Background

The United Nations Theme Group on Gender (UNTGG) established the China Gender Fund for Research and Advocacy (CGF) in September 2004 with the objective of advancing gender equality and women's empowerment in China. The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is the administering agency for the project under the overall coordination and guidance of the UNTGG and the Technical Advisory Committee (TAC). The goal of the CGF is to contribute to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the reduction of gender inequalities in China in line with relevant international conventions and agreements.

The CGF is the only trust fund modality programme on gender equality being implemented in China.  Under the CGF modality, donors to the CGF (UN agencies, bilateral donors and private sector donors) propose what they regard as newly emerging gender issues in China, and jointly decide which issues should be prioritized as themes under each Call for Proposals. Later, the donors jointly select the most catalytic and innovative proposals to be funded. Through this open and participatory process, the CGF has already funded more than 68 projects that have led to notable results in new or amendments of laws and policies that are to advance gender equality in China.

Since it began operation in 2004, the CGF has realized significant results by funding innovative projects, such as issuing of the first-ever “Regulations on How Police Officers Shall Deal with Domestic Violence Cases”, by the Hunan Provincial Public Security Bureau in 2013; the Science Times and Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2012 raising the age ceiling from 35 to 40 for women scientists to apply for the national Youth Science Fund, recognizing the career delays that women face as a result of maternity leave or time off to raise children; and issuance of the revised National Employment Promotion Law, which took effect in January 2008, making illegal the previously common “men only” job announcements. It is crucial that the CGF continue to work on such issues to ensure that the great progress that has already been made is not undone, and that new work can focus on the most up-to-date issues affecting women in China.

Three external evaluations of the CGF (conducted in 2007, 2011, and 2015) were of the uniform opinion that the CGF has done an outstanding job in using limited resources to advance gender equality and women's empowerment in China. Grantees feel that the CGF brought a new understanding of gender equality and women’s empowerment to them, their communities, and China. The centrality that the CGF gave these issues spurred grantees to look at their own work in a new and different light. The CGF is increasingly relevant to China’s national context etc. While the evaluation also mentioned the challenges that CGF faces such as resources mobilization, to transfer from traditional donors (bilateral and United Nations agencies) to private sectors etc.

Although the CGF has achieved significant results in changing policies/regulations and women’s life, there is no any consolidated document so far produced under the CGF to summarize all these achievements and lessons learned. There is no any strategy produced on which direction the CGF will go in the future as well. To address all these concerns, there is a need to do a stock-take review of the CGF.

UN Women China office haired a short-term international consultant from 26 November 2019 to 30 April 2020. The Stake-stock Review Consultant undertook desk review, field visits, and interviewed relevant stakeholders to gather and analyze data. Based on the materials gathered, the consultant consolidated good practices and lessons learned, and opportunities and challenges to strengthen its relevance, alignment and add-value to UN Women priorities, national context and priorities and SDGs. All these have been reflected in the stock-take review report. Based on the report, CGF’s new strategy and communication kit need to be developed.

Objectives of the consultation

For the purpose mentioned above, UN Women China Office is looking for a short-term international consultant. Under the overall guidance of the Head of UN Women China Office and direct supervision of the CGF programme manager of UN Women China, the consultant is expected to 1) to develop CGF’s new strategy (2020-2023) including its vision, new strategic direction, recommended results and partnership framework and road-map for implementation; and 2) to develop CGF’s communication kit to be used for advocacy, branding and visibility.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

Under the overall guidance of the Head of UN Women China Office and direct guidance of the CGF Programme Manager of UN Women China, the consultant is expected to undertake the following services:

• The consultant will be required to do the final editing of the stock-take review report.  
• Facilitate CGF strategic plan development workshop, to be held in Beijing as well as to use this opportunity, to discuss the new strategy and strategic plan of the CGF.
• Based on the stock-take review report and inputs from the above workshop, the consultant will develop CGF’s new strategy of 2020-2023, which should articulate the overall vision, goal and result areas of CGF,  its direction and plan for three years period, partnership framework as well as road-map for implementation. The new CGF strategy should be aligned to overall corporate and national priorities of UN Women, the country context and priorities set in national policies and plans, the new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework and contribute towards achievement of the SDGs.
• Develop CGF communication kit of the “new” CGF programme, to be used for CGF advocacy, visibility and branding.

