Antecedentes

Gender inequality is fundamentally a question of power. Power, and the distribution of power, is deeply rooted in structural and interlinked systems (such as patriarchy , racism , sexism , ableism , and classism ) that construct an unequal power relationship between individuals based on norms, values, and behaviours defined by the ‘interest group’ to align and reinforce their needs and interest. Individuals, institutions , structures, and systems embody these norms, values, and behaviours, which perpetuate and reinforce the unequal distribution of power from the intimate spheres of the household to the highest levels of political decision-making.  

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. 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. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. In Bangladesh, UN Women focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s access to decent and safe work; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as other threats to peace and security, as outlined in the Strategic Note (2022-26), aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2022-26. UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in Bangladesh including the government, civil society and women’s organisations, youth, UN agencies and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The United Nations, and specifically UN Women, as a principal international standard-setting institution, bears a special responsibility to lead by example and leave no one behind. For any organization to effectively engage with the world around it, specifically when addressing gender inequality, it is essential to undertake an introspective evaluation, looking inward at its values, culture, and practices, as well as the roles, behaviours, attitudes, and norms, held by its staff. This entails unpacking the individual and institutional structures, and ensuring they embody the principles of gender equality so that the organization is fit for purpose and can fully deliver on its mandate. 

UN Women Bangladesh takes a two-pronged approach to addressing unequal power relations by; i) implementing programmatic interventions that challenge discriminatory social norms and gender inequality, and ii) investing in and nurturing a diverse and empowered workforce that ‘walks the talk’. Identifying and addressing entrenched power inequalities internally is essential for the implementation of programmatic interventions that are informed by an understanding of the root causes and drivers of power inequality and gender inequality, and how to challenge them. 

To invest in and nurture a diverse and empowered workforce that ‘walks the talk’, UN Women Bangladesh adopts a multifaceted approach that engages the whole of the office through formal and informal initiatives across departments and levels. This includes reflecting internally to ‘unlearn’ the deeply rooted structural discriminatory norms, values, and behaviours that perpetuate unequal power relations, as well as exploring and practising egalitarian norms, values, and behaviour. The various initiatives under this agenda are demonstrated in the diagram below.  

Against this backdrop, UN Women Bangladesh is seeking a national consultant to facilitate an internal reflection and exploration of power dynamics to strengthen its collective understanding of unequal power relations. 

Continued investment and time are required to address the unequal distribution of power at the individual, institutional , and structural levels. This ‘internal reflection and exploration of power dynamics’ is one initiative working in parallel to a myriad of initiatives within UN Women Bangladesh to push forward the ‘walk the talk’ agenda. UN Women Bangladesh hopes to develop a consolidated and comprehensive approach to its internal ‘walk the talk’ agenda as the office undertakes the development of the biannual workplan for 2024-2025. 

Objective: 

The general objective of the ‘walk the talk’ agenda at UN Women Bangladesh is to invest in and nurture an inclusive, diverse, and empowered workforce that embodies the norms, values, and behaviours of gender equality, to enable the delivery of transformative programmatic interventions that are informed by a clear understanding of the root causes and drivers of gender inequality and power inequality, and how to address them.  

The specific objective of this assignment is to initiate a deeper reflection on power relations; considering who they are defined by, and how they manifest themselves in norms, values, and behaviours, to start the discussion on how to address them. 

Deberes y responsabilidades

Under the overall guidance of UN Women’s Country Representative and supervision of the UN Women Bangladesh Internal Youth Group, the consultant will be responsible for:

• Preparing and conducting several interactive sessions to explore and unpack unequal power relations between individuals/groups, building on prior work conducted by the UN Women Bangladesh, for the Dhaka Office and Cox’s Bazar Sub-Office.

The abovementioned sessions are expected to be in-person and interactive. The will be conducted in English and in Bangladesh. The sessions must be accessible and inclusive for all staff. In total, 5-10 sessions are expected, ranging in duration (1.5-2 hours to half a day) and size (bigger groups and/or smaller groups). The Youth Group will work with the selected consultant to tailor the plan and sessions.

