Background

I. Organizational Context

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (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 center 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 support to Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In line with UN Women Global Strategic Plan (2018-2021), and its Country Strategic Note (2019-2022), in Turkey UN Women works towards three overarching goals:??

1) Women lead, participate in, and benefit equally from governance systems.??

2) All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence??

3) Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action.??

Towards these goals, UN Women implements programmes and projects that aim to advance gender equality, improve women’s access to opportunities, rights and services in political, social and economic life and combat gender stereotypes, discrimination and violence, as required by international and national legal and policy commitments. UN Women collaborates with numerous partners – central and local level government authorities, civil society organizations, including women’s organizations and platforms, academia, private sector companies, other UN agencies. It commits itself to the Leaving No One Behind principle, by supporting targeted actions to remove the obstacles that marginalized and vulnerable groups of women face in accessing their rights and to promote them as agents of change.?

UN Women has been implementing a Strategic Plan (2018-2021) which outlines the Entity’s strategic direction, objectives and approaches to support efforts to achieve gender equality and empower women and girls. One of the strategic Outcomes of the new Plan is to ensure that “All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence.” This Outcome has two Outputs: ?1) More countries and stakeholders are better able to prevent violence against women and girls and deliver essential services to victims and survivors and 2) More cities have safe and empowering public spaces for women and girls

In line with the global Strategic Plan (2018-2021) and the contextual analysis of women’s status in Turkey, UN Women Turkey, in its first Country Strategic Note (2019-2022) identified eliminating violence against women as one of its priority areas of work. Despite the relatively favorable legislative framework, gender stereotypes and social norms lead to high prevalence of violence against women (VAW), including domestic violence and child, early and forced marriages (CEFM), coupled with low reporting and inadequate access of women to services and to justice. In this respect, in its Strategic Note, UN Women Turkey committed to achieve the Outcome: “Service providers and civil society organizations adopt and apply the standards and provisions set in Istanbul Convention and CEDAW to prevent violence against women and girls and deliver quality essential services”. UN Women works to ensure the realization of the following Outputs within this Outcome: 1) Strengthening capacities to advocate for, implement, monitor, and report on international norms and standards to end violence against women. 2) Providing services to women and girl survivors of violence including child, early and forced marriages (CEFM) in line with the international standards set in Istanbul Convention and CEDAW. 3) Inducing positive shifts in social norms and behavior towards ending gender-based discrimination and violence. Towards the realization of this Outcome, UN Women has been implementing two projects: Regional Programme on Ending Violence against Women in the Western Balkans and Turkey: “Implementing Norms, Changing Minds” and UN Joint Programme on “Prevention of Child, Early and Forced Marriage in Turkey” (jointly with UNICEF, IOM, UNFPA, and UNHCR).

Therefore, with the aim of enhancing prevention and response to VAW, UN Women has been working on strengthening the capacities at national and local levels while creating community-based solutions to advocate for gender equality and improved service provision. In this respect, UN Women collaborates with numerous partners – central and local level government authorities, civil society organizations, including women’s organizations and platforms, academia, private sector companies, other UN organizations. UN Women is also placing specific focus on working with men and boys as key actors in preventing violence against women, including CEFM.

Based on the experience and knowledge accumulated under its ongoing projects and activities, and in order to fulfill the planned commitments under its Strategic Note for Turkey, UN Women is seeking to strategically expand its interventions in the field of elimination of violence against women.

Duties and Responsibilities

II. Functions 

Under the direct supervision of UN Women Programme Management Specialist and overall guidance of the Country Director, the National Consultant will be responsible for preparing a gap analysis and an expansion strategy for UN Women Turkey in the field of EVAW and based on the findings, drafting a concept note on one programmatic area.

In this respect, the expected results and objectives of the work of the National Consultant are as follows

1. Conducting  desk review of documentation on UN Women’s projects and programmatic interventions in the area of combating violence against women in Turkey and engaging in discussions with relevant UN Women staff and key stakeholders and partners in the field of EVAW, in order to gain insights and assess the accumulated experience, knowledge and established partnerships of UN Women in this area at both national and local level in Turkey.
2. Conducting desk review of the experiences, best practices and lessons learnt of other UN Women offices’ programming in the field of EVAW, including as captured in relevant corporate and project evaluations, as well as progress reports and knowledge products, to better understand UN Women’s approaches, focus and lessons learnt in the EVAW field.
3. Conducting desk review of all relevant documents (national strategies, action plans, project documents, policy papers, research reports etc.) in Turkey to assess the progress made and the gaps in interventions regarding elimination of violence against women.  Carrying out needed discussions with relevant partners and stakeholders, based on consultations with UN Women. Coming up with a gap analysis of the interventions in the field of EVAW as it relates to UN Women capacities.
4. Based on the above, developing SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) Analysis of UN Women Turkey as it relates to its work on combating violence against women.
5. Based on the desk review and consultations, drafting a strategy document for UN Women’s programmatic engagement in the field of EVAW during the remaining period of its Strategic Note 2018-2022 in order to achieve its planned Outcome and Outputs on EVAW. The strategy should include the SWOT analysis, proposed possible national/local-level programmatic interventions to be undertaken by UN Women as well as description of key potential implementation partners and areas of engagement with them, at national and/or local level including from various branches of government, civil society, private sector, etc. Drafting the strategy document and amending it based on feedback received from UN Women and other peers;
6. Based on the draft strategy documents and consultations with UN Women, drafting a project/programme concept note which will focus on a selected area of programmatic intervention.
7. Finalizing the strategy document and the concept note based on feedback by UN Women.
8. Carrying out any additional tasks related to the development of the strategy document/concept note as jointly agreed upon with supervisor                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template 

The prospective Individual Consultant should take the following explanations into account during submission of his/her price proposal.  

1. Daily fee 

The daily price proposal should indicate a “lump sum amount” which is “all-inclusive”; All costs (professional fees, communications, consumables during field related missions, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor needs to be factored into the proposed price.  

UN Women will not withhold any amount of the payments for tax and/or social security related payments. UN Women shall have no liability for taxes, duties or other similar charges payable by the Individual Contractor in respect of any amounts paid to the Individual Contractor under this Contract, and the Contractor acknowledges that UN Women will not issue any statements of earnings to the Individual contractor in respect of any such payments. 

1. Travel costs 

This is a home-based assignment and no travel requirements are envisioned under this assignment In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs should be agreed upon with UN Women in Turkey. 

1. Currency of the price proposal  

The applicants are requested to submit their price proposals in Turkish Lira.  

Annex II: Price Proposal Submission Form 

To: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women 

Ref: 

Dear Sir / Madam, 

I, the undersigned, offer to provide professional consulting services to UN Women within the scope of the referred Assignment. 

Having examined, understood and agreed to the Terms of Reference and its annexes, the receipt of which are hereby duly acknowledged, I, the undersigned, offer to deliver professional services, in conformity with the Terms of Reference. 

My maximum total price proposal for the assignment is given below: 

I confirm that my financial proposal will remain unchanged. I also confirm that the price that I quote is gross, and is inclusive of all legal expenses, including but not limited to social security, income tax, pension, etc., which shall be required applicable laws. 

I agree that my proposal shall remain binding upon me for 90 days. 

I understand that you are not bound to accept any proposal you may receive. 

[Signature] 

Date: 

Name: 

Address: 

Telephone/Fax: 

Email: