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 as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women in Ukraine supports the government and civil society in advancing gender equality and the implementation of national and international gender equality and women’s rights commitments. The Country Strategy of UN Women Ukraine (2018-2022) covers the following thematic areas:

• Making gender equality priorities central to national reforms, governance, planning and budgeting
• Ending violence against women and girls; and
• Strengthening implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda

The Country Strategy of UN Women Ukraine has a strong focus on women facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination with the objective to build their human rights awareness, as well as capacity to effectively advocate for their needs in national and local development planning and budgeting, as well as gender-responsive recovery.

In the framework of the European Union funded UN Women-UNDP joint project “Restoration of Governance and Reconciliation in Crisis-Affected Communities of Ukraine” UN Women in partnership with its national Responsible Party (RP) Ukrainian Women’s Fund has worked with women facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, including internally displaced and conflict-affected women, to empower them to participate in local decision making and advocate for inclusion of their needs into local plans, programmes and budgets in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. As a result, internally displaced women, women and girls with disabilities, single female-headed households and conflict-affected women, increasingly participate in local decision making and demand inclusion of their needs into local plans, programmes and budgets through public consultations. Mobilized women and men were capacitated to conduct human rights-based and gender analysis of the local needs through community profiles and voice their needs with local authorities to ensure that gender-responsive services are provided to target the different needs of women and men.

Women’s groups successfully implemented the small grants on local development initiatives with the objectives to promote gender equality, and enhance women’s security in conflict-affected communities, increase women’s access to services, and information and have contributed to increase the trust between the authorities and women’s grassroot groups. The local authorities have committed in-kind and financial resources, minimum 14 percent of the total small grants’ budget (1), as part of local ownership and sustainability.

This came as a result of comprehensive work by UN Women in partnership with regional and local administrations and gender equality advocates, including building knowledge and skills of women’s groups on gender equality, human-rights-based approach (HRBA)  and evidence-based advocacy through Community Mobilization for Empowerment (CME) approach; mobilizing 364 women and 52 men in 58 self-help groups; facilitating consultative meetings with authorities and women’s groups especially during local programme and budget planning; strengthening twenty new women’s Civil Society Organizations in the communities where there was no CSO before; and raising awareness on gender equality and harmful gender stereotypes

The applied CME methodology proved to be successful in meaningfully engaging excluded women and men in mobilized groups, providing them with essential skills and knowledge to address inequalities and discrimination. Thus, UN Women plans to expand the use of CME methodology, together with its national RP, to engage women facing multiple forms of discrimination in three eastern regions of Ukraine (Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya), increase their awareness and capacities to advocate for their rights and enable women’s participation in local decision making on service delivery, local development, recovery, and community security.

UN Women intends to build on the successful implementation of the CME approach in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and support its further implementation with national RP under the technical guidance and oversight of international consultant on CME methodology. UN Women seeks to hire an international consultant on CME methodology to provide the technical guidance, expertise and quality control to the UN Women national RP in the CME implementation process with the focus on HRBA. The international consultant is expected to work closely with UN Women programme management team and UN Women’s national RP. The consultant is expected to provide substantial inputs and guidance to the RP on conducting the evaluation of piloted CME approach in target communities of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, provide advance capacity building trainings and Training for Trainers’ course to the team of RP and their community workers in CME methodology and HRBA, provide technical guidance and support in developing the CME guide book among others. The international consultant will conduct at least 7 in-country trips to Ukraine, including field trips to Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya oblasts to provide the guidance in the field; and facilitate events such as regional/local forums on CME with the participation of key stakeholders.

The above-mentioned work will be supported within the UN Women project "Building democratic, peaceful and gender-equal society in Ukraine" with the financial support of the Government of Norway. The project aims to support the implementation of WPS commitments at regional and local levels and promote the participation of women and girls, especially the most vulnerable, affected by conflict in recovery, peace and community security planning in eastern Ukraine.

(1) The small grants have been funded by UN Women and grant fund was $ 191k in 2018.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Representative, and direct supervision by UN Women Programme Specialist, the International Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Develop the work plan with timeline and proposed methodology including the outline of the proposed workshops/trainings (3 working days).
• Conduct in-country visit, including conducting three-day evaluation workshop and one day local motivation type of workshop in CME methodology for UN Women national Responsible Party and stakeholders. The consultant is expected to develop the evaluation tool, provide inputs to RP on evaluation plan. The consultant will also review and provide inputs on the final evaluation report prepared by RP (11 working days).
• Provide online feedback and guidance on CME methodology and HRBA to RP on monthly basis (minimum one day in a month during the period of this assignment), including sharing relevant reading materials, information, success stories from other countries, providing feedback on the tools, provide response to the technical questions raised by team members, convene the Skype calls and discussions as needed (11 working days).
• Conduct a regional 5-day methodological training in CME and HRBA for newly recruited community mobilizers, regional coordinators and heads of mobilized self-help groups and conduct a 5-day Training for Trainers (ToT) course for community mobilizers to equip them with the skills to provide training in CME in order to replicate in new communities - (14 working days)
• Provide inputs to the concept of CME regional forums, participate and make presentations as a key note speaker during 3 regional/local forums on CME organized by RP in target regions of the project with the participation of key stakeholders such as regional and local authorities, representatives of private sector, civil society organizations and mobilized women’s groups, (6 working days);
• Develop the CME guidebook including conducting two-day participatory workshop on development a guide book in Ukraine with the team of national RP and community mobilizers. The CME guidebook should include inputs from the community mobilizers. The outline should follow the following layout: description of the piloted methodology in Ukraine, key steps, processes, tools, success stories, human interest stories, good practices, personal experiences, lessons learned and forward-looking recommendations for application (13 working days).
• Write the final report on the conducted activities and submit in written to UN Women – (2 working days).

