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 and the third gender as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

All human development and human rights issues involve gender dimensions. UN Women globally focuses on key priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. UN Women’s priority areas include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, engaging in all aspects of women peace and security processes, and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

UN Women’s work on Gender Responsive Governance was undertaken in two phases. In the first phase a three-year programme entitled ‘Promoting Women’s Political Leadership and Governance in India (from 2011 to 2014) was implemented, aimed at empowering elected women representatives in local governance to make public policy and resource allocation patterns responsive to women’s human rights. This programme was demand-driven, in partnership with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj and select state governments, to build capacities of elected women panchayat leaders across 5 states in collaboration with state governments, trainings institutions and civil society organizations. Through the projects, efforts were also made to strengthen women’s collectives and creating linkages with local institutions. The larger objective was to open and activate spaces and initiatives for public participation, by mobilizing and supporting women to engage with public institutions such as the Gram Sabha. Significant results were achieved regarding increasing political participation of women through the activation of Gram Sabha, organization of Mahila Sabhas with the help of motivators, and training of EWRs and other functionaries.

UN Women is currently implementing the second phase of the programme, entitled, From Opportunities to Capacities: A Multi-Sectoral Approach to Enhancing Gender Responsive Governance (from 2015 to 2019). The second phase of the programme has worked towards building a body of evidence, to inform and enhance the capacity of governance institutions to better respond to the real opportunities for gender equality and women’s empowerment that have been created through progressive legislation, policies and programmes. These enhanced governance capacities should lead to better outcomes for women.

The programme is being implemented in partnership with the Ministry of Panchayati Raj across six states, namely Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Odisha.

Additionally, the Gender Responsive Governance portfolio also includes work in GRB, that involves ensuring that national planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes incorporate a gender perspective. UN Women’s GRB programmes at the regional and country level have made significant contribution towards this by building political support, developing technical resources and capacities, generating good practices for improving women's access to services and increasing accountability for Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment (GEWE).  At the forefront of global, regional and local advocacy for application of GRB, UN Women has built partnerships with diverse government, inter-governmental and non-governmental partners to further efforts and demonstrate GRB’s relevance to sustainable development, aid effectiveness, public sector reform and financing for development.

In 2004-05, the report of the expert group of classification of government expenditure became instrumental in laying out the road map for GRB in India. This was followed by the adoption of “Budgeting for Gender Equity” as mission statement by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India (GoI). In 2005-06, the Ministry of Finance, GoI introduced Gender Budget Statement (GBS) which aimed to reflect the quantum of budgetary allocations for programmes/schemes that substantially benefit women. Another important mechanism institutionalized by the Ministry of Finance was setting up of Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) which serve as focal points for mainstreaming gender through GRB. The rigor has been replicated in at least 19 states, some of which have produced GBS and set up GBCs.

UN Women’s Multi Country Office (MCO), based in New Delhi, India, covers four countries of the region, i.e., India, Bhutan, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. UN Women India MCO is currently identifying strategies and operational approaches to strengthen on-going efforts on GRG in India, at the national and state level.

Insights generated from this assignment will enable key stakeholders at the national and state level to accelerate their efforts to ensure that women’s priorities are adequately reflected in national planning, decion0making and budgeting processes, and to make concrete changes for adequate resource allocation towards women’s priorities.

Within this context, UN Women seeks the services of a technical expert to undertake analysis of policies and programmes from the perspective of gender responsiveness and to ensure inclusion national planning, decision making and budgeting processes. The research will aim to generate/strengthen evidence on the existing gaps in policy/programme design, budgeting, implementation and evaluation from a gender perspective.

Thus, the technical expert is expected to prepare a three-year strategic plan 2019-22 which sets the long-term direction for the implementation of the UN Women mandate of Gender Responsive Governance in India.

The overall objective of this consultancy is to develop a three-year Strategic Plan for the implementation of the UN Women mandate of Gender Responsive Governance in India.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance and direct supervision of Programme Analyst Governance, the technical expert will lead research on developing the GRB strategy and overarching programme document and reporting. . This will entail analysing policies/schemes/programmes for constituencies in public and private sectors. The analysis will primarily focus on conducting a thorough desk review of the governance, inclusive planning and budgeting frameworks programmes/schemes across sectors nationally and of select focus states of the country from a gender lens, analysis of the existing data and providing concrete recommendations.

The scope of work for the technical expert will include but not be limited to:

·Review of ongoing  programme and mapping with the vision and mission of UN Women in Leadership and Political Participation of Strategic Plan, Governance and Planning in context of the national priorities.

·Through a consultative process and application of an appropriate tool of analysis, identify focus areas/ constituencies and develop strategic objectives and key result areas for strengthening gender mainstreaming strategies within government stakeholders, specifically select state departments

·Reporting on the programmatic interventions of UN Women under recent interventions targeted towards Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting

Deliverables:

• Report on objectives and key result areas for strengthening gender mainstreaming strategies within government stakeholders, specifically of select state departments; with special focus on approach and methodology, including key research tools, data analysis, sampling, etc. and stakeholder mapping, risk analysis - 8 Working Days;
• Report on the programmatic interventions of UN Women under recent interventions targeted towards Gender Mainstreaming and Gender Responsive Planning, Budgeting and Audit - 4 Working Days.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Demonstrated research and analytical capacity;
• Excellent organizational, inter-personal, communication and administrative skills;
• Excellent drafting and presentation skills
• Strong IT skills
• Proven ability to manage diverse and complex tasks, with tight deadlines;
• Able to take initiative and work independently, with minimum supervision;
• Able to work effectively in a team and in an international environment;

Management and Leadership

• Focuses on impact and results and responds positively to critical feedback
• Creativity and innovation
• Conflict resolution skills
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills
• Willing to work as a team and promote a learning environment and a focus on results-based management.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in Social Sciences/ Social Work /Gender Studies/Public Administration/Policy or related fields. 

Experience:

• Minimum 15 years of experience at the international and national level working with Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting programmes on design, implementation and monitoring/evaluation of projects.
• Experience on financial/budgetary data analysis, statistics and quantitative and qualitative research is required.
• Experience of working with international bodies/ national and state governments and CSOs; 

Language:

• Proficiencey in English & Hindi;
• Excellent reading and writing skills in English & Hindi;
• Knowledge of regional language would be considered an advantage.

Application:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Applications should be submitted along with latest CV and statement of purpose/cover letter stating your interest in this role;
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria:

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
• Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (5 points);
• Experience of working in women related projects and GRB would be desirable (5 points);
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) required and advance knowledge of spread sheet and database packages desirable. (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Interview (100 points)

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work prior to engagement in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the selection process.

Note:

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.