UN WOMEN Jobs - 68890- Consultant - Gender Responsive Budgeting (Open to

Consultant - Gender Responsive Budgeting (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Kohima, Nagaland, INDIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Nov-2016

Application Deadline :

20-Oct-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

One Year (20 working days per month)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

One Year (20 working days per month)

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

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. The UN Women Multi-Country Office (UNW MCO) in India also covers Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka.

In India, Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) has been recognized as an effective tool for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) adopted the mission statement of ‘Budgeting for Gender Equity’ in 2004-05 for universalizing GRB both at the Centre and the States and developed a strategic framework of activities to implement this mission.

Since 2005-06, the Union Government has taken a slew of measures to institutionalise GRB in the country. Production of Gender Budget Statement and constitution of Gender Budget Cells have been key institutional mechanisms for operationalizing GRB at the level of ministries/departments. Akin to the union government, several states have also adopted GRB. As many as 19 states have adopted GRB in some form or the other.

The first state level GRB training programme was organized in Nagaland in 2009 and GRB was officially adopted by the State Government. As an operational strategy the State Government set up a Task Force for "Engendering State and District Plans" headed by Additional Chief Secretary the same year, with members from Departments of Health and Family Welfare, Finance, Rural Development, Development Commissioner, State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD), Administrative Training Institute (ATI), Nagaland University and Additional Director, Women Development is member secretary. Subsequently a Gender Budgeting Cell was constituted under the Planning and Coordination Department.

Keeping in mind the importance of capacity building, GRB was also introduced as a subject of training in ATIs and SIRD. A GRB manual customized to local requirement was also developed in close collaboration with the Task Force on GRB and UNDP.

Despite these efforts to operationalize GRB in the State, the process seems to have stagnated over time. In light of this, the Government of Nagaland and UN Women signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the objective of strengthening GRB in the state. In order provide continued support the government’s ongoing efforts on GRB, UN Women is seeking services of a technical consultant to be placed at the Department of Planning & Coordination, Government of Nagaland. Accelerating government’s efforts on GRB assumes special significance in light of the adoption of the post 2015 development framework in the form of Sustainable Development Goals by member states in September last year. The SDGs centrestage the issue of gender equality and empowerment of women and thus it will be critical to ensure achievement of the standalone goal on gender equality as well as gender sensitive targets across all goals.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Technical Consultant will be placed at the Planning & Coordination Department, Government of Nagaland to support the government in strengthening GRB. Specifically, the consultant will be engaged in the following tasks:

Establishing political commitment at the highest level for GRB: The consultant will be required to establish political commitment at the highest level for GRB by way of ensuring a clear policy statement/guidelines. S/he will be required to organize meetings with senior officials of relevant departments to achieve this objective;
Development of a concrete roadmap: Based on the findings and recommendations of the scoping study being undertaken by UN Women and Government of Nagaland, the consultant will assist the government in finalizing and implementing the roadmap for GRB in the state. The roadmap will lay out the mechanisms through which GRB will be operationalized, key strategies that will be adopted and the actors who will be play the nodal role as well as their roles and responsibilities;
Capacity building: The consultant will work with the nodal agency for developing a strong capacity development plan for training various stakeholders on GRB in the state. The consultant will also coordinate the logistic of the workshops as well as prepare the workshop reports;
Influencing sectoral policies and programmes: The consultant will work with sectoral departments (at least 2-3 sectoral departments as decided by government) with the objective of enhancing the gender responsiveness of their planning, budgeting and accountability mechanisms. This will entail conducting research focusing on select schemes of the departments;
Monitoring & Evaluation: The consultant will be required to collect data from departments to monitor progress on gender related issues. S/he will also study and prepare a format for collecting sex disaggregated data for relevant programmes/schemes;
Development of communications material: Based on the evidence generated as well as to build capacities of officials, the consultant will be required to develop relevant communications material such as a web portal on GRB, media articles/press releases/web articles etc.;
Coordination: The consultant will be responsible for coordinating GRB work with various stakeholders and across various departments. S/he will prepare minutes of all meetings, workshops etc. that are held by the government on GRB and provide logistic support for all the meetings/trainings etc.;
State level implementation of SDGs: The issue of GRB is inextricably linked to the SDGs. The consultant will be therefore required to support the government in ensuring state level implementation of SDGs;
Any other task assigned by the supervisor.

Deliverables:

Individual workplan;
Approved roadmap on GRB;
Capacity development plan for the officials;
Data monitoring format to analyse implementation of schemes from a gender lens;
Document comprising the analysis of schemes/programmes of departments (as decided in consultation with DWCD) from a gender lens;
Minutes of the meetings;
Communications materials.

Competencies

Core Values / 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.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing 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:

Ethics and Values:

Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Work in teams:

Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Conflict Management:

Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Functional Competencies:

Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Minimum Masters degree in gender studies, social sciences or relevant field.

Experience:

Minimum 3 years experience of working on gender issues;
Previous experience of working with the government is desirable;
Knowledge of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc), spreadsheet and database packages, web based management systems;
Demonstrable understanding of gender equality outcomes;
Ability to work independently and with minimal supervision.

Language:

Strong written skills in English and good command over Hindi.

Application:

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:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (5 points);
Working knowledge and experience of working on Gender Issues (5 points);
Working knowledge and use of computers and its programmes/applications. Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and advance knowledge of spread sheet and database packages (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

Interview;
Written Test.

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.