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; empowerment of women; and achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women Albania is implementing its Strategic Note (SN) 2022-2026, which aims to ensure that “All Women and girls enjoy and exercise their human rights in a gender equal society and meaningfully contribute to Albania’s sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development and EU integration”. To achieve such result, UN Women will focus on three outcomes, which mirror verbatim the areas of focus of the United Nations Albania:

1. Increased and more equitable investment in people to remove barriers and create opportunities for those at risk of exclusion.

2. Innovative and integrated policy solutions that accelerate sustainable, productive and inclusive development.

3. Gender-responsive governance that strengthens equality and non-discrimination.

Across its interventions, UN Women Albania will address key thematic area of focus in line with the Global Strategic Plan 2022-2025[1]: ending violence against women; women’s economic empowerment; gender-responsive budgeting; gender responsive governance; as well as promoting cross-cutting principles including the adoption of a human rights and Leaving No One Behind.

In addition, UN Women Albania implements its UN Coordination mandate by chairing the Gender Thematic and Results Group (GTRG) as well as co-chairing Results Group 2 on gender Responsive Governance. UN Women leads all efforts to increase coherence amongst gender equality efforts by UN agencies in the country, as well as ensuring UN system-wide accountability for gender equality results.

Gender equality and women’s empowerment are at the core of the United Nations mandate in Albania, The UN Albania Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2022-2026 includes a dedicated outcome C2 on gender equality: “By 2026, gender responsive governance strengthens equality and non-discrimination, promotes women’s empowerment and human rights, and reduces violence against women and children”. In addition, the CF mainstreams gender equality across all other outcomes. Therefore, it is critical to make sure that UN personnel is equipped with the skills and knowledge they need to develop, implement and monitor interventions from gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) perspective to help fulfil the commitment made in the CF to mainstream gender equality across all its interventions.

To identify the existing level of knowledge and skills on GEWE of UNCT personnel in Albania, a Gender Equality Capacity and Learning Needs Assessment (CLNA) was conducted by the UN Gender Thematic and Results Group (GTRG) and led by UN Women Albania in February 2022. In the assessment, five core capacities or skillsets in the context of the implementation of the CF were assessed. According to the results of the CLNA, gender, communication and advocacy was not only amongst the top three topics that participants were interested to know more about, but it was also highlighted as one of the areas with the lower capacities. In addition, participants indicated that “cultural constraints” are amongst the key challenges identified to address gender equality and women’s empowerment for UNCT personnel in Albania (42,24%).

In this context, UN Women and members of the Gender Thematic and Results Group are planning to conduct a 1.5-day training session aiming to increase the capacities of UN personnel to:

  1. Increase participants’ understanding of the meaning and practical impact of gender-responsive and inclusive communications and language.
  2. Enhance their knowledge on how to develop visual, verbal, and written communications content and messaging that is gender-responsive and inclusive, applying key gender concepts in all formal and informal communications, including everyday interactions.
  3. Increase participants’ awareness of unconscious bias in the world of work and identify strategies to mitigate the impact of their unconscious biases.

The target audience for this training is UN personnel in Albania working on communications, project management, monitoring and reporting, and team leaders/personnel with supervisory roles and responsibilities.

In this context, UN Women is seeking to hire an international consultant to support the planning and delivery of the training on gender-responsive communications and unconscious bias. Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Head of Programme and in close coordination with the UN Women Albania Programme Analyst, the Communications Officer and the UN Women Regional Communication Specialist, the consultant will be expected to prepare the training material and carry out the training session, which will take place in Tirana, Albania in September 2023.

[1] See UN Women Global Strategic Plan here: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2021/09/un-women-strategic-plan-2022-2025

Duties and Responsibilities

More specifically the consultant on gender responsive communication and unconscious bias training will be responsible for the following duties and responsibilities:

