Background

This is the Terms of Reference for the development of the Country Project Document for the WILS Project Phase II. The WILS project started in April 2018 and is in its last year of implementation. The UNDP and the UN Women are in the process of designing a Phase II for the project for the next four years.

The UNDP and 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.

Through the Governance and Poverty Reduction Unit (GPRU) of the UNDP and the Women’s Political Empowerment and Leadership Programme (WPEL) of the UNWomen, the WILS project works with regional partners to address country specific barriers to women’s full political participation. It works with government, non-governmental organizations, state owned corporations, civil society organizations and communities to help create transformation of social norms change for creating an institutional and social environment that welcomes and supports women’s participation in leadership and decision making, political participation, increasing the number of women candidates and enhancing their support networks.

Building on the success stories and lessons learned especially on women’s political participation and leadership roles from WILS Phase 1, the Phase II reinforces the progress already made on gender equality and women’s leadership in Samoa. It is Phase III of the Increasing Political Participation of Women in Samoa (IPPWS) Project and builds on the work completed since the project began in 2015.

WILS targets the ‘leadership’ development of women as individuals and as a group, to work together to address women’s leadership and gender inequality issues, and to enhance their exercise of leadership. The Women in Leadership in Samoa (WILS) Project is a three-year project implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UN Women with funding from the Australian Government in partnership with the Government of Samoa under the overall leadership of the WILS Steering Committee. The Steering Committee comprises of representatives of the Samoa government’s (Ministry of Women, Community & Social Development), Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), community (SUNGO), DFAT and UN agencies (UNDP and UN Women).

Recent achievements included the 2013 Constitutional 10 per cent quota for women parliamentary seats, establishment of the Family Court Act (2014), Family Safety Act (2013) and the National Policy for Gender Equality (2016-2020), the 2017 Ombudsman Inquiry into Domestic Violence, the Samoa Law Reform Commission’s 2016 Report into CEDAW Compliance, as well as the 2017 Samoa Family Safety Study. Other notable achievements for women’s participation in leadership include increased numbers of women in Parliament, matais (titled) and other decision-making positions such as directors, Chief Executive Officers and others.

However, despite significant advances made in promoting and addressing gender equality in Samoa, there remain, enduring systemic, institutional, cultural, attitudinal and financial barriers that continue to prevent women from engaging effectively in decision making roles at the community, village and national parliament levels, and including boards of public enterprises. Women’s leadership contribution at all levels of society need encouragement, support, acknowledgement and transformative change. Working with men and youth across different levels to address these barriers is also needed to address gender inequality issues.

Within its limited scope, resourcing and timeframe, this Project will not address all those barriers, most of which are deeply rooted in societal belief systems and practices. However, it will try and address changes in social norms by introducing transformative changes, engagement with male allies to influence social normas for increased women’s participation in all avenues especially in Parliament, village councils as matais, District Councils boards of directors in the public and private sectors. Social change takes time and requires sustained leadership, partners’ cooperative commitment and stakeholders’ support. A key lesson from the IPPWS and WILS Phase I is that the work to increase the number of women representation needs sustained and long-term investment and support. Within a targeted focus on ‘Women in Leadership’, this Project is one stepping stone to building and encouraging such a long term process of looking at addressing some of the key women representation’s issues in Samoa. Effective implementation of initiatives under this Project relies on genuine collaboration amongst key partners and stakeholders. It seeks to give more emphasis and recognition to women leadership in all forms, not just formal political leadership, but also women’s leadership (current, potential and emerging) in families, villages, communities, businesses, and the government, as well as the private sector.

Samoa’s system of governance is a blend of neo-traditional and contemporary systems of governance. The Project has adopted a Samoanisation concept where learning from international best practices is valued, but local involvement and partnerships facilitate a participative process for the Project to have value added. Samoanisation  is about localization – making interventions relevant to local context and seeking locally driven strategies. Specialist and technical expertise are provided when needed, complemented with involvement of partners and local counterparts to provide local insights and contextual knowledge. This Samoanisation hopes to contribute to the sustainability and continuity of initiatives and activities beyond the Project’s timeframe.

Sustainability of Project Phase 1 results is key in ensuring the movement for women in leadership, women empowerment and gender equality. Therefore, the WILS Project Phase II will aim to contribute towards ongoing efforts at building on existing successes and earnings, focussing on current and emerging context specific intervention needs and exploring innovative modalities for progress on gender equality and women’s leadership in Samoa under WILS Phase I.

In this regard, the UNDP Samoa MCO seeks to hire a national consultant to;

Develop a Country Project Document for the WILS Project Phase II

Duties and Responsibilities

The main objective of this consultancy is to develop a Country Project Document for Samoa for the second phase of the WILS project. The Country Project Document is a design document that will set out proposed activities and implementation of the WILS Project Phase 2 in Samoa. Design documents will be developed based upon existing documentation and work from WILS Phase 1, aligned to national priorities and in consultations with project stakeholders, staff, UNDP, UN Women and potential Phase 2 partners.

