Background

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.
Since 2015, UNDP, UNICEF, and UN Women have been supporting IT Girls - a joint UN initiative that aims to bridge the digital gender gap and promotes equal opportunities for women and men in education and career in the information and communication technologies (ICT). Through the promotion of gender equality and equality of opportunities, adolescent girls aged 13-18 have benefited from advanced and targeted interventions aimed at acquiring digital skills and increasing their knowledge about the importance of their greater participation in the field of ICT. Young female ICT professionals have been included as role models for younger generations, and as part of ongoing awareness raising and advocacy towards increasing opportunities for girls and women in ICT.
IT Girls aims to constantly build a wide network of girls and women who are interested in ICT and STEM and wish to learn from each other and share their experience, challenges and lessons learnt through networking and mentoring. Mentorship is one of the most widespread initiatives worldwide to support females' development throughout their life course in the digital sector. Mentoring initiatives help mitigate the effects of the women's confidence gap and their tendency to have weaker networks in the professional sphere. Mentors also often act as role models who help dispel the ambition gap and overcome barriers such as stereotypes associated with certain professions. IT Girls views mentorship as an opportunity for technical skills development, support to personal branding, and leadership skills development for young women looking to study or are already studying ICT related programs, as well as junior and senior professionals in the industry.
In 2020, IT Girls Initiative piloted the first mentorship program for women and girls in ICT. The IT Girls vision for the first mentorship program in the IT sector in BiH is for women and girls in IT in BiH to have a safe space and community for networking, support, training, knowledge sharing, skills, and ideas which they belong to throughout all the various stages of their life, education, and career. The pilot mentorship program included a total of 11 mentorship pairs, 11 mentees and 12 mentors.
In order to continue with the momentum created by the pilot program in 2020, UN Women Country Office in BiH is seeking to engage a national consultant who would lead the process of implementation of the second cycle of the IT Girls Mentorship Program in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE

The overall objectives of IT Girls mentorship program are to get more girls and young women interested in ICT entrepreneurship and business leadership, to improve visibility of female professionals in local IT companies, to further expand the companies’ female talent pools, and to get more companies interested in developing and running mentorship programs. Besides, mentoring initiatives help mitigate the effects of women's confidence gap and their tendency to have weaker networks in the professional sphere. Mentors also often act as role models who help to dispel the ambition gap and overcome barriers. The results and lessons learnt from this process will further inform strategic areas of intervention for IT Girls initiative and three implementing UN agencies (UNDP, UNICEF, and UN Women) as well as UN Women’s programming.
 

IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE

Building on the existing resources and lessons learnt, implement a second cycle of the mentorship program with all its components, including defining purpose, outcomes, open call for applications, profiles of mentors and mentees, matching methodology, working method, and impact evaluation system and accompanying tools. The program should reflect IT Girls' vision and goals when it comes to empowering girls and women in ICT.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the IT Girls Project Officer and overall supervision of the UN Women Programme Specialist, the National Consultant will be responsible for the following:

1. Set up and facilitate the mentorship program cycle with up to 15 mentor/mentee pairs

• Formulate a call for mentors and a call for mentees against previously defined profiles and criteria
• Support the team in selection and matching of mentors and mentees based on the previously designed and piloted methodology
• Facilitate and monitor the mentorship process by organizing check-in sessions with mentor and mentee to track progress and help overcome challenges
• Provide mentorship pairs with resources depending on the objectives of the mentorship process
• Capture metrics and feedback throughout the program cycle including five successful stories

2. Review and take stock of the mentorship program pilot cycle 

• Evaluate the success of the program based on the previously defined impact evaluation framework and metrics and report to UN Women

REPORTING

All deliverables should be submitted to the IT Girls Project Officer and UN Women Program Specialist. Final report on the consultancy should be delivered by 3 December 2021 in English and should not exceed 10 pages. 

• Workplan for the entire consultancy
• Call for participation designed for mentors and mentees
• Metrics and feedback including five successful stories
• Final report to UN Women and mentorship program participants with recommendations on the results of the program and next steps.

ACTIVITIES AND TIMEFRAME

The following products and deliverables are expected to be completed by the National Consultant according to an agreed schedule:

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf
Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Shares knowledge and experience
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
• Development and Operational Effectiveness
• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
• Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems
• Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource

Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
• Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
• Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• BA degree in psychology, education, management, or related fields. Master’s degree social sciences will be considered an asset.

Skills and Experience:

• At least 2 years of relevant professional experience in the field of human resources, management, education, and/or lifelong learning;
• Experience in designing and/or implementing mentorship programmes.
• Demonstrated knowledge of project management;
• Experience in gender equality or human rights is an asset;
• Experience in barriers women experience in the labour market;

Language requirements:

• Fluency in written and oral English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian are required;

Other skills:

• Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communication and command of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point), Zoom and MS Teams

EVALUATION OF OFFERS

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process that takes into account both the technical qualification of potential consultants as well as the financial proposals submitted in support of consultant applications. Candidate applications will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of applicant qualifications and financial proposal. The 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, interview and financial criteria.

Based on the desk research, only candidates receiving a minimum of 50 points at technical evaluation will be considered for a financial evaluation.

Criteria:
Technical Evaluation – documents based (70%) – 70 points

• BA degree a requirement
• At least 2 years of relevant professional experience in the field of human resources, management, education, and/or lifelong learning; (30 points)
• Experience in designing and/or implementing mentorship programmes.(10 points)
• Demonstrated knowledge of project management; (10 points)
• Experience in gender equality or human rights is an asset; (10 points)
• Experience in barriers women experience in the labour market; (10 points)
• Fluency in written and oral English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian are required;

Financial Evaluation - based on submitted offer (30%)

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 the consideration.

Qualified women and men and members of minorities are encouraged to apply. 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.

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:

1. Expression of interest
2. Detailed financial proposal inclusive of all costs (which includes consultancy fees, travel if applicable, accommodation)
3. Completed UN Women Personal History (P11) form, that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

For any additional information, please contact unwomen.bih@unwomen.org.

How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, and Expression of Interest into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement);
• Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application;'
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above);
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.