Jobs - 37440- UN Women: International Consultant to Conduct the

UN Women: International Consultant to Conduct the Participatory Gender Audit

Lieu :

Home-based with travel to Georgia

Type de contrat :

Individual Contract

Date de commencement :

03-Jun-2013

Date limite de candidature :

22-May-13 (Minuit New York, États-Unis)

Niveau du poste :

International Consultant

Durée du contrat initial

25 working days

Langues requises :

Anglais

Durée prévue de la mission :

25 working days in the period 3 June - 6 December, 2013

Le PNUD s’engage à recruter un personnel divers en termes de genre, de nationalité et de culture. Nous encourageons de même les personnes issues des minorités ethniques, des communautés autochtones ou handicapées à postuler. Toutes les candidatures seront traitées dans la plus stricte confidentialité. Le PNUD ne tolère pas l’exploitation et / ou les atteintes sexuelles, ni aucune forme de harcèlement, y compris le harcèlement sexuel, et / ou toutes formes de discrimination. Tous/tes les candidats/tes selectectionnes /ées devront ainsi se soumettre à de rigoureuses vérifications relatives aux références fournies ainsi qu’à leurs antécédents.

Historique

Georgia joined CEDAW without reservations in 1994 and Georgian delegation took part in the elaboration of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action in 1995. The principles of equality, regardless of one’s sex, are embedded in Georgia’s Constitution of 1995 (Constitution of Georgia, article 14, states: “Everyone is born free and is equal before the law, regardless of race, skin color, language, sex, religion, political and other beliefs, national, ethnic and social origin, property and title of nobility or place of residence.”) and all the other major legislative acts. Since the mid-1990s government of Georgia has adopted a number of policies and laws aimed at enhancement of gender equality and combating of violence against women and girls. Some of the most recent policies and laws are: State Concept on Gender Equality (2006), legislation on domestic violence and trafficking in human beings (2006), Gender Equality Law (2010), National Gender Equality Action Plan 2011-2013, biannual Action Plans on domestic violence and trafficking in human beings’ (2011-2012), and National Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security (2012-2015).

UN Women (previously UNIFEM) has been providing technical assistance to the government and civil society partners towards achievement of greater gender equality and women’s empowerment in Georgia since 2001. Throughout these years of collaboration, UN Women established good working relations with partners in the government and NGO community. The areas of collaboration have primarily been issues related to women, peace, and security agenda, combating of violence against women, and support to women’s economic empowerment. UN Women has had a holistic approach to work, which entailed work on the level of policies, and legislation, institutional capacity development and support, and grassroots’ mobilization and awareness raising. The work has been encompassing both duty-bearers and rights-holders to ensure that the former understand their duties and responsibilities in the field of gender equality and women’s rights and are accountable to the latter, while the latter know more about their rights and responsibilities and demand and engage in the development of better policies, services, etc.

In order to further strengthen technical support towards gender mainstreaming at all the three levels of work and towards meeting Georgia’s internationally and nationally undertaken commitments in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment, UN Women in collaboration with International Labour Organization (ILO) introduced a methodology of Participatory Gender Audit (PGA) to Georgia in November 2012. The PGA methodology has been elaborated by ILO in the beginning of the 2000s (the training manual on Participatory Gender Audit was adapted by ILO was first developed by Gender and Development Training Centre for the StichtingNederlandseVrijwilligers in the Netherlands in the early 2000s).

According to the ILO definition:

“…the ILO Participatory Gender Audit is a tool that supports an organization’s commitment to gender equality by examining the extent to which equality is being institutionalized; helping to identify good practices in technical work; and pointing to effective and efficient ways of moving forward in mainstreaming gender in all work activities.” (ILO, A Manual for Gender Audit Facilitators: The ILO Participatory Gender Audit Methodology, ILO, 2007, 5.)

Thus, the ILO PGA methodology was shared with partners in Georgia through a training of Facilitators of Participatory Gender Audit, establishing a pool of national experts from civil society and government with relevant skills and capacities. This pool consists of some 27 trained and certified Gender Audit Facilitators on the one hand from some of the major government institutions that are relevant from the viewpoint of implementation of gender equality laws and policies and on the other hand, among women’s rights and gender equality advocates. The rationale behind this twofold approach once selecting the participants of the training was the intention to strengthen internal capacity of to be audited institutions as well as among those external actors who can advocate for such audits to be conducted in relevant government institutions.

Given the above, PGA methodology is a tool, which if fully applied can in a complexity benefit not only those organizations that will undergo such audits, but also beneficiaries of these organizations. With this vision in mind, it has been decided by UN Women and ILO to follow up to the Facilitators’ training and conduct two joint PGAs - one of the Parliament of Georgia and the other of the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees (MIDPOTAR) – these two structures along with their strategic importance and relevance for the PGA purposes have also expressed goodwill to undergo such audits that is a decisive factor for successful PGA outcomes.

In 2004 there was established the Gender Equality Council in the Parliament of Georgia (GEC), which has become a standing body in 2010 as provided by the Gender Equality Law of Georgia (Article 12). The GEC is the institutional machinery responsible not only for preparation, but also, for national coordination of the implementation of gender equality and women’s empowerment policies and legislation in Georgia (with the exception of domestic violence and anti-trafficking in human beings legislation and policies, as there exist two separate thematic inter-agency councils that coordinate work of the government in these two areas). In the process of coordination of the implementation of the two National Action Plans – the Gender Equality National Action Plan and the Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security the GEC managed to establish a network of gender focal points in all the relevant line Ministries of Georgia. The suggested Gender Audit initiative aims to contribute to strengthening of the positioning and work of GEC within the parliament as well as beyond in GEC’s interactions with the executive branch of the government and civil society.

UN Women has been closely collaborating with MIDPOTAR for over three years in the frameworks of its project “Women for Equality, Peace and Development in Georgia” (WEPD) with generous support of the Government of Norway. The aim of the project is to support the efforts and strengthen the capacities of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and conflict-affected women’s groups, other partners from civil society, and government to advance gender equality and women’s human rights in Georgia. Since 2010 five legal clinics were established and have been functioning in the MIDPOTAR: in Tbilisi (central office of the Ministry) and in its regional branches of Rustavi, Gori, Kutaisi, and Zugdidi. In 2010-2012, legal clinics’ lawyers have provided valuable legal advice and protection to over 12, 862 displaced individuals, 60% of them were women. A total of 469 cases were submitted to the court for 2010-2012 by the legal clinics lawyers (297 cases of female and 172 of male complainants). The total number of conducted community visits in IDP settlements was 824, reaching out to more than 25,196 displaced individuals. The technical assistance was provided to the Ministry’s staff to integrate gender equality principles in their operations through series of trainings and workshops. One of the biggest achievements of the project was the handing over of the Tbilisi-based legal clinic from the WEPD project to the Ministry. By conducting PGA in the MIDPOTAR, UN Women aims to have a snapshot of how is gender mainstreaming working for the time being and how can it be further strengthened to ensure that the policies and services of the Ministry are gender responsive and comply with the country’s international and national commitments and, in particular, meet different needs of internally displaced women, men, boys and girls.

In both of these institution the PGA will look whether internal practices and procedures and related support systems for gender mainstreaming are in place and effective and reinforce each other; it will monitor and assess the relative progress made in gender mainstreaming in the organizations; will identify the critical gaps and challenges, in terms of effective gender responsive services and recommend ways for addressing them; and last but not least, document good practices towards the achievement of gender equality.

PGA will be conducted by a team of two national facilitators with the leadership of one international facilitator (PGA Team) following the ILO PGA methodology (that recommends having at least three members in the PGA Team). The two national consultants will be selected from the pool of certified PGA facilitators trained by UN Women/ILO in Tbilisi, Georgia in November 2012. Certification requirement along with practical experience of conducting PGAs applies also to an international consultant. The PGA Team will benefit from guidance and support of WEPD Programme Manager and UN Women Gender Adviser in Georgia along with relevant colleague from Gender Equality Bureau of ILO Geneva office.

The proposed PGA will be funded by UN Women from its two different sources - WEPD project budget and UN Women core resources administered by UN Women Gender Adviser in Georgia.

To implement the work spelled out in the description section above, in the frameworks of this ToR, UN Women intends to hire an international consultant / PGA facilitator to work and lead the team of two national consultants/facilitators and conduct the participatory gender audit of the Parliament of Georgia and the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees in the period from 3 June to 6 December 2013. As per the key principles of ILO PGA approach, it is critical that selected international consultant is PGA Facilitator certified by ILO and has strong practical experience in conducting gender audits.

Devoirs et responsabilités

The duties and responsibilities of international consultant are:

Guide national consultants in finalization of the work plan and specific methodology on PGA of the Parliament and Ministry including key activities, and timeframe of the assignment in close cooperation with the UN Women team;
Lead the process of conducting of gender audit of the Parliament and the Ministry in line with the finalized and agreed methodology according to the ILO manual and procedures on Participatory Gender Audit (2007). Namely, ensure that similar activities are carried out both in the Parliament and MIDPOTAR to ensure that both institutions undergo full-fledged PGA:

Conduct initial desk review of relevant documents - home based work;

Coordinate and coach national consultants once they will be conducting meetings and individual interviews (at least 30 interviews – 20 with MPs (including GEC members and parliament staff) and 10 with MIDPOTAR staff) - home based work;

Provide detailed guidance to national consultants to prepare and conduct 4 regional PGA workshops in the regional branches of the Ministry in Rustavi, Gori, Kutaisi, and Zugdidi (on distance, no need to be in Georgia) - home based work;

Facilitate 2 final participatory PGA workshops and discuss findings from interviews and desk review – one such workshop with the staff of the GEC and the other with the staff of the Ministry. The workshops will be conducted in the central office of the Ministry in Tbilisi and in the Parliament in Kutaisi (costs for the workshops will be covered by UN Women separately);

Based on the working drafts prepared by the national consultants finalize the two gender audit reports (one for each audited entity) including documentation of process, findings of the study and final recommendations in English;

Hold two presentations of the findings of the PGAs with the relevant recommendations – one with the members of the Parliament and its key staff and the other with the Ministry’s key staff;

Lead the PGA Team to review and incorporate the feedbacks and suggestions from the presentations into the final reports:

Lead the PGA Team to finalize, write up and submit the final reports in English with the relevant recommendations to the Parliament and the Ministry;
Assist national consultants in their follow up work with the audited structures towards the implementation of the PGA recommendations.

Deliverables:

Developed work plan and specific methodology on PGAs of the Parliament and Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees including key activities, and timeframe of the assignment – by 17 June, 2013;
Conducted 2 PGA workshops with the staff of the Parliament in Kutaisi, and of the Ministry in Tbilisi central office – by 10 September, 2013;
Two presentation on the preliminary findings of the PGAs delivered in the Parliament in Kutaisi, and of the Ministry in Tbilisi central office – by 10 October, 2013;
Two final PGA reports prepared in English and submitted to UN Women – by 10 November, 2013;
Brief report on the guidance and support provided to the national consultants in their follow up work with the audited structures towards the implementation of the PGA recommendations – by 6 December, 2013.

Evaluation Procedure:

The candidates will undergo technical and financial evaluation.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

Criteria / Maximum points:

University degree (Masters) in Social Sciences or Humanities - 30;
Certificate of completion of ILO/UN Women training for PGA Facilitators - 20;
Five years of relevant professional experience in the field of gender equality and women’s rights - 40;
Fluency in English - 30;
Good understanding and proved knowledge of gender mainstreaming principles - 60;
Solid knowledge and strong practical experience in conducting participatory gender audit - 60;
Sound understanding of local context as demonstrated in the proposed audit methodology and proposed stages of the PGA - 60;
Good writing skills with demonstrated ability to plan and undertake participatory gender audit, collect and analyze data - 50.

Maximum total technical scoring: 350

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 financial proposal

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.

Winning candidate

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

Submission package:

CV;
Duly filled Personal History Form PHF11;
Proposed technical proposal on gender audit methodology explaining why candidate considers her/himself the most suitable for the work and providing a brief methodology concept-vision on how she/he will approach and conduct the work;
Lump sum financial proposal/offer*, including all necessary travel expenses, fee per day and any other expenses essential to undertake the task.

*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).

Management arrangements:

The contractor will work under direct supervision of UN Women WEPD Programme Manager and overall guidance of UN Women Gender Adviser in Georgia together with UN Women Georgia Country Representative.

Financial arrangements:

In total the international consultant’s work is envisaged for 25 working days during the period of 3 June, 2013 – December 6, 2013.

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by UN Women WEPD Programme Manager & Gender Adviser in Georgia that the services have been satisfactorily performed as specified below:

Developed work plan and specific methodology on PGAs of the Parliament and Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Accommodation and Refugees including key activities, and timeframe of the assignment (deliverable 1) – 20%;
Conducted 2 PGA workshops with the staff of the Parliament in Kutaisi, and of the Ministry in Tbilisi central office (deliverable 2); & Two presentation on the preliminary findings of the PGAs delivered in the Parliament in Kutaisi, and of the Ministry in Tbilisi central office (deliverable 3) – 40%;
Two final PGA reports prepared in English and submitted to UN Women (deliverable 4); & Brief report on the guidance and support provided to the national consultants in their follow up work with the audited structures towards the implementation of the PGA recommendations (deliverable 5) – 40%.

Compétences

Good understanding and proved knowledge of gender mainstreaming principles;
Solid knowledge and strong practical experience in conducting participatory gender audit;
Sound understanding of local context as demonstrated in the proposed audit methodology and proposed stages of the PGA;
Good writing skills with demonstrated ability to plan and undertake participatory gender audit, collect and analyze data.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Academic Qualifications:

University degree (Masters) in Social Sciences or Humanities;
Certificate of completion of ILO training for PGA Facilitators.

Years of Experience:

At least five years of relevant professional experience in the field of gender equality and women’s rights.

Language requirement:

Fluency in English.

All online applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from
http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/P_11_form_UNwomen.doc.

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.