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 and the third gender as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

All human development and human rights issues involve gender dimensions. UN Women globally focuses on key priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. UN Women’s priority areas include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, engaging in all aspects of women peace and security processes, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting through Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

UN Women’s work on GRB involves ensuring that national planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes incorporate a gender perspective. UN Women’s GRB programmes at the regional and country level have made significant contribution towards this by building political support, developing technical resources and capacities, generating good practices for improving women's access to services and increasing accountability for Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment (GEWE).  At the forefront of global, regional and local advocacy for application of GRB, UN Women has built partnerships with diverse government, inter-governmental and non-governmental partners to further efforts and demonstrate GRB’s relevance to sustainable development, aid effectiveness, public sector reform and financing for development.

In 2004-05, the report of the expert group of classification of government expenditure became instrumental in laying out the road map for GRB in India. This was followed by the adoption of “Budgeting for Gender Equity” as mission statement by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India (GoI). In 2005-06, the Ministry of Finance, GoI introduced Gender Budget Statement (GBS) which aimed to reflect the quantum of budgetary allocations for programmes/schemes that substantially benefit women. Another important mechanism institutionalised by the Ministry of Finance was setting up of Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) which serve as focal points for mainstreaming gender through GRB. The rigour has been replicated in at least 19 states, some of which have produced GBS and set up GBCs.

UN Women’s India Country Office based in New Delhi, India, is currently implementing a project with the objective of identifying strategies and operational approaches to strengthen on-going efforts in the area of GRB. Insights generated from this project will enable key stakeholders at the national and regional level to accelerate their efforts to ensure that women’s priorities are adequately reflected in national budgeting processes, and to make concrete changes for adequate resource allocation towards women’s priorities.

Taking this forward proposes to provide the requisite technical assistance and operational support on GRB at the National level and to the four state governments of Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur. The technical assistance will be for strengthening GRB initiatives over the next two years through establishing relevant gender responsive policy tools for the larger impact of having inclusive and gender sensitive programmes and schemes of the government at the national and State level. Leveraging on the institutional capacity, past work and established networks and partnerships, UN Women through this programme will create an enabling environment by building capacities of key stakeholders to address gender issues and be instrumental in making the planning and budgeting process in the Government gender responsive.

 This project focuses on the following dimensions:

• Create and strengthen institutional structures for GRB and institute methodological changes in Planning-Budgeting and Auditing (PBA) systems for enabling gender responsive actions
  • GRB mechanisms are refined and embedded within the government in the four states
• Enhance capacities of government officials and other stakeholders to implement the gender responsive PBA measures
  • Knowledge products on GRB are developed, including evidence based Sectoral studies and customized training modules
  • Gender budgeting capacities of government stakeholders are strengthened and training capacities institutionalized in the four states
  • E-governance tool developed and piloted

Within this context, UN Women seeks the services of  Sectoral GRB Experts (Total 4 Positions) for undertaking gender budget analysis of select sectors in four states of India- Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur and Himachal Pradesh. The studies will aim to generate/strengthen evidence on the existing gaps in policy/programme design, budgeting, implementation and evaluation from a gender perspective and would feed into the development of a customised GRB training module and toolkit development. The tentative sectors under consideration include- energy, transport, urban development, skill development, health, agriculture and rural development.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance and direct supervision of Lead Gender Budget Expert, the Sectoral expert will lead research on select sectors (up to two) in the four states, using the GRB framework to analyse policies/schemes/programmes. The Expert will also be required to enhance capacities of relevant officials using the evidence generated on GRB analysis through trainings and handholding support. In both the research studies, the analysis will primarily focus on conducting a thorough desk review of programmes/schemes of the relevant departments from a gender lens, analysis of the existing data and providing concrete recommendations to ensure that policies and programmes respond to the specific concerns of women and girls. The research should also capture perceptions of officials at the union government/state government level. Capturing of primary data from the field will be minimal but quality analysis at field level will be desirable.

The experts will be travelling to the states for meetings, data collection and other support functions adhering, as required, to the precautionary norms in the wake of the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic. The intermediate findings from the study will be presented within six months of commencement of the assignment. The final report will be developed in another three months after incorporating the insights from the in-depth schematic study and will be shared at a national workshop.

