Background

Re-Advertised - Those who previously applied do not need to re-apply.

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 center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the efforts of the United Nations system to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with governments, national institutions, civil society, academia, and intergovernmental organizations.

The Arab states region continues to experience significant variations in the level of participation of women in politics as outlined in the regional Strategic Note (2022-2025) “with the region being home to a number of countries with long traditions of women’s political participation (WPP - stretching a century back) at the same time as it houses countries ranking below the 150 spots of this sub-index. Also, one of only 4 countries worldwide with 50% women in parliament is from the region, while the lowest figure globally for any country is also found in the Arab States. There are countries in the region that exceed global averages on women in cabinets, and also countries moving back from strong female ministerial representation to governments with close to zero women ministers. Most concerning, though besides that generally all countries struggle with WPP, is that over 2018-21 women’s representation in the region overall decreased from 17.5% (2018) to 16.3% (2021)”.

Accordingly, under the new regional Strategic Note’s biannual Workplan Output 8.5 of the OEEF the regional office works with country offices to “advance Women’s Political Participation programmes for a measurable increase of women in national parliaments,  cabinets and local governments, including through (a) strengthened partnership, particularly with UNDP, DPPA; (b) complementary support to national capacity strengthening, including through the Regional Network for Women in Elections, (part of the Organization of Arab Electoral Management Body); and access to analysis through the regional Community of Practice exchanges; and the provision of robust research on violence against women in politics.”

UN Women is seeking the services of a high-level international expert to design and implement the inception phase of UN-Women’s signature Women’s Political Participation (WPP) approach for the Arab States to increase the number of women in political processes, as leaders and participants; which identifies concrete pathways to participation and builds on good practices emerging from country programmes, in particular the Jordan and Iraq country office WPP programmes.

Specifically, the region-wide WPP signature approach for the Arab States is envisioned to follow two tracks. First, to identify and demonstrate UN Women’s comparative advantages in the area of WPP in the region, and second to design a focused region-wide programme of engagement with concrete and measurable results, delineating timelines, partnerships, country-specific and regional level opportunities that propel country-level engagement in the Arab States.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Regional Director and reporting to the UN Women Regional Policy Advisor on Women’s Political Participation, and in close consultations with country office representatives and focal persons, the expert consultant will develop a focused and large scale (on impact) WPP region-wide signature approach, with a clear inception plan which he/she will support the implementation of. The approach will be developed in the form of a project document that identifies concrete pathways for the promotion, expansion, and strengthened political participation of women, with a focus on advancing the number of women in cabinets, parliaments, and in local government, in the Arab States as defined in UN-Women’s Regional Strategic Note.

The assignment will (a) refine available analysis produced by the regional office in 2021, including a context and organizational analysis, and further, identify enablers and challenges in the region and particularly in those countries where UN Women has prioritized WPP; (b) cull lessons and good practices from country-level programmes, particularly, but not limited to Jordan and Iraq as well as other UN Women offices globally working in similar electoral governance contexts; (c) identify concretely UN Women’s comparative and collaborative advantages in WPP through stakeholder analysis and key consultations; (d) identify concrete partnership opportunities (including with UN bodies, particularly  UNDP and DPPA), to advance impact on WPP in the region; (e) define concrete actions UN Women should take to achieve the desired impact, including defining the regional office's complementary role in supporting the achievement of country-level results.

Deliverables and Schedule of Payments

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: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Sound practical knowledge of political context in the Arab States region;
• Ability to produce well-written reports and/or programme documents demonstrating analytical ability;
• Excellent communication skills;
• Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with people from varied cultures and professional backgrounds, demonstrating excellent interpersonal communication skills;
• Ability to plan, organize, implement and report on work;
• Ability to work under pressure and tight deadlines;
• Positive, constructive attitude to work.

Judgment/Decision-Making

• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Demonstrates integrity and ethical standards.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or Ph.D.) in Public Administration, Political Science, International Relations, Law, or another relevant field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of relevant professional work experience in programme development and implementation including monitoring and evaluation activities, with strong technical expertise in women’s participation in public life and women’s leadership is required. At least 5 of which should be in advancing women’s participation in public life;
• A strong track record in regional, large scale, multi-sector project/programme formulation and drafting programme documents for the UN or international organizations is required;
• Knowledge of governance and gender issues in the Arab States region is required;
• Knowledge of results-based management (RBM) and the application of RBM principles in programme formulation is required;
• Previous experience with UN agencies is an advantage;
• Experience in partnership building with the government, and private sector and/or engaging the private sector for development is an advantage.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in oral and written English;
• Knowledge of Arabic is considered a strong asset.

Evaluation Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 70. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

• Advanced university degree (master’s degree or PhD) in Gender, Political Science, Sociology, International Relations, Law, or relevant field. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. (10 points max)
• At least 10 years of relevant professional work experience in programme development and implementation including monitoring and evaluation activities, with strong technical expertise in gender equality and women’s participation in public life and women’s leadership is required; (10 points max)
• At least 5 years of experience in advancing women’s participation in public life; (10 points max)
• A strong track record in regional, large scale, multi-sector project/programme formulation and drafting programme documents for the UN or international organizations is required. (15 points max)
• Knowledge of and work experience on women’s participation in public life, and women’s political participation, with experience in the Arab States region, is required; (10 points max)
• Knowledge of results-based management (RBM) and the application of RBM principles in programme formulation is required. (5 points max)
• Previous experience with UN agencies is an advantage. (5 points max)
• Experience in partnership building with the government, and private sector and/or engaging the private sector for development is an advantage. (10 points max)
• Fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of Arabic is considered a strong asset. (5 points max)

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points (i.e., 49 points) will be considered technically qualified candidates.

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Contract Award

The contract shall be awarded to the proposal obtaining the overall highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal.

Application

Re-Advertised - Those who previously applied do not need to re-apply.

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work and a link to a portfolio of work (no more than one page);
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment; applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;

Financial proposal: Proposed all-inclusive financial proposal, disaggregated per deliverable

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump-sum amount and payment terms around specific and measurable deliverables. Payments are based upon output, i.e., upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR and not on the number of working days.  To assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal should include a breakdown of this lump-sum amount (including travel, living expenses, daily fee, and the number of anticipated working days). 

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all of them since the online application submission does only permit to upload of one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

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.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits employ, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity, and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)