Background

UN Women (UNW), 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 as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997 (as UNIFEM). UN Women Palestine Country Office focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In support of this goal and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the Palestinian context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions toward the realisation of following strategic goals: Increase women’s leadership and participation; Increase economic empowerment of women; Prevent violence against women and girls; Enhance women’s leadership in peace, security and humanitarian response; Enhance accountability to gender equality commitments in national planning and budgeting processes.

The Palestinian Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA) is the principle national machinery for coordinating gender policy development, monitoring and reporting. In that regard, UN Women has been supporting MoWA since its establishment in 2003 to fulfill its mandate in providing support to other government institutions in mainstreaming gender, including providing capacity building and technical assistance support for the promotion of gender mainstreaming. In this context, UN women supports the relevant government ministries and institutions to enhance the integration of gender in their planning and budgeting by providing technical expertise, design and capacity-building support to secure opportunities for exchange of knowledge and experiences with other countries in the region.  These efforts have contributed to a significant achievement in the gender sensitivity and responsiveness of the current Palestinian National Policy Agenda 2017-2022 as well as the inclusion of gender equality and women’s empowerment in national priorities and the high commitment among decision makers in government ministries and institutions to promote and support the mainstreaming of gender in planning and budgeting.

In 2017, with the support of the Government of Spain (through The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) UN Women introduced a new project with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to enhance the implementation of the Cross Sectoral National Gender Strategy 2017-2022. The project aims to strength the national capacity and accountability to enhance national commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment and to create an enabling environment for the implementation of the Cross Sectoral National Gender Strategy (CSNGS) through setting accountability systems and mechanisms in planning, programming, policy setting and financing decisions. In June 2018, UN Women has signed a Letter of Agreement (LoA) with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs for an amount of $US 58,000 to support the implementation of the strategy for the period June-December 2018. Accordingly, a workplan has been prepared by MoWA in coordination with UN Women detailing the different interventions and expected outputs. In that regard, UN Women would like to contract a national technical expert to support the implementation of the CSNGS 2017-2022 through provisioning of technical and capacity-building support to MoWA and other relevant ministries and national bodies in accordance with national commitments and the relevant national and international frameworks, UN treaties and conventions.

Objectives of the Assignment:

1. Contribute to enhancing the implementation of the CSNGS 2017-2022, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other relevant national policies, strategies and budgets; and
2. Provide the technical expertise and support to the Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA) and position them in the National Government architecture to enhance their role within the line ministries and in supporting the gender units.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of UN Women Special Representative and the direct supervision of UN Women Human Rights Programme Manager and in close cooperation with the UN Women Programme Coordinator, the National Technical Expert will undertake the following duties and responsibilities in relation to the above objectives and in line with the following Project’s outputs as listed in the project’s document.

1. Provide technical guidance to the Gender Units (GU’s) to develop and implement their annual work plans.
2. Support MoWA in conducting regular coordination meetings with GU’s to enhance progress, discuss challenges and suggest mitigation actions towards accelerating the implementation of the CSNGS.
3. Assist MoWA in facilitating a dedicated session on the CSNGS as part of MoWA’s annual planning to review the progress on the implementation of the CSNGS and provide recommendations for further action.
4. Through a highly consultative process among all key stakeholders, review and provide recommendations to activate the Council of Ministers’ decision on the GU’s formulation, with the aim to strengthen the GU’s mandate and enhance mainstreaming gender in national plans and budgets.
5. Develop and deliver a ToT training module on gender and development aimed at engaging youth in national GEWE efforts led by MoWA with focus on young men and boys.
6. Provide leading technical support to MoWA to formulate a national multi-stakeholder forum to enhance accountability towards implementing the CSNGS 2017-2022 and address emerging issues/ obstacles.
7. Provide strategic advice and technical support to MoWA to maximize its membership and role in mainstreaming gender in the local aid coordination structure, including enhancing the positioning of GUs in the local aid architecture.
8. In close collaboration between MoWA and MOF, enhance the role of GRB Technical Committee in advocating for mainstreaming gender in national budgets through technical guidance and capacity building support.
9. Provide leading technical inputs to MoWA for organizing a national consultation dialogue between key government decision makers on GEWE and civil society actors (women machinery and human rights organizations) to ensure translating national gender equality commitments at the national level, in line with CEDAW recommendations and the SDG 2030 Agenda commitments.
10. Support UN Women in enhancing the work with gender equality advocates and civil society actors to improve the implementation of their commitments.

