Background

Introduction & 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.

In Nepal, UN Women focuses on strengthening women’s voice, choice, agency and security across sectors to advance women’s rights, provide space for women’s meaningful participation and to demonstrate tangible differences in their lives. It is guided by Nepal’s stated priorities and its commitments to relevant normative frameworks, the country’s United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2018-2022, the CEDAW Concluding Observations (2018) and UN Women’s Corporate Strategic Plan 2018-2021. The programme promotes national ownership, capacity development and institutionalization, inclusiveness, coordination and partnerships, and knowledge generation and management, and seeks to prioritize engagement with and support to key duty bearers who are responsible for advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE). The goal of the programme is to “achieve gender equality and social inclusion and empower women and girls in Nepal to realise their human rights.”

The key strategies to achieve the goal include: (a) normative support for the development, reform and repeal or amendment of discriminatory laws using a CEDAW lens; (b) providing technical support and integrated policy advice to stakeholders to implement gender equality policies and action plans; (c) building institutional capacities at federal and local levels to promote gender-responsive governance, rule of law, prevention of violence and delivery of minimum essential services through innovations, long-term trainings, peer learning and focused workshops; and (d) advocacy and social mobilisation with excluded and vulnerable groups to build alliances and mobilise political will to drive public support for GEWE.

The on-going global pandemic of the coronavirus disease was recognised as a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 11 March 2020. As the COVID-19 outbreak spreads across the world, UN Women Nepal has adopted a developmental lens to respond to the humanitarian crisis across its programming areas. UN Women has considered preparedness, response and recovery mechanisms through a gender responsive approach while focusing its efforts on the immediate needs of the most marginalized women.

With the onset of COVID-19 context, the Humanitarian Country Team and the Cluster System got activated. UN Women is underway to develop package/initiatives to support women with both cash and in-kind support.In addition, the initiative also includes providing opportunity to strengthen women’s voice and leadership across all preparedness and response efforts. UN Women has been reviewing the government’s programmes/policies/relief packages from a gender/feminist lens and has been developing analytical briefs on the socio-economic impacts of COVID in line with UN Women’s feminist/human rights-based approach to COVID 19 preparedness and response. For this purpose, UN Women Nepal is seeking to engage a National Consultant on a retainer basis to provide technical support in ongoing programmatic, humanitarian and coordination work to advance gender equality in both development and humanitarian context.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the Unit Manager (Programmes), and direct supervision of Programme Analyst; the consultant will provide support to UN Women’s programming, humanitarian and coordination initiatives  with specific  focus on COVID 19 related interventions and design and roll out of the essential Service Packages. In addition, the consultant is required provide support to translate UN Women Nepal Country Office (NCO) strategic plans into effective programmes. The scope of the assignment are as follows:

Humanitarian

• Participation in two clusters of the Humanitarian Country Team and coordination meetings;
• Review and provide inputs on documents received from Cluster Leads in consultation with relevant UN Women colleagues.

Programme and Coordination

• Support development, review and quality assurance of knowledge products (inception reports, methodology notes, drafts and final products) including COVID-19 or any other humanitarian crisis related briefs;
• Provide technical support on different thematic areas including but not limited to Access to Justice, Gender Based Violence, social innovations including drafting of concept notes and briefs;
• Provide programme implementation support including review of partners reports, key deliverables from a RBM perspective;
• Participate in meetings with partners and support with presentations, preparation of meeting notes, consultation reports, planning notes and coordination with relevant partners as needed;
• Provide inputs on the ToRs and other relevant project documents/and other relevant project documents;
• Develop and provide inputs on the concept notes, reports, remarks presentation for the country representative and deputy representatives;
• Any other work assigned by supervisor.

Expected Deliverables

 Expected deliverables include:

• Evidence of inputs provided in humanitarian cluster meetings and documents received from Cluster Leads; (minimum 2 clusters)
• Evidence of support provided to development, review and quality assurance of knowledge products (inception reports, methodology notes, drafts and final products) including COVID-19 or any other humanitarian crisis related briefs; (minimum 2)
• Evidence of technical support provided on different thematic areas including but not limited to Access to Justice, Gender Based Violence, social innovations including drafting of concept notes and briefs;
• Evidence of support provided to programme the  implementation including review of partners reports, key deliverables from a RBM perspective;
• Evidence of support provided to partners with the presentations, preparation of meetings notes, planning notes and coordination support with relevant partners;
• Evidence of inputs provided on the relevant project documents, concept notes, reports, speeches/talking points/briefing material. (minimum 2)

Contract period and Duty station

This is a home-based assignment for one year on retainer basis (as and when required). UN Women will not be committed to purchasing any minimum quantity of the Services, and purchases will be made only if there is an actual requirement upon the issuance of a Purchase Order based on this retainer contract. UN Women shall not be liable for any cost in the event that no purchases are made under this retainer contract.

Payments

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 time frames. The daily consultancy rate will be determined based on SSA guidelines of the UN Women for national consultant. Time required for review and approval of the deliverables may vary depending upon the nature of the products delivered. In average, it is expected to take a week to get each deliverable reviewed and approved.

Inputs

• UN Women will provide the consultant with background information/ material, feedback and technical inputs to accomplish this assignment.
• UN Women will provide reference materials and facilitate coordination with key stakeholders.
• The consultant is expected to work remotely. UN Women can give access the UN Women office for printing of relevant documents during the assignment, if required.
• The consultant will be required to provide their own local communications such as SIM cards and mobile phone.
• The consultant will be responsible to arrange private insurance.
• The consultant will be required to provide a Statement of Good Health, endorsed by a certified Medical Practitioner.

Competencies

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.
• Cultural sensitivity and valuing 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.

Functional Competencies

• Ethics and Values: Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.
• Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Development and Innovation: Take charge of self-development and take initiative.
• Work in teams: Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multiethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Communicating and Information Sharing: Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.
• Self-management and Emotional Intelligence: Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others.
• Conflict Management: Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
• Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.
• Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Required Skills and Experience

The selected consultant should fulfill the following requirements:

Education:

• Master’s degree in business administration, human resources, social sciences, international development, or related fields

Experience:

• At least five years of relevant professional work experience
• Fluency in English and excellent oral and written communication skills
• Experience working with UN Agencies is an advantage
• Ability to handle documents and the information contained therein with strictest confidentiality is a non-negotiable requirement
• Previous experience of working with different levels of government, civil society and development partners preferably on gender and local governance will be an asset.

Language Skills

• Excellent command of written and oral English.

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 candidates 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. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria including interview process:

• Master’s degree in Gender and Development Studies, Political Science, Social Science, or any other related field of studies (15 points);
• Minimum experience relevant to the assignment (20 points);
• Working knowledge and experience in the area of gender equality and the empowerment of women (25 points);
• Previous experience working with different levels of government, civil society and development partners.  Experience working with the UN system is a considerable asset. (20 points).
• Writing sample (20 points).

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

2)    Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

The financial proposal of candidates 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.

A 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:

1. Expression of interest.
2. Completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) of all the team members which can be downloaded:  http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
3. A sample of original writing with minimum 1000 words 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. The financial proposal must be submitted in a separate page using the following template.

Notes:

1. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form and written sample will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
2. Payment will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated time frames. Rate for different deliverables should be consistent
3. 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.
4. UN Women is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individual especially women are highly encouraged to apply’.