests with the UN Women National Programme Officer.

The contractor is required to submit Deliverables in a highly responsive manner and as agreed with the Team Leader of the UN Women Gender Equality Facility.

Duration of the Work:

The international consultant will be contracted for a maximum of 13 (thirteen) days, composed of up to 8 (eight) days home-based and up to 5 (five) days in Albania) to perform specified tasks from December 7th, 2015 until January 31st, 2016.

Duty Station:

The successful contractor will perform tasks from home (desk-based), with a possible mission to Tirana within the duration of the assignment which will confirmed at the time of signing the contract.

[1] Essential documents such as the Commission’s “Guidance for the Economic Programmes” (September 2015); the “Commission’s overview and country assessments” of ERPs in 2015” (http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/occasional_paper/2015/pdf/ocp229_en.pdf); the EU Gender Action Plan 2016-2020 (http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/fac/2015/10/st13201-en15_pdf/); the latest EU Progress Report Albania (to be released); sector policies such as the “National Strategy for Employment & Skills 2014-2020” (http://www.seecel.hr/UserDocsImages/Documents/EMP-SKILLS-STRATEGY_Albania.pdf); and similar are to be used as guidance/reference.

Competencias

Core Values:

• 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:

• The expert should be willing and capable to effectively engage in distance work;
• Strong inter-personal and communications (oral and written) skills;
• 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.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education/Academic Qualification:

• Advanced academic degree (minimum Master’s or equivalent) in Economic Studies, with specialization in Gender & Macro-economics, or Development/Policy disciplines.

Work Experience:

• At least 10 years of relevant professional experience in international gender mainstreaming practice/consultancy in the fields of economic policy, economic reform processes, and gender & macro-economics;
• Experience with similar/related assignments (economic governance reform, ERPs) in other countries, in particular in applying EU gender policy and legislation in economic governance reform processes in the EU accession/enlargement process; previous experience in South-Eastern Europe and/or Turkey is an asset;

Language requirement:

• Proficiency in written and spoken English, including gender and economic policy terminology; and excellent policy drafting skills.

Evaluation of applicants:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Applications will be assessed according to the following technical criteria:

• Advanced academic degree (minimum Master’s or equivalent) in Economic Studies, with specialization in Gender & Macro-economics or Development/Policy disciplines (weight 20, max. points 20);
• At least 10 years of relevant professional engagement in gender mainstreaming in the fields of national economic policy development, economic reform processes, and macro-economics (weight 20, max. points 20);
• At least 8 years of relevant professional experience in international gender mainstreaming consultancy in the economic sector (weight 10, max. points 10);
• Proven experience with similar/related assignments (economic governance reform, ERPs) in applying EU gender policy and legislation in the EU accession/enlargement process, including in South-East Europe and/or Turkey (weight 20, max. points 20);

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation. For more detailed information on the technical criteria please refer to the link ref. 1496  http://www.undp.org.rs/jobs_new.html.

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. The calculation formula applied is as follows:

p = 30 (µ/z); where: p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated; µ = price of the lowest priced proposal; z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

Application Procedure:

Qualified and interested candidates are asked to submit their application no later than 29th November 2015. Applications should include:

• Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability;
• Brief description explaining why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
• P11 including past experience in similar assignments. P-11 (Personal History) form to be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment;
• Financial Proposal Specifying a total lump sum amount in US dollar for the tasks specified in this announcement. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of the lump sum amount into the number of anticipated working days.

Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period. The financial proposal will indicate (i) a breakdown of fees, as well as (ii) a separate breakdown of travel and accommodation costs and other costs as applicable. (Mission to Tirana to be decided at the time of signing of the contract).

Payment will be made as per the payment schedule in the contract upon (i) provision of satisfactory delivery services as specified in the ToR and certified by the Team Leader of the UN Women Gender Equality Facility; (ii) submission of mission report (to be decided at the time of signing the contract); and (iii) submission of the respective timesheet and invoice