Background

1. BACKGROUND

The promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment are central to the mandate of UNDP and its development approach to deliver on the 2030 Agenda.

The ongoing decentralization reform, started in 2014 to restructure national-municipal power relations and strengthen local governments to provide high-quality people-centred services in Ukraine, has led to bringing together small municipalities and redistributing political, administrative, and financial power to these amalgamated territorial communities (ATCs), while the environment for promoting women in decision making positions hasn’t been created.

According to UNDP research “Integrity and Inclusiveness of the Democratic Process in Ukraine”, the key role in political life is still played by business interests, which are overwhelmingly men-dominated, and therefore, women are rarely selected to high-level positions in local governments. Currently, all except eight of the country’s 144 cities of regional significance are headed by men. Not a single city that is a regional centre nor any city with a population of more than one million is headed by a woman. Regions that are particularly depressed economically tend to have higher female representation in local councils, while the reverse is true in more prosperous regions. The higher authority and resources available, the less women have an opportunity to engage in the political process. Hence, women are more likely to be elected leaders in low-income communities where resources are limited. Since the 2015 elections, the overall representation of women in ATC governments has shrunk twice. There are also some specific gender-related issues faced by the selected oblasts defined by the subnational gender profiles, e.g. the level of women heads of ATCs vary from 0% in Zakarpatta oblast to 11% in Khmelnytskiy.

The new Electoral Code adopted in December 2019 includes a mandatory gender quota requirement that forty percent of all candidates appearing on party lists be women (two candidates per every five of different sex). This will apply to the local elections in October 2020, and thus, hopefully, will lead to more balanced representation of women and men at the subnational level.

The CSDR project activity “Enhancing Women’s Political Participation at the Subnational level” which is implemented with support of the Government of Norway, focuses on supporting women councillors in their new roles, helping them take conscious and deliberate actions that make a difference. The overall objective of the project is to promote women’s political participation and representation at the subnational level through (1) capacity development and mentoring programme for women elected as local councillors, especially rural women and women with disabilities; and (2) strengthening institutional capacity for gender-responsive decision-making in amalgamated territorial communities. 

Newly elected women councillors, in particular those representing vulnerable groups such as rural women and women with disabilities, in amalgamated territorial communities in Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zakarpattia and Khmelnytskyi oblasts will be able to take part in activities to enhance their effectiveness in their new public roles and further influence local decision-making.

Within this activity UNDP will develop and pilot a practical impact-oriented offline training programme aimed at supporting women councillors in their new capacity. Topics of training programme might include but not limited to leadership (civil and political), project management, financial literacy and budgeting (including gender-oriented budgeting), legislation, anti-corruption, digitalization, communication, combating sexism and negative gender stereotypes in politics and media etc. A complimentary online training course for the members of the local city councils with a focus on promoting gender equality and the rights of vulnerable groups among other topics will also be developed and launched.

Duties and Responsibilities

2. MAIN OBJECTIVE OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The key objective of the assignment is to develop and conduct a comprehensive training programme which will include an offline and online component and will be based on the analysis of Ukrainian and international best practice cases of women participation in decision making. It is envisioned that at least 50 newly elected women councillors from Kherson, Mykolaiv, Khmelnitskyi and Zakarpattya will complete the offline training programme and at least 500 women and men councillors from all regions of Ukraine will complete the online training programme.

3. DESCRIPTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES/SCOPE OF WORK

Under supervision of the UNDP Civil Society Project Coordinator, the incumbent will be responsible for the following:

1. Conducting a desk research of Ukrainian and international best practices of women participation in decision making with a focus on addressing the needs of vulnerable groups of women through their representation in and influence on local councils’ decisions;
2. Conducting knowledge and needs assessment among current women councillors and collecting recommendations from experts in local democracy;
3. Developing a detailed manual of the specialized training course for the newly elected women councillors based on the results of assessments and expert recommendations;
4. Providing recommendations to UNDP on engagement of experts for the specific topics of the course which will be outside of the contractor’s expertise (up to 3);
5. Selecting offline training programme participants through an open call in the four target regions;
6. Coordinating and conducting three 2-days offline training sessions for two groups of women councillors;
7. Developing the curriculum and providing the methodological support to the online course for newly elected councillors which envisaged describing the course according to the standard of the major online learning platforms in Ukraine (purpose, target audience, learning methods, training results).
8. Developing the content of the online course which envisages the short contents of the video lectures, development of the tests, the concluding test/assessment, compilation of the list of references/literature for additional reading by the course participants.
9. Providing support to the production of the online course in coordination with the selected developer/online learning platform by coordinating the speakers and lecturers to be engaged for the course (guiding them on their speeches, arranging their participation in the video lectures production etc.).

