Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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 centre of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of National priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with government, civil society and other relevant actors.

In Nepal, UN Women is currently implementing its 2014-17 Strategic Note and Annual Workplan (country programme) which incorporates several thematic areas, including economic empowerment, governance and leadership, ending violence against women and girls, and peace and security. Across all of its work, UN Women applies its normative and coordination mandates, and works through strategic partnerships and on generating knowledge and evidence. UN Women is also engaged in the humanitarian response following the tragic earthquakes of 2015.

The Governance and Leadership (G&L) Unit of UN Women is responsible for providing technical support to government, development partners and civil society organizations in the areas of governance, women’s leadership and participation, and gender responsive planning, budgeting and monitoring, women’s access to justice, Convention of the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) implementation and monitoring, Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and Beijing + 20 follow up in line with the Nepal Country Office Strategic Note and Annual Work Plan (AWP) 2014-17.

In this regard, UN Women Nepal Country Office is looking to engage a qualified individual to provide support to LDTA for the effective implementation of the UN Women and UNDP Joint-Project entitled “Localizing Women Peace and Security Agenda in Central Terai districts of Nepal” financed under Peacebuilding Funds Immediate Response facility (IRF) in the framework of second Gender Promotion Initiative (GPI II).  The focus of the intervention is to strengthen the collective capability of officials of Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD) and DDC in, Parsa and Bara to introduce and institutionalize a GRB system in order to contribute to localizing and harmonizing the National Action Plan (NAP) on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 into district level plans and programmes.  She/he works in close collaboration with the programme and operations team of UN Women Nepal, MoFALD/LDTA officials and civil society organization.

Duties and Responsibilities

In consultation with UN Women, the consultant will provide technical support to LDTA to implement project entitled “Localize Women Peace and Security Agenda in Central Terai districts (Bara and Parsa) of Nepal through the application of GRB principles”.

Key functions/responsibility

The consultant will perform the following tasks:

Ensure effective implementation of programme strategies and management of programme:

  • Analysis and systhesis of proposals in the areas of governance, gender responsive planning and budgeting and implementation of normative frameworks on gender equality;
  • Support in the development of the programme portfolio on Governance;
  • Support to prepare detailed annual and quarterly work-plans and ensure timely implementation of the programme activities in accordance with the work plan;
  • Support the effective implementation of the UN Women and UNDP Joint-Project entitled “Localizing Women Peace and Security Agenda in Central Terai districts of Nepal” which focuses on enhancing gender responsive planning and budgeting principles and processess at the local level for better implementation and monitoring of the NAP on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820;
  •  Support to develop research, monitoring and evaluation (MER) plans and facilitate LDTA in effective application of RBM tools, and regular monitoring and tracking of programme results;
  • Assist the supervisor in identifing programme risks and update the status of these risks. Develop contingency plans as necessary;
  • Provide technical support to LDTA in implementing and reporting project activities in the field as well as at central level by following RBM approach;
  • Organise joint monitoring field visits of Implementing Partner and Goverment Official and ensure that the recommendations received from the field visits are incorporated by other agencies in their activities;
  • Support in timely preparation of progress reports and submission to the donor and government as per their requirements;
  • Facilitates collaborative relationships with other UN agencies, experts, government counterparts ensuring timely and efficient delivery of inputs related to assigned portfolio.

Quality assurance of programme and financial management in accordance with UN Women’s Programme and Operation Manual:

  • Support effective, timely and qualitative implementation of all programme activities aligning to the GoN programme;
  • Support to carry out coordination, management and monitoring of financial, administrative, human resources, procurement and logistical matters according to UN Women’s standard criteria;
  • Financial and substantive monitoring and evaluation of the projects, identification of operational and financial problems, development of solutions; participation in audit;
  • Support LDTA in designing and implementing result tracking system covering the entire project indicators.

Strategic partnerships with the government and civil society organizations in the area of governance, and leadership:

  • Contribute to the development of appropriate working relations with key stakeholders on relevant aspects of the programme;
  • Coordinate with the respective partners and other relevant government agencies for programme linkages, leverage and synergy;
  • Ensure effective information flow, communication and coordination with and between UN Women office, partner UN agencies, and implementing partners.

