Background

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’ efforts and priorities in meeting their gender equality goals and for building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.    

 In the  UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO), based in Istanbul, is seeking to prioritize and deepen engagements with the private sector that can support it to achieve results and ensure equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development across the region. The ECARO is exploring new partnerships and collaborations with the private sector that respond to problems faced by women and girls, as a key priority and driving force in the race to achieve the SDGs as we enter the last decade of the 2030 Agenda.

In Turkey, there are important strategic opportunities to engage with the private sector in order to advance gender equality and women’s rights in the workplace, marketplace and community. The UN Women Country Office, based in Ankara, is seeking to capitalize on these opportunities, drawing on the private sector’s growing level of interest in women’s empowerment. Although the level of involvement and focus area of companies vary, best practices in women’s economic empowerment have emerged. Currently, Turkey has the highest number of signatories to the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) in the world – a joint global initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact, which represents a seven-step framework to guide the private sector efforts towards women’s empowerment in the workplace and throughout social life. Despite this commitment, the need to encourage private sector representatives to work toward a more gender-sensitive corporate culture and a more inclusive economy is evident. Among OECD countries, Turkey remains last in women’s participation in the workforce and has the largest population of women between the ages 15-24 who are not educated and not participating in the workforce, indicating the acute need for further efforts to empower women. The labor force participation of women in Turkey remains significantly lower to that of men, and the gap is even wider for the Syrian migrant community.

Duties and Responsibilities

Regional Office functions:

Under the guidance from the Deputy Regional Director and the direct supervision of Partnership Specialist, the consultant will:

• Support ECA RO to follow-up on development of plan of actions for engagement with the private sector on GEWE advocacy and possible joint programmatic work at the regional level; 
• Follow up on implementation of the private sector engagement strategy with the field offices and private sector companies in Turkey;
• Provide support in drafting the concepts, summaries and factsheets related to priority areas to be identified for joint actions with the private sector at the regional level;  
• Liaise and communicate with UN Women HQ Economic Empowerment Section and attend meetings related to WEPs and share regular updates about policies and changes with ECA field offices;
• Follow up with implementation of the IDEAS campaigns focusing on innovation at the field level.
• Assist in preparations for ECA partners in participation for Global/ Cross-regional dialogues on WEPs and other private sector engagement issues including private sector engagement in Generation Equality Forums
• Assist in documentation of joint actions and overall work performed by the private sector on GEWE in the region, including WEPs signatory companies;
• Support to organize meetings, webinars with the private sector companies in the region to discuss priorities for the joint work and follow-up on them;
• Assist in regular communication with private sector companies to follow-up on implementation of the joint plan of actions.

Turkey Country Office functions:

Under the supervision of the Programme Management Specialist and in close cooperation with the Turkey Office WEPs Focal Point, the consultant will be responsible to:

• Support the Turkey CO with conducting due diligence and coordinating approval processes for WEPs signatory companies as well as other modalities of private sector partnerships
• Provide support to the WEPs signatories in terms of WEPs branding guidelines
• Provide support to WEPs signatories in terms of procedures to attend global/regional and national events such as annual WEPs forum
• Contribute with substantive inputs to concept notes and proposals to strengthen partnerships with the private sector and generate greater financial resources in support of UN Women programmatic initiatives in Turkey
• Conduct necessary research to support the documentation of best practices among WEPs signatories and other companies in Turkey on how they have empowered women in the workplace, marketplace and community; Write case studies on good practices and lessons learnt for internal and external knowledge sharing
• Support the CO in maintaining and regularly updating a data base of WEPs signatories with relevant information
• Support the CO in the organization of events and meetings related to the WEPs, including provision of logistical support, liaising with participants, note taking, etc.
• Contribute to advocacy and communications activities of the CO related to the WEPs and private sector engagement

As delegated by the CO, attend the Gender Equality Executive Committee Meetings organised within UN Global Compact as well as other meetings relevant to UN Women’s engagement with private sector

Deliverables and Payment Schedule

Duration of the assignment is from 15 March to 15 September The Consultant is expected to spend up to 20 working days per month throughout the assignment.

