Background

The UNDP Strategic Plan 2014-2017 states that UNDP development activities will place particular emphasis on specific population groups, including those that ae experiencing great inequality and exclusion in terms of access to opportunities and achievement of outcomes, as captured in human development indices, especially women headed households and youth. In addition, the strategic plan states that all outcomes will be pursued using engagement principles that reflect UNDP approach to development and for which will be accountable, including reflecting pivotal significance of gender equality and women empowerment, understanding that sustainable human development will not be fully achieved unless women and girls are able to contribute on equal basis with men and boys to their societies. 

Guinea-Bissau ranks 177 out of 187 countries and territories with an HDI of 0,396 (UNDP HDR 2013) which is in the low human development category with 48, 9% of the population living below the income poverty line (US$1.25 per day (UNDP HDR 2014). Women in Guinea-Bissau represent 52% (RGPH 2009) of the total population and the country counts among those facing acute gender inequalities and challenges to women’s leadership and participation.

Despite some progress made, gender inequalities are still widespread in political, social and economic spheres and the recent political crisis hampers progress in all social and economic sectors. Women are still underrepresented in parliament, in political parties, security forces, public and private services. Gender based violence, including FGM, is a big threat to women’s development and participation.

Aligned to national priorities translated in the National Strategic and Operational Plan, “Terra Ranka”, and the United National Partnership Framework 2016-2020 (UNPAF), UNDP Guinea Bissau is committed to  contribute to strengthen capacity of public institutions paying particular attention to reform and strengthening the capacity of national institutions to deliver public goods and services to the population, taking into account the need to address inequalities, especially those that are gender base.  In that regard, UNDP has the responsibility to ensure the most effective and efficient delivery of UNDP’s development assistance through strategic attention to Gender Equality and the empowerment of Women in Guinea Bissau by ensuring that programmatic and operational activities are gender sensitive in an a manner to accelerate social transformation whereby men and women have equal rights in power relation and equal access to services and control over resources. For instance, the UNDP Country program Document 2016-2020 states that the proposed transformational changes will primarily target women and youth, the part of the population most affected by poverty in both urban and rural areas (where 54.7 per cent of the population still reside).

Recently, UNDP launched the Gender Equality Seal corporate certification program to promote gender equality both as a development goal and an integral part of how the organization itself works. Recognizing UNDP Country Offices for delivering transformational gender equality results, the Gender Equality Seal prizes offices that have met a range of specific standards for integrating gender equality into their work. To receive a Gender Equality Seal, standards must be met in the areas of management systems, in-house capacities, enabling environment, communications and knowledge management, programmes, partnerships, and gender results.

In other to fulfil the objectives of ensuring the most effective and efficient delivery of UNDP’s development assistance through strategic attention to Gender Equality and the empowerment of Women in Guinea Bissau, and delivering transformational gender equality results, the Country Office needs to elaborate and implement a Gender Strategy and respective Action Plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

Specific Deliverables and Activities:

Under the overall supervision of the Deputy Resident Representative-Program and in consultation with the Country Office Gender Task Force the Consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables:

• An inception report based on the initial findings from the discussions with the CO and review of key documents, defining the consultant approach and plan for the assignment implementation- May 22,  2017;
• A diagnosis report with the key findings from the desk review, interview with CO staff and senior management and key selected partners, on the current CO programing and human resources structures and processes status with regard to gender equality, as well recommendations on strategic direction for improvement- June 12, 2017;
• Country Office Gender Strategy document: June 30, 2017;
• Country Office Time-bound and budgeted Gender Action Plan- July 14, 2017

In order to accomplish these deliverable, the consultant is expected to perform the following activities:

• Review existing gender studies, policies, strategies and plans documents to get a comprehensive of gender challenges in the country and the approaches to address them;
• Map the existing interventions by the Government, development partners and other stakeholders to implement the defined strategies and plans, in order to identify the existing gaps;
• Review UNDP corporate  mandate and strategy in the area of gender to identify entry points for the  country office in view of responding to the commitments made in the Country Program Document, taking in consideration the value added and  comparative advantages;
• Review the Country Office Program portfolio to assess the extent to which it responds to the CPD commitment to pay strategic attention to Gender Equality and the empowerment of Women in Guinea Bissau;
•  Assess the country office structure and capacity to deliver transformational gender equality results in order to identify existing gaps or weaknesses;
• Review  the country office human resources structures and processes to assess their responsiveness to gender equality objectives and targets set at corporate level;
• Assess the country office personnel knowledge of gender concepts and principles

