Background

The Constitution of Nepal turned Nepal into a federal state with three levels of government with the intent of transforming the country from a centralized unitary state into a federal country and to ensure economic equality, prosperity and social justice. The Constitution marks a fundamental paradigm shift in the system, structure and functioning of sub-national governance in Nepal. The move from a unitary to a federal structure of governance requires massive reorientation of the institutions, systems, work cultures and styles of functioning.

The Provincial and Local Governance Support Programme (PLGSP) is the national flagship programme of the Government of Nepal (GoN) to build institutional, organizational and individual capacity at all levels of government, with special focus on the provincial and local levels. The ultimate goal of the Programme is to attain functional, sustainable, inclusive and accountable provincial and local governance. The Programme aims to contribute to delivery of quality services at provincial and local levels, promote better local infrastructure and enhance economic prosperity. The Programme will achieve 14 outputs under the following three outcomes:

• Government institutions and inter-governmental mechanisms at all levels are fully functioning in support of federal governance as per the Constitution;
• Provincial and local governments have efficient, effective, inclusive and accountable institutions; and
• Elected representatives and civil servants at provincial and local governments have the capacity and serve citizens to their satisfaction.

The PLGSP serves as an umbrella programme of the Government in providing capacity development support to the provincial and local governments. As such, the Programme will establish a common framework for coordination and coherence of all governance-related programmes at the provincial and local levels and accommodate other donor-funded programmes. Thus, the PLGSP will provide a coherent approach to capacity development under the federal system.
 
The Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration (MoFAGA) is the executive agency of the Programme. The seven provincial governments, the 753 local governments, the restructured Local Development Training Academy (LDTA) and seven provincial-level training centres (Provincial Centres for Good Governance) are the implementing agencies of the Programme. The Programme is supported by international development partners, namely, the Department for International Development (DfID) of the United Kingdom, the European Union (EU), the Government of Norway, the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, and the United Nations.

MoFAGA is partnering with UNDP to support the implementation of the Programme through Technical Assistance (TA). A key priority of the TA is recruitment of TA staff, their capacity building and knowledge enhancement including orientation and continuous backstopping support in coordination with the Programme Management.

The Provincial governments have a major role in facilitating and implementing the Programme for the benefit of both provincial and local governments. All provincial governments signed up to the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with MOFAGA in order to be part of the programme implementation. The governance body of the Programme at the provincial level is the Programme Coordination Committee (PCC), which is headed by the Chief Minister. To support the provincial governments in the implementation of the Programme, a Provincial Programme Implementation Unit (PPIU) will be established in the Office of the Chief Minister and Council of Ministers (OCMCM). The programme also envisages that each provincial government will establish a provincial-level training centre (Provincial Center for Good Governance, PCGG) to cater to the training and capacity building needs of the province and local governments in the respective province.
 
While the PCGGs have a critical role to deliver the programmatic results, they are yet to be established by the provincial governments and even after establishment, they are likely to take some time to be fully functional and cater to the capacity development needs of the provincial and local governments. In this background, a number of technical assistance personnel will be deployed by the Programme to support the PCGGs in discharging their roles.

Under the day to day supervision of the National Programme Manager and overall guidance of the National Programme Director, the Gender Equality and Social Inclusion (GESI) Specialist will directly contribute for the achievement of overall outcomes and outputs of the programme, including horizontal and vertical accountability to all citizens, through mainstreaming GESI.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall responsibilities of the assignment are to: 

1. Provide strategic advice and lead the programme initiatives on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI);
2. Lead the planning of the GESI activities for PCU and facilitate the implementation of the approved plans;
3. Support GESI mainstreaming at the provincial level;
4. Perform any other tasks assigned.