Delivrables:

During the assignment period, and according to the above background and requested duties and responsibilities, the National Technical Expert will be expected to deliver the following:

• A set of actionable recommendations to activate the role of the National Technical GRB Team with clear roles and responsibilities to enable them fulfill their mandate.
• A detailed capacity building plan for each of the four targeted Gender Units (GUs) including clear timelines for implementation.
• An analysis report based on conducting case studies in three active gender units to identify lessons learnt and best practices of mainstreaming gender in their core strategies and programs for possible replication in other Gender Units.
• A training report and training module on gender and development for MoWA aimed at engaging youth in GEWE with focus on young men and boys.
• A draft of the first annual work plan to establish the role and activate the CSNGS National Multi-Stakeholder Forum including the following annexes: Terms of Reference, AWP timelines, frequency of meetings, capacity development needs to monitor the implementation of the CSNGS, etc.
• An actionable plan for 2 key GUs from selected sector ministries on mainstreaming gender and SDG 5 to enhance the implementation of GEWE commitments in Palestine in line with 2030 Agenda.
• A final Assignment Report including key observations and future recommendations

Timeframe:

The assignment is expected to start on 15 November 2018 and to be finalized by 15 May 2019 (a total of approximate 50 working days)

Competencies

Core Value:

• 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

Functional Competencies:

• Build strong relationships with partners, focusing on impact and results for the partners and responds positively to feedback.
• Ability to work under pressure and with multi-disciplinary and multicultural teams and processes.
• Good programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills.
• Good knowledge of Results Based Management.
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings and recommendations.
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail.
• Excellent interpersonal skills.
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas.
• Ability to perform a wide range of varied, inter-related administrative services.
• Ability to interpret and analyze data and resolve operational problems, propose solutions.
• Ability to work with minimum supervision, and to plan and organize work.
• Ability to provide inputs to business process re-engineering and development and implementation of new systems.
• Ability to focus on result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
• Ability to organize and prioritize work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines.
• Ability to approach work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

• Master degree in gender or women’s studies, social sciences and/or closely related development field.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of working experience in the field of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, with a strong background in Gender Mainstreaming.
• A minimum of 5 years of working experience in coordination with government, donors and civil society on gender equality at the national level.
• Five years of experience in programme planning with focus on gender and women's rights.
• Experience in training (on the job coaching) and ability to organize and implement training sessions of a minimum of 5 years is required.
• Experience in facilitating and leading discussions and building consensus among government partners of a minimum of 2 years.
• Experience working with national and international frameworks on gender and women human rights of a minimum of 2 years is considered a strong asset.
• Experience working with UN agencies or other agencies in the development sector is considered an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in Arabic (written and oral) and working knowledge of English are required.

Application procedure:

This SSA modality is governed by UN Women General Terms and Conditions. UN Women will only be able to respond to applicants who meet the minimum requirements.

Candidates should be able to quickly submit degree certificates, medical certification (of good health), a written sample such as a gender mainstreaming work plan, a final report on a previous consultancy assignment, a gender sensitive strategic plan, should they be requested in consideration of this consultancy.

Evaluation of applicants:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. A contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer receives the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 50 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation (70%) – max. 70 points:

Technical requirement and maximum number of points:

• Relevant education(5 points)
• A minimum of 7 years of working experience in the field of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, with a strong background in Gender Mainstreaming (10)
• Experience working with national and international frameworks on gender and women human rights of a minimum of 2 years is considered a strong asset (10)
• A minimum of 5 years of working experience in coordination with government, donors and civil society on gender equality at the national level and five years of experience in programme planning with focus on gender and women's rights: (10 points)
• Experience in training (on the job coaching) and ability to organize and implement training sessions of a minimum of 5 years is required (10 points)
• Experience in facilitating and leading discussions and building consensus among government partners of a minimum of 2 years (10 points)
• Experience working with UN agencies or other agencies in the development sector (5 points)
• Written sample: (10 points) e.g. policy papers on gender mainstreaming, analysis reports on gender issues, workplans, assessment reports on gender issues.

Total: 70

Financial Evaluation (30%) – max. 30 points:

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. A suggested formula is as follows:

p = 30 (µ/z)

Using the following values:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal;
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

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