Background

Since December 2017, UN Women Georgia Country Office has been implementing the project “A Joint Action for Women’s Economic Empowerment” (JAWE), generously funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway. The project aims to ensure women's economic rights and inclusion in Georgia by supporting the private sector and the Government to create an enabling environment, and by building women's capacities to capitalize on available decent work opportunities.

The project beneficiaries include three main target groups: the private sector, government and vulnerable and marginalized groups of women, as well as women business enterprises. The project has three outputs with activities engaging these three groups and building sustainable and mutually beneficial links between them. All outputs contribute to one outcome, for women to fully realize their economic rights with the support of a gender-responsive private sector and an enabling State legislative and economic environment. The outcome aims to contribute to the overall goal that women, particularly the poorest and most excluded, are economically empowered and benefit from development in Georgia.

UN Women, in partnership with the Georgian Farmer’s Association launched its work on empowerment of rural women entrepreneurs back in 2018. To date, 150 women in west Georgia have been identified for the capacity support, which entails trainings in business development, trainings in technical skills (as per the needs), small grant funding, branding/marketing support and linking to value chains. The three cycles of open calls for applications demonstrated that considerable number of rural women entrepreneurs are engaged in either agricultural or guesthouse management activities.  This work, on one hand showed that women are very active in agritourism field, but on another hand demonstrated that without the legislative regulation and coordinated work of several ministries, the expansion of the sector will be very slow.  The study visit organized by UN Women to Italy, Tuscan Region in November 2018 has also played a special role in this process – it allowed women entrepreneurs to get familiar with those favorable conditions that are offered to the agritourism business by the Italian legislation.  

UN Women started to work on a legislative initiative in partnership with Georgian Farmers’ Association based on the Tuscan experience and taking into account the needs of Georgian women entrepreneurs. The draft law was submitted to the Parliament’s Agrarian Committee in December 2019. The objectives of the agritourism legislation, among others, include the support of development of rural tourism, increase of sales of local agricultural products, promotion of agritourist potential of the country, development of small and medium sized guesthouses and improvement of access to financial resources for the entrepreneurs working in this field.  The legislative and executive branches of the Georgian government have been engaged in the work process since its beginning.

In February 2020, the Agrarian Committee of the Parliament of Georgia created an informal working group (working group hereinafter), which unites representatives of the civil society, state agencies and international organizations, and which is tasked to work on the finalization of the agritourism legislation.

In order to further support the governmental partners with the work on agritourism, UN Women has decided to hire a national consultant on agritourism issues. The objectives of the consultancy are twofold: 1. to develop a state strategy and action plan for sustainable economic development based on agritourism (strategy and action plan hereinafter) for the Georgian National Tourism Administration (GNTA hereinafter) and 2. To provide technical support to the working group to finalize the work on agritourism legislation. The national consultant may be teamed up with the international consultant in case of necessity.

The work on the legislation as well as on the strategy and action plan will go in parallel and in a coordinated manner and the consultant should support both processes. While the legislative work is more advanced, the results of the work of the consultant will be used in adjusting/refining legislative initiative. The working group will serve as a reference group for the strategy.

The 5-year state strategy should be in line with the Georgian Tourism Strategy 2025 as well as the strategy of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia and other relevant strategies, and it should be based on analyzing the current situation and the country's potential for agritourism development, as well as on the participation of the several stakeholders involved in the agricultural sector at various levels. The strategy should be accompanied by the 3-year action plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the national consultant are:

  • Conduct a mapping of legislative/policy documents of various European countries on agritourism support and identify best practices which can be applicable to the Georgian context, including best practices in the promotion of agritourism products;
  • Conduct interviews with key stakeholders in Georgia (government agencies, Parliament representatives, development partners, non-governmental organizations, private sector representatives) which are working on eco/rural/agri tourism development, map out their key activities and identify synergies and areas of potential cooperation;
  • In close consultations with GNTA, UN Women and the working group, elaborate the first draft strategy and action plan for agritourism development in Georgia;
  • Plan, conduct and facilitate participatory two workshops (with the duration of up to 2-days) with the representatives of UN Women, GNTA, working group and other stakeholders – one to discuss and finalize the draft strategy and action plan for agritourism development, and another to discuss and finalize the legislative initiative;
  • Submit the finalized documents as well as the report on the tasks implemented to UN Women.

