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.

Under its Strategic Note 2018-2022; PNG Country Office focuses on delivering programmes under four thematic areas;

• Women’s leadership and political participation
• Ending Violence Against Women
• Women, Peace, Security and Humanitarian Actions
• Global Norms, Policies and Standards

UN Women is seeking to recruit a Women’s Economic Empowerment expert to support the organisation’s work on enhancing women’s economic empowerment. In particular, the job requires strong knowledge and experience in developing and implementing women’s economic empowerment (WEE) initiatives, developing knowledge products, programming and policy support at national and district levels and in-depth understanding of challenges facing PNG and the relevant districts in which UN Women is working. It also requires supporting and developing mutually reinforcing partnerships with relevant regional bodies, Government counterparts, UN organizations, private sector entities, and CSOs.

The specialist position will complement a locally engaged Programme team to ensure that women’s economic empowerment issues are considered appropriately throughout the life of the Safe and Prosperous Districts programme. It will also contribute to a range of other programmes developed by UN Women, such as a new programme within National Capital District Commission to improve the safety and prosperity of women living in  settlements and suburbs and a partnership developed with PNG Power to ensure women and girls benefit directly from electrification.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under overall guidance of the UN Women Country Representative and direct supervision from Deputy Country Representative, the consultant will perform the following tasks and deliverables:

1. Provide policy and strategic planning support to the Country Team on WEE as follows;

a) Development of UN Women Strategy for Women Economic Empowerment

• Support in the development of UN Women PNG Country Office Women’s Economic Empowerment Strategy to strengthen UN Women efforts in advancing women´s economic empowerment including entrepreneurship among rural women, particularly in the agriculture space, affirmative procurement, Women Empowerment Principles, better work, productive resource access, access, etc. The Strategy should capture the various elements of programmes UN Women is planning or undertaking within the WEE sector and provide an overarching conceptual framework to guide programme teams in the designing, implementing, and monitoring and evaluation evaluating of initiatives aimed at empowering women economically in PNG

b) Contribute to production of key knowledge products on WEE

• Contribute to evidence-based research and analysis on women’s economic participation and gender impacts of trade, investment and economic development strategies and trends, including on the formulation and budget for gender-responsive economic and social protection policies, effective modalities to reach those currently unserved through economic empowerment.
• Conduct country analysis of gender and economics, drawing on existing secondary data
• Finalize draft Handbook on the Establishment of District Markets and document Case Studies on working with rural women in the country;
• Provide periodic economic advisory for the country office and relevant programme team

2. Provide capacity building support to country offices, teams and partners

• Provide substantive technical and policy support (both virtual and missions, as requested) to UN Women country programme teams in developing and strengthening projects/ programmes to support the implementation of global norms and standards, as requested;
• Provide technical support and advise on the Preparation and delivery of Safe and Prosperous Districts and the National Markets Programme Implementation Plan;
• Support UN Women to develop, implement and monitor capacity building initiatives on WEE with UN Women partners
• Support UN Women partner, NCDC, to analyze existing survey data for Settlements to Suburb work.

Duration of the assignment:

The total duration of the contract assignment will be on a part time basis, between December 2019 to November 2020. This assignment will be for a total of approximately 165 working day including 6 trips to Port Moresby PNG and 1 trip from Port Moresby to Lae, Morobe Province and 1 Trip to Alotau, Milne Bay Province.

Expected Deliverables:

The consultant is expected to deliver the following results:

All the documents, including the interview tools, training materials and reports should be submitted in written in English language.

Upon receipt of the deliverables and prior to the payment of the instalment, the deliverables, related reports and documents will be reviewed by UN Women and approved within two weeks of submission.

 Inputs

Transport:

UN Women will also cover the costs of daily subsistence allowance (DSA) for Port Moresby and other areas within the country as per standard UN rate, as well as the most direct economy airfare for missions, as per UN Women regulations, for all approved official travel. The Consultant is responsible for all international travel to Port Moresby and should include the costs in the financial proposal.

UN Women will provide transport in the field only (Alotau and Lae only), consultant is expected to arrange own transport within Port Moresby and from homebased to Port Moresby. This should be included in the financial proposal.

Communications:

The Consultant will be required to provide their own local communications such as SIM cards. Some internet access is available while in Port Moresby however the consultant is expected to arrange his/her own internet access in the field. These costs should be included in the lump sum fee of the financial proposal. 

Accommodation:

All accommodation costs and other living expenses will be covered within the consultancy fee. 

Security:

The consultant will be provided with a UN security briefing and will be required to follow UN security rules and guidance.

Insurance:

The Consultant will arrange private insurance and the cost of which will be included in the financial proposal.

Office space and facilities:

The consultant is expected to work remotely using her/his own computer and other means of communications but may access the UN Women office for printing of relevant documents or should he/she be required to work on-site at any point during the assignment.

Performance evaluation: 

Contractor’s performance will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling UN Women values and ethical standards;
• Demonstrates a commitment to UN Women’s mission and vision;
• Able to work effectively within a team;
• Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
• Able to multi-task and juggle competing demands;
• Can assess and prioritize work needs quickly;
• Ability to relate to external partners, including other international organizations and agencies, NGOs, grassroots community groups, etc.
• Demonstrated ability to work successfully in remote, rural, hardship posts.

Functional Competencies

• Demonstrated sound knowledge on development issues in developing countries (Pacific knowledge and/or experience an advantage);
• Experience in Women Economic Empowerment Issues an advantage;
• Previous experience working on gender equality in a variety of cultural and political contexts;
• Excellent communication and partnering skills to ensure effectively and harmoniously working with people from varied cultures and professional backgrounds;
• Demonstrated ability to work in hardship posts and / or remote areas;
• Results based management skills;
• Demonstrated ability to develop and deliver training packages on gender issues
• Background in research and /or ability to manage field research.
• Ability to produce well-written programme documents and high-level policy demonstrating analytical ability and communication skills.
• Experience in formulating and delivery of related capacity building materials targeting the community level.

Required Skills and Experience

Required experience and qualifications

The consultant should fulfill the following requirements:

Education

• Master’s degree in Economics or other related fields 

Experience and Skills

• At least 10 years of experience of relevant work in the Women’s Economic Empowerment space
• Proven competence in qualitative and quantitative research, in the specific area of the informal economy. (Experience needs to demonstrate such competence.)
• Past experience in designing and implementing high quality research in Papua New Guinea or the Pacific.
• Knowledge of Papua New Guinea context or experience in the country or Pacific region would be advantageous.
• Experience working with national and district governments in Papua New Guinea
• UN Experience would be an asset

Language and other skills

• Good command of English both written and oral
• Ability to communicate in the local languages (Tok Pisin) would be an added advantage.
• Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, IT tools, ability to use Internet and email.

Submission of application 

Interested candidates are requested to submit electronic application to the UNDP website not later than 26 November 2019 COB (PNG time).

Submission package

• CV
• Letter of Interest containing the statement on candidate’s experience in the field of recruitment
• Financial proposal. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount breaking down lump sum professional fee and international travel expenses for five (6) trips (from the country of origin to Port Moresby and back), visa and other travel related costs and travel expenses within Port Moresby and 1 trip from Port Moresby to Lae, Morobe Province and 1 trip from Port Moresby Alotau, including travel expenses.

All applications must include (as an attachment) the CV and the financial proposal. Applications without financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Please note that only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

 Evaluation 

Applications will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

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. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated. 

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified candidate.

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
• 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 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.