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. Placing women’s rights at the center 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.

Lebanon’s municipal elections are slated to take place no later than May 2024. Women remain grossly underrepresented in Lebanon, despite gaining their right to vote in 1952, and a vibrant feminist movement. Despite low representation in all aspects of political life, including 6.25% representation in parliament, and 5.4% of Lebanon’s municipal councilors, positive trends of participation, including through increased women candidacy, have continued. In Lebanon, UN Women collaborates with relevant stakeholders to provide training for women political candidates to help build their capacities to run and succeed in elections and in calling on political parties and parliamentarians to support the empowerment of women, including through legislative reform and advocacy.

Under the direct supervision of the Women’s Political Participation Programme Manager, UN Women seeks to recruit a competent consultant on Women’s Political Participation to adapt the corporate training manual developed by UN Women to the Lebanese context and support capacity building efforts of women political candidates through provision of training of trainers on the adapted training content. The training manual is available in English, but it will be translated to Arabic by UN Women Lebanon office.

Duties and Responsibilities

The candidate selected for this consultancy will be expected to adapt the five modules of the UN Women corporate training manual on “Political Leadership and Candidate Training” mentioned below to the Lebanese context and train UN Women partners on the adapted curricula. The adapted curricula and training will be delivered in Arabic.
the five modules of the UN Women corporate training manual on "political leadership and Candidate Training" are:

1. Preparation and leadership (Transformative leadership; the decision to run; “your story”; the constituency, the political landscape, office, and electoral laws; political parties; and running as a woman)
2. Communications (Creating a message; public speaking; creating a communications plan; promoting the interests of your political party; and talking about gender equality and women’s empowerment)
3. Voter contact (Goal setting and targeting; and voter/constituent engagement)
4. Fundraising (Money and fundraising sources in campaigns; fundraising tools and plan; and legislated and non-legislated political finance)
5. Campaign management (Campaign plan; campaign team; and campaign budget)

Deliverables:

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.

Functional Competencies

• Substantial knowledge and understanding of Lebanese politics and electoral processes in Lebanon.
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions, and present findings and recommendations.
• Good analytical skills
• Good knowledge on issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment in public life.
• Demonstrated leadership, ability, and technical skills to communicate complex ideas verbally and in writing.

Please visit the link below 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:

• Master’s degree in international Affairs/Development, Sociology, Political Sciences, Public Administration, Gender and Women’s Studies, or related discipline.
• 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:

• Minimum 7 years of relevant experience in areas of political science, public administration, elections, and research & analysis.
• Expertise on gender issues in elections in Lebanon.
• Experience working in electoral processes, promoting women’s advancement in Lebanon or the region.
• Computer skills, statistics, internet communication and command of MS Office.

Language requirements:

• Written and oral English and Arabic is a must.
• French is an asset

Evaluation criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

• Criteria 1: Education. (10 points)
• Criteria 2: Experience in areas of political science, public administration, elections, and research & analysis. (40 points)
• Criteria 3: Experience on gender issues, and promoting women’s advancement in Lebanon or the region. (20 points)

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application:

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications: • A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work and link to portfolio of work;

• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process;
• Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily rate.

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all them, since the online application submission does only permit to upload one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

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.)