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 and the third gender as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

All human development and human rights issues involve gender dimensions. UN Women globally focuses on key priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. The six priority areas include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, engaging in all aspects of women peace and security processes, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting through Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

UN Women’s work on GRB involves ensuring that national planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes incorporate a gender perspective. UN Women’s GRB programmes at the regional and country level have made significant contribution towards this by building political support, developing technical resources and capacities, generating good practices for improving women's access to services and increasing accountability for Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment (GEWE). At the forefront of global, regional and local advocacy for application of GRB, UN Women has built partnerships with diverse government, inter-governmental and non-governmental partners, to further efforts and demonstrate GRB’s relevance to sustainable development, aid effectiveness, public sector reform and financing for development.

In 2004-05, the report of the expert group of classification of government expenditure became instrumental in laying out the road map for GRB in India. This was followed by the adoption of “Budgeting for Gender Equity” as a mission statement by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India (GoI). In 2005-06, the Ministry of Finance, GoI introduced the Gender Budget Statement (GBS) to reflect the quantum of budgetary allocations for programmes/schemes that substantially benefit women. Another important mechanism institutionalised by the Ministry of Finance was the directive for setting up Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) within ministries/departments to mainstream gender through GRB. As of today, GBCs have been set up in 57 ministries/departments of the Union Government thus far.

UN Women’s Multi Country Office (MCO), based in New Delhi, India, covers four countries of the region, i.e., India, Bhutan, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. On GRB, UN Women works closely with the Union and State governments on strengthening on going initiatives on GRB, including generating evidence on sectoral application of GRB in select sectors, enhancing capacities of government functionaries to apply GRB in planning and budgeting schemes/policies/legislations.

UN Women India has supported GRB Initiatives of the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India since the beginning of attempts to institutionalise GRB in the country. UN Women has provided valuable resources for the GRB Handbook and Manual that the Ministry launched in 2009. UN Women has also organized three regional workshops on CEDAW (Convention on Elimination of Discrimination against Women) and GRB for the Northern, Southern, Eastern and North Eastern regions, in close collaboration with the Ministry and civil society experts. UN Women continues to provide technical support to the Ministry of Women and Chid Development on GRB from time to time.

Under the guidance and supervision of the Joint Secretary/Director, MWCD, Government of India & Programme Specialist – GRB, UN WOMEN, the consultant will undertake the following key tasks and responsibilities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Facilitating Training and Capacity Development of relevant constituents on GRB:

  • Developing/compiling training tools, manual, and other resource material on GRB;
  • Developing and strategizing on implementing an action plan for expansion of the scope of GRB trainings across the country by developing/strengthening partnerships with various National and State level training institutions; and
  • Monitoring the outcomes of these trainings by ensuring pre and post capacity assessments of the trainings conducted.

Gender mainstreaming efforts within line ministries:

  • Strengthening the response of select Ministries to GRB through establishing/strengthening convergence partnerships, working with Gender Budget Cells and providing inputs to various Ministries/Departments on gender issues, particularly for new policies, programmes and legislations;
  • Analysis of documents/references from different Ministries/ Departments from a gender perspective; and
  • Analysis of the Gender Budget Statement and coordination with Ministries/ Departments with regards to the same.

Strengthening GRB efforts in select State Governments:

  • Coordination role with select states for strengthening GRB efforts and support with technical expertise on GRB; and
  • Analysis of documents/references from select States from a gender perspective.

Research and Documentation:

  • Document and disseminate resources on GRB, such as case studies and good practices at the union and state level;
  • Assist in preparatory work for review meetings with Secretary and Ministers, including, preparation of resource materials, agenda papers, minutes etc.
  • Conduct research on gender audit to ensure that the methodology piloted is revised (if needed) and finalized.

Deliverables:

  • Training material/module/resources on GRB.
  • Finalise Guidelines on Gender Audit upon aggregating and incorporating feedback from key ministries that have been piloting gender audits within the Government of India.
  • Process documentation of the trainings conducted in GRB.
  • Timely compilation of minutes of meetings with government stakeholders (union and state level) on GRB coordination.
  • Timely response to parliamentary questions or any preparatory work required for meetings.
  • Documentation of good practices on GRB.
  • Inputs provided to ministries/departments at national and state level to strengthen GRB.

Competencies

Core Values:

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 respect for diversity:

  • Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Additionally, the individual should have an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Communication:

  • Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication. Planning & Organizing:
  • Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks and makes allowances accordingly.

Organizational Awareness:

  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge, sound judgment and flexibility in the context of UN Women work in India.

Teamwork:

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

Accountability:

  • Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost and quality standards.

Functional Competencies:

  • Excellent facilitation and coordination skills;
  • In-depth knowledge of gender equality and women's rights issues;
  • Ability to communicate sensitively across different focal points;
  • Demonstrates excellent oral and written communication skills;
  • Knowledge and understanding of UN system and familiarity with inter-governmental processes.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Public Policy, Economics, Women’s studies or a related field.

Experience:

  • At least 3 years of professional experience in programme management and analysis, especially in the area of women’s rights.
  • Atleast 1 year of experience of working with Central Government / State Government. Excellent analytical writing, presentation and documentation skills required. Should be well versed with the use of computers and its programmes / applications.

Language:

  • Fluency in written and spoken English and working knowledge of language of the duty station.

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:

  • 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 (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.