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 2020 the Secretary-General warned that the COVID-19 pandemic is deepening already existing inequalities and is having devastating social and economic consequences for women and girls, threatening to reverse the limited but important progress made on gender equality and women’s rights. In a follow-up to the adoption of SDGs, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and the UN Economic and Social Commission (ECOSOC) have made explicit the requirement of the UN system to a) invest more in GEWE within the  Development and  Humanitarian spheres through both stand-alone programming as well as mainstreaming of gender equality; and b) monitoring a transparent, harmonized and systemic manner the quality and scope of investment on GEWE, and the impact this has on the lives of the women and men, girls and boys. In 2018, the Secretary-General established a high-level task force on financing for gender equality to review and track UN budgets and expenditures across the system and a year later made the recommendation to continue mandatory monitoring of financial allocations to gender equality through the implementation of gender markers.

Following recommendations from the 2019 UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard, the UNCT in Jordan has committed to addressing gaps in its gender mainstreaming and specifically on tracking financing for gender equality. A valuable tool to increase gender mainstreaming at the UNCT level is the consistent use of gender equality markers (GEM). GEMs contribute to a more focused action on the promotion of GEWE by enabling increased understandings of financing trends and identification of needs and gaps.

Observations of current practices of the UN, as well as partner organizations, further suggest that staff are increasingly sensitized on gender equality issues but lack specific training on how to undertake gender assessments, develop sex-disaggregated data for baselines, outcomes, outputs, indicators, or to undertake gender-responsive budgeting and subsequent tracking of these budgets.

Under the umbrella of the Gender Champion, and as part of UNCT Jordan’s Gender Task Team Workplan for 2020, the UNCT has agreed to establish a gender financing tracking mechanism and ensure its operationalization through training for relevant UN staff including the Gender Task Team, Programme managers and M&E focal points. The UNCT Gender Marker will be rolled out to support a gender-responsive implementation of the UNSDF and the Socioeconomic framework that has been developed in response to the Covid-19 crisis, and as part of a broader objective to systematically track financing for gender equality.

Objectives of the assignment

Tracking resources to GEWE enables gap-identification, which can lead to more targeted efforts of UN agencies and better analysis to increase the efficiency of interventions. Therefore, training in GEM coding, tracking, and budgeting for GFPs, will prepare agencies and enable an effective roll-out of a common UNCT gender finance tracking mechanism. The consultant will be reporting to the UN Women Coordination Analyst.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant is expected to 1) in collaboration with UN Women Jordan, the Gender Task Team and UN Women HQ (specifically the GEM Helpdesk), design a comprehensive and interactive online training on UNCT Gender Equality Markers 2) Support the design and implementation of agender finance tracking mechanisms integrated in the UN Cooperation Framework process and linked to the UN Info reporting system, as an outcome of the training session.

Expected Outcomes of the training:

The participants demonstrate skills in how to use gender markers and through coding exercises  have the ability to adequately code projects and programmes.

• The participants understand the rationale and have adequate tools to conduct gender assessments; collect sex-disaggregated data for baselines, outcomes, outputs, indicators; and can make gender-responsive budgets and track progress.
• The participants have the necessary tools and understanding of UN Info, the UN Cooperation Framework processes, and commit to lead the adaptation to the UNCT GEM in their respective agencies as well as supporting the common implementation of UNCT Gender Finance Tracking.
• After the training is finished the participants are expected to come back to their agencies with a clear action plan on how to operationalize the UNCT Gender Finance Tracking mechanism, and as a first step how to use the UNCT GEM in the Cooperation Framework reporting system.  
• To guide and support the assessment team with the process, the consultant will conduct the following activities within the stipulated timeframes:

A) Review relevant documents on GEM, UN Info and principles for gender equality,. Examples include:

• Studies on gaps for GEEWG in Jordan and costs of inaction such as the UN Women and UNFPA study ‘Funding for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Humanitarian Programming’ (June 2020)
• UNCT-SWAP Gender Scorecard Report, UNCT Jordan(2019)
• UNCT-GEM Guidance Note (June 2019)
• UN INFO MARKER GUIDANCE
• Guidance Gender Markers UN COVID-19 MPTF(April 2020)
• Relevant New UNSDG guidance on country-level programming
• UNCT planning, budgets programming documents

Coordinate with UN Women staff, the Resident Coordinators Office and the UN Women GEM Helpdesk and develop online training modules and invite relevant guest speakers to share best practices/experiences of GEM coding. Before the training the consultant is expected to conduct a pre-training survey (5 Working days).

B) Conduct 3 half-day training sessions for relevant UN Staff, and follow up with a post-training survey.

C) Support the training participants and the Gender Task Team to finalize a roll out plan for gender finance tracking (3.5 days)

The consultant is expected to work with the deliver the following results:

All the documents, including training materials and reports, should be submitted in writing in English language.

Upon receipt of the deliverables and prior to the payment of the installment, the deliverables, related reports, and documents will be reviewed and approved by UN Women within one week of submission.

Inputs

• UN Women will provide the Consultant with relevant background materials.
• The consultant is expected to work remotely using her/his own computer.

Performance evaluation:

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

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced (Masters) degree in social and political sciences, human rights, gender equality or a related field is required.

Experience: 

• At least five (5) years of working experience in developing and delivering training programmes.
• At least 3 years of working experience in gender training required.
• Good knowledge and understanding of the UN System and the concept and application of Gender Equality Markers is required, experience in working