During assignment’s related missions, the Consultant may use the facilities of the office (i.e. internet access, printing, copying, local phone calls, etc.). However, s/he is expected to use his/her own personal computer.

Expected Deliverables and Payment Schedule

The following table summarizes main activities and expected deliverables against targeted delivery deadlines and indicative working days to be invested by the Consultant.

The mentioned number of working days has been estimated as being sufficient/feasible for the envisaged volume of work to be completed successfully and is proposed as a guideline for the duration of assignment. It cannot and shall not be used as criteria for completion of work/assignment. The provision of envisaged deliverables approved by the UN Women [ECA RO/Turkey CO] shall be the only criteria for Consultants work being completed and eligible for payment(s).

Payment Schedule

The Consultant shall be paid upon successful completion of the deliverables in monthly installments as per the above table. Payment shall be affected only if all the deliverables in this TOR are submitted to UN Women ECA RO within the timeframes stipulated in the TOR and they are approved by the respective supervisor. Without submission and approval of the deliverables, Consultants shall not receive any payment even if they invest time for this assignment.

*Please note that we advise you to put the payment schedule in percentages if your individual and total working days will be in line with the financial offer which will be given based on deliverables. If it will be different than the ratio of total working days/ estimated working days for each deliverable, there is no need of including the percentages.

Travel

For No Travel Assignments:

This is Istanbul based assignment and no travel requirements are envisioned under this assignment. UN Women will not cover transportation cost within the duty station including the taxi costs. In the case of unforeseeable travel, the travel arrangements will be handled by UN Women as per the UN Women rules and regulations.

For Both

For the all travels under this assignment, the Consultants are required to provide the relevant project staff with requested travel documentation in a timely manner and before the travels. Please note that failure to do so may result in no entitlement.

Mandatory Courses

For All Assignments = 6 months

Mandatory courses for this assignment are estimated to take approximately 1 working day to complete. The Consultant shall complete all the mandatory and further required UN courses, training and modules on time. The certificates shall be submitted to the Hiring Manager

Key Performance Indicators

• Timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.
• Adherence to UN Women standards and rules.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• Ability to communicate sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies;
• Knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues;
• Focuses on impact and results for client;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Proven networking skills, and ability to mobilize support on behalf of UN Women;
• Good negotiating skills;
• Knowledge and understanding of UN system;
• Strong IT skills, including databases, extranet and office software packages;
• Strong analytical and interpersonal skills.

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

UN Women does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, business management, social sciences, public administration, international relations, communications, women's studies, or another area relevant to the requirements of the TOR.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Skills and Experience

• At least 2 years of experience at a national or international level in business development;
• Experience in gender equality and women's empowerment considered an asset;
• Experience working in the UN system is an asset.

Language Requirements

• Fluency in Turkish and English (written and oral);
• Knowledge of other UN working languages is an asset;

Application Procedure

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• Cover letter to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
• CV in English containing the relevant educational and professional experience.
• Signed UN Women Personal History (P11) Form including past experience in similar assignments which can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• Financial Proposal:  Specify a monthly amount (daily rate, personnel costs, travel expenses to join in duty station, living allowance, etc. should be included in the Offer) for the tasks specified in this Terms of Reference and considering 20 days for every month expected as working days;

When applying; the Cover Letter, CV and the signed P11 Form should be merged into one (1) single PDF document since the system will allow only to upload maximum one document. Therefore, please combine these forms and documents into one (1) single PDF document and upload them to the system.

Should they be short-listed in consideration of the consultancy post, candidates should have the ability to quickly submit degree certificates, medical certifications or any other requested document.

Incomplete applications such as applications without a financial proposal may not be considered. Applicants are responsible to make sure to have provided all the requested application materials before the deadline.

Evaluation of Applicants

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer receives the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for financial evaluation.

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. A suggested formula is as follows:

p = 30 (µ/z)

Using the following values:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

An interview/written test may be used for the selection of best candidates.