1.  Provide strategic advice and lead the programme initiatives on gender equality and social inclusion (GESI)

• Directly contribute the achievement of relevant outputs of PLGSP: Modernized PG systems enable horizontal and vertical accountability to all citizens and mainstream GESI.; and LG systems mainstream GESI in their service delivery; and support achievement of outputs i.e. Modernized LGs have strong administrative systems, and accountable PFM systems;
• Provide strategic support in ensuring coherence and synergy among sectoral agencies at federal  level;
• Provide high-level technical assistance and advice to national counterparts and their institutions on GESI in relation to strategic planning, legal and regulatory framework, gender responsive planning and budgeting, public financial management, women’s economic empowerment, access to justice, gender statistics, violence against women, social norms and harmful practices, women, peace and security, to support realization of the Programme outputs;
• Assist MOFAGA in providing necessary technical guidance in relation to the GESI policies and programmes to relevant constitutional commissions liaison by the Ministry;
• Identify, design and lead the capacity building initiatives and training packages on GESI for various stakeholders;
• Advise and ensure that data analysis, monitoring and reporting reflect GESI dimensions across the Programme Outputs;
• Analyze and conduct research on the GESI dimension in governance processes and provide strategic guidance in the preparation of the annual work plan, annual report and other documents of the programme;
• Ensure that knowledge products developed meet minimum national quality standards;
• Mobilize support from Federal Governance Expert/DP Coordinator, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist and other relevant staff to towards delivering the outputs;
• Develop and maintain GESI profiles for the seven provinces and for the federal level that can be used across the humanitarian and development continuum;
• Develop and update GESI tools, checklists and guidance notes.

2. Lead the planning of the GESI activities for PCU and facilitate the implementation of the approved plans

• Lead the preparation of the GESI activities for PPIU annual strategic implementation plan (ASIP) and trimester workplan based of the PCU based on the Programme Document, Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Framework of the Programme, and the guideline provided by the PCU in line with Government of Nepal’s commitments to Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and all other GON commitments related to the MOFAGA;
• Collect GESI inputs for the workplan and coordinate with PPIU as well as holding consultations with key stakeholders in preparing the plans;
• Provide GESI related inputs to the Monitoring and Reporting Expert for the development of comprehensive monitoring framework for the programme; 
• Meet regularly with technical specialists and experts of the PCU to brief them on progress and any issues with regard to GESI.

3. Support GESI mainstreaming at the provincial level

• Serve as the member of the Technical Assistant Personnel (TAP) and support the National Programme Manager (NPM) in delivering their roles;
• Coordinate with GESI Experts at the provincial level (PPIU) to contextualize programme outputs at the provincial level;
• Support GESI experts (PPIU) to monitor and analyze the trends in the local governments in the province in achieving these outputs from a GESI perspective;
• Identify capacity development needs with regard to GESI of the Technical Assistant staff and design and facilitate capacity development initiatives to mainstream GESI;
• Support development and maintenance of a roster of GESI experts, knowledge products and Communities of Practice on relevant issues in line with SDG principle of Leaving No One Behind (LNOB).

Impact of Results:

- GESI elements are well mainstreamed into the implementation of the programme with high quality standards;
- GESI responsive reporting system is in place.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the Government of Nepal and UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Serves and promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the Government of Nepal and of UNDP ;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Good inter-personal skills;
• Clear and upfront communication skills;
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism;
• Display cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability;
• Collaborates effectively in a team environment;
• Organized and good with following-up on pending issues; meets deadlines;
• Promote learning and knowledge management/sharing;
• Focused on delivering results by taking calculated-risks and problem-solving approach;
• Fair and transparent decision making; regularly shares information with team members;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development.

Functional Competencies:

• Promotes sharing of knowledge and experience, and actively works towards continued learning and development on personal level as well as for supervisees;
• Good practical knowledge of inter-disciplinary development issues;
• Ability to go beyond established procedures and models, propose new approaches which expand the range of projects;
• Demonstrates strong numerical and analytical skills;
• Has experience working with Monitoring and Evaluation tools;
• Experience in developing business plans for financial institutions including energy enterprises;
• Experience in coordination, technical assistance and advisory support top government and private institutions;
• Experienced in delivering training and other needed capacity/ institutional building support to a wide range of stakeholders including financial institutions;
• Demonstrates excellent organizational and administrative skills;
• Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating UNDP’s mandate;
• Analyzes and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders;
• Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty relating to the position;
• Possesses basic knowledge of organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks;
• Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to Government of Nepal and UNDP’s mandate and strategic agenda;
• Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporates best practices into project work;
• Monitors specific stages of projects/programme implementation;
• Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in Gender Studies, Social Science, Law, Political Science, Sociology and other related disciplines

Experience:

• At least seven years of progressive experience in gender equality, social inclusion and public outreach is required;
• Previous experience of working on governance-related issues is required, including field-based experience;
• Experience of project management, implementation and monitoring in line with Human Rights based Approaches;
• Demonstrated social skills of coordinating with different stakeholders and facilitating discussions;
• Demonstrated skills on preparing quality reports and other knowledge products.

Language requirements

• Fluency in English and Nepali, both written and oral, at professional level are essential;
• Knowledge of local languages will be considered as an advantage.