Under the direct supervision of the Joint WILS Project Manager, the consultant will perform the following tasks:

The specific activities are as follows:

1. Consult with the Samoa government, government ministries, Steering Committee, project beneficiaries, potential partners, donor, UNDP and UN Women.
2. Build upon existing project documentation and based upon feedback received, develop a WILS Project Samoa Country Project Document, log frame and budget.
3. Submit a draft Samoa Country Project Document to the UNDP, UN Women management.
4. Coordinate and implement a ½ day validation workshop on the draft Project Document and submit a validation report.
5. Finalize the Phase II Country Project Document and present Final draft to the UNDP and UN Women management, Steering Committee, DFAT.

Expected Deliverables and Payment Schedule

The consultant is expected to work and deliver the following results:

1. Submit a draft Samoa Country Project Document for WILS Phase 2 after completion of documents review and consultations.
2. Validation report upon completion of coordination and implementation of a ½ day validation workshop on the revised Phase II Country Project Document.
3. WILS Project Phase II Final Country Project Document presented to UNDP and UN Women management, Steering Committee and DFAT.  

The Consultancy fee in WST (Tala) will be paid after certification by WILS Project Team of satisfactory performance and submission of the expected deliverables and in accordance with the signed contract and as per schedule below. The consultant is expected to quote a lump sum in WST (Tala) to include all deliverables and six (6) days of missions to Savaii.

DURATION:

The total duration of the contract assignment will be 30 working days between May to July 2022.

DUTY STATION:

This is a home based assisgnment of estimated 30 days. The assignment will take place in both Upolu and Savaii, Samoa. The two travel missions to Savaii are expected- the first mission of 4 days followed by 2 days for data validation.

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT:

1. The consultant will administratively be under the overall supervision of the joint WILS Project Manager.
2. The consultant will be responsible for his/her own workstation (ie: laptop, internet, phone, scanner/printer etc and must have access to reliable internet connection.
3. The UNDP will be responsible for procuring and payment of goods and services required for the validation workshop

Competencies

1. Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s & UN Women’s mission, vision and values
2. Highly effective in working with multi-sector teams
3. Ability to function effectively under pressure and tight timelines
4. Self-motivated and able to work independently
5. Excellent oral and written communication
6. Creative thinking and emotional intelligence

Required Skills and Experience

The consultant should fulfil the following requirements:

Education

• Master’s degree in Gender Studies, Governance, Political Science, Community Development or other related fields

Experience and skills

• At least 10 years of experience of relevant work in the field of gender equality, leadership development, community/women’s leadership and other related capacity development programmes.
• Proven expertise in gender equality and working on women’s rights and leadership.
• Past experience in project design and project management.
• Past experience developing and conducting training programmes on leadership.
• Past experience in conducting monitoring and evaluation of programmes an advantage.
• Knowledge of developmental context in terms of capacity development, social and community change and community development.

Language and other skills

• Good command of English both written and oral.
• Ability to write and communicate in Samoan would be an added advantage.
• Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, IT tools.

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

The evaluation criteria will be based on 70% Technical and 30% financial scoring.  The awardee will be determined by the highest combined weighted scoring from both the Technical and Financial proposals.

The technical evaluation will be based on the information provided in the CV/P11, methodology and any relevant documents to be submitted as evidence to support the proposal and the candidates scoring at least 49 points (70% of 70 points) will be considered for the financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation Criteria (total 70 points):

• Master’s degree in Gender Studies, Governance, Political Science, Community Development or other related fields (10 points)

• At least 10 years of experience of relevant work in the field of gender equality, leadership development, community/women’s leadership and other related capacity development programmes.  (10 points)
• Proven expertise in gender equality and working on women’s rights and leadership.  (10 points)
• Past experience developing and conducting training programmes on leadership. (5 points)
• Past experience in conducting monitoring and evaluation of programmes an advantage.  (5 points)
• Previous experience in project design and project management. (10 points)
• Knowledge of developmental context in terms of capacity development, social and community change and community development. (10 points)
• Good command of English. (10 points)

Recommended Presentation of Proposal:

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

• Duly accomplished confirmation of Interest using the template provided by UNDP (Annex 1)
• Personal CV or P11 (Annex 2)
• Financial Proposal (Annex 3)
• Technical Proposal [methodology and workplan] (Annex 4)

Incomplete applications will not be considered, they will be disqualified automatically.

Queries about the position can be directed to procurement.ws@undp.org

Due Date for submission of proposals is 19 May 2022, 5PM, Samoa time.

All proposals should be submitted through the UNDP job site.  Email submission of proposals will not be accepted.  

Download the full Terms of Reference and Templates for submission from the Procurement site link:
https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=90875