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 Ukraine implements its Country Strategy for 2018-2022, covering 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

Striving to ensure that the national reform agenda, policies and public institutions respond equally to the rights and needs of women and men, girls and boys UN Women implements a number of projects to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the implementation and monitoring of the reforms.

Through the project “Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment through Decentralization Reform of Ukraine” funded by the Government of Canada UN Women supports the consolidated efforts of the national mechanism for gender equality, the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine (the Ministry), the authorities of four pilot oblasts and 12 amalgamated territorial communities (ATC), women’s groups and civil society organizations (CSOs) in the implementation of the national gender equality priorities through decentralization reform. The project contributes to an increased responsiveness of the decentralized services to the differentiated needs of women, girls, men and boys, thus achieving transformative results for gender equality and women’s empowerment in Ukraine.

The project’s implementation applies a human-rights-based approach (HRBA) to the annual project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation in line with the UN system-wide Common Understanding on HRBA that “emphasises that all development cooperation programmes, policies and technical assistance should further the realisation of human rights as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments”.  In line with the CEDAW and the SDG Leave No One Behind principle the project makes every effort to engage with and empower the women, particularly those facing multiple forms of discrimination, in policy-making and reform implementation at all levels. 

According to many analyses, conducted by UN Women and other UN and non-UN Agencies, the human rights-based approach (HRBA) principles, including universality and inalienability, equality and non-discrimination, participation and inclusion, accountability and rule of law, are not fully applied in decentralization reform in Ukraine. As result, the stakeholders at oblast and decentralized community levels have limited ownership and control over development processes at all phases of the reform cycle: analysis and policy-making, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. While the number of consultative processes, including meetings, workshops and surveys, over various aspects of the reforms have increased over the last two years, there is a little evidence of special, tailor-made measures being taken to reach the most excluded and vulnerable groups of women and men. These, among the rest have a negative affect on accountability, both supply and demand sides of it, for the international commitments and national policy and legal frameworks on gender equality and women’s human rights.

Therefore, the project provides technical advice and capacity building support to national partners on strengthening the application of the human-rights-based approach in implementation of decentralization reform at national, oblast and community levels. UN Women seeks to hire an International consultant to provide technical guidance to the project team on HRBA approach in decentralization reform through HRBA analysis and capacity building of the national partners.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Representative in Ukraine and a direct day-to-day supervision of the UN Women Programme Specialist the International consultant on Human-Rights-Based Approach in decentralization reform will implement a set of tasks, including, but not limited to:

Task 1. Provide technical guidance on gender and human-rights-based analysis of the implication of decentralization reform on women and men in Ukraine.

1.1.  Conduct desk review of the documents on implementation of decentralization reform and the national normative framework in the area of gender equality and human rights in Ukraine to be provided by UN Women;

1.2.  Develop an outline and guidance for the methodology of gender and human-rights-based analysis of the implication of decentralization reform on women and men in Ukraine, including analysis of root causes limiting equal participation of women facing multiple forms of discrimination in local development and their access to decentralized services based on AAAQ (Availability, Accessibility, Acceptability and Quality of services) approach of HRBA concept. The following vulnerable groups should be considered as a focus for the analysis: rural women, women living with HIV, women with disabilities, ethnic minority women, including Roma, LBTIQ and the others;

1.3.  Provide technical guidance to the selected NGO/company on mainstreaming HRBA approach and focus on issues of women facing multiple forms of discrimination in the research cycle - conceptualization of research topic, analysis and report writing;

1.4. Provide methodological guidance to the selected NGO/company on developing tools for data collection and analysis in line with the developed methodology.

Task 2. Provide technical support to the project team on integrating human-rights-based approach to the methodology on gender capacity assessment of the Ministry, four pilot oblasts state administrations and 12 ATC.   