4. MONITORING/REPORTING REQUIREMENTS:

The Contractor shall report to the Civil Society Project Coordinator. The payments shall be arranged in stages in accordance with the proposed payment scheme below and upon acceptance of the deliverables based on quality control and recommendations. UNDP will be the ultimate authority to control the quality of work results and assess the Contractor’s performance during the assignment.

The Contractor shall provide the necessary information and reports according to a preliminary determined schedule or as soon as possible (within a reasonable period of time).

UNDP will provide payments upon provision of deliverables duly certified by UNDP in accordance with the table above. In particular, the payment schedule will be as follows:

Deliverable 1.    20%

Deliverable 2.    20%

Deliverable 3.    20%

Deliverable 4.    20%

Deliverable 5.    20%

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

•             Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;

•             Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP;

•             Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;

•             Treats all people fairly without favouritism;

•             Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

5. EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS REQUIREMENTS:

•             University degree (Bachelor’s) or equivalent in political science, public policy, law, international relations, social sciences or related field;

•             At least 5 years of relevant professional experience at the national or international level in public administration, law, international relations, social sciences, or civil society organisations as well as experience with gender equality and inclusivity;

•             Proven experience in conducting research and/ or developing and conducting training programmes on national and/or subnational level

•             Fluency in English and Ukrainian languages is required

6. DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS:

Applicants shall submit the following documents:

•             Personal CV, including information about experience in similar projects/ assignments, including description of conducting research and/or developing and conducting training programmes, as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references.

•             Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP including Financial proposal.

•             Examples of at least one conducted research and/or at least one developed training programme past 8 years by the applicant

7. FINANCIAL PROPOSAL:

Lump sum contract

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e. whether payments fall in instalments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR. In order to assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump sum amount in accordance with the deliverables defined in this TOR (section 3 above).

Travel costs

Should any travel be necessary in connection to this TOR, UNDP will reimburse the expenses based on the duly authorized travel details, including travel and per diems. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources. In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

8. EVALUATION CRITERIA

Educational background – 15 pts max

15 pts – PhD in political science, public policy, law, international relations, social sciences or related field;

12 pts – Advanced University degree (Master’s) or equivalent in political science, public policy, law, international relations, social sciences or related field

8 pts - University degree (Bachelor’s) or equivalent in political science, public policy, law, international relations, social sciences or related field

Relevant professional experience at the national or international level in public administration, law, international relations, social sciences, or civil society organisations as well as experience with gender equality and inclusivity– 25 pts max

25 pts – more than 9 years

22 pts – 6-8 years

18 pts- 5 years

Proven experience in conducting research and/or developing and conducting training programmes on national and/or subnational level – 25 pts max

25 pts – combined: more than 2 conducted researches and 2 developed training programmes past 8 years

22 pts – combined: 1 conducted research and 1 developed training programme past 8 years

18 pts – combined: 1 conducted research or 1 developed training programme past 8 years

Language skills – 5 pts max

5 pts - Fluency in English and Ukrainian languages

9. EVALUATION METHOD:

Cumulative analysis

Contract award shall be made to the incumbent whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) having received the cumulative highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

* Technical Criteria weight: 70%

* Financial Criteria weight: 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70% from the maximum available technical score (49 points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal and will equal to 30. All other price proposals will be evaluated and assigned points, as per below formula:

30 points [max points available for financial part] x [lowest of all evaluated offered prices among responsive offers] / [evaluated price].

The proposal obtaining the overall cumulatively highest score after adding the score of the technical proposal and the financial proposal will be considered as the most compliant offer and will be awarded a contract.