Background

UN Women entered Georgia in 2001 (as UNIFEM) with regional project Women for Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding in the Southern Caucasus. In the early 2000, gender equality was a strong, sometimes the only entry point to encourage grassroots diplomacy and informal dialogue among conflict-torn communities. Following the August 2008 War, a comprehensive needs assessment of internally displaced and conflict-affected women, informed interventions needed to address gender gaps in a humanitarian setting. The empowerment and active involvement of conflict-affected women in post-conflict situation became one of the key programmatic directions of UN Women in the years to come. Following the implementation of a new architecture of the Entity, UN Women established full-fledged interventions aim at provision of support to the state and non-state partners towards the achievement of substantive gender equality in Georgia. In line with national and international commitments, UN Women works on the levels of policies and legislation, institutions, and grassroots, in order to achieve transformative results for increased gender equality and greater protection of the rights of women and girls. UN Women puts special emphasis on the work towards Ending Violence Against Women, promotion and support to Women, Peace, and Security agenda in Georgia, Economic Empowerment of Women and last but not least, Mainstreaming of Gender into National Planning and Budgeting Processes. Along with these key priority areas that constitute UN Women mandate, UN Women interventions in Georgia are anchored in the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) with the government of Georgia.

Since December 2020, UN Women is implementing a project "Fostering economic empowerment of women farmers by supporting homemade dairy production in Georgia through the Farmer Field Schools approach" in partnership with the UN Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO), funded by the Swiss Development Cooperation (SDC). The overall goal of the project is to Enhance resilience and foster economic empowerment of women dairy producers in Samegrelo and Abkhazia, Georgia. The project aims to deliver on the following outcomes:

 Outcome 1: Rural women improve their homemade dairy products, with a focus on food safety, through learning delivered in Farmer Field Schools (implementation led by FAO)

Outcome 2: Rural women engaged in dairy production acquire and use leadership, economic and social skills to be self-employed and/or expand their income- generation activities, while promoting gender equality (implementation led by UN Women).

The project aims at providing technical assistance through community-led field trainings to rural women active in small-scale dairy production in Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti region and in Abkhazia, Georgia in particular those who are in charge of cheese production for sale. In Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti, the project aims at supporting smallholder dairy producers in adapting production methods to AA/ Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (DCFTA) related food safety regulations for homemade production of dairy products for commercial use. The project promotes the creation and maintenance of 40 Farmer Field Schools focused on women and dairy production.  The curricula of the Farmer Field Schools implemented under this project has two components: a technical one designed by FAO experts together with advanced local women dairy producers. A second component, developed by UN Women partners, that focuses on women´s economic empowerment generally, including access to relevant information and resources, on strengthening of managerial, decision-making, basic financial literacy, women´s rights and leadership skills.

The UN Women Project Office in Sukhumi, where the Consultant will be located, currently consists of five UN Women personnel: Programme Analyst, Head of UN Women Project Office, two Project Analysts and a Project Assistant/Driver, who are supported by UN Women programme, finance and operation staff based in the UN Women Country Office in Tbilisi. The UN Women Project Office in Sukhumi is co-located with other UN agencies, including FAO, UNDP, UNHCR, UNICEF, UNDSS and WHO.  Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Country Representative and Liaison for the South Caucasus based in Tbilisi, the international consultant reports directly to The Head of the Project Office. The programmatic work of Sukhumi Project-Office in the Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) thematic area is guided by UN Women EVAW portfolio manager, while in the area of Women´s Economic Empowerment is (WEE) guided by UN Women WEE Programme Analyst and UN Women Representative Deputy based in UN Women Office in Tbilisi. The tasks and duties of consultant are agreed and clearly stipulated in an individual work plan, developed in a participatory manner and in coordination with the Head of Sukhumi Project Office and UN Women EVAW portfolio manager and WEE portfolio manager.