Deliverables and Timeline

Working arrangement and payment

The period of this consultancy is from 15 July 2020 to 5 October 2020. The consultant will need to fly to Beijing, to undertake assignments as described above, working closely with UN Women China Office. Given the situation of COVID-19, international consultant based in Beijing is preferred. The detailed arrangements are as the following:

1. The consultant is expected to work in Beijing from 15 July 2020- 5 October 2020. During this period, the consultant will work in UN Women China Office to finalize the stock-take review report, draft the strategy, facilitate the stock-take review and strategy validation workshop, and develop CGF’s communication kit.
2. If the consultant is based in Beijing, UN Women China will pay the consultant the agreed professional fee, living allowance based on the financial proposal submitted.
3. If the consultant is not based in Beijing, the consultant will take care of his/her travel to and from Beijing and get reimbursed from UN Women China Office.  UN Women China will pay the consultant the agreed professional fee, living allowance based on the financial proposal submitted. The consultant should also include any visa and communication related costs (if applied) in the financial proposal and will be paid on “actual-basis” as per the receipts submitted.
4. All the other costs associated to travel within China will be directly arranged by UN Women China office in line with standard rules and regulations and paid to the consultants as required.

Payments for this consultancy will be based be deliverable based and paid in the following installments:

1. Deliverable 1 finalized stock-take report: 15% of the total consultancy fee and travel cost including 80% advance  DSA in Beijing, visa cost, air ticket and terminal cost for coming to Beijing.
2. Deliverable 2 final draft of the CGF strategy and draft communication brief: 25% of the total consultancy fee.
3. Deliverable 3 agenda and meeting minutes of the stock-take and new strategy validation workshop: 25% of the total consultancy fee.
4. Deliverable 4 final CGF strategy and final draft communication brief including PPT slides: 35% of the total consultancy fee,  and travel cost including the remaining 20% DSA, and air ticket and terminal cost for return.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• In-depth knowledge of gender equality and women's rights issues;
• Experience in Programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Knowledge of Results Based Management
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings
• Good knowledge of technical area
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail
• Strong analytical and presentation skills

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Qualifications

• A Master’s degree in the field of international development, gender studies or related area with at least 10 years of experience in gender programme review, monitoring and/or evaluation. Or Bachelor's degree in those fields with 12 years of the above-mentioned work experience.
• Demonstrated abilities and track record in writing high quality English-language strategic documents and review reports. Programme review document and formulation of a new programme strategy related to grant-making modality is highly desirable.
• Ability to gather, distill, analyze and present complex information in concise and reader-friendly style is a requirement for this assignment. 
• Excellent understanding of and experience with gender-sensitive and results-based management, results-framework development, monitoring and reporting.
• Knowledge and experience working in China will be an asset.
• Understanding of international development, resource mobilization, and the UN context is desirable.
• Able to work independently and under strict deadlines is necessary.
• Must be capable of effectively using MS Word and Excel.

Selection Criteria

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 utilized in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100.  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.

All interested candidates are required to submit two relevant writing samples they have authored or co-authored, preferably in the area of (gender programme) review reports, programme strategy development, etc.

How to apply

Interested candidates are requested to submit the following application documents to gao.tao@unwomen.org with a subject line as “Application for China Gender Fund (CGF) Stock-take Review International Consultant” no later than 11:30 pm Beijing time, 25 June 2020.

• Updated CV including short summary of your expertise and your experience
• P11, downloaded at https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=558
• Financial proposal for each deliverable breaking down into the daily consultancy rate, living allowance and round-trip ticket between Beijing, China and home country
• a few samples of the editing report