Background

The 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, peace and security.

UN Women’s goal in Liberia is to promote women’s human rights and gender equality which are key in sustaining and furthering achievements in stability and development. In this regard, its programming in the Country is connected to five corporate priority areas: women’s leadership and political participation; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; engaging women in all aspects of women, peace and security processes; advancing women’s rights to live free from violence and gender responsive budgeting and governance. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s joint work in advancing gender equality.

Since Liberia recorded its first Coronavirus case in March 2020, the Government has been pooling and shifting resources (COVID 19 Emergency Relief Fund) to support the fight against this deadly disease. Part of this effort includes reprioritizing and reallocating to the National Covid-19 Emergency Response funds that had been previously committed to other priorities. The initial strategy was to provide immediate emergency support through the Special Presidential Advisory Committee’s (SPACOC), Incident Management System (IMS) to ministries and agencies that had critical roles to play to help the country adequately prepare to fight the deadly COVID-19. The goal was to contain and limit the spread of the virus to the extent possible. The Government took several measures that had serious budgetary implications and developed separate COVID-19 Response budgets for about four trenches of disbursement. The COVID 19 Emergency Relief Funds were earmarked to be spent largely on preparedness and response which included support to key response hospitals, holding centers, logistics, salaries etc. 

With the current drastic fall in revenue, it is unlikely that government can fully finance the response and will therefore needs the support of development partners like the World Bank and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) both of whom have committed US$ 17 Million and US$5 Million respectively. The support from the World Bank is part loan and part grant but pinned to specific expenditure priorities while the CDC’s support is entire grant but also pinned to specific priorities. The government has not received significant budget which it prefers in the wake of the emergency response. Budget support gives some degree of flexibility to spend on the priorities of the Government, in this case, Covid-19 interventions. Governments usually attract budget support by being fiscally prudent, abiding by planning and budgeting laws and meeting expenditures, among others. One of such commitments is Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting which the Government of Liberia has committed to doing and claims to be making effort toward mainstreaming gender-responsiveness in its development interventions and resource allocations across government.

This is particularly important during the current health emergency because women and girls are the most vulnerable and the most exposed and affected segment of the population to this virus. This is so because in our society, women and girls are the primary caregivers and usually cater for sick relatives. Also, a huge majority of our health workers are women and their exposure to hazard cannot be overemphasized. Most of them still carry out their customary caregiver roles in their respective homes in addition to their healthcare jobs and must come into closer and more physical contact with most of their household.

In this context, UN Women Liberia under the implementation of the United Nations Joint Programme on Accelerating Progress toward the Economic Empowerment of Rural Women (JP RWEE) seeks to hire a national consultant to conduct an analysis of COVID-19 national efforts for monitoring the gender-responsive utilization of the COVID 19 Emergency Relief Fund to addressing the pandemic and as an advocacy tool for ensuring that the post recovery effort strongly takes into account the needs of women and girls.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the assignment:

• To conduct an analysis of the utilization (Allocation and Expenditure) of the COVID 19 Emergency Relief Fund to address COVID19 Pandemic from a Gender Perspective;

• To develop an evidence-based advocacy tool for resource mobilization at the national and sub-national levels to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in Liberia.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Country Representative of UN Women and direct supervision from the Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) Programme Specialist and in close consultation with the UN Women Programme Manager on Women’s Economic Empowerment. The National Consultant, will work closely with, the Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP), the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP), the Ministry of Health (MOH), General Service Agency (GSA), and the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL). The Consultant will accomplish the following tasks:

To develop an evidence-based advocacy tool for resource mobilization at the national and sub-national levels to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment in Liberia;

Task 1. Desk review and development of a consultancy plan

• Conduct a desk review of existing COVID-19 response plan(s), COVID 19 Emergency Relief Fund and relevant budget documents from the MFDP, MOH, MGCSP, GSA and the NPHIL

Task 2. Conduct an Analysis from a gender perspective of COVID-19 response plan, COVID 19 Emergency Relief Fund and budget allocations and expenditure

• Based on the desk review, conduct an analysis of the COVID 19 Emergency Relief Fund from a gender perspective

• Assess and identify possible impact of budget cuts to the delivery/implementation of gender equality policies/strategies and actions with focus on women and girls.

• Provide practical recommendations that could be used as an advocacy tool for ensuring that the post recovery efforts are adequately resourced to strongly consider the needs of women and girls.

Task 3. Dissemination of the analysis to promote accountability and transparency

• Organize and facilitate one session and present the analyses to selected government institutions (MFDP, MGCSP, MOH and NPHIL)

• Publish a summarized version in a widely read print and electronic media

• Organize and participate in one radio talk show (one hour) presenting a comprehensive analysis from a gender perspective.

Task 4. Submit final report

1. Draft a comprehensive report with an overview of activities, results, challenges and recommendations and share with UN Women Liberia for inputs and comments.
2. Finalize the draft report with inputs from relevant stakeholders.
3. Submit the final report with an overview of activities, results, challenges, and recommendations and costed action plan to UN Women through the Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) Programme Specialist;

All the deliverables, including annexes, notes and reports should be submitted in English.

Upon receipt of the deliverables and prior to the payment of the first installment, the deliverables and related reports and documents will be reviewed and approved by UN Women. The period of review is one week after receipt.

Inputs

• UN Women will provide the National Consultant with background materials relevant to the assignment.

• The National Consultant is expected to work using his/ her own computer.

• The National Consultant will be based at UN Women Office in Sinkor; and
• UN Women shall facilitate consultations/meetings between the consultant and relevant stakeholders.

Competencies

Total Obtainable ScorePerformance evaluation:

The National Consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered;

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 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.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

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

Required Skills and Experience

Qualification and Experience

The National Consultant should fulfill the following requirements:

Education

University degree (master’s degree) in gender studies, Social Sciences, Public Finance, Law, Human Rights, or other related fields. Ph.D. is an asset.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of proven experience in gender, gender mainstreaming and public financial management.

• Expertise on gender equality, women’s empowerment issues and working with the parliament.

• Experience working with the Ministry of Finance is an asset

• Proven exposure/experience in public financial management reforms, gender studies, including the design/development/implementation of capacity development support programmes

• Proven experience in leading and facilitating workshops and

• Previous experience in conducting gender audits and developing gender policies would be an asset

Language and other skills:

• Proficiency in oral and written English

• Must be capable of effectively using MS Word and Excel

• Excellent facilitation and training skills;

Submission of application

• Interested candidates are requested to submit electronic application to liberia.procurement@unwomen.org no later than October 27th, 2020.

Submission of package

• Cover letter;
• CV, including contact information of 3 referees.
• Financial proposal. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount per each deliverable, including any travel, per diem and administrative fees, based on the template in

Annex 1. The lump sum costs must be accompanied by a detailed breakdown of costs calculation.

All applications must include (as attachment) a CV and financial proposal. Applications without a financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further processing. Please note that only short-listed candidates will be invited for the interview.

Selected candidates will need to submit prior to commencement of work:

• A copy of the latest academic certificate
• A statement from a medical doctor of ‘good health and fit for travel’
• Before any travel outside of Monrovia, the consultant will need to provide proof (certificate) of

• “Basic and Advanced Security in the Field” (which can be accessed here: undss.trip.org);