Technical advisory services to UN Women and facilitation of knowledge building and management:

  • Identify sources of information related to policy-driven issues, and systhesize best practices and lessons learnt directly linked to programme policy goals to guide programme improvements and future strategic development planning;
  • Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice; stocktaking and mapping of UN Women’s programme experience and lessons learnt relating to gender responsive peace building and budgeting;
  • Support partners and stakeholders in capacity development activities to enhance knolwdge and skills in results based management, results based reporting and budgeting, and systematic quality assurance.

Deliverables

The consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables:

  • Two quarterly progress reports of LDTA including the project activities, the results, challenges and way forward by following the prescribed reporting template of UN Women;
  • Quarterly Work plans (2 in 6 months);
  • In-house meeting minutes and minutes of bi-monthly meetings of Gender Responsive Budget Committees (GRBC) of districts, District Coordination Committees (DCC) and with women groups;
  • One comprehensive training/workshop package;
  • Soft and hard copies of the training materials;
  • Event-wise reports of the workshop/training/consultation/interaction with the pre and post training assessments;
  • Report of the joint-monitoring visit of Ministry level staffs to project districts;
  • Quarterly and final progress report (narrative and financial reports, and final audit report);
  • Four Gender Audit reports;
  • Two District monitoring reports on the implementation of NAP on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820;
  • Two GRBCs functional in the DDCs of Bara and Parsa, and Two GRBCs established in municipalities Birgunj and Kalaiya;
  •  Budget Software updated in line with GRB principles in 2 DDCs and developed in 2 Municipalities;
  • At least one shared agenda per district of gender responsive local  planning and budgeting related shared agendas developed by women network/mechanisms;
  • Gender Responsive Budgeting Software is in place in Bara and Parsa DDC and Birgunj and Kalaiya Muncipalilty;
  • Result tracking system/framework of LDTA covering the entire project indicators and  update the result tracking system/framework on quarterly basis;
  • Work in coordination with Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development (MoFALD), Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW) to ensure the project activities are properly aligned with the Nepalese governance system.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

  • Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: 

  • Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

  • Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents.

Organizational Awareness:

  • Building support and political acumen;
  • Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring: Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation.

Working in Teams:

  • Building and promoting effective teams.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

  • Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

  • Creating an emotionally intelligent organization.
  • Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements.

Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

  • Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

 Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Advanced university degree (Master’s) in social sciences, political or international affairs (i.e. international development studies, gender/women's studies, and human rights).

Experiences:

  • At least 3 years working experience in the field of governance;
  • Expertise and experience in gender responsive planning and budgeting principles and processess at the national and local level in the post conflict peace building setting;
  • Sound knowledge of international standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment and related instruments;
  • A proven ability to liaise with a myriad of stakeholders and partners, including government, civil society, international organizations and grassroots organizations;
  • Prior experience of working with UN agencies will be an asset;
  • Good knowledge of rights-based approach and result-based management.

Language:

  • Fluent in English.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:

Please scan all above mentioned documents and upload as one attachment only online through this website.

Evaluation Process:

The candidates will be evaluated in two stages: according to technical evaluation and written test/interview.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

  • Criteria A: Qualification (10%);
  • Criteria B: Working experiences in the field of governance (30%);
  • Criteria C: Expertise and experience in gender responsive planning and budgeting principles and processess at the national and local level in the post conflict peace building setting (20%);
  • Criteria D: Sound knowledge of international standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment and related instruments (10%);
  • Criteria E: A proven ability to liaise with a myriad of stakeholders and partners, including government, civil society, international organizations and grassroots organizations (10%);
  • Criteria F: Prior experience of working with UN agencies (10%);
  • Criteria G: Knowledge of rights-based approach and result-based management (10%).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 100 points. Only candidates who have passed over the mandatory criteria and have accumulated at least 70 points under the technical evaluation will be considered for a written test/interview. Top 3 candidates (with highest number of points in the technical evaluation) will be interviewed.

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest price proposal among those candidates who have reached at least 5 points in the interview.

Criteria:

  • Technical Evaluation – documents based (30%);
  • Technical evaluation – written test/interview based (70%).

Contract Supervision

Programme Specialist for Governance and Leadership Unit, UN Women Nepal.

The main duty station of this position for the assignment is LDTA, Jawalakhel, Lalitpur, Nepal. The consultant needs to travel the project district as and when required. 

Payment will be made on monthly basis upon satisfactory performance of the consultant. The monthly payment will be based on UN National Consultant Fee structure.