UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, is a strong advocate for women and girls globally. UN Women assists UN Member States in setting international norms and standards for achieving gender equality, collaborates with governments and civil society in developing laws, policies, programs and services necessary to implement these standards.

UN Women actively promotes the equal participation of women in all spheres of life, focusing on five priority areas of action: strengthening the leadership role of women and increasing their participation in society; elimination of violence against women; involvement of women in solving the whole range of issues of ensuring peace and security; empowering women in the economy; ensuring the central role of gender equality in national development planning and budgeting processes. UN Women also coordinates work to promote gender equality throughout the UN system.

In April 2022, by Decree of the Head of State, an updated Concept of Family and Gender Policy until 2030 with an Implementation Plan was adopted. The concept is a multisectoral policy document that provides a comprehensive approach to integrating the principle of equality between women and men into policy documents in all areas and at all levels of decision-making and implementation.

UN Women in Kazakhstan, together with the National Commission for Women, Family and Demographic Policy under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan (hereinafter referred to as the National Commission), with the support of the Ministry of Information and Social Development of the Republic of Kazakhstan (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry), is implementing a project within the 

framework of a tied grant “Assistance to Kazakhstan in the implementation of the Concept of Family and Gender Policy in terms of ensuring gender equality and empowering all women and girls in Kazakhstan and overcoming the consequences of the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic” for the period 2022-2024.

The aim of the project is to support the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan in achieving transformative results for gender equality and women's empowerment in Kazakhstan by integrating gender equality and women's human rights into national reforms in accordance with the Concept and its Implementation Plan. The project has three components covering areas such as (1) strengthening national laws and policies for gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, (2) a gender-sensitive approach to education, and (3) women's economic empowerment.

One of the activities aimed at expanding women's economic opportunities will be to analyze the current state of entrepreneurship in the field of creative culture in Kazakhstan. At present, in Kazakhstan, women artists working in the field of professional and contemporary fine arts do not have access to tools and channels to expand their participation on digital art platforms and other alternative international art platforms, allowing them to expand their opportunities for the development of cultural entrepreneurship.

This is due to the fact that Kazakhstan still does not have its own art platform that would define the cultural landscape of the region, it is still difficult to reach the international level, the support mechanism is weak, local art communities and galleries are inactive, there are no grants in the country aimed at supporting female artistic creativity and art entrepreneurship.

There is also a serious problem in the legislation of Kazakhstan, which still does not include the definition of the concept of "fine art", the definition of the profession "artist", etc. i.e., there are no fundamental concepts needed to promote, expand and support women in this area. And this is even though the professional Union of Artists in 2023 will celebrate its 90th anniversary as the oldest creative union in the country and 40% of the total number of professional members of the union are women.

The project proposes the implementation of four areas of activity:

1. Carry out a review on ensuring gender equality and the situation in the field of fine arts and opportunities for the involvement of women artists in the development of cultural and creative entrepreneurship.
2. Development of Recommendations for introducing amendments and additions to the legislation of Kazakhstan, including all the main positions in the field of fine arts and ensuring equal participation and support of women artists.
3. Preparation and conduct of online education/training for women artists of Kazakhstan on the basics of creative entrepreneurship, working on digital platforms, creating training courses, etc.
4. Strengthening the channels of interaction between women artists with state authorities (Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism) and other areas of the creative economy and the art community.

The developed recommendations will reduce the burden of unpaid domestic work of women artists and expand the mechanisms for their transition into the sphere of women's entrepreneurship, into formal economies for women's more active participation in entrepreneurship.

As part of the UN Women project, it is planned to develop recommendations for the development of women's entrepreneurship in the field of arts and culture based on an analysis of the current situation in the country. The developed recommendations will be offered to interested state bodies for implementation in the current regulatory legal acts.

The main barriers to the development of creative entrepreneurship in general come from a misunderstanding of the role and contribution of culture and art to the economic development of the state. 

This is superimposed on the issues of access of women entrepreneurs, including women artists, to finance, capital, information about state support and education.

In this regard, UN Women plans to hire a national consultant who will develop proposals for the current regulations based on the analysis of the current situation, conduct online trainings for women artists and an event to strengthen interaction with all interested communities and government bodies in the interests of implementing gender equality in the field of fine arts and creative entrepreneurship.