  1. Reviewing and becoming familiar with relevant UNCT Albania documents related to communications (such Communications Strategy, etc.) as well as the Capacity and Learning Needs Assessment for UN Albania personnel conducted in February 2022 concerning the level of knowledge and skills of personnel in UN Albania on gender-responsive communication and unconscious bias.
  2. Based on key gaps identified from the findings of the Capacity and Learning Needs Assessment conducted in February 2022, prepare a training package on gender responsive communication and unconscious bias, building on international standards, best practices and recent developments on these topics.
  3. Prepare a pre- and post-training questionnaire which will help measure the effectiveness of the training and the increase in knowledge of participants.
  4. Design and deliver a 1.5 days in-person training for UN Personnel in Albania, with the aim to:
  • Increase participants’ understanding of the meaning and practical impact of gender-responsive and inclusive communications and language.
  • Enhance their knowledge on how to develop visual, verbal, and written communications content and messaging that is gender-responsive and inclusive, applying key gender concepts in all formal and informal communications, including everyday interactions.
  • Increase participants’ awareness of unconscious bias and identify strategies to mitigate the impact of their unconscious biases.
  1. Prepare a training report including the results of the post-training questionnaire.
  2. Share the aforementioned resource package with all participants and with UN Women Albania.

Deliverables:

  • Prepare an overview of the key building blocks/knowledge areas that the training will cover, as relevant to gender-responsive communication and unconscious bias (up to 1.5 working day)
  • Develop a training package, including agenda, a run of show and detailed agenda, including practical exercises and strategies to overcome unconscious bias and to apply gender-responsive communication), PPT and relevant handouts, readings and other material as relevant (up to 8 working days, including travel days and training time)
  • Prepare a pre and post training assessment questionnaires to measure progress brought by the training (up to 0.5 working day)
  • Prepare a training report including key-take aways document for UN Women team to be able to use for their day-to-day work (up to 2 working days)

Quality of Deliverables

  • Peer review from the team on the utility and success of training.

Competencies

Core Values

  • Respect for Diversity
  • Integrity
  • Professionalism

Core Competencies

  • Creative Problem Solving
  • Creating Training
  • Effective Communication
  • Inclusive Collaboration
  • Engagement with Public
  • 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

Functional Competencies:

  • Proven communication skills;
  • Demonstrated ability to interact with a team in training;
  • Excellent writing and oral skills in English;
  • Strong interpersonal skills;
  • Focus on impact and result of training;
  • Constructive and positive attitude.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

  • Masters’ degree in communications, external relations, journalism or related field;

Work Experience:

  • At least 10 years of experience in the field of communication;
  • Previous experience in gender equality and gender discrimination;
  • Experience in preparing and delivering trainings on women’s rights and gender equality issues in communication;
  • Experience in addressing unconscious bias through communication tools and strategies;
  • Previous experience with the United Nations or similar international organizations would be an asset.

Language Requirement:

Fluence in English.

Scope of Price and Schedule of Payments:

  • Financial Proposal specifying the daily fee in USD (US dollars) for the tasks specified above. Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall consider various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period e.g fee and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services, including travel costs and stay in Albania for delivering the training.  
  • Payment will be made as per the payment schedule in the contract upon (i) satisfactory completion of tasks; (ii) provision of deliverables specified in the ToRs; (iii) submission of and approval by UN Women of final draft; and (iv) submission of the certification of payment.

Recommended Presentation of Offer:

Qualified and interested candidates are asked to submit their application online no later than the 28th of July.

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

NOTE: APPLICATIONS WITHOUT THE FINANCIAL OFFER WILL BE TREATED AS INCOMPLETE AND WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED FOR FURTHER ASSESSMENT.

Evaluation of applicants:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

  • Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
  • Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Technical evaluation will be represented through desk review of applications. Interviews and/or written tests will be organized, if needed, depending on the shortlisted candidates’ qualifications. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation – max. 70 points

Masters’ degree in communications, external relations, journalism or related field (10 points)

At least 10 years of experience in the field of communication (20 points)

Experience in preparing and delivering trainings on women’s rights and gender equality issues in communication (20 points)

Experience in addressing unconscious bias through communication tools and strategies. (15 points)

Previous professional experience with the United Nations or similar international organizations would be an asset (5 points)

Financial Evaluation (30%) – max. 30 points

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. The calculation formula applied is as follow:

p = 30 (µ/z); where: p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated; µ = price of the lowest priced proposal; z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

  • Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11) https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc
  • Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, and Cover Letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
  • Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement);
  • Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application;'
  • Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above);
  • You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Notes:

  • UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications we receive, we can inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.
  • Applications without the financial offer will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
  • The individual consultants should take the mandatory learning security course prior to commencement of assignment– details will follow before the issuance of contract.

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. 

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.)