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. 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 strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women in Nepal focuses on two programmatic areas, inclusive governance and women's economic empowerment. Moreover, the UN Women Nepal Country Office (NCO) explicitly pursues the objective of transforming discriminatory social norms and harmful practices. The high prevalence of such norms and practices constrains the lives of Nepali women and girls by limiting their access to opportunities, resources and power. All these efforts of NCO are aligned with the priorities of current United National Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2018 – 2022 for Nepal. They four key priority areas of the current UNDAF 2018 – 2022 are: (a) Sustainable and Inclusive Economic Growth; (b) Social Development; (c) Resilience, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation; and (d) Governance, Rule of Law, and Human Rights.

Under the overall guidance and supervision of Programme Specialist (Head of Programme Unit) and in close consultation with Country Representative, Deputy Representative and relevant NCO Programme Staff, the consultant is responsible for providing support to NCO in writing programme/project concept notes/proposals and full programme/project documents.

Duties and Responsibilities

In coordination with relevant programme staff, support the development of programme documents focusing on the followings:

·         Collect the relevant information necessary to draft a programme document from relevant sources;

·         Support the development of a programme/project concept note (maximum seven pages) by reflecting interests of targeted donor(s); and

·         Support the development of a full programme/project document (maximum 15 pages including annexes – results framework and budget).

Deliverables:

·         Maximum five programme/project concept notes (maximum seven pages). The concept note must cover the key sections: (a) background/situation analysis; (b) justification; (c) proposed results and activities; (d) tentative timeline; and (e) tentative budget.

·         Maximum five full programme/project documents (maximum 15 pages). The programme/project document must cover the key sections: (a) executive summary; (b) background/situation analysis; (c) justification; (d) programme/project strategy (e) partnerships; (f) sustainability; (g) innovation; (h) results and resource framework including the indicative budget; (i) associated risks and mitigation; and (j) relevant annexes.

Payment Schedule:

Payment for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payment will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.

Travel and Accommodation expenses:

UN Women will bear the full cost of travel and accommodations for official missions as per the UN Women standard guidelines.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

·         Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;

·         Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work; and

·         Respect for diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

·         Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues

·         Accountability

·         Creative Problem Solving

·         Effective Communication

·         Inclusive Collaboration

·         Stakeholder Engagement

·         Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

·         Strong knowledge of gender equality and women’s rights issues;

·         Good coordination, resource mobilization and donor relation skills;

·         Good knowledge of Results Based Management and Human Rights Based Approach;

·         Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings and recommendations;

·         Strong analytical and communication skills;

·         Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail;

·         Excellent writing and editing skills;

·         Excellent interpersonal and networking skills, and ability to work in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environments; and

·         Ability to work under pressure on multiple projects whilst maintaining high-quality and timeliness.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

·         Master’s Degree in international development studies, gender/women’s studies, communication economics, political science, related social sciences, or related discipline.

Experience

·         A minimum 10 years of relevant work experience in programme/project development, proposal/concept note writing, research, editing, creative writing or related field;

·         Proven understanding of development work in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment; and

·         Experience in working in resource mobilization, donor relations, international organizations or the UN previously in similar assignments is an asset.

Language skills

·         Excellent command of written and oral English; and

·         Knowledge of additional UN language is an asset.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

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

1.       Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100 which will be later converted into 70 points out of total obtainable (technical and financial) score of 100 points. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

·         Required degree and qualification (20 points);

·         Relevant years of experience in programme/project development, proposal/concept note writing, research, editing, creative writing or related field (20 points);

·         Proven understanding of development work in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment (20 points);

·         Experience in working with donors, international organizations or the UN previously in similar assignments is an asset (10 points); and

·         Writing sample (30 points).

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

2.       Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

The financial proposal of only those applicants who meet the technical assessment threshold will be evaluated. The financial assessment will count as 30% of the total points. In this methodology, 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.

The formula is as follows:

p = y (µ/z)

Where:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

How to Apply?

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:

·         Expression of interest;

·         Completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) of all the team members which can be downloaded:  http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment; and

·         A sample of original writing produced within the last twelve months where the applicant is the lead author.

The financial proposal shall specify a lump sum amount breaking down the professional fee for each deliverable and travel related cost. The financial proposal must be submitted in a separate page using the following template.

You will be able to upload only one attachment. Please combine your all documents into one single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form and the writing sample will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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.

'UN Women is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individual especially women are highly encouraged to apply’