A.  Background

To address the challenges of VAWG, the European Union (EU) and the United Nations have embarked on a new multi-year program- the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative. The Spotlight Initiative aims to support transformative change on the ground to end violence against women and girls and harmful practices in numerous countries globally. The Initiative comes with the highest level of commitment globally and is governed by the UN Deputy Secretary-General and the EU Commission's vice president.

The Spotlight Initiative in Timor-Leste will be implemented through five UN agencies (UN Women, UNFPA, UNDP, UNICEF, and ILO) with a focus on addressing intimate partner violence and domestic violence. In addition to the five agencies above, the Programme will collaborate with the International Organization for Migration, the Human Rights Advisor's Unit, and the World Health Organization.

The Spotlight Initiative's overall vision in Timor-Leste is that women and girls enjoy their right to a life free of violence within an inclusive and gender-equitable Timor-Leste.

The program, aligned to the Timor-Leste "National Action Plan on Gender-based Violence (2017-2021)" will contribute to the elimination of domestic violence/ intimate partner violence (DV/IPV) by responding to the needs of women and girls and addressing the underlying causes of violence against women and girls using a multi-sectoral and intersectional approach to implement intervention on the following six outcomes areas:

1)         Pillar 1: Legislation and Policies

2)         Pillar 2: Institutional strengthening

3)         Pillar 3: Prevention of violence

4)         Pillar 4: Available, accessible, and acceptable, quality services

5)         Pillar 5: Quality and reliable data

6)         Pillar 6: Supporting women's movements and relevant civil society organizations

The Programme is grounded on the core principle of leaving no one behind and reaching the furthest behind first. The interventions have been designed to target women and girls most marginalized (rural, poor, with disabilities), at higher risk of intimate partner violence, and groups that face multiple or intersecting forms of discrimination.

To ensure the effective and meaningful impact of the Spotlight Initiative in Timor-Leste, the Programme will focus on a comprehensive set of actions at the national level, alongside community-based interventions in 3 municipalities (of the country's 13 municipalities). Based on a preliminary analysis of needs, gaps, and opportunities, from a thematic and geographic lens and consultations with various stakeholders, the Programme will focus its community-level efforts in Ermera, Viqueque, and Bobonaro municipalities.

Against this background, the project is hiring three Gender Specialists based in the Municipal Authority of Ermera, Viqueque, and Bobonaro to provide technical support on mainstreaming gender and the prevention of violence against women girls into the Municipality's 2021 Action plan. The Gender Specialists will work closely with the Municipal Authorities of Ermera, Viqueque, and Bobonaro on their response and VAWG prevention across the municipality.

The Gender Specialist will also provide support to the Spotlight Initiative-UNDP team to develop, implement, monitor, and evaluate the following activities:

B.  Scope of Work

The Gender Specialist will provide support to the Spotlight Initiative-UNDP team with its work with the Municipal Authorities in Ermera, Viqueque, and Bobonaro and will undertake the following tasks:

Activity 2.2.1 Municipal strategies aligned with NAP GBV: Based on the work done on identifying the gaps and needs on a local level, supporting the municipalities in incorporating and delivering prevention and response of GBV as part of their annual work plans.

• Review and analyze the UNDP’s planned activities with the municipal authority and provide recommendations for implementation and including monitoring and evaluation.
• In reference to the NAP GBV, assess the municipality’s actions in delivering services in the prevention of and response to GBV and provide recommendations for their implementation and monitoring and evaluation
• Conduct Capacity building for the municipal authority on Planning and execution to ensure that gender-sensitive budgeting is integrated
• Coordinate with the municipal authority and the relevant entities (government staff, Gender Working Group, gender focal point, CSO, and UN Agencies) to implement the EVAWG-related activities of the municipality action plan
• Based on the recommendation made in the assessment report, review the municipality 2022 action planning, budgeting, and M&E discussion to ensure that the municipal strategy is aligned with the NAP GBV
• Provide capacity-building training on gender-related topics (gender mainstreaming, GBV, among others) to the municipality authorities and staff, focusing on the Gender Working Group. Develop a training plan based on the developed capacity building training planned in close collaboration with the relevant entities of the Municipal Authorities and ensure it responds to the capacity building needs they had identified that they have identified with the UNDP Spotlight Initiative team.
• Coordinate with the CSOs to conduct the capacity building related workshops and/or short training for the community of the respective municipality on the prevention of violence against women and girls
• Support with the implementation of broader activity tasks as required for the project’s success and other duties as assigned.
• Support organizing the socialization campaign on Law Against Domestic Violence to the entire structure of the municipality at the municipality level and including the selected suco.

