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 and other diverse gender as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

All human development and human rights issues involve gender dimensions. UN Women globally focuses on key priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. UN Women’s priority areas include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, engaging in all aspects of women peace and security processes, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting through Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

The Department of Planning and Development, Government of Tamil Nadu and UN Women have collaborated to work collectively on the shared mandate of enhancing gender equality and women empowerment in the State. Under this collaboration, UN Women provides technical assistance to the government on achieving Sustainable Development Goals from a gendered perspective, strengthening gender responsive governance including planning and budgeting across sectors, ending violence against women and girls and enhancing women’s access to economic opportunities.

Under the collaboration, joint initiatives have been designed to ensure state planning, budgeting and auditing fully reflect accountability for gender equality commitments and priorities through sustained evidence generation, knowledge and capacity building. This includes, but is not limited to, the following key strategic areas-

  • Institutionalizing holistic gender responsive budgeting underpinning sustainable and equitable socio- economic development in accordance with the differential needs and priorities of women.
  • Strengthening gender analysis, assessment of gender needs and institutional mechanisms for gender responsive planning and budgeting including gender budget cells, gender budget statement, inter departmental monitoring committee, assessment and evaluation among others.
  • Capacity Building of departments, nodal officials, administrative training institutes on mainstreaming gender in planning and budgeting
  • Enhancing availability of quality gender statistics and gender disaggregated data by departments to inform policies and programmes

UN Women is currently implementing a programme focused on the reduction of the disproportionate gender-based risks and negative impact of COVID-19 on women, including those who are the most marginalized in three States, including Tamil Nadu. The programme is looking at strengthening One Stop Centers to ensure the accessibility and availability of essential gender-based violence services. Also, strengthening mechanisms through which women have increased access to and benefit from economic and livelihood opportunities to enhance COVID-19 recovery.

Within this context, UN Women seeks the services of a State Technical Coordinator-Gender to be placed in the state of Tamil Nadu. Under the guidance and supervision of Additional Chief Secretary, Department of Planning & Development, and the UN Women India country office, (Project Coordinator and Team Leader (Gender Responsive Governance)/ Program Specialist- EVAW), the State Technical Coordinator-Gender will undertake key tasks and other responsibilities as may be assigned.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance and direct supervision of Project Coordinator and Team Lead/ Program Specialist- EVAW, UN Women, the State Technical Coordinator – Gender will have the following tasks:

Technical advisory to Government of Tamil Nadu on integrating gender in planning, budgeting and auditing:  

  • Establish effective coordination within the Departments of Planning & Development, Finance and Social Welfare & Women Empowerment Department for promotion and institutionalisation of gender responsive budgeting (GRB).
  • Undertake a mapping exercise of the state-level planning, budgeting and auditing processes and support in development of a State Action Plan on GRB at the State level.
  • Support implementation of activities in the state action plans and develop a mechanism to monitor implementation of planned activities and budgets.
  • Undertake rigorous efforts towards institutionalising of GRB at the State level - advocating for the adoption of processes and tools for GRB and providing support for strengthening the institutional mechanisms.
  • Identify opportunities for collaboration, and joint action with State Line Departments to identify the scope for applying GRB across sectors. Undertake sectoral GRB analysis for the line departments.
  • Provide coordination and support (IEC/advocacy) on GRB trainings with select State Departments.
  • Collate existing training resources on GRB at the state level and work with UN Women team, GRB nodal department and state nodal training institutes to develop a GRB training calendar, toolkit and create a local pool of GRB trainers and support in organization of training programmes.
  • Develop partnerships with state level resource institutions, agencies, experts and practitioners for capacity building on GRB.
  • Support the capacity development initiatives, preparation of customised modules and prepare reports to capture key issues, achievements and challenges of capacity development initiatives.

Strengthening coordination and implementation of State Women’s Policy and government’s initiatives to promote gender equality:

  • Develop State Action Plans based on the State Policy for Women, especially on gender responsive planning and budgeting, ending violence against women and women’s economic empowerment
  • Support the Department of Social Welfare and Women Empowerment in roll out of RESPECT Framework on prevention of violence against women in the state 
  • Support development of gender action plans, as required to enable achievement of SDG targets for women and girls, also in line with international standards, building capacities and thematic expertise, facilitate gender responsive monitoring and evaluation of polices, programmes and legislations.
  • Provide coordination and support (IEC/advocacy) on COVID-19 response and Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) trainings with select state departments, CSOs/ implementing partners
  • Provide coordination and technical support for the Gender responsive COVID-19 recovery programme for the state of Tamil Nadu
  • Support synthesis of lessons learnt, and best practices related to programme for the state of Tamil Nadu
  • Participate in key meetings, conferences, and trainings and prepare proceedings report/meeting minutes and training reports.
  • Be the interface between UN Women and the Government of Tamil Nadu and facilitate meetings.
  • Document and maintain reports/files, good practices and extend support in preparation of quarterly/biannual/annual narrative reports.

Any other tasks assigned by the Supervisor.

Deliverables:

Monthly detailed and comprehensive narrative report of all activities undertaken (as part of the report  include templates &  plans developed, anecdotes that capture the process, partnerships, best practices and lessons learnt, photographs, press coverage, questionnaires, human interest stories, lists of participants, key strategies and recommendations) in hard and soft copy will be submitted to UN Women with an acknowledgement of UN Women’s support to the Department of Planning & Development, and Department of Social Welfare & Women Empowerment, Government of Tamil Nadu.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

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

Professionalism:

  • Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

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

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

  • Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Work in teams:

  • Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

  • Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

  • Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Conflict Management:

  • Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

  • Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Functional Competencies:

  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
  • Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s Degree in Social Sciences, Economics, Social Work, Gender Studies, Public Administration, Policy or related fields.

Experience:

  • Minimum 5 years of experience at the national/state level working with development projects including hands-on experience of design, implementation and monitoring/evaluation of projects preferably on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights.
  • Experience of working with national/ state governments; particularly on gender issues  is required. State specific experience will be preferable.
  • Experience of undertaking budgetary/ policy analysis and capacity building of government officials is desirable.

Language:

  • Proficiency in English; good command over Tamil in reading and writing.

APPLICATION     

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org.

Application:

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

  • All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from  http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
  • Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
  • Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
  • Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria: 

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

  • Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
  • Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
  • Working knowledge and experience of working with National /State Government (5 points);

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

  • Interview (80 Points)
  • Written Test (20 Points)

Please Note:

  • For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
  • Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.