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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates 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 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 Palestinian Government’s commitment to  fight Violence Against Women (VAW) as set in the National Strategy to Combat VAW, and in full partnership with the Justice and Security Sectors, including the Public Prosecution (PP), the Palestinian Civil Police (PCP), the High Judicial Council (HJC) and the Sharia Courts (SCs), UN Women, within its joint programme with UNDP and UNICEF “Promoting the Rule of Law in Palestine- SAWASYA II” is supporting the development of responsive services to women victims and survivors of violence, through providing institutional capacity building and policy level interventions to the Justice and Security institutes.  

Enhancing protection to women victims and survivors of violence forms a key area of focus to UN Women and its’ partners within the Justice and Security sectors. Different tools have been designed and developed for this purpose, including the development of the Risks Assessment Template (RAT), which is part of the Standards Operating Procedures (SoPS) of the Family and Juvenile Protection (FJPU) at the PCP. The RAT has been developed to support service providers to take informed protection decisions when managing VAW cases, by enabling them to assess the level and types of risks associated with the case, and ensure a comprehensive consultative approach that ensures that the voice and opinion of the victim are heard and factored into the assessment.

The template has been piloted in two governorates in the West bank, including Ramallah and Nablus, and an initial assessment has been conducted to assess the level of responsiveness and effectiveness of the template. One of the main recommendations of the assessment included the need to review and refine the template to ensure that it is user- friendly and sufficient to provide comprehensive risks assessment to VAW cases.   

The main objective of this assignment is to enhance the protection of women and girls’ victims and survivors of violence, through increasing the responsiveness and effectiveness of the risks assessment process.

More specifically, the assignment includes the following two specific objectives:

• To support stakeholders to review and refine the piloted RAT and develop related guiding principles in line with the findings of the initial assessment and international standards and best practices.
• To train Specialized Police Officers (SPOs), and Specialized Public Prosecutors (SPPs) on how to effectively use the RAT.

To achieve this, UN Women is seeking to hire an experienced national consultant to lead the whole process with full engagement of the partner institutions, including districts level offices.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of UN Women’s Special Representative and the direct supervision of UN Women Rule of Law Programme Specialist, and in close partnership and coordination with UN Women Women’s Security Analyst, the national consultant will be responsible for the following tasks: 

1. Prepare a work plan for the assignment, including the methodology, main interventions and time frame, and submit them to UN Women for review and approval.
2. Prepare a reference criterion to guide the revision and development process of the RAT.
3. Meet with UN Women and partner institutions, and conduct field visits to district offices to discuss gaps and needs related to risk assessment process.
4. Prepare a report on the main findings of the meetings and field visits and share with UN Women and partner institutions for comments.
5. Hold consultation meetings with the FPJU and SPPs including the district offices and with other partners, such as Women’s Protection Counselors, VAW Specialized Judges and civil society representatives, to review the content and scope of thetemplate, including the types of cases that should be assessed by the RAT.
6. Review the piloted template and suggest amendments in line with the reference criterion, and the findings of the consultation meetings and field visits conducted with partner institutions.
7. Develop guiding principles as a reference for service providers when they use the RAT.
8. Develop at least 2-3 short versions of the RAT to address specific cases, such as cases of sexual assaults and others.
9. Prepare training material on the RAT and share with UN Women for review and approval.
10. Conduct three training workshops, one day each, on risk assessment for service providers.
11. Prepare a report, including a description of the methodology, achievements, challenges and recommendations for future related interventions. The report should include also findings and highlights of the training.
12. Ensure a participatory approach and interactive methods, throughout all phases of work.

Key deliverables:

The consultancy has three main deliverables as per the following:

The first deliverable includes the following items:

• A work plan, including a methodology, main interventions, reference framework criteria, time frame and deliverables.
• Draft modified RAT and at least 2-3 short versions for selected types of cases with their annexed guiding principles.

The second deliverable includes the following items:

• Final and approved version of the RAT, including 2-3 short versionsfor selected types of cases with their annexed guiding principles.
• The development of the training material, and the completion of the three training workshops, including the submission of the narrative report that should include a description of the training workshops, main components and content of the training, the utilized methodology, achievements and recommendations.

The third deliverable includes the following item:

• Final report approved by UN Women that includes a description of the provided interventions, utilised methodology, analysis of challenges, gaps and recommendations on the ways forward.

Time Frame:

The assignment is expected to start in October 2019, and end in March 2020, with a total of approximate 30 working days.

Competencies

Core Values/Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural Sensitivity / Valuing diversity:

• Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values.

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:

•  knowledge of Gender, women’s human rights and VAW.
• Sound knowledge of national referral mechanisms to combat VAW and protect victims and survivors of violence.
• Strong knowledge of the Justice and Security systems in Palestine, including roles and responsibilities of service providers within the Security and Justice chain, notably in VAW related cases.
• Strong dialogue and communication skills.
• Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective; anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly.
• Experience and capacity to develop and deliver trainings and facilitate workshops.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A BA degree in Law, Human Rights, Gender Studies, Criminology, Social Science or any other related field.

Experience:

• At least 6 years working experience in the field of gender equality and VAW.
• At least 2 previous assignments related to developing policies, guidelines or SoPs on VAW.
• At least 2 previous related assignments with the Justice and/ Security sectors on issues related to the protection of women and girls’ victims and survivors of violence.
• At leasrt 2 years experience in developing and conducting professional trainings and facilitating workshops and dialogue sessions on VAW and GBV.
• At least 2 years’ working experience in the field of national referral mechanisms on VAW.
• Experience with the UN system or/ and International Organizations is considered an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in Arabic and professional knowledge in English.

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 clearly indicate how they meet the above-mentioned criteria in their applications.

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials:

• P11 Or CV including past experience in similar assignments. P11 form can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted

Candidates should have the ability to quickly submit degree certificates, medical certification (of good health) expression of Interest (EoI) and sample of previous work should they be long-listed 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 mentioned above; 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.

Long listed Candidates should provide a sample of a previous related product (Policy document, SoPs, guidelines or other related product) and training material and outline related to violence against women or gender- based violence or access to justice.

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

• Relevant education (max 5 points)
• At least 6 years working experience in the field of gender equality and VAW (max 15 points)
• At least 2 previous assignments related to developing policies, guidelines or SoPs on VAW (max 10 points).
• At least 2 previous related assignments with the Justice and/ Security sectors on issues related to the protection of women and girls victims and survivors of violence (max 10 points)
• At least 2 years’ experience in developing and conducting professional trainings and facilitating workshops and dialogue sessions on VAW and GBV (max 10 points)
• At least 2 years’ working experience in the field of national referral mechanisms on VAW (max 5 points).
• At least one written sample (Policy document, SoPs, guidelines or other related product) and a sample of a training material and outline related to violence against women or gender- based violence or access to justice (max 10 points)
• Experience with the UN system or/ and International Organizations is considered an asset (max 5 points)

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
• Only long-listed candidates will be contacted.