The goal of the project is to develop proposals to ensure the principles of gender equality in the field of fine arts and creative entrepreneurship for women artists in Kazakhstan by developing recommendations for existing regulatory legal acts and expanding entrepreneurial skills and mechanisms for working in the digital art space.

The developed proposals will contribute to the development of women's entrepreneurship in the field of art and culture to create jobs for vulnerable groups of women, including the development of women's entrepreneurship in the countryside.

The tasks of the national consultant will include the following:

1. Drawing up a work plan indicating the terms of development;
2. An overview of the current situation in the development of women's entrepreneurship in the field of fine arts in Kazakhstan, including (a) an analysis of the current legislation (b) an analysis of existing problems and barriers in involving women artists in the development of the creative cultural industry;
3. Development of proposals for amending the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Culture" and other regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan in order to ensure gender equality and develop the creative cultural industry;
4. Preparation and conduct of 3 online trainings for women artists of Kazakhstan with brief information about the creative cultural industry in Kazakhstan, the basics of creative entrepreneurship, work on digital platforms.
5. Final presentation of the results of the project with the participation of women artists, representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Creative Economy and the Art Community, UN Women and national partners to discuss proposals to ensure gender equality in the field of fine arts and the creative cultural industry.

The national consultant is expected to work remotely and undertake necessary consultations with UN-Women and partners. All deliverables must certified and approved by UN Women.

The selected national consultant must sign a contract with UN-Women for a specified assignment as outlined above. The National Consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Project Manager of UN Women in Kazakhstan. The consultant will work remotely. The final report on this work must be submitted by the National Consultant in Russian with a certified translation into Kazakh.

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

The consultant selection process will be based on the following criteria:

Education:

• Higher education in the field of culture, art/education, pedagogy, law/jurisprudence, or related fields.
• The presence of a certificate or other document on qualifications in the field of art and culture and jurisprudence.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of professional experience in a professional creative union in the field of culture and art, human rights and social activities in the non-governmental sector in the field of women's rights and the implementation of gender equality;
• Experience of working with UN agencies or other international organizations, as well as with government bodies (attach a copy of supporting materials or provide a link to a website with a relevant document).

Functional Skills:

• Computer skills and IT applications (Microsoft Office, Microsoft Teams, ZOOM, etc.).

Knowledge of languages:

• Excellent writing and speaking skills in Russian.

Selection process

Applicants must meet the above minimum eligibility requirements, which will be included in the technical evaluation process in the future. The next stage of the evaluation process will support the methodology of combined analysis of the technical proposal (70%) and financial proposal (30%) of the applicant.

Technical evaluation criterion:

Only candidates with a minimum of 490 points will be eligible for financial evaluation.

Financial assessment:

The evaluation of the submitted financial proposals will be made on the basis of the following formula:

C low / C x 300, where

C is the price of the evaluated offer; And

C low - this is the lowest price of all evaluated offers among the corresponding offers;

300 is the maximum financial point you can get.

The winner is the candidate who scores the highest score on the total score (according to the results of the technical assessment + financial assessment). The maximum possible score, according to the technical assessment, is 700 and 300 for the financial proposal.

Candidate selection:

The contract will be offered to the candidate with the highest score in the cumulative evaluation.

 Package of documents for consideration

• A letter explaining interest in this position and vision for the development of proposals for the creation of a self-regulatory organization in the field of social entrepreneurship;
• Completed and signed form P11 (form available at http://eca.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment). Applicants without completed P11 forms will be categorized as non-complete applicants and will not be eligible for further evaluation;
• Financial Proposal* in Kazakhstani Tenge, including the total requested amount required to complete all tasks under this Terms of Reference.
• Providing the results of similar work, letters of recommendation from the organization with whom you previously collaborated.

The admin-jobs.undp.org platform only accepts one attachment, so you need to prepare all required documents, scan them as one PDF document and attach them to the online application.

* Each candidate must submit a consolidated financial proposal that includes all of the candidate's expenses required to complete the assigned tasks, including communication costs, travel expenses for the task, etc.

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

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

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is inconsistent with the goals and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of power and discrimination. All selected candidates will be required to adhere to UN Women's policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women staff and will therefore be subject to a thorough background check. (A background check will include verification of academic credentials and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information in order to conduct a background check.)