Activity 4.2.2 Linking the work of the GWG from a municipal level on the NAP GBV obligations for service provision on a lower level of governance (post-administrative), closer to the survivors. This is a pilot activity linked to municipal coordination activities, supporting the implementation of prioritized actions in the action plan designed at a municipal level.

• Coordinate with Municipal Authority and work closely with the gender focal point to ensure prioritized EVAWG actions under the municipality action plan are implemented at the administrative post level. 
• Support to monitor the activity of CSOs that are relevant to the implementation of municipal investment workplan at the administrative post level.
• Coordinate with CSOs to conduct the capacity building related workshops/ short-term training to the community of the respective Municipality on the prevention of violence against women and girls;
• Support with the implementation of broader Activity tasks as required for the project's success and other duties as assigned.

C.         Expected Outputs and Deliverables

The expected outputs and deliverables are outlined in the below table:

E. Institutional Arrangement

The institutional arrangements for the Gender Specialist shall be:

The Gender Specialist will work under the supervision of the UNDP-Spotlight Initiative Project Manager and will also be required to work closely with the respective Municipal Authority, including the SEII Focal Point. The Gender Specialist will report to the SI Project Manager on contractual, performance management, and administrative matters.UNDP will provide logistic support and other office equipment to facilitate the work of the consultant in the municipal administration office.

F.         Duration of the Work and Duty Station

Duration of assignment:  10 months; (30 January – October 2023)

G. Duty Station:

Ermera, Viqueque, or Bobonaro, Timor-Leste

Functional / Technical Knowledge: 

• Excellent coordination and communications skills, including the ability to convince, convey and advocate.
• Ability to consolidate information from multiple sources.
• Able to prepare strategic information for decision-makers.
• Ability to work independently as well as be a good team player.
• Excellent time management and ability to produce outputs as per agreed deadlines.

Language Skills

• The candidate shall be fluent in English with excellent writing abilities.
• Knowledge of Tetum required.
• Knowledge of Portuguese as an asset.
• Knowledge of local dialect (determined by the municipality in which the Gender Specialist will be based) as an asset.

H.   Qualifications of the Successful Individual Contractor

Education:

• Master's Degree or bachelor's degree (or equivalent) in international development, international relations, women's studies, public administration, or a relevant field.

Professional Experience: 

• At least one year of relevant experience with a master's degree or two years with a bachelor's degree at the national or international level in working for gender equality and mainstreaming with a specific focus on government and civil society strengthening, including conducting analyses, action planning, making recommendations, and reporting.
• Experience working to promote and develop gender-sensitive policies, procedures, and practices.
• Experience imparting internal and/or external gender training to mainstream gender programming and sensitivities across institutional practices and programming.
• Experience developing and tracking gender-related indicators for government-funded programs.
• Experience working to develop and implement programming that supports women and members of marginalized communities to participate in civil society.
• Experience working with municipality institutions and/or at the municipal level is an asset.
• Ability to work well in a team environment and individually with limited supervision.
• Demonstrated expertise in managing development projects with a focus on capacity building;

I.   Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Lump Sum Contract

The Financial Proposal must be expressed in the form of an all-inclusive Lump Sum Amount, linked to the Expected Outputs and Deliverables, supported by a breakdown of costs as per the template provided by UNDP. Under the lump sum approach, the contract price is fixed, regardless of changes in the cost components or duration of the assignment.

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel.  In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy-class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Schedule of Payment:

The payment will be based on the 'lump sum rate'. The payment will be delivered in 9 installments which shall be payable to the Gender Specialist on the completion of each deliverable set out at Clause D. The confirmation that a deliverable has been completed and a payment installment is due shall be made by the Head of the Governance Unit.

J.          Recommended Presentation of Offer

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

1. Dully accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (to be downloaded from the procurement notice link) specifically mentioning the candidate's preferred municipality to be deployed to;
2. Personal History Form P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
3. A brief methodology and step by step timeline on how he/she will approach and complete the assignment, and
4. Financial Proposal in the template provided by UNDP (to be downloaded from the procurement notice link).

K. Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

The applications will be evaluated using weighted scoring method, where the award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation and has accepted UNDP's General Terms and Conditions.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points of the technical criteria (70%) will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Financial Evaluation (30%):

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

• Annex 1 - IC Contract Template (for information);

• Annex 2 -  Financial Proposal Template using the template provided by UNDP (to be completed at later stage upon request by UNDP);
• Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions (for information);
• Annex 4 – P11 Personal History Form

Incomplete applications will not be considered and will be disqualified automatically.