Based on a long-standing partnership and UNDP previous experience in implementing large and medium-size EU funded urban upgrading and infrastructure projects in the Turkish Cypriot community, the European Commission requested UNDP to continue supporting this type of infrastructure projects with the establishment of an instrument called “Local Infrastructure Facility (LIF)”.

Taking into consideration the socio-economic status of the women within the northern part of Cyprus, the level of women’s  participation and leadership in decision-making processes within the local communities is quite low.  All the 28 ‘mayors’ in the northern part of Cyprus are men. All in all, women are under-represented in the local administration.

There is no general policy towards gender mainstreaming and provision of equal opportunities for women in the ‘law’ on local community personnel; ref: LIF Capactiy Building Assessment report. Very few local communities attribute importance to employment of women and their promotion to managerial positions. As a result, this situation causes less participation and reduction in the power of women's role who participates to the several stages of the LIF projects from the local communities.

Nevertheless, within the framework of the LIF programme, gender aspect was practically prioritized with a tailor-made approach, by motivating women’s participation during the project maturation and implementation processes, as well as during the capacity building activites held under the LIF call for proposals. However this one-legged attempt is not sufficient and is not a long term approach to make an analysis on gender aspect and improve the women’s participation. Furthermore, the capacity building activities should not only focus on the development of the project proposals but also focus on gender mainstreaming issues and equal opportunities.

 Within that context, a gender action plan under LIF needs to be developed providing some activities, performance targets and indicators aiming to address the specific roles and needs of women in local infrastructure by:

• Ensuring gender balanced stakeholder and community participation;
• Facilitating the active and equal participation of men and women in the target population in implementation of the project;
• Developing gender-responsive indicators to assess if the project generates the intended benefits for men and women;
• Assessing the capacities of government authorities to implement the recommendations from the gender analysis and provide support as required to ensure leadership.

To enable the development of the LIF gender action plan, a gender analysis will conducted. In general a gender analysis is a tool that brings to the surface gender disparities of a core problem. It reveals the connections between gender relations and the development challenge to be solved, it indicates exactly what that impact is likely to be, and promotes alternative courses of action. Gender analysis is a systematic analytical process based on sex-disaggregated and gender information. This process is used to identify, understand, and describe gender differences and the relevance of gender roles and power dynamics in a particular context. A gender analysis helps ensure equitable participation of women and men in development processes and projects. It should show the linkages between inequalities at different societal levels

The overall objective of this assignment is to support the Local Infrastructure Facility in improving the role of women in the implementation of infrastructure projects in the northern part of Cyprus and as such to contribute to reducing gender inequalities.

To achieve this overall objective, the expert will need to address the following specific objectives:

• to conduct a gender analysis by identifying, understanding, and describing the relevance of gender roles and power dynamics within the local communities located in the northern part of Cyprus;
• to develop a comprehensive gender action plan including the development of a training programme;
• to implement a capacity building development training programme.

The specific objective will be attained through the achievement of  assignment deliverables as specified below.

The expert will be expected to perform the following tasks;

1. Preparation of a detailed methodology for the whole assignment in order to draft a gender assessment report, a gender action plan, development of a training programme and the implementation of a training programme, as detailed below:

2. Preparation of a gender assessment report regarding the capacities of local authorities, based on the following elements:

• Identification of the capacities of local communities by constituting recommendations with the aim of providing support as required to ensure equality between men and women.  
• The assessment to be conducted on the basis of one-to-one interviews with the local community representatives by using open-ended questions prepared by the gender-expert and pre-assessed by UNDP-LIF Project Manager, as well as focus groups that will include also representatives from local NGOs and higher level institutions representatives.

Under the analysis the aim is to understand:

• Levels of participation and involvement of women and men in the local communities;

• Barriers and constraints to full participation of women; i.e. in decision-making ;
• Cultural and social patterns of behavior that appear to be direct opposition to the interests, e.g. motherhood and housekeeping responsibilities expected from women.

The assessment will be conducted in line with the methodology that will be approved by UNDP before the start of the assessment. Commonly used tools are questionnaires and surveys, individual tests, focus groups, and interviews, out of which some of them are expected to be conducted by the expert during the preparation of the assessment report.

At the end of this assignment, the gender expert is expected to provide answers to the following questions within the     framework of the assessment report:                   

         Did you analyze if the identified problems have the same impact on women and men?

         Did you include disaggregated information in the analysis of the problem? 

         Did you identify gender gaps?

         Did you analyze the underlying causes of the gender gap?

 The expert will be expected to provide a draft report after within 2 months starting from the contract signature.

3. A gender action plan and the development of a training programme to be prepared based on the assessment report and to determine what kind of activities, performance targets and indicators are aimed by addressing the specific roles and needs of women in local infrastructure.

Ensuring gender balanced stakeholder and community participation;

Facilitating the active and equal participation of men and women in the target population in implementation of the project;

Developing gender-responsive indicators to assess if the project generates the intended benefits for men and women;

Assessing the capacities of government authorities to implement the recommendations from the gender analysis and provide support as required to ensure leadership.

The objective of the action plan will be ensuring that women are consulted during project selection and design; increasing women’s participation and leadership in decision-making processes by upgrading their representation in local level organizations; ensuring that choices of infrastructure take into account gendered use and women’s needs – i.e., attention to social care service centres, community resources centres for families, good roads and high quality lighting in side walks and for public safety, etc.

