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.

Aligned with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN Women is implementing GIZ’s Fund to Promote Innovation in Agriculture (i4Ag) to economically empower women farmers in the rice value-chain in the context of climate change.  This fund promotes innovations in the agriculture and food sector, focusing on six key areas of mechanisation, digitalisation, renewable energy, research and extension, cooperation with the private sector and agricultural policy. This project will promote methodologies for reducing carbon emissions in rice cultivation and to show scaling potential in aggregating smallholder farmers. It involves multiple implementing partners who will train and support farmers on approved emissions-reducing rice farming methods as well as those non-approved methods of mitigation with the aim of enabling project beneficiary farmers to see improved resiliency from carbon credit generation, along with a higher proportion of trained female farmers in the community. The project implementing partners include OLAM Agri and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). UN Women’s component will entail reviewing existing training content on agriculture/climate resilient to integrate gender and organizing gender trainings to promote women’s economic empowerment focusing on women’s increasing leadership, voice, choice and agency.

The Credit Offsetting Rice Project (CORE) - A gender transformative approach  Project will contribute to the following outcomes: i) More women farmers in the rice value chain have increased access to climate resilient technologies, methodologies, and skills; ii) Women’s voice, agency and capacities are strengthened to transform climate sensitive agricultural practices into enhanced livelihoods (diversified economic opportunities, increased incomes, and resilience); iii) Strengthened availability of sex-disaggregated data to inform gender responsive climate sensitive agricultural practices.

The purpose of this consultancy is to support the activities of the GIZ funded CORE project. Under the direct supervision the Country Programme Manager – WEE, s/he will work in close collation with the Technical Consultant, CORE. The consultant will provide research and documentation support to the technical consultant in undertaking gender assessment of rice value chains, development of training modules, conducting gender trainings, developing monitoring, evaluation and data management system as well as overall gender strategy of the project.

Duties and Responsibilities

  • Provide research and documentation support to the Technical Consultant undertaking Gender assessment of rice value chain
    • Undertake desk research of the rice value chain in the project geographies and women’s participation in the agricultural domain
    • Undertake primary research with consortium partners and other relevant stakeholders
  • Assist the technical consultant in organizing perspective building sessions on gender with master trainers
  • Assist the technical consultant in conducting gender trainings of project stakeholders and undertake end to end documentation
  • Assist the technical consultant in conducting farmers’ trainings including to understand their roles, work and division of labour, decision making capacities etc.
  • Extend support in development of gender modules for Alternate Wedding and Drying (AWD) technique adopted under the project based on gender assessment, perspective building exercise with master trainers as well as interaction with farmers and pilot test them.
  • Provide technical assistance in developing learning outcomes/indicators to measure the gender impact of the trainings
  • Support in development of a gender matrix (with measurable indicators) for data collection, monitoring and measuring impact basis on the review of existing data monitoring framework
  • Assist in development of the Gender Strategy Document for the project
  • Coordinate with consortium partners, prepare outcome documents of team meetings, follow up on action points and record progress
  • Document progress updates, good practices, policy briefs from this project
  • Provide end to end research and documentation support to the technical consultant
  • Any other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Expected Deliverables:

  • Monthly progress reports are to submitted detailing the progress on the assigned tasks
  • Overall deliverables:
    • Report of the perspective building/gender trainings of 100 master trainers.
    • Desk and primary research report of gender assessment of rice vale chain.
    • Gender trainings need assessment report.
    • Gender trainings (of consortium/implementing partners and women farmers) reports.
    • Report on the gender matric for data collection, monitoring and measuring impact.
    • Gender strategy document.

Competencies

 Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

  • Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct

Professionalism:

  • Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

  • Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff
  • Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

  • Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Work in teams:

  • Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

  • Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

  • Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Conflict Management:

  • Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

  • Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge

Functional Competencies:

  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
  • Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills
  • Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback

Required Skills and Experience

Education:   

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in Gender Studies, Social Sciences or any other Development-related 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 5 years of progressively responsible experience in mainstreaming gender equality and women’s empowerment concepts and approaches in rural development/agriculture projects.
  • At least 4 of years of experience in supporting research and analysis using various research methods and proven experience in documentation e.g. case studies/research papers/training modules documents.
  • Substantial expertise in developing capacity development programmes, gender modules as well as tools for gender mainstreaming and gender trainings particularly in agriculture.
  • Substantial expertise and experience in gender analysis, gender sensitive needs assessment and policy analysis in regard to agriculture.
  • Good communication skills and the ability to explain technical terms in a non-technical language.
  • Experience of working in the similar assignments is preferable.

Language:

  • Strong written skills in English and good command over Hindi.

Application:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

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

  • All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
  • Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
  • Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
  • Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

  • Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
  • Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
  • Working knowledge and experience of writing on Gender Issues (5 points);

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

  • Written Sample (20 points)
  • Interview (80 points)

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.