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.

Since 2001, UN Women (UNIFEM) has been providing continues support to partners in Georgia to increase meaningful participation of women in conflict prevention, conflict resolution and sustainable peacebuilding processes. Under the current country programme and in line with UN Partnership for Sustainable Development (2016-2020), UN Women supports the government to develop and implement National Action Plans for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security #1325 et al. and to achieve targets of the nationalized SDG 5 and 16.

2020 will mark the 20-year anniversary of the ground-breaking UN Security Council Resolution #1325 — the first resolution to link women’s experiences of conflict to the international peace and security agenda. It focused on the disproportionate impact of conflict on women and girls and called for their engagement in conflict transformation and peacebuilding. The UN Security Council has passed 8 additional resolutions on women, peace and security since the adoption of resolution #1325.

UN Women, with generous support of the UK Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) has been implementing a project “Strengthening Women’s Meaningful Participation in Peacebuilding and Gender Mainstreaming in Security Sector in Georgia”, which aims at enhancing the women’s meaningful participation in peacebuilding, including the internally displaced and conflict-affected women and girls, as well as gender mainstreaming in the policies, procedures and operations of security sector in Georgia.

 

Throughout the history of Georgia’s protracted conflicts and prolonged peace process, women’s CSOs and women at grassroots level have always been at the center of the conflict transformation and played an important role in peace and confidence building. Therefore, it is important to examine their contribution to peace building, as well as their expertise, capacities and resources, and find innovative ways to connect the formal and informal tracks for the benefit of the peace process in Georgia. Further, there is an increasing evidence that when the linkages are fostered across the formal and informal peace tracks, stalled peace negotiations can see the positive transformation, where track II actors – including women’s rights groups and leaders –act as catalysts of change and contribute to conflict transformation and achieving sustainable peace.

 

Towards this end, UN Women plans to commission a study on women’s meaningful participation and contribution to peace processes in Georgia. The study will be conducted through a qualitative methodology with the help of the National Consultant.

 

The study will aim at reflecting and analyzing Georgian context vis-à-vis the seven key challenges for women’s meaningful participation in peace processes that were identified through UN Women global report on Women’s Meaningful Participation in Negotiating Peace and the Implementation of Peace Agreements released in 2018. These seven major challenges are:

  • Patriarchal systems and persistent gender inequality
  • Nature of contemporary conflict
  • Shrinking political space and threats against women’s human rights defenders
  • Funding challenges and insufficient investment in gender expertise
  • Limited recognition of women’s expertise and experience
  • Tension between transformative and technocratic approaches
  • Knowledge gaps

 

The target audience of the study findings and recommendations will be Geneva International Discussions (GID) co-chairs and their support teams, partners from development sector and academia working on confidence building, people-to-people diplomacy and women, peace and security issues, decision makers in Georgia 

(including Abkhazia) that are engaged in peace processes and civil society sector at large, and women’s NGOs in particular. The study shall contribute to the exploration of possible linkages across the track I and II processes, trends, challenges and interplays between the formal and informal peace platforms in the context of Georgia, current state and potentials to transform the peace process through inclusive and innovative approaches.  

 

UN Women thinks the momentum is right for this study as the government of Georgia under the leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and its commitment to ensure the increased participation of women in GID up to 50% for the 20th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325. Thus, the study will come in the right time to shape policy-making and response in this direction.

 

In this context, it is expected that the international consultant will study women’s meaningful participation in peace processes and examine the extent to which women are involved in formal and informal levels of the peace process. Further, it will respond to the research question on how to enhance women’s meaningful participation in formal as well as informal peace processes and how to successfully bridge the gap between the formal and informal peace processes from the viewpoint of women’s direct and meaningful participation. More specifically, the quantitative study should allow for (but not limited to) improved understanding of:

  • Sex- and age-disaggregated information about the participation of women in decision making in general, and peace negotiations in particular (GID, Incident Prevention and Response Mechanism (IPRM));
  • Access and participation of women to formal negotiation mechanisms and informal peace tracks, barriers and challenges to women’s direct and meaningful participation;
  • Changes (if any) in the roles and responsibilities of women in diplomacy, mediation and peacebuilding processes (what has not changed and what is new);
  • The structures that women are using to make decisions and who participates in decision-making spaces;
  • The capacities and preferences of women in diplomacy, foreign policy, peacebuilding and peacemaking processes;
  • Opportunities to foster the linkages across the tracks and possibilities of direct and meaningful participation of women in peace processes in Georgia for the benefit of conflict transformation / durable peace.

