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.

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 a national consultant to conceptualize and implement initiatives to strengthen/increase women entrepreneurs’ access to digital markets and online platforms for increased sustainable income generation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Officer-in-charge of UN Women Sri Lanka, the consultant is expected to undertake the following;

*Consultant is 1) encouraged to mobilise a team to support with the data collection, data entering and other support required with the needs assessment, 2) required to outsource a videography team to develop 6 video clips (5 minutes maximum) featuring one individual to explain key topics based on the training modules

Expected deliverables

Duration of Assignment and Duty Station:

Consultant is expected to start from 1 June 2023 - 31 January 2024. 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 as needed and undertake travel as required by the project.

The consultant is expected to visit the project locations to gather data for the needs assessment, and conduct in-person trainings in the identified project locations, 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’s 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

Please visit https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf for more details on UN Women Values and Competencies Framework.

Required Skills and Experience

• Master's degree in Information Technology, Software Engineering, Business Administration, Gender Studies, Development Studies, or equivalent in relevant fields of Social Science. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree
• At least 2 years of demonstrable experience in conducting needs assessments, developing training modules or conducting trainings on e-commerce, digital marketing, social media marketing or any other related field
• Prior experience working in the development sector, working with different stakeholders including government officers and women entrepreneurs
• Outstanding organizational and time-management skills
• Availability and willingness to travel to the project districts
• Proficiency in English and one of the local languages is required

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 26 May 2023.

Submission package includes:

• Personal History Form(P11) can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• Samples training modules developed earlier
• Writing sample of research studies/reports/assessments
• Portfolios of video clips developed before
• Financial proposal as per 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.

*Consultant is 1) encouraged to mobilise a team to support with the data collection, data entering and other support required with the needs assessment, 2) required to outsource a videography team to develop 6 video clips (5 minutes maximum) featuring one individual to explain key topics based on the training modules

When providing the financial proposal, the applicant is expected to consider those expenses and provide the budget for travel and miscellaneous expenses. Such expenses can be claimed under the travel and miscellaneous budget lines.

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.  

Warranties, Consent and Intellectual Property 

a)            The Consultant represents and warrants that he/she has not, and undertakes that he/she shall not, infringe any third party intellectual property rights in performing any activities pursuant to the Contract. The Consultant represents and warrants that that he/she shall perform the activities pursuant to the UN Women Branding Guidelines and Policy on Logo Use (Annex I)

b)            The Consultant shall indemnify, hold and save harmless, and defend, at its own expense, UN Women, its officials, employees, consultants, agents or other representatives from and against all suits, claims, demands, and liability of any nature or kind, including their costs and expenses arising out the Consultant’s violations of the representations and warranties above.

c)            The indemnity set forth, above, shall not apply to:

i.              A claim of infringement resulting from the Consultant’s compliance with specific written instructions by UN Women directing a change in the specifications for the Deliverables or directing a manner of performance of the Contract not normally used by the Consultant; or

ii.             A claim of infringement resulting from additions to or changes in any Deliverables furnished under the Contract if UN Women or another party acting under the direction of UN Women made the changes.

d)            UN Women shall advise the Consultant about any such suits, proceedings, claims, demands, losses or liability within a reasonable period of time after having received actual notice thereof. The Consultant shall have sole control of the defense of any such suit, proceeding, claim or demand and of all negotiations in connection with the settlement or compromise thereof, except with respect to the assertion or defense of the privileges and immunities of UN Women or any matter relating thereto, for which only UN Women itself is authorized to assert and maintain. UN Women shall have the right, at its own expense, to be represented in any such suit, proceeding, claim or demand by independent counsel of its own choosing.

e)            In the event the use by UN Women of any Deliverables provided to UN Women by the Consultant, in whole or in part, in any suit or proceeding, is for any reason enjoined, temporarily or permanently, or is found to infringe any patent, copyright, trademark or other intellectual property right, or in the event of a settlement, is enjoined, limited or otherwise interfered with, then the Consultant, at its sole cost and expense, shall, promptly, either:

i.              procure for UN Women the unrestricted right to continue using such Deliverables provided to UN Women;

ii.             replace or modify the Deliverables provided to UN Women, or part thereof, with the equivalent or better product, or part thereof, that is non-infringing; or,

iii.            refund to UN Women the full price paid by UN Women for the right to have or use such Deliverables, or part thereof.

f)             UN Women confirms that the whole of the copyright present, future or contingent whatsoever and all other right, title and interest in and to the Deliverables shall be vested in the Consultant throughout the world in accordance with all applicable copyright laws. The Consultant further acknowledges and agrees that UN Women shall have the unconditional non-exclusive and perpetual right to make use of the Deliverables including but not limited to the entire take of all photographs from the Assignment in such manner as UN Women shall in its sole discretion think fit including without limitation the right to include the Deliverables on its own website and/or in any other public relations materials used to promote UN Women. UN Women may re-edit the Deliverables or any part thereof as convenient for its own exploitation of the Deliverables in any medium. UN Women may provide the Deliverables to other UN agencies and the media at no cost and may apply a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDeriv 2.0 Generic license to the Deliverables.

g)            The provisions of this section IV of the Terms of Reference shall supersede any inconsistent terms in the Contract for Consultant including the Conditions of Service for Consultants.

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.)