Expected Outputs:

The expected outputs from this assignment are:

• The CO programing and human resources profilescurrent situation in terms of gender equality vis-a-vis the country needs and corporate strategies assessed, as well as the strategic directions to follow - June 12, 2017;
• Country office capacity gaps/needs for a gender equality programing and to promote gender equality in the country office assessed- June 12, 2017;
• Strategic direction and actions to ensure gender equality programing, as well as gender balance and knowledge in the country office defined- - July 14, 2017.

Reporting:

The consultant will report to the Deputy Resident Representative-Program and will work in close consultation with the Country Office Gender Task-Force.

Competencies

Organizational Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional:

• Strong analytical, negotiation and communication skills, including ability to produce high quality practical advisory reports and knowledge products,
• Professional and/or academic experience in one or more of the areas of the Development or knowledge management field.

Project and Resource Management:

• Ability to produce high quality outputs in a timely manner while understanding and anticipating the evolving client needs.
• Ability to focus on impact and results for the client, promoting and demonstrating an ethic of client service.
• Strong organizational skills.
• Ability to work independently, produce high quality outputs.
• Sound judgment, strategic thinking and the ability to manage competing priorities.

Communications and Advocacy:

• Strong ability to write clearly and convincingly, adapting style and content to different audiences and speak clearly and convincingly.
• Strong presentation skills in meetings with the ability to adapt for different audiences.
• Strong analytical, research and writing skills with demonstrated ability to think strategically.
• Strong capacity to communicate clearly and quickly.
• Strong inter-personal, negotiation and liaison skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or its equivalent in Sociology, Law, Development Studies, Economics, Management, International Relations, Law or other related areas.
• Specialization in gender studies is desirable

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years of national/international professional experience in the development sector, preferably in areas related with gender issues;
• Working experience within the UN system on gender related area is an asset ;
• Experience in providing advisory services for gender mainstreaming in programing, advocacy and capacity development is required;
• Work experience from a developing country highly desirable;
• Experience in the use of computers and office software packages as well as web based management systems;
• Excellent writing, research, analysis and presentation skills.

Language requirement:

• Excellent knowledge of French or English;
• Written and Spoken knowledge of Portuguese will be an advantage.

Documents to be included when submitting the proposal (Mandatory)

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

Proposal:

• Explaining why they are the most suitable for the work;
• Provide a brief methodology on how they will approach and conduct the work (if applicable);
• Financial proposal;
• Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references.

Financial Proposal:

Lump sum contracts

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in installments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR.  In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (including travel, per diems, and number of anticipated working days).

Contracts based on daily fee

The financial proposal will specify the daily fee, travel expenses and per diems quoted in separate line items, and payments are made to the Individual Consultant based on the number of days worked.

Travel;

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal.

There is no anticipated travel for this assignment. In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP HHD Team and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be covered and paid by UNDP.

The fare will always be “most direct, most economical” and any difference in price with the preferred route will be paid for by the expert.

UNDP will not cover any costs associated with moving to the duty station. If applicant is requesting for such coverage the cost to be calculated and included in the financial proposal.

Evaluation:

Applicants will be screened against qualifications and competencies specified below through a desk review or an interview process. Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative analysis based on a combination of the Technical and Financial Scores:

* Technical Criteria weight: 70%

* Financial Criteria weight: 30%

Only applicants obtaining the minimum required 70% of the points will be considered technically qualified.

Evaluation Criteria:

• Criteria A: Education background - 10pts;
• Criteria B: Experience as defined in the ToRs - 15pts;
• Criteria C: Competences as defined in the ToRs -10pts;
• Criteria D: Understating of the ToRs - 15pts;
• Criteria E: Methodology and overall approach - 30pts;
• Criteria F: Overall quality of the proposal (Comprehensiveness, structure, language and clarity) - 20pts.