The action plan will facilitate to:

• Engage gender balanced stakeholder and community participation to create a two-way flow of information and facilitate development of community skills to analyze situations and identify solutions.
• Facilitate the active and equal participation of men and women in the target population in implementation of the project.

 The expert will be expected to provide a draft report after within 3 months starting from the contract signature.

 In addition, the expert should provide a detailed structure for the training programmes that will be implemented:   

• Maintaining the target group,  
• Preparation of a training content based on the needs of the target group,
• Determining the training method,
• and other relevant elements to be provided.  

4.Implementation of a capacity building programme for local communities including the target audience determined in the action plan and the training programme. At the conclusion of the training programme the expert will prepare a report of the training programme, providing clear indication of success. It is strongly suggested that the expert will conduct a test before the training and at the end of the training programme to measure the knowledge gained through the training programme.

Following the completion of the capacity building activities, the expert is expected to provide an outcome report based on the capacity building programme carried out

The expert will be expected to provide a draft report after within 7 months starting from the contract signature.

The work of the Gender Analysis Expert will be directly supervised by the UNDP LIF Project Manager/Project Assistant. She/He will submit reports and seek approval of changes to the plans from the UNDP LIF Project Manager

DELIVERABLES/OUTPUTS:

The Gender Analysis Expert shall submit the following deliverables/outputs:

• Detailed methodology  – 2 weeks after contract signature
• Gender assessment report on the capacities of local authorities – 2 months (at least 60% in country)
• Preparation of a gender action plan and training programme – 1 month (home based with field visits if needed)
• Implementation of a capacity building programme for local communities – 3 months (at least 35% in country)

      In the long term the the outputs will help to:

• Facilitate to the active and equal participation of men and women in the target population in implementation of the project;
• Develop gender-responsive indicators to assess if the project generates the intended benefits for men and women;
• LIF team will review how the risk indicators/critical assumptions about gender interact with the project’s inputs in support of project progress and determine the prospects of sustaining the benefits derived from the project for men and women.
• Develop gender-responsive indicators to assess if the project generates the intended benefits for men and women, how the outcomes compare to the targets and what factors account for variation in outcomes

Deliverables shall be submitted in digital version.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic all field trips and contacts with the public should be made in accordance with the guidelines issued by the health body and if needed personal protection and social distancing must be implemented. The meetings or contacts should take place where feasible through remote tools (MS Teams, Zoom, Skype etc.). The service provider is also responsible for the protection of their staff’s health, safety and social rights while providing the required services and shall ensure that possible measures have been taken into consideration against possible risks of COVID-19 e.g. by using PPEs equipment etc.

Individual Consultants are responsible for ensuring they have vaccinations/inoculations when travelling to certain countries, as designated by the UN Medical Director. When attending the office, Individual Consultants are responsible to follow the Covid-19 directives of the UNDP Cyprus PMO. Consultants are also required to comply with the UN security directives set forth under dss.un.org.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing

• Researches best practices and poses new, more effective ways of doing things.

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

• Understands the main processes and methods of work regarding to the position;Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines.
• Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships within the work unit and with internal and external clients.

Promoting Accountability

• Prepares timely inputs to reports.

Core Competencies:

• Have good management skills.
• Good communication (written and spoken) and interpersonal skills.
• Ability to work well under pressure.
• Good understanding of the work of LIF.
• Acting as a team player and facilitating team work.
• Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.
• Respond positively to critical feedback.

Promoting Organizational Development

• Demonstrates ability to identify problems and proposes solutions.

Client Orientation

• Reports to internal and external clients in a timely and appropriate fashion

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, political sciences, bussines, and economics or any other related field
• Any certification in gender equality is an asset.

Experience:

• Minimum of two (2) years of professional level experience in gender mainstreaming, analysis, research, designing gender policies, strategies, guidelines, and training manuals.
• Experience and substantial knowledge of the social, cultural and gender issues.
• Practical work exposure to municipalities and understanding of environmental, social and economic dynamics of gender is an asset.
• Extensive practical experience in leading gender mainstreaming and implementation of gender-sensitive projects and programmes is an asset.
• Practical expertise in designing and conducting training activities appropriate for community and government representatives is an asset.
• Experience of the Cyprus context is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Excellent English skills (both written and verbal).
• Knowledge of Turkish Language is an asset.

Others

• Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments.

Application:  Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Motivation/Cover letter: explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position and a brief methodology on how you will approach and conduct the work.
• Personal History Form (P11) including past experience in similar projects. P11 template can be downloaded from the link below. Please upload the P11 instead of your CV: http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/library/corporate/Careers/P11_Personal_history_form.doc
• Reference; Contact details of 3 references
• Financial Proposal:  Applicants are requested to submit an output based financial proposal in Euro for each deliverable.

Please note that due to Covid travel restriction this assignment may have to be completed remotely. In case the consultant will be required to travel to Cyprus as per the ToR, UNDP Cyprus office will provide DSA, terminal expenses and the air-ticket for international travel.

Output based financial proposal shall cover all expenditures including fees, health insurance, vaccination, international (all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel) or local travel (place of residence to office and office to place of residence), cost of living and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services/delivery of outputs. Leave benefits (annual, sick, paternity, maternity) are not applicable to Individual Contractor. UNDP will provide DSA, terminal expenses and the air-ticket for international travel.

Pricing shall be given as follows: