UN WOMEN Jobs - 37443- UN Women: National Consultant to Conduct the Parti

UN Women: National Consultant to Conduct the Participatory Gender Audit

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Home-based (Georgia), GEORGIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

15-Jun-2013

Application Deadline :

06-Jun-13 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

80 working days

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

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 Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers 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 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 mainstreaming 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 November 2012, in Tbilisi, Georgia. 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 two national consultants / facilitators to work and perform identical duties and responsibilities in a team under the leadership of an international consultant 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 two national consultants will be selected from the pool of already trained and certified group of Facilitators of Participatory Gender Audit available in Georgia. Therefore, the Terms of Reference for selection of the participants will be shared by email with this pool of national consultants / facilitators.

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of each of the two national consultants are:

Elaborate and submit the work plan and specific methodology on PGA of the Parliament and Ministry under the leadership of international consultant including key activities, and timeframe of the assignment in close cooperation with the UN Women team;
Conduct gender audit of the Parliament and the Ministry under the leadership of international consultant in line with the finalized and agreed methodology according to the ILO manual and procedures on Participatory Gender Audit (2007). Namely, implement similar activities both in the Parliament and MIDPOTAR to ensure that both institutions undergo full-fledged PGA:

Conduct initial desk review of documents prior to audit meetings;

Coordinate and conduct meetings and individual interviews with focal persons within the Parliament (Gender Equality Council Chair) and Ministry’s central office in Tbilisi (Head of Public Relations Department);

Conduct at least 20 individual interviews with the members of the GEC, MPs as well as designated staff of the Parliament of Georgia (in Kutiasi and Tbilisi as apropriate);

Conduct at least 10 individual interviews with focal persons from the Ministry’s central office in Tbilisi and regional branches in Rustavi, Gori, Kutaisi, and Zugdidi;

Conduct and facilitate four participatory joint workshops and discuss findings from interviews and desk review for the regional branches in Rustavi, Gori, Kutaisi and Zugdidi;

Support international consultant to conduct and facilitate two participatory final PGA workshops and discuss findings from interviews and desk review – one such workshop with the MPs (including GEC members) and staff of the Parliament and the other with the staff of the MIDPOTAR. The workshops will be conducted in the Parliament in Kutaisi and in the central office of the Ministry in Tbilisi;

Draft two PGA reports (one for each audited entity) including process, findings of the study and final recommendations in Georgian (to be translated in English by UN Women for sharing with the international consultant);

Support international consultant to organize 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:

Work in a team with international consultant to finalize, write up and submit the final reports in Georgian and English with the relevant recommendations to the Parliament and the Ministry;
Provide technical assistance and advice to the GEC and the Ministry on the implementation of the recommendations.

Deliverables:

Developed work plan and specific methodology on PGA 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 at least 30 individual interviews and meetings for gender audit with key staff in both structures in Tbilisi, as well as in Kutaisi, for the Parliament (20 interviews in the Parliament and 10 in the MIDPOTAR) – by 10 August, 2013;
Conducted at least 12 field visits and 8 individual interviews for gender audit in the four regional offices (three visits in each office) of the MIDPOTAR in Rustavi, Gori, Kutaisi and Zugdidi – by 10 August, 2013;
Conducted 6 participatory joint workshops and discuss findings from interviews and desk review with the staff of the Parliament in Kutaisi, and of the Ministry in Tbilisi central office, in Rustavi, Gori, Kutaisi and Zugdidi – by 10 September, 2013;
Drafted and presented two participatory gender audit preliminary reports including process, findings of the study and final recommendations – by 10 October, 2013;
Elaborated and submitted two final reports in Georgian and English with the relevant recommendations to the Parliament and Ministry namely to the Minister and Deputy Minister – by 10 November, 2013;
Provided technical assistance and advice the GEC and the Ministry on the implementation of the recommendations – by 6 December, 2013;
Monthly narrative reports about the executed activities for the conducting the PGAs.

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;
Three years of relevant professional experience in the field of gender equality and women’s rights - 40;
Fluency in Georgian and good knowledge of English - 30;
Good understanding and proved knowledge of gender mainstreaming principles - 60;
Solid knowledge and understanding of conducting participatory gender audit its scope and key principles - 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;
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:

Payment will be disbursed based on working days on a monthly basis, in total each of the two consultants/facilitators will work for 80 working days during the period of 3 June, 2013 – December 6, 2013.

Payment will be done based on a number of working days at the end of each month upon submission by the national consultants/facilitators and approval by the WEPD Programme Manager and UN Women Gender Adviser for Georgia of monthly narrative reports as well as timesheet indicating exact number of working days during the month concerned.

Competencies

Good understanding and proved knowledge of gender mainstreaming principles;
Solid knowledge and understanding of conducting participatory gender audit its scope and key principles;
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.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

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

Years of Experience:

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

Language requirement:

Fluency in Georgian and good knowledge of 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.