Duties and Responsibilities

Within the delegated authority and under the direct supervision of Head of Project Office, the International Consultant on Community Mobilization and Capacity Building will undertake the following duties and responsibilities:

• Assist in negotiating agreements and setting up implementation mechanisms partners and ensure that agreements are established in conformity with UN Women programme and financial rules and regulation;
• Support the Head of UN Women Project Office in review the implementation and performance of project activities, including through appropriate physical monitoring to evaluate the projects by reviewing work plans, progress reports, budget, financial reports and expenditures; undertake field visits as required;
• Undertake proper collection, monitoring and use of baselines, standards and indicators needed to measure and analyze programme performance, trends and target interventions;
• Develop and conduct training sessions for grassroots´ women on women´s rights and gender equality topics;
• Take part in the assessment of needs of local communities, and develop relevant tools;
• Use the existing tools to assess the technical soundness of the operation and generate data for evidence-based decisions at the country- level.
• Assist in ensuring compliance in issuance of audit certificates for Implementing Partners;
• Assist in organizing awareness raising and advocacy events;
• Draft minutes from the meetings, the monitoring and other reports (as specified in the individual work plan) to ensure proper documentation of project activities along with an impact and solutions achieved;
• Support establishment and maintenance of partnerships and cooperation among civil  society  organizations  (CSOs)  and  volunteers working on WEE and related issues
• Support the Head of Project Office in coordinating UN Women/FAO initiatives with other UN Agencies located in Sukhumi;
• Liaise and coordinate with UN Women Country Office staff as per her/his duties in the individual work plan;
• Provide any other relevant support to the Project Office, related to UN Women´s mandate and project aims, through performing other duties.

Deliverables:

• A detailed work plan for the assignment submitted quarterly
• The training materials developed, and training for women-farmers engaged in diary production in Abkhazia delivered based on the work-plan  
• Pre- and post-training questionnaires to assess the knowledge level before the trainings as well as satisfaction of the trainees and the impact of the trainings on women in terms of increased knowledge and awareness developed
• The information for the donor reporting is collected and submitted
• Monthly progress reports, outlining the training process, results of the pre-and post-training assessments and recommendations for follow up actions written and submitted

*Up to 250 working days within twelve months

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent writing, presentation/public speaking skills.
• Demonstrated skills to collect and analyze data
• IT literacy

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 this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• At least 2 years of professional work experience with a Master’s degree, or 4 years with a Bachelor’s degree in community mobilization, grassroots work and delivering trainings in different development contexts is required.

Experience:

• At least 2 years of relevant professional experience in the field of community mobilization;
• At least 2 years of experience in delivering trainings to civil society, private sector companies or grassroots’ communities;
• At least 2 years of proven experience in developing training manuals, modules and programmes;
• Proven sound understanding of interactive learning methods and adult-learning techniques.

Language:

• Fluency in Russian and English.  

Management arrangements:

Under the overall guidance of UN Women Country Representative in Georgia and the Liaison for the South Caucasus, the consultant will report to and work under direct supervision of UN Women Programme Analyst/Head of UN Women Project-Office.

Financial arrangements:

Payment is subject of submission and approval by the supervisor of the periodic (monthly) reports and accompanying timesheets, per the deliverables spelled out in this TOR and workplan.

Evaluation Procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria; technical and financial evaluation.

The candidates must possess following minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation:

• At least 2 years of professional work experience with a Master’s degree, or 4 years with a Bachelor’s degree in community mobilization, grassroots work and delivering trainings in different development contexts;
• At least 2 years of relevant professional experience in the field of community mobilization;
• Fluency in Russian and English.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

• At least 2 years of professional work experience with a Master’s degree, or 4 years with a Bachelor’s degree in community mobilization, grassroots work and delivering trainings in different development contexts; (max 30 points);
• At least 2 years of relevant professional experience in the field of community mobilization; (max 90 points);
• At least 2 years of experience in delivering trainings to civil society, private sector companies or grassroots’ communities (max 90 points);
• At least 2 years of proven experience in developing training manuals, modules and programmes (max 90 points);
• Proven sound understanding of interactive learning methods and adult-learning techniques (max 30 points)
• Fluency in Russian and English (max 20 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150

S – score received on financial evaluation;

Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;

F – financial offer under consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Application submission package:

• CV
• Duly filled Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process 
• Financial Proposal - lump sum proposal/offer* in USD (including breakdown of this lump sum amount, indicating all necessary costs to complete this assignment). *The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer: “aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Notes:

• UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications, we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

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.).