Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination and violence 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. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programs and services needed to implement these standards.

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has made progress in creating preconditions for achieving gender equality by adopting relevant legislative and policy framework. However, women remain seriously under-represented in the country’s political institutions. In order to create a genuinely encouraging environment work on several fronts is required, including a sharper focus on implementation of all policy instruments and a corresponding shift of paradigm from equality of rights to equality of results, promotion of institutional processes that ensure women’s equal participation in political parties and parliament and consistent efforts to capacitate and include women in BiH in decision-making processes across board.

Women in Elections project is funded by the Government of Sweden and implemented by UNDP BiH and UN Women BiH, in partnership with BiH Agency for Gender Equality, BiH Central Election Commission, BiH Parliamentary Assembly - Committee on Gender Equality and selected local governments. The overall objective of this project to strengthen women’s leadership and participation in political life, vertically by making structural adjustments to accommodate greater numbers of women in politics, as well as horizontally by nourishing the next generation of women leaders in communities through tailored networking and capacity building initiatives and increased democratic participation and accountability.

One of the crucial elements of the said project is to implement a media campaign to build positive public perception around the role of women as effective leaders and decision-makers, and to promote voting for women candidates. The goal of the media campaign is to highlight positive contributions of women leaders in civic engagement and policy-making, in order to increase public perception of their role as effective leaders and decision-makers.

UN Women is now seeking to engage a Senior Communications Consultant to provide support in identifying the campaign target group, developing the campaign concept, and preparing procurement documentation.

1.DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE

Media could play an important role in raising awareness among the general public on women’s rights issues and contribute to the gender equality development of BiH. Currently, women politicians are underrepresented in media and treated differently than their men colleagues. Additionally, women running for public office typically gain additional, unnecessary scrutiny on their private lives. There is also a significant perception that irresponsible reporting on the work of women politicians and frequent objectification of women in the process of reporting are encouraging violence against women politicians.

The “Women in Election in BiH” project will work closely with the media to advocate for an increased media space for women candidates to present themselves, their programme, and engage with the voters. As part of that effort, UN Women will develop a campaign to build positive public perception around the role of women as effective leaders and decision-makers. The goal of the media campaign is to highlight positive contributions of women leaders in civic engagement and policy-making, in order to increase public perception of their role as effective leaders and decision-makers, especially in light of upcoming 2020 Local Elections.

2.IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE

To provide support in developing a campaign to build positive public perception around the role of women as effective leaders and decision-makers, to identify the campaign target group, develop the campaign concept, and prepare procurement documentation. The campaign will be implemented in 4 phases: (1) planning from April to May, (2) pre-launch in June, (3) launch and implementation from June to September, (4) impact assessment from October to November 2020.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the UN Women Governance and Leadership Coordinator the consultant is expected to deliver the following results:

• Develop methodology and campaign workplan to conduct consultations, prepare procurement documentation, oversee the campaign implementation and conduct campaign impact assessment;
• Conduct internal consultations with UN Women and UNDP team and produce 1 page brief on conclusions and recommendations;
• Conduct external consultations with identified target group and produce 1 page brief on conclusions and recommendations;
• Conduct external consultations with donor (Sweden), main project partners (AGE BiH, GC FBiH, GC RS, CEC BiH, PA GEC BiH), and other relevant stakeholders (NGOs and international organizations that work on women’s political participation and leadership, especially in light of upcoming 2020 Local Elections), and produce 1 page brief on conclusions and recommendations;
• Based on methodology, workplan and consultations, identify the campaign target group, define the campaign concept including the pre-launch campaign, develop a creative plan, and prepare TOR for the procurement process;
• Provide detailed weekly report during the period of consultancy and a final report after the completition of tasks.

To facilitate delivery of the above outputs, UN Women will provide the consultant the following:

• Project related documents and contacts, including the Concept Note of the Activity;
• Women in Elections related knowledge products;
• Other documents as necessary.

1.ACTIVITIES AND TIMEFRAME

The consultant will be expected to complete the following tasks within the indicative timeframe:

The consultancy will last 12 days, in the period from 20 April – 20 May 2020. The assignment will not require presence on UN Women premises.

2.REPORTING

All deliverables should be submitted to the UN Women Governance and Leadership Coordinator. Final report on the consultancy should be delivered by 20 May 2020 in English and should not exceed 10 pages. Approval time required to review the report before authorizing payments is 7 days.

The consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables:

1. Methodology and campaign workplan to conduct consultations, prepare procurement documentation, oversee the campaign implementation and conduct campaign impact assessment drafted and submitted to UN Women for comments, and then finalized upon UN Women’s approval;
2. Three sets of consultations conducted and for each a 1 page brief report on conclusions and recommendations drafted and submitted to UN Women. Sets of consultations are as follows:
   1. internal consultations with UN Women and UNDP team;
   2. external consultations with identified target group;
   3. external consultations with donor (Sweden), main project partners (AGE BiH, GC FBiH, GC RS, CEC BiH, PA GEC BiH), and other relevant stakeholders (NGOs and international organizations that work on women’s political participation and leadership, especially in light of upcoming 2020 Local Elections);
3. Based on methodology, workplan and consultations, campaign target group identified, campaign concept including the pre-launch campaign defined, a creative plan developed, and TOR for the procurement process prepared and submitted to UN Women for comments, and then finalized upon UN Women’s approval;
4. Final report on the consultancy should be delivered by 20 May 2020 in English and should not exceed 10 pages.

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: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Shares knowledge and experience;
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women;
•  Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
• Development and Operational Effectiveness;
• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies;
• Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy;
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported;
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems;
• Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource;

Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
• Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate;
• Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners;

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• University Degree (BA) in media and communications, journalism or related field. 
• Master’s degree in communications, journalism or related field such as international development, gender studies or social science will be considered an asset.

Skills and Experience:

• At least 7 years of demonstrated work experience in communications including experience in media relations. Relevant experience at the national level in delivering communication services to promote the activities of international development organization will be considered an asset.
• Experience in managing media campaigns;
• Experience in on-line outreach and multimedia;
• Experience in use of web editing tools, social media platforms and good understanding of new and evolving technologies and digital platforms will be considered an asset;
• Experience in promotion of gender issues and working with women leaders;
• Previous experience within the UN System is an advantage;
• Fluency in English and B/H/S, excellent spoken and written skills.

EVALUATION OF OFFERS

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process that takes into account both the technical qualification of potential consultants as well as the financial proposals submitted in support of consultant applications. Candidate applications will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of applicant qualifications and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
• having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest price proposal among those candidates.

Criteria:

Technical Evaluation (70%),

Financial Evaluation (30%)

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30

• 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 the consideration.

Please note that travel costs should be covered by the consultant.

Qualified women and men and members of minorities are encouraged to apply. UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:

1. Expression of interest and confirmation of immediate availability
2. Detailed financial proposal inclusive of all costs (which includes consultancy fees, travel, accommodation
3. Completed UN Women Personal History (P11) form, that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

Please note that travel and accommodation costs should be covered by the consultant.

For any additional information, please contact unwomen.bih@unwomen.org

How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, and Expression of Interest 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.