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.

At the state level, Madhya Pradesh (MP) was the first state to produce the Gender Budget Statement in 2007-08. As of today, 28 state departments publish the GBS annually. The collaboration between the Government of Madhya Pradesh (GoMP) and UN Women has led to a number of initiatives to institutionalise GRB within the state. However, one of the main reasons for the lack of implementation of GRB has been its implementation across sectors. Hence, UN Women conducted a GRB analysis of agriculture sector which assessed the extent to which agriculture policies, schemes and budgets benefit women. Based on this evidence, trainings of officials of the Directorate of Agriculture were conducted. To take this important component of work further, UN Women in collaboration with the Directorate of Agriculture would like to expand the trainings from the state to the divisional level.

Towards this, UN Women seeks the services of a consultant to develop module/s and conduct GRB trainings in four divisions (to be finalised in consultation with the Directorate) covering select districts of the state. The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Programme Analyst for Gender Responsive Budgeting, UN Women India MCO. 

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will be required to undertake the following:

  • Undertake a needs assessment to identify the needs and expectations of officials at the divisional level which will inform the development of GRB training module in the four divisions;
  • Develop GRB training module in the context of GRB application in agriculture as well as develop the training plan/schedule/agenda with details and duration of training sessions;
  • Develop baseline and endline assessment tools to measure and inform the learnings from the trainings;
  • Conduct the trainings in the four divisions of the state;
  • Document the training methodology, conduct and learnings to inform action plans on application of GRB in agriculture in other divisions. 

Deliverables:

  • Methodology and plan for the training needs assessment;
  • Module for the GRB trainings on agriculture;
  • Plan for the conduct of trainings in the four divisions and Baseline and Endline assessment tools for the training; and
  • Documentation of the training conduct/highlights. 

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:

  • Master’s degree or an advanced degree in Gender Studies or related field.

Experience Requirements:

  • Minimum 5 years experience on gender and development issues.
  • Demonstrable experience in working on issues of agriculture from a gender lens.
  • Specific understanding of GRB will be an added advantage.
  • Demonstrable experience in conducting trainings, developing training manuals and publications.

Language:

  • Excellent analytical and writing skills in English and proficient in speaking in 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:

  • 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);
  • Demonstrable experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
  • Working knowledge and experience of working on Gender Responsive Budgeting (5 points)

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

  • Interview.

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.