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 for women as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.  Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Based on UN legislative mandates and the UNW Strategic Plan, the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific is tasked with providing strategic programme development, policy / technical advisory services and quality assurance support to Multi Country Offices and Country Offices. It undertakes or coordinates regional research and data analysis; advises on norms, policies and strategies for achieving the internationally and regionally agreed goals related to gender equality and women’s empowerment issues. It acts as a knowledge hub at the regional level, collecting evidence on progress and emerging issues and sharing knowledge on innovative approaches and lessons learned in implementation.

The outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019. Since then a global pandemic has been declared, with countries across the globe mobilizing to respond to the health crisis and manage the significant socio-economic impacts. This unprecedented crisis unfolds against many existing challenges: Asia and the Pacific is the most disaster-prone region in the world, and it is facing the ever-pressing threats of climate change and many large protracted crises and conflict. It is also unfolding amid persistent gender inequalities in the region: owing to structural inequalities and discriminatory gender norms, women account for only 18 per cent of parliamentarians,[1] women’s employment is concentrated in the informal labour sector with limited protection, and women experience unacceptably high levels of intimate partner violence (IPV).

As countries in the region cope with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, they also grapple with the reality of exposure to multiple, severe natural hazards, exacerbated by the impacts of climate change, and potential for disasters within disasters. Against this landscape, the spread of COVID-19, if unmitigated, risks deepening pre-existing gender inequalities and rolling back the human rights of women and girls.

In this context, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific seeks to hire a consultant to support implementation and development of programming on inclusive responses to COVID-19 in the Asia and Pacific Region, as well as to support humanitarian coordination for any further disasters and emergencies in the region.

[1] https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SG.GEN.PARL.ZS.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision and guidance of the Regional Advisor, Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Support development of new areas of work relating to preparedness and response for COVID-19 and disasters in the region, including drafting of project proposals and documents, and providing support to UN Women country offices.
• Provide support to knowledge management, monitoring, and reporting. This includes preparation of briefs and talking points; preparation and finalization of knowledge resources, collection and analysis of data, and providing inputs to quarterly reporting.
• Draft presentations and briefs for/or minutes from workshops, meetings and consultations with relevant stakeholders
• Support the organization of virtual consultations, meetings, and trainings for the humanitarian unit, including coordination and secretarial support for UN Women’s engagement in humanitarian coordination bodies.
• Provide targeted technical and coordination support on ad hoc basis to country offices for implementation of programmes relating to preparedness and response for COVID-19 and disasters in the Asia-Pacific region, including Secretariat support to specific coordination bodies co-chaired by UN Women as required.

Expected Deliverables

Expected deliverables and target date

*Payment will be made upon submission of deliverables and approval of the Regional Advisor, Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction

Competencies

Knowledge and experience:

• Demonstrated knowledge of gender equality, humanitarian action or response to public health emergencies, and the Asia-Pacific region.
• Excellent writing skills. Experience writing project proposals, donor reports, and policy briefs.
• Knowledge of online communications platforms an advantage.
• Previous experience with UN Women and other UN agencies an advantage.
• Fluency in English, with knowledge of other languages spoken in the Asia-Pacific region and other UN languages an advantage.

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the United Nations' values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the UN and UN Women.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Ability and willingness to work as part of a team to meet tight deadlines and produce high quality work.

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in gender studies, international affairs, social science, policy, and/or any relevant field directly related to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls;

• Minimum two years of relevant work experience with a demonstrable ability to provide policy, programmatic and coordination support in the areas of gender, humanitarian action, and/or socioeconomic recovery from disasters in Asia Pacific;
• Experience in humanitarian coordination strongly desirable, working experience with UN Women or other United Nations agency an asset;

• Excellent command of written English, other languages spoken in the Asia-Pacific region and UN languages an asset.

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically-qualified candidates who may be contacted for validation interview.

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

VIII. Submission of application

Interest candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org  with -cc to salila.klongboonjit@unwomen.org , not later than 30 April 2020, 23:59 Bangkok time.

Submission package includes:

• Letter of Motivation
• Personal History Form(P11) (available at http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs)
• Writing sample
• Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify a lump sum total amount breaking down the daily professional fee, proposed number of working days. Please see the financial proposal template as below:

Payments

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