Assignment Deliverables:

1.          Deliverable 1-  Submitted work plan and proposed methodology for the assignment including time lines and agendas for the proposed workshops to be delivered to national RP– (3 working days) by 14 November 2018;

2.          Deliverable 2- Conducted in-country visit, including conducting three-day evaluation workshop and one day local motivation workshop in CME methodology for UN Women national Responsible Party and key stakeholders. The consultant will submit the evaluation tool, provided inputs on evaluation plan and final evaluation report prepared by RP (11 working days)-by January  2019.

3.          Deliverable 3 – Conducted one regional 5-day methodological trainings in CME and HRBA and conducted one 5-day ToT course for community mobilizers. - (14 working days) by June 2019.

4.          Deliverable 4- Conducted two-day workshop in Ukraine for developing the CME guidebook and submitted final CME guidebook, including description of the methodology piloted in Ukraine, key steps, processes, tools, success stories, human interest stories, good practices, personal experiences, lessons learned and forward-looking recommendations for application (13 working days) by June 2019.  

5.          Deliverable 5- Conducted three in-country trips and participated in three regional/local CME forums as key note speaker (6 working days) by December 2019.

6.          Deliverable 6- Submitted narrative report describing the provided online guidance to the RP in application of CME methodology- (11 working days) by December 2019.

7.          Deliverable 7- Submitted final report on conducted activities to UN Women – (2 working days) by December 2019.  

The Consultant is expected to work from home and conduct at least 7 in-country trips to Ukraine including Donetsk, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhya oblasts. The consultant will be provided with project related necessary materials and technical assistance by UN Women during the implementation of the assignment. 

Inputs

UN Women will provide the consultant with the project all supporting materials and information and will organize calls/video-conferences if necessary and meetings when consultant will travel to Ukraine.

Performance evaluation:

• Contractor’s performance will be evaluated against such criteria as: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered. The evaluation will be carried out and cleared by the hiring manager after receiving and accepting deliverables as per above schedule, which will also be the basis for payment to the consultant.

Financial arrangements:  

• Payments will be disbursed by instalments as per above schedule upon certification by the UN Women Programme Specialist that the services have been satisfactorily performed.

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Human Rights based Approach and 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

Qualifications Education:

• Advanced university degree in Social Science, Sociology, Law, International Relations, Economics, Development Studies or related fields

Experience:

• At least 5 years of related professional experience in in the field of international development; human rights, gender equality, women’s and human rights;
• Sound knowledge of Community Mobilization for Empowerment methodology and human rights-based approach in development;
• Solid experience of application of CME and human rights-based approach with community-based organizations and CSOs in Europe and Central Asia;
• Experience of providing methodological trainings, workshops and technical assistance to Civil Society Organizations in Community Mobilization for Empowerment with the special focus on most vulnerable groups including women facing multiple discrimination;
• A working experience in this area within the United Nations or international organizations;
• Strong organizational skills, ability to meet deadlines and to manage multiple tasks effectively.

Languages and other skills: 

• Excellent command of English; 
• Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, IT tools, ability to use Internet and email.

Evaluation of Applicants:

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of their qualifications and financial proposal. A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. The award of the contract should be made to the individuals whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable;
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical criteria and interview, 70% of total evaluation – max 70 points for technical criteria. Total max 70 points:

• The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 70. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on desk review and following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Criterion A – Relevant education – maximum obtainable points 5

Criterion B – Language skills – maximum obtainable points 5

Criterion C – Relevant Experience with total for all of the stated criteria– maximum obtainable points 60:

• At least 5 years of related professional experience in reports writing, copy editing and publishing, preferably in the field of international development agenda; human rights, gender equality, women’s and human rights (20 points);
• A working experience in this area within the United Nations or international organizations (20 points);
• Experience of writing/editing UN documents (20 points);

Total Obtainable Score for technical criteria – 70

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation will be further considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the financial/price component is 30.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30

(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).

Application and submission package:

The candidate’s application should include:

• A sample of report, or relevant publication demonstrating the candidate’s experience in the field of recruitment. Completed and signed UN Women Personal History (P-11) form, that can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment.
• Proposal. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount with a breakdown of a daily professional rate per number of anticipated working days to include all costs (travel, accommodation, telephone etc.)

Interested candidates are requested to apply no later than 9 am 26 October 2018 by submitting 2 attachments: 1) technical (P-11 and a sample of report, or relevant publication) as well as 2) financial proposals to the following e-mail address: procurement.ukraine@unwomen.org with a subject “UN Women Ukraine – International Consultant -Community Mobilization for Empowerment Methodology”.

Applications without financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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.

Sample of Financial Proposal

The format shown on the following tables is suggested for use as a guide in preparing the Financial Proposal

Cost Breakdown per Deliverables*

*Basis for payment tranches

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.