2.1. Review the methodology on gender assessment of institutional capacity of the Ministry, four pilot oblasts state administrations and 12 ATC to be developed by the selected NGO/company from HRBA perspective;

2.2. To conduct one field mission to Ukraine to organize a follow-up training on HRBA for the national partners (up to 3 days);

2.3. Provide recommendations on integrating HRBA to the methodology on gender assessment of institutional capacity of the selected national partners;

2.4. Conduct minimum two online training sessions for selected NGOs/companies on integration of HRBA to the study on the implication of decentralization reform on women and men in Ukraine and the gender capacity assessment exercise;

2.5. Provide recommendations on integration of HRBA, with the focus to women facing multiple forms of discrimination, to the project activities;

2.6. Prepare the final report on the activities undertaken, findings and recommendations and submit it to UN Women.

Assignment Deliverables:

·         The final report and the supporting documents should be submitted in English language.

·         The Consultant is expected to work remotely. 

·         The Consultant is expected to conduct one field mission to Ukraine.

Inputs

·         UN Women will provide the Consultant with background materials related to the assignment and provide logistic and coordination support with organizing meetings with key stakeholders and partners.

·         UN Women will provide the Consultant with the office space during the mission

·         UN Women will cover travel expenses in case of necessity of the field mission after determining the number of mission’s days in line with the organization’s travel policy and procedures.

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 the deliverables, which will also be the basis for payment to the consultant.

Financial arrangements:

·         Payment will be disbursed by two installments upon receipt of the deliverables (as per above matrix) and their certification by 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 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

Required Skills and Experience:

Qualifications Education:

·         Advanced (Masters) degree in social sciences, law, public policy/administration, economics, development studies, gender studies or similar.

Experience:

·         At least 5 years of relevant experience on human rights issues, application of the HRBA, human rights implementation through legislation and policies;

·         Proven knowledge of the international human rights law, global human rights frameworks, instruments and mechanisms, international practices and instruments on protection and promotion of human rights and fundamental freedoms of individuals or groups;

·         Knowledge and experience with the intersectionality of rights, specifically of women’s human rights;

·         Proven experience on development of analytical reports on HRBA application in the regional and local development;

·         Experience with conducting capacity building activities for different stakeholders’ institutions, including government, CSOs and development partners;

·         Previous professional experience with development agencies and the United Nations would be considered an asset.

Languages and other skills: 

·         Fluent English, working level of Ukrainian and/or Russian will be an asset;

·         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 the qualifications and financial proposal. A two-stage procedure is utilized 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 - total max 70 points:

• The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on desk review and following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Criterion A – Relevant education – max. 15

Criterion B – Language skills – max. 5

Criterion C – Relevant Experience with total for all stated criteria – max. 50

·         At least 3 years of relevant experience on integrating HRBA to legislation and policy documents (max. 15 points);

·         Proven knowledge of international practices and instruments on the protection of human rights/women’s rights (max. 10 points);

·         Proven experience on development of analytical reports on integration of HRBA into the processes of regional and local development (max. 10 points);

·         Experience with conducting capacity building activities for representatives of different stakeholders’ institutions, including government, CSO and development partners (max. 10 points);

·         Previous professional experience with development agencies and the United Nations would be considered an asset (max. 5 points).

Total Obtainable Score for technical criteria – max. 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 50 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; F min - 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:

1)      P11 with indication of relevant experience in line with the ToR requirements.  Completed and signed UN Women Personal History (P-11) form can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment

2)      Financial proposal (sample is provided below): The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount with a breakdown of a daily professional rate per number of anticipated working days, travel costs (daily subsistence allowance and other in-country travel costs) and other related costs (e.g. tele-communication).

Interested candidates are requested to apply no later than 9.00 am EEST 26 September 2019 by submitting  applications to the following e-mail address: hr.ukraine@unwomen.org with a subject “International consultant on HRBA in decentralisation”.

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

Sample of Financial Proposal

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

A.                  Cost Breakdown per Deliverables*

*Basis for payment tranches