Deliverables:

  • Work plan with timelines in line with duties and responsibilities spelled above submitted to UN Women (1 working day). – by 15 April 2020;
  • Mapping report incorporating legislative/policy documents of various European countries on agritourism support and best practices which can be applicable to the Georgian context, including best practices in the promotion of agritourism products (4 working days). – by 20 April 2020;
  • Mapping report on activities of key stakeholders in Georgia (government agencies, development partners, non-governmental organizations, private sector representatives) which are working on eco/rural/agri tourism development with recommendations on possible synergies and areas of potential cooperation (4 working days); - by 30 April 2020;
  • The first draft strategy for a 5-year period and action plan for 3-year period for agritourism development in Georgia (15 working days);  - by 20 May 2020;

       The strategy should among others, include the following:

  1. Agritourism definition;
  2. Agritourism service/product definition;
  3. Best practices, giving examples of Star Agritourism Destination, Emerging Agritourism Destination and destination with the same level of agritourism development as Georgia;
  4. Market/situation analysis: review and ranking of agritourism potential of Georgia; competitiveness analysis .
  5. Strategic directions for agritourism development in Georgia;
  6. Vision – where Georgia should be in 10 years.
  • Two workshops (with the duration of up to 2-days) with the representatives of UN Women, Georgian National Tourism Administration, working group and other stakeholders – one to discuss and finalize the draft strategy and action plan for agritourism development and another to  discuss and finalize the legislative initiative prepared and conducted (4 working days); - by 30 May 2020;
  • Comments/recommendations from the workshop incorporated into the draft strategy and action plan for agritourism development in Georgia and final versions submitted to UN Women and GNTA (2 working days); - by 10 June 2020;
  • Comments/recommendations from the workshop on the legislative initiative compiled and submitted to UN Women and the Parliament’s Agrarian Committee (2 working days); - by 10 June 2020;
  • Final report prepared and submitted to UN Women on the tasks implemented (1 working days). – by 30 July 2020.

Competencies

Core Values:

  • Respect for Diversity
  • Integrity
  • Professionalism

Core Competencies:

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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • University degree (at least Masters) in economics, development studies, tourism management, agriculture management or similar fields

Experience and competencies: 

  • At least five years of relevant professional experience in the field of agritourism/tourism management
  • Good understanding and proven knowledge of tourism product and cluster development and implementation
  • Good writing skills with demonstrated ability to collect and analyze data

Language:

  • Fluency in Georgian and English languages

Evaluation Procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria; technical and financial evaluation.

The candidates must possess following minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation:

  • University degree (at least Masters) in economics, development studies, tourism management, agriculture management or similar fields
  • At least five years of relevant professional experience in the field of agritourism/tourism management
  • Fluency in Georgian and English languages

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

 

  • University degree (Masters) in economics, development studies, tourism management, agriculture management or similar fields (max 40 points)
  • At least five years of relevant professional experience in the field of in the field of agritourism/tourism management (max 100 points)
  • Good understanding and proven knowledge of tourism product and cluster development and implementation (max 90 points)
  • Good writing skills with demonstrated ability to collect and analyze data (max 90 points)
  • Fluency in Georgian and English (max 30 points)

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150

S – score received on financial evaluation;

Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;

F – financial offer under consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management arrangements:

The Consultant will work under the overall supervision of UN Women Programme Analyst and overall guidance of UN Women Georgia Country Representative.

Financial arrangements:

Payment will be made in two instalments per deliverables submitted, accepted and approved by UN Women:

Instalment I: 30% upon the submission of deliverable 1,2 and 3

Instalment II: 30% upon the submission of deliverable 4 and 5

Instalment II: 40% upon submission of deliverables  6, 7 and 8

Application submission package:

*The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer: “aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate, including travel costs (ticket, DSA etc.) for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR.

How to Submit the Application:

  • Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=558
  • Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, A list of links or copies of any paperwork on social protection and /or capacity building designing and Cover Letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded.
  • Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement).
  • Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application;'
  • Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above).
  • You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Notes:

  • UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.
  • Applications without the financial offer will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
  • The individual consultants should take the mandatory learning security course prior to commencement of assignment– details will follow before the issuance of contract.