UN WOMEN Jobs - 77312- National Consultant

National Consultant – Legal Expert

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Tbilisi, GEORGIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

13-Mar-2018

Application Deadline :

16-Mar-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

12 months

Languages Required :

Expected Duration of Assignment :

12 months (with the possibility of extension)

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

Millions of women and girls worldwide suffer some form of gender-based violence, be it domestic violence, rape, female genital mutilation/cutting, dowry-related killing, trafficking, sexual violence in conflict-related situations, or other manifestations of abuse. In fact, for women and girls 16-44 years old, gender based violence is a major cause of death and disability. Up to 70 per cent of women experience violence in their lifetime.

Violence against women persists in every country in the world as a pervasive violation of human rights and a major impediment to achieving gender equality. Such violence is unacceptable, whether perpetrated by the State and its agents or by family members or strangers, in the public or private sphere, in peacetime or in times of conflict. The UN Secretary-General has stated that as long as violence against women continues, we cannot claim to be making real progress towards equality, development, and peace.

States have an obligation to protect women from violence, to hold perpetrators accountable and to provide justice and remedies to victims. Eliminating violence against women remains one of the most serious challenges of our time. The knowledge base and tools to prevent and eliminate violence against women developed over the past decade must be utilized more systematically and effectively to eliminate all forms of violence against women. This requires clear political will, outspoken, visible and unwavering commitment at the highest levels of leadership of the State and the resolve, advocacy and practical action of individuals and communities.

In order to support the Government of Georgia to meet its obligations undertaken on the international, regional and local levels inter alia in terms of eliminating violence against women and in particular domestic violence, with the generous support by the Swedish Government, the second phase of the UN Joint Programme for Gender Equality (hereinafter UNJP) has been launched in January 2016. The UNJP is implemented by UNDP, UN Women, and UNFPA.

The second phase of the Joint Programme continues to respond directly to the women’s rights and gender equality commitments undertaken by the Government of Georgia (GoG) on international and national levels, and will upscale the results achieved by the UNJP in previous phase and UN agencies in general, as well as other stakeholders in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment in Georgia.

The Joint Programme addresses gender inequality in a coherent and comprehensive manner, covering a wide range of issues, such as political and economic empowerment of women, reducing violence against women and girls and promotion of women’s sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights.

The overall goal of the UNJP is to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment by means of strengthening capacities of government at both central and local levels and across the executive, legislative and judicial branches, engaging civil society and raising public awareness about gender equality. This ambitious goal will be achieved by realization of the following outcomes:

Enhanced women’s political and economic empowerment;
Enabling environment to eliminate violence against women and girls, especially sexual and domestic violence, created in Georgia;
Advanced gender equality and reproductive rights, including for the most vulnerable women, adolescents and youth.

UN Women leads work under the second outcome of the UNJP being responsible for creation of enabling environment to eliminate violence against women and girls, especially domestic and sexual violence in Georgia. In order to achieve this outcome UN Women partners with the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament of Georgia. In Spring 2017 the Parliament of Georgia confirmed the commitment of combating violence against women through endorsing ratification of the Istanbul Convention and adopting milestone legal framework aimed at harmonization of the domestic legislation with the Istanbul Convention - a package of amendments to 23 laws accompanying the Convention.

In order to further enhance compliance of the acting Georgian legislation with the Istanbul Convention as well as rectify gaps revealed during practice UN Women intends to take lead in establishing a working group composed of representatives of NGOs, UNICEF, UN Women, relevant Ministries, Prosecutor General’s Office and sitting judges targeted at further enhancement of the legislation. The working group shall come up with the amendments and addenda to the respective pieces of legislation related to violence against women and girls and domestic violence.

In order to facilitate efficient working process of the group and strengthen its capacity, UN Women will recruit a National Consultant – Legal expert who will be responsible for collecting and taking due regard to the remarks and suggestions expressed by the members of the working group; developing relevant draft amendments to the VAWG/DV related pieces of legislation which will be submitted to the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament of Georgia for finalization and initiation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and responsibilities of the National Consultant are:

· To serve as a focal point for UN Women in relations with the working group established under the auspices of UN Women;

· To lead the meetings of the working group together with UN Joint Programme UN Women component team and collect remarks and suggestions expressed by the members of the working group;

· To facilitate consultations with civil society to collect comments and integrate in the package;

· To develop draft amendments to VAWG/ DV related legislation;

· To develop explanatory notes to the draft amendments;

· To participate in relevant Parliamentary Committee hearings of the drafts;

· To perform other duties as necessary in relation to the package of legislative amendments (such as further research, data collection, inquiries, etc.);

· To review and update relevant training modules on VAWG/DV for different professionals and conduct trainings as necessary

Deliverables

Progress Report 1 – covering duties and responsibilities spelled out above (submitted to UN Women by 25 April, 2018- 25 working days);
Progress Report 2 - covering duties and responsibilities spelled out above (submitted to UN Women by 25 October 2018– 30 working days);
Final Report – showcasing all inputs provided as per duties and responsibilities above (submitted to UN Women by 25 February 2019 – 25 working days).

Competencies

Core Values:

Respect for Diversity
Integrity
Professionalism

Core Competencies:

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
Accountability
Creative Problem Solving
Effective Communication
Inclusive Collaboration
Stakeholder Engagement
Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Graduate Degree or higher in Law

Knowledge and Experience

At least three years of experience in legislative drafting and analysis in the area of gender equality and domestic violence;
Sound knowledge and understanding of gender equality, violence against women and domestic violence in Georgia;
Sound knowledge of national and international domestic violence and gender equality and violence against women and girls related legislation and instruments;
Sound knowledge of material and procedural legislation in the areas of Administrative, Criminal and Civil Law of Georgia

Language Requirements

Proficiency in Georgian

Evaluation procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria; technical and financial evaluation. The candidates must possess minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation.

The candidate must possess the following minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation:

Graduate Degree or higher in Law;
At least three years of experience in legislative drafting and analysis in the area of gender equality and domestic violence;
Sound knowledge of national and international domestic violence and gender equality and violence against women and girls related legislation and instruments

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

Graduate Degree or higher in Law (max 50 points);
Sound knowledge and understanding of gender equality, violence against women and domestic violence in Georgia (max 90 points);
Sound knowledge of national and international domestic violence and gender equality related legislation and instruments (max 90 points);
Sound knowledge of material and procedural legislation in the areas of Administrative, Criminal and Civil Law of Georgia (max 60 points);
At least three years of experience in legislative drafting and analysis in the area of gender equality and domestic violence (max 50 points);
Proficiency in Georgian (10 points)

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150

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 consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management arrangements:

The contractor will report to and work under direct supervision of the UN Women Programme Analyst and under the overall guidance of the UN Women National Programme Officer.

Financial arrangements:

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by UN Women Programme Analyst that the services have been satisfactorily performed as specified below:

• Deliverable 1 - 40%

• Deliverable 2 - 40%

• Deliverable 3 - 20%

Application submission package:

CV;
Duly completed Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
Financial Proposal - lump sum proposal/offer* in Georgian Lari (including breakdown of this lump sum into the costs of respective deliverables)
A sample of previously elaborated draft law

*The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR).

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.