Historique

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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 will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of national priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with government, civil society and other relevant actors.

In Nepal, around 83 percent of the people live in rural areas. Agriculture forms the foundation of the economy, accounting for around a third of GDP and providing an income for three quarters of the population Women supply around 65 percent of labour in agricultural activities. However, they often lack access to and control over productive resources such as land, capitals and credits, and have more difficulty than men in gaining access to social protection. Their participation in decision-making remains low and they shoulder most of the unpaid care work in their households. All of them hampers their ability to unleash their full economic potential. Within this context, UN Women, FAO, IFAD and WFP have implemented a 5-year joint programme: “Accelerating Progress toward the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women”, Joint Programme (RWEE JP) in three selected districts of the Central Development Region (Sindhuli, Sarlahi and Rautahat) in Nepal with the overarching goal to secure rural women’s livelihoods and rights in the context of sustainable development in the following four outcome areas: 1) improved food and nutrition security; 2) increased income for sustainable livelihoods; 3) enhanced leadership and participation of rural women; and 4) facilitating gender responsive policy environments for the economic empowerment of rural women. The RWEE JP also aims to pilot the gender equality social inclusion (GESI) responsive implementation of the Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) under the leadership of the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD).

One of the activities underlined in the 4th outcome of the RWEE JP is to conduct the evidence based gender responsive agricultural research, which is proposed in this ToR. 

Justification:

Women are the most important agents in the enhancement of agricultural and rural development in Nepal. And yet they face greater constraints than their male counterparts in gaining access to public services, social protection, employment opportunities, information, innovations and local national markets and institutions, balancing unpaid care work, and taking up leadership positions. The intersection between gender, caste, ethnicity and spatial inequalities mean that Dalit, Janjati/Adivasi, Madhesi, and geographically isolated women face even greater hardship. It has been reported in number of studies that there is need to conduct gender research and analysis in a wide range of policy areas to support in gender responsive policy formulation, implementation and social change in the country.

In order to rectify these challenges as well as uphold the Government of Nepal’s political commitment to prioritie GESI across sectors, the MoAD has given emphasis of GESI integration throughout the ADS process. One of the overarching objectives of the ADS is to transform Nepal’s agricultural sector more inclusive. While GESI provisions are more explicitly integrated into the ‘Governance’ pillar of the ADS, areas in need of further strengthening include pillar wise integration of GESI provisions throughout the ADS as well as recognition of the growing exodus of working age men on availability of agricultural labour, productivity and the increasing feminization of the agricultural sector.

The importance of production of evidence-base/knowledge products for GESI responsive policies and programming in the agriculture sector was also outlined under output 1.5 of the ADS.

In this context, UN Women is seeking for a consultant to carry out a desk review of existing researches conducted in the agriculture sector for last 10 years (2005-2016) to stock take the existing information and knowledge base on workload distribution between men and women in the agriculture sector.

Objective:

The objectives of this assignment are to produce an analytical knowledge product on the workload distribution between men and women in the agriculture sector by stocktaking and analyzing the existing research information and to identify the areas of further policy advocacy to support the Government for the GESI-responsive implementation of the ADS.

Note:

• Government of Nepal, Central Bureau of Statistics 2012. National Population and Housing Census 2011;
• Government of Nepal, Ministry of Finance. 2012. Economic Survey Fiscal Year 2011/12;
• FAO, 2011. The State of Food and Agriculture 2010-11: Women in Agriculture; Closing the Gender Gap for Development. Rome FAO;
• Agriculture Development Strategy-Final Report, prepared for Government of Nepal, June 2013. 

Devoirs et responsabilités

Desk review of existing researches:

• Carry out a desk review of researches conducted by the government, public and private academic/research institutions in the agriculture sector for last 10 years (2005-2016) on subjects such as workload/work time distribution between men and women in the agriculture sector to (1) stock take/summarize the existing information on relevant subjects, and (2) identify gaps between available information and required information which helps the Government make evidence-based policy-making and programming.

Analytical report:

• Prepare an analytical desk review report including key findings and recommendations based on the information collected and analyzed.

Identification and recommendation of possibility of further policy advocacy:

• Identify possible areas of policy advocacy for the GESI-responsive implementation of the ADS based on the key findings and recommendations.

Expected Deliverables:

• Deliverable-1: Inception report with a clear work plan and methodologies (precise actions, timeline and specific tool and techniques in line with scope of work and specific tasks);
• Deliverable-2: Draft analytical report on the desk review of the relevant documents on the selected topics including identification of the gaps and challenges; and
• Deliverable-3: Final edited analytical reports after incorporating comments from sharing workshop with the relevant experts and RWEE JP partner UN agencies.

Methodology:

The Consultant is expected to conduct this assignment based on the secondary data and information which are available in reports, literatures and other reference materials. Other methodologies such as key informant interviews and questionnaire surveys may be applied to verify and/or supplement the secondary data and information. Possible key informants include relevant government officials of line ministries, UN agencies and other donors, and staff/stakeholders of major entrepreneurship and skills development support programmes. 

To assess the effectiveness, relevance, sustainability of respective interventions, and their overall impact, the supplementary data and information will be collected to support the results of the analyses with the secondary data and information.

Duration of Assignment and Duty Station:

• The above deliverables should be completed by 31 October 2016. This is a home based assignment and no field visit is expected.

Contract Supervision:

• The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Programme Specialist/Unit Head of EE Unit of UN Women, in close consultation with Programme Officer for the day-to-day operations.

Schedule of Payments:

• Upon submission of deliverable-1 (10% of total contract amount);
• Upon submission of deliverable-2 (50% of total contract amount); and
• Upon submission of deliverable-3 (40% of total contract amount).

Compétences

Functional Competencies:

• Proven ability to conduct research and desk reviews;
• Proven ability to write quality research and desk review reports;
• Ability to multi task, work on many concepts at once, and work in a team.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:

• Master’s degree in development studies, gender and development, agriculture or any other related fields.

Experience:

• Minimum 6 years of experience on conducting gender and agriculture related researches including desk reviews;
• Minimum 5 years of proven experience and demonstrated knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, including women’s economic empowerment;
• Familiarity with the Agriculture Development Strategy (ADS) would be an asset;
• Excellent communication skills and intercultural sensitivity;
• Good knowledge of computer applications especially Microsoft Office applications such as word and excel together with good presentation skills.

Language:

• Excellent command of written and oral English and Nepali.

How to Apply?

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:

• Expression of interest containing earliest starting date;
• UN Women P11 form (blank form can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment/);
• Samples of research / desk review reports conducted by the applicant; and
• A separate attachment of lump-sum financial proposal including consultant fees, travel and other relevant costs.

Note: Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Please upload as one attachment of the documents as mentioned above online through this website. If it is not feasible to include all in one single document, the relevant research or working or policy papers (as mentioned above) can be send to separate email address jobs.np@unwomen.org with subject line Job ID# 67759.

Evaluation Criteria:

The candidates will be evaluated according to qualification and technical review. 

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

• Criteria: Master’s Degree in development studies, gender and development, agriculture or any other related fields; (20%);
• Criteria: A Minimum 6 years of conducting gender and agriculture related research and desk reviews (50%)
• Excellent command on written English (20%)
• Familiarity with the ADS would be an asset (10%)

Maximum total technical score amounts to 100 points. Only candidates who have passed over the mandatory criteria and have accumulated at least 70 points under the technical evaluation will be considered for financial review.

Technical Evaluation – documents based (70%).
Financial Evaluation (30%);

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30

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 the consideration.

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.