The International Consultant will be supported by and is expected to work in a team with National Consultant to be also hired by the UN Women with regards to conduct the mentioned study. 

 

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the International Consultant are:

  • To elaborate a study methodology and key approaches including the stages of the study, data collection (qualitative methods), analysis and report writing; 
  • To guide and support the National Consultant to conduct the desk review of all relevant studies and data, as well as policies, programmes and initiatives - namely, looking at if and how these policies, 
  • programmes and initiatives target women in formal and informal peace tracks. The desk review should inform the study methodology as well as its final recommendations;
  • To plan and conduct qualitative study key informant interviews (government, civil society, experts from academia, development partners) in cooperation with the National Consultant to fill in the gaps identified through the desk review of policies, programmes, and initiatives available to the women in formal and informal peace processes;
  • To develop study findings, and elaborate the recommendations on how to better connect the formal and informal peace tracks and advance the women’s meaningful participation in peace processes;
  • To validate the study findings along with the draft list of recommendations with all key stakeholders and come up with agreed final set of recommendations for relevant stakeholders;
  • At all times, while implementing duties and responsibilities spelled out in this ToR work in a team with and support National Consultant by serving as a resource person to ensure high quality of all deliverables;
  • To submit final narrative report of the study (the body of the text not exceeding 60 pages) in English.

    Deliverables:

  • A detailed study work plan and study methodology with timelines (2 working day) – by 5 July 2019;

  • Support rendered to the National Consultant, while the latter will conduct a desk review of all key documents for the purposes of the analysis (2 working days) - by 12 July 2019;
  • Data collected through qualitative methods (requires travel to Abkhazia, Georgia) (10 working days) – by 30 August 2019;
  • Data analyzed and validated, initial study report drafted including the list of recommendations in cooperation with the National Consultant (6 working days) – by 13 September 2019;
  • Presentation of preliminary findings of the study and package of recommendations for relevant government institutions (1 working day) - by 20 September 2019;
  • Final study report submitted (in English) (4 working days), by 30 September 2019.

Competencies

Core Values:

  • Respect for Diversity
  • Integrity
  • Professionalism

 

Core Competencies:

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree in Gender/Women’s Studies, Social Sciences, Development Studies, Human Rights, Sociology or related field, and/or senior academic experience

 

Experience: 

  • A minimum of five years of experience of research in the area of women’s rights and conflict studies
  • Sound knowledge of international gender equality related legislation, instruments, policies and practices 
  • Experience on women, peace and security issues, gender and conflict, gender and mediation, will be an asset 

Language:

  • Fluency in English

 

Evaluation Procedure:

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

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

  • Master’s degree in Gender/Women’s Studies, Social Sciences, Development Studies, Human Rights, Sociology or related field, and/or senior academic experience
  • A minimum of five years of experience of research in the area of women’s rights and conflict studies

 

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria followed by technical and financial evaluation.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

  • Master’s degree in gender/women’s studies, conflict studies, social sciences, development studies, human rights, sociology or related field, and/or senior academic experience (max 60 points)
  • A minimum of five years of experience of research in the area of women’s rights and conflict studies (max 100 points)
  • Sound knowledge of international gender equality related and women, peace and security instruments, policies and practices (max 100 points)
  • Development work experience on women, peace and security issues, gender and conflict, gender and mediation, will be an asset (max 70 points)
  • Fluency in English (20 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 Consultant will work under the overall supervision and guidance of UN Women Country and/or Deputy Country Representative in Georgia and in collaboration and day to day management of UN Women WPS Project Analyst.

     

    Financial arrangements:

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

  • Deliverable 1, 2, 3 (11 working days) – 50%
  • Deliverables 4, 5, 6 (9 working days) – 50%

  • Application submission package:

  • CV;
  • Duly filled Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
  • A sample of previously conducted relevant study / publication
  • Financial Proposal - lump sum proposal/offer* in USD (including breakdown of this lump sum amount, indicating all necessary costs to complete this assignment).

  •  

  • *The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer: “aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate, including travel costs (ticket, DSA etc.) for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR.

     

    Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

     

    In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.  The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater   impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.