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.

UN Women Country Programme in Nepal focuses on four programmatic areas (1) Sustainable, Resilient and Inclusive Economic Transformation, (2) Inclusive and Transformative Human Development, (3) Environmental Sustainability, Climate and Disaster Resilience and (4) Governance, Federalism, Participation and Inclusion. The Strategic Note (SN) is aligned with and contributes to national priorities as described in the 15th National Periodic Plan, Nepal’s GEWE commitments, the priorities of women’s organizations, the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2023-2027 and the UN Women Global Strategic Plan 2022-2026.

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the relevant Programme Specialist and in close consultation with Country Representative, Deputy Representative and relevant NCO Programme and Strategic Support Unit Staff, the consultant is responsible for providing support to NCO in writing programme/project concept notes/proposals/pitches and full programme/project documents.

Duties and Responsibilities

In coordination with relevant staff, support the development of programme documents focusing on the followings:

  • Development full programme/project concept notes and other related donor-targeted products following funding opportunities formats, deadlines and based on information collected from relevant sources.
  • Guarantee the preparation of high-quality and coherent proposals documentation (including concept note, logical framework, project plan with objectives, activities, results, and impacts, etc.)
  • Maintain effective communication with UN Women personnel in the design process. Communicate regularly with the lead supervisor to inform proposals’ drafting advance and validate design decisions and proposals.

Time Frame

This is a home-based assignment for one year (August 2024 – August 2025) on a retainer basis (as and when required) with a maximum 13 working days.

Payment Schedule

The consultant will be paid based on the number of days worked.

Travel and Accommodation expenses

UN Women will bear the full cost of travel and accommodations for official missions as per the UN Women standard guidelines.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

  • Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
  • Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work; and
  • Respect for diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

  • Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
  • Accountability
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • Effective Communication
  • Inclusive Collaboration
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

  • Strong knowledge of gender equality and women’s rights issues;
  • Good coordination, resource mobilization and donor relation skills;
  • Good knowledge of Results Based Management and Human Rights Based Approach;
  • Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings and recommendations;
  • Strong programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and RBM competencies.
  • Strong analytical and communication skills;
  • Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail;
  • Excellent writing and editing skills;
  • Excellent interpersonal and networking skills, and ability to work in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environments; and
  • Ability to work under pressure on multiple projects whilst maintaining high-quality and timeliness.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

  • Master’s Degree in international development studies, gender/women’s studies, communication economics, political science, related social sciences, or related discipline.

Experience

  • A minimum 7 years of relevant work experience in programme/project development, proposal/concept note, writing, research, editing, creative writing or related field;
  • Proven understanding of development work in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment; and
  • Proven understanding of development work in one of the areas listed below; i) Gender-Responsive, Inclusive Governance, ii) Women’s Economic Empowerment, or  iii) Climate Change, Disaster risk Reduction and Humanitarian Proven experience in resource mobilization, donor relations, international organizations or the UN previously in similar assignments is an asset.

Language skills

  • Excellent command of written and oral English; and
  • Knowledge of additional UN language is an asset.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

UN Women seeks to hire three (3) experts as retainers one for each of the following areas for proposal writing: i) Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Governance,  ii) Women’s Economic Empowerment or iii) Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction and Humanitarian, a The position is the equivalent of a P4 position.

  1. Selection criteria:

The selection process will be carried out through:

  • Required degree and qualification (10 points); 
  • Relevant years of experience in programme/project development, proposal/concept note writing, research, editing, creative writing or related field (15 points); 
  • Proven understanding of development work in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment (10 points); 
  • Proven understanding of development work in one of the programmatic areas (10 points); 
  • Experience in working with resource mobilization and with donors, international organizations or the UN previously in similar assignments is an asset (15 points); 
  • Writing Sample (10) 
  • Interview (30 points). 

Only the applicants who have attained a minimum of 70 total points will be considered as technically qualified applicants.

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How to Apply

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

You will be able to upload only one attachment. Please combine your all documents into one single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form and the writing sample will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.