The Sectoral Expert will work with the teams of UN Women in India and Government partners at the Union and State level to ensure that the research includes diverse perspectives and meets the required standards of quality, within the given time and cost specifications. 

Therefore, the Sectoral Expert will have the following tasks:

Provide technical inputs for initialization of the studies and getting buy-in of line departments:

• Provide technical inputs for developing a framework for GRB and GB Statement at the national and state level.
• Undertake peer review of the Scoping study and provide inputs in the same.
• Provide support in finalization of sector specific line departments at state level and getting buy-in of the selected departments. Organise inception meetings to discuss the scope of work with relevant state line departments.

Finalise Sectoral Research methodology:

• Develop a mixed-methods methodology note with key tools, for analysing data/inputs for select schemes/programmes of the Government along the planning, budgeting, implementation and evaluation phase/s; specifically ensuring that sex-disaggregated and gender-aware data is captured and analysed.
• Finalise methodology note with inputs from UN Women and Government partners.

Finalise the Sectoral Research:

• Undertake desk analysis using GRB as a framework to examine the extent to which the policies/programmmes and budgets address the specific concerns of women in the given sectors.
• Collate and review programmatic and budgetary information from the line departments. Undertake quantitative and qualitative gender assessment using department data and key informant interviews.
• Develop an intermediate report capturing initial findings and discussion based on analysis of data and inputs.
• Undertake field visits for qualitative information collection and focused group discussions.
• Develop one consolidated national report with four state level policy briefs, upon incorporation of inputs from relevant partners, with key recommendations and way forward for strengthening mechanisms, systems and processes for the select sectors;
• Present findings of the study at National and State level.

Inputs in development of customised training toolkit and research-based content:

• Undertake capacity assessment of line department on GRB;
• Work closely with the Lead Gender Budget Expert and Training Coordinator for converting the research output into a customised training module and toolkit;
• Develop content material for the customised toolkit as agreed upon mutually;
• Undertake pilot training sessions in the four states for the line department officials;
• Facilitate sessions for training of trainers on the thematic module;
• Facilitate department level workshops and one to one meetings with the line departments;
• Provide hand-holding support to state line departments for taking forward the recommendations from the studies.

Provide advisory support to UN Women to design knowledge sharing platforms /policy conclaves on gender responsive budgeting:

• Participate in key meetings organised by UN Women and expert group meetings
• Provide regular update and reports to UN Women
• Support design of knowledge sharing platforms /policy conclaves on gender responsive budgeting

Deliverables:

Provide technical inputs for initialization of the studies and getting buy-in of line departments:

• Inputs to Scoping Study;
• Meetings at State level;
• Meetings at National level.

Finalise Sectoral Research methodology:

• One to One Meetings with line departments officials;
• Methodology Note/Inception Report for Sectoral Research.

Finalise the Sectoral Research:

• Intermediate Sectoral Report;
• Final Consolidated Sectoral Report;
• State-level Policy Briefs;
• Presentations at National and State level Workshops.

Inputs in development of customised training toolkit and research based content:

• Line Department Capacity Assessment Report;
• Session briefs/Modules for Customised toolkit;
• Training sessions at national and state level;
• Workshop with line department;
• One to One sessions with line departments officials.

Provide advisory support to UN Women to design knowledge sharing platforms /policy conclaves on gender responsive budgeting:

• Presentations for expert group/policy conclaves;
• Participation in National and State level Workshops and Conferences.

Competencies

Core Values / 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.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic 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 behaviour 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.

Functional Competencies:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in Social Sciences/ Social Work /Gender Studies/Public Administration/Policy or related fields.

Experience:

• Minimum 10 years of experience at the national/state level working with development projects including hands-on experience of design, implementation and monitoring/evaluation of projects preferably on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights;
• Experience on financial/budgetary data analysis, statistics and quantitative and qualitative research is required;
• Experience of working with national/ state governments; particularly on GRB is highly desirable.

Language:

• Proficiency in English; good command over Hindi in reading and writing.

Application:

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:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs

• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
• Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (5 points);
• Experience on financial/budgetary data analysis, statistics and quantitative and qualitative research is required (5 points);
• Experience of working with national/ state governments; particularly on GRB (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Technical Evaluation – 70 Points
• Writing Samples Evaluation - 30 Points

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.
• Contract will be issued initially for one year. It will be extended subject to availability of funds.

Note:

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.