Upon completion of the sessions, the consultant is expected to prepare a brief report on the takeaways and suggested ways forward for UN Women Bangladesh to consider for the biannual work plan 2024-2025 and the forthcoming Internal Youth Group Work Plan (2024-2025).

Duration of the assignment:

The assignment will commence on 6 August 2023 and be completed by 19 October 2023. The total duration of the work would be 07 days.

Deliverables:

Supervision & Performance evaluation:

The consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the services delivered. The contract performance shall be evaluated and monitored by Nubayra Jeheen UN Women contract administrator.

Duty Station(s): Dhaka (with travel to Cox’s Bazar)

Travel and DSA:

No DSA will be paid at the duty station(s) – For this consultancy, the duty station is considered Dhaka. If unforeseen travel outside the duty station not required by the Terms of Reference is requested by UN Women, and upon prior agreement/approval, such travel shall be UN Women’s expenses and the individual contractor shall receive a per-diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s) – for this consultancy, the travel to Cox’s Bazar shall be UN Women’s expense.

Competencias

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Communication – Facilitates and encourages open and effective communication.
• Inclusive Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement – Demonstrates ability to collaborate and work effectively with stakeholders of different backgrounds.
• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, costs, and quality standards.
• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues – Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to conduct training and orientations
• Strong skills and experience in communicating and presenting complex ideas.
• Consistent approach to work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates openness to ideas and ability to manage complexities of the situations.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences such as gender studies/development studies/sociology/anthropology/political science etc.

Experience:

• Minimum 05 years of experience working with gender equality and development-related organisations.
• Demonstrated knowledge and experience in developing, conducting, and/or facilitating trainings, dialogues, workshops, or others.    
• Substantive understanding of gender equality, inclusion, intersectionality, and diversity.
• Prior experience with research, training, or implementing initiatives related to unequal power relations and intersectionality is an advantage.

Language:

Excellent communication and presentation skills in English and Bangla.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all
costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, only  and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the SSA in completing the assignment.

The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon
completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages

Evaluation Method and Criteria:
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation and determined as:
1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the
solicitation;

Only candidates obtaining a 70 mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.
Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points out of 100)

Criteria-01; Educational Qualification  - Max Point 10

Criteria-02; Number of years of specific working with gender equality and development-related organizations. - Max Point 25
Criteria-03; Knowledge and experience in developing, conducting, and/or facilitating trainings, dialogues, workshops, or other.  Max Point 25

Criteria-04; Substantive understanding of gender equality, inclusion, intersectionality, and diversity.  Max Point 20

Criteria-05; Prior experience with research, training, or implementing initiatives related to unequal power relations and intersectionality is an advantage.  Max Point 10

Criteria-06; Excellent communication and presentation skills in English and Bangla.  Max Point 10

The total number of points allocated for the weighted qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points (100) will be considered as technically-qualified candidate.

Interested candidates will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

To be included as part of the proposal: Only applications including all items mentioned above will be considered.

Submission of package

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

• Cover letter should be one to two pages max which should include 1) a brief overview of your previous experiences that makes you the most suitable candidate, 2) a paragraph on what you understand by unequal power dynamics, and 3) a paragraph/outline of how you would carry out the assignment (sessions). 
• Financial Proposal: Potential candidates are requested to kindly submit their CV and financial proposal for 07 working days professional fees.  
• Personal History Form (P11). The P11 Form can be downloaded from the following website: http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs

NOTE: Documents required before contract signing:

UN Personal History Form;
Full medical examination and Statement of Fitness to work and travel for consultants with travel involved. (This is not a requirement for RLA contracts);

Security Certificate BSAFE: EN: https://agora.unicef.org/course/info.php?id=17891
Individual subscribers over 65 years of age are required to undergo a full medical examination including x-rays at their own cost and obtaining medical clearance from the UN Medical Director prior to taking up their assignment;
Release letter in case the selected consultant is government official.

Only applications will all items mentioned above will be considered

Note: The individual consultant who does not meet the above eligibility criteria shall not be considered for further evaluation. Necessary documentation must be submitted to substantiate the above eligibility criteria

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 based on 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. (Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check).