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

Globally, UN Women focuses on six priority areas. These include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, supporting women's participation in achieving and sustaining peace, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

To ensure that women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems, UN Women’s programmes on leadership and participation are designed to train women leaders to help build their capacities and promote women's leadership at all levels of decision-making. It advocates for legislative, policy, budgetary, and constitutional reforms to end discriminatory laws that prevent women from meaningfully participating in all spheres of life. To ensure that women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy, UN Women promotes women’s ability to secure decent jobs, accumulate assets, and influence institutions and public policies determining growth and development. To ensure that women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence, UN Women focuses on women's economic empowerment, early education, respectful relationships, and working with men and boys, recognizing that prevention is still the most cost-effective, long-term way to stop violence.

Presently, Sri Lanka is facing its largest economic crisis in history, triggering political instability and bringing the country to the brink of a humanitarian emergency. The economic downturn brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened existing precarious economic conditions and pre-existing inequalities, and has led to a reduction in incomes across the country. Recent analysis indicates that 73% of households had seen their incomes decline amidst rising prices and inflation. Rising cost of living, including fuel and food prices, have coincided with massive food and supply shortages, pushing communities into extreme poverty and malnutrition. As the Gender Alert: Sri Lanka Crisis (GiHA, August 2022) reveals, the current socio-economic and political crisis generates significant risks to the safety and wellbeing of women and girls in Sri Lanka.

UN Women will respond to the immediate and evolving needs of women and girls, through the provision of short-term aid and income generating resources, while strengthening state infrastructure to support inclusive and gender-responsive life-saving services and livelihoods across the country in 5 targeted districts: Ampara, Colombo, Monaragala, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu. In particular, the project will continue to expand and strengthen the resilience of women’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that have been supported through UN Women’s previous programmes but are at the risk of collapse due to the present crisis.

Against this background, UN Women is seeking to hire national consultant- field coordinator to support the project team with the execution of the project at the project locations of Colombo and Moneragala.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Officer-in-charge of UN Women Sri Lanka, the consultant is expected to provide programme and administrative assistance to the project team for smooth programme implementation. Specific tasks to be undertaken include:

Expected deliverables

Duration of Assignment and Duty Station:

Consultant is expected to start from 23 March 2023- 31 December 2023. The consultancy is primarily home-based. However, the consultant is expected to visit the UN Women Sri Lanka Office located at 202-204, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7 on the need basis and undertake mission along with the project team as required by the project. The field coordinator is expected to visit the project locations to undertake the project activities, if travel is not restricted by national health authorities or UN Women due to the COVID 19 health emergency. In such cases, the cost of most economic and direct travel on mission must be pre-approved by Officer-in-charge of UN Women Sri Lanka and will be reimbursed following UN Women travel guidelines. Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) and travel costs in compliant with UN Women Travel Guideline will be reimbursed to the consultant at actual amount upon submission of receipts and travel stubs.

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

Required Skills and Experience

• Masters’ degree or equivalent in Business, Accounting, Gender Studies, International Relations, Development Studies, Public Administration, Law, Human Rights or equivalent in relevant fields of Social Science.
• A first-level university degree with 3 additional years of progressively responsible experience at the national and/or international level will be accepted in lieu of Master’s degree
• At least 2 years of demonstrable experience in working on gender equality and women’s empowerment, including administrative and coordination experience.
• Work experience in administrative and coordination support of development programme/project is required.
• Experience of working with civil society organizations and provincial/local levels of governments/ the UN is a must.
• Proficiency in English AND Sinhala is required
• Proficiency in software applications like Word, Excel, Power point, etc.

Evaluation Criteria

• Applications will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis.
• Technical Proposal (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated for the financial assessment.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically-qualified candidate.

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.

The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Submission of application

Interest candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org  with cc to nemanika.amarasinghe@unwomen.org no later than 14th March 2023.

Submission package includes:

• Updated CV
• Personal History Form(P11) of all team members. The P11 form can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• Writing sample
• Financial proposal as template below:

All applicants must include (as an attachment) the CV, P11, and financial proposal. Applications without financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

PAYMENTS:

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will be made upon submission of deliverables with an approval of Officer-in-charge at UN Women Sri Lanka. A travel and miscellaneous budget will be allocated to the consultancy contract by UN Women and travel and miscellaneous expenses related to the consultancy will be reimbursed upon provision of supporting documents.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION STATEMENT

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, 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.)