Background

BACKGROUND

In April 2016 UN Women has officially launched a three-year programme “Standards and Engagement for Ending Violence against Women and Domestic Violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina” that is financially supported by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). The programme aims to strengthen the institutional and social response mechanisms to violence against women and domestic violence in BiH by contributing to the implementation of the Istanbul Convention.

The programme builds on the work done in the past years in partnership with the Gender Mechanisms, relevant institutions and CSOs at the legal, policy and strategic level as well as the support provided to improve services for survivors and to prevent violence against women and girls, with a strong focus on engaging men and boys.

The current programme has two main components that are focusing on protection of survivors and prevention of violence against women and domestic violence.  Under the first component, the program aims to enhance availability, access and quality of services utilizing a multi-sectorial approach to address violence against women and domestic violence in BiH. This will be realised by providing support to service providers in line with the requirements of the Istanbul Convention, with a strong focus on capacity development of relevant service providers in selected communities.

Under the second component, there will be a strong focus on working with women, men and youth to address and understand gender roles through awareness campaigning and educational activities. In addition, key media actors and outlets will be engaged in advocacy, research and capacity building towards improving gender sensitive reporting and preventing violence against women and girls.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY

With this consultancy UN Women seeks to support the efforts of the Agency for Gender Equality of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the establishment of minimum standards for service provision to survivors of gender-based violence, particularly domestic violence in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Agency for Gender Equality is currently leading the process of analysis of the harmonization of legislation and practices in service provision with the provisions of Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence (Istanbul Convention) and UN Essential Service Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence. The areas analysed are legal framework, data management, social protection, health and specialized services provided by women NGOs. Additional analysis of policing sector will be conducted and commissioned by UN Women. Analyses is being developed by local experts and consultants.

This consultancy has two main objectives: a) to review the information collected by the local consultants against international standards outlined in Istanbul Convention and UN Essential Service Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence and taking into consideration the local context propose minimum standards for service provision in the areas of health, social protection (including existing specialized services) and justice and policing (focusing on police and free legal aid); b) to review the information collected by the local consultants, review them against international standards outlined in Istanbul Convention and UN Essential Service Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence and taking into consideration the local context, propose minimum standards for setting up missing specialized services for women victims of gender based violence.

Duties and Responsibilities

The selected consultant shall be responsible for the following deliverables:

  • Detailed Methodology. In developing a detailed methodology, the consultant should include the following:
    • Desk review. Desk review should at minimum include the review of the following set of documents: international policy documents and tools such as Council of Europe Convention on Preventing and Combating Violence against Women and Domestic Violence and UN Essential Service Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence; state and entity level legal and policy documents in the area of gender-based violence and domestic violence, analysis developed by Agency for Gender Equality and local consultant analysis the field of policing and free legal aid. Consultant is expected to maintain regular communication with Agency for Gender Equality and local consultants, guide and make interventions in their work.
  • Final report.  The consultant is expected to produce a document of minimum 10 and maximum 15 pages based on a) desk review of documentation; b) inputs provided by local consultants and any other relevant stakeholder; c) local context and c) the fair and impartial judgement of the consultant.  Final report should include a) proposal of the minimum standards for service provision in the areas of health, social protection (including existing specialized services) and justice and policing (focusing on police and free legal aid) and b) propose minimum standards for setting up missing specialized services for women victims of gender-based violence (including quality, availability and access to services).
  • Validation workshop. The consultant is expected to present the report at the validation workshop that will be held in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

ACTIVITIES AND TIMEFRAME

The Consultant will be expected to complete the indicative list of tasks within the indicative timeframe. Final list will be agreed between UN Women and the consultant at the beginning of the consultancy. The consultant is expected to do most of the work homebased. Consultant is expected to travel to BiH to conduct key meetings and validation workshop towards the end of the consultancy.

Tasks / Days / Delivery date by:

  • First meeting with the UN Women / 0.5 / April 10th; 
  • Draft of the methodology / 2 / April 13th;
  • Final methodology / 0.5 / April 18th;
  • Desk review / 7 / April 30th;
  • Draft of the final report / 4 / May 16st;
  • Final report including validation workshop / 1 / May 31st . 

REPORTING

Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Program Specialist and the direct supervision of the EVAW Project Manager, the Consultant will develop and deliver the above listed outputs in accordance with the above outlined timeframe. All the outputs should be provided in English in accordance with the above table. 

Competencies

 Competencies:

  • Excellent interpersonal, presentation and communication skills;
  • Great organizational skills;
  • Ability to conceptualize information into written reports;
  • Delivers oral/written information in a timely, effective and easily understood manner; 
  • Initiative, sound judgment and demonstrated ability to work harmoniously with people of different ethnic backgrounds.

Values:

  • Demonstrates professional competence and is conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments, observing deadlines and achieving results;
  • Display cultural, gender, nationality, religion and age sensitivity and adaptability;
  • Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modelling UN values and ethical standards.

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

Academic Qualifications:

  • MA degree in gender studies, law, public policy, psychology, sociology or any other related social science.
  • PhD degree in one of these areas will be considered as an advantage.

Experience:

  • At least 10 years of demonstrated research experience, preferably in the field of gender issues;
  • Demonstrated experience in the field of gender-based violence, preferably with service provision or/and prevention;
  • Track record of similar assignments (applied research studies, PCM, evaluations);
  • Demonstrated experience in applied research with data collection, analytical and presentation skills and demonstrated ability to structure information;
  • Experience working with projects related to gender and gender equality will be considered an asset.
  • Experience developing logical frameworks for development interventions;
  • Experience developing monitoring and evaluation matrix for development interventions;
  • Proven record of facilitation of working group meetings;
  • Previous experience working /consulting for UN agencies will be considered an asset.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

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

  1. Expression of interest letter
  2. Detailed financial proposal - broken down to demonstrate the consultancy fees and a budget for travel and accommodation)
  3. UN P11 form

Please note: Both documents have to be uploaded in 1 file.

EVALUATION OF OFFERS

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process that takes into account both the technical qualification of potential consultants as well as the financial proposals submitted in support of consultant applications. Candidate applications will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of applicant qualifications and a financial proposal. The contract will be awarded, based on the desk review, to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

  • responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
  • having received the highest score out of below defined technical, interview and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 50 points in the technical evaluation will be considered as qualified and evaluated further. Only top 3 candidates (with highest number of points in the technical evaluation- documents based) will be interviewed. The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest price proposal among those top 3 qualified candidates. All other price proposals will receive points in reverse order.

Criteria:

  • Technical Evaluation – documents and interviewed based (80%)
  • Financial Evaluation- based on submitted offer (20%)

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 20

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 the consideration.

Please note that travel costs and accommodation cost should be covered by the consultant and included in the financial offer.

Qualified women and members of minorities are encouraged to apply. UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.

Due to the large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

For any additional information, please contact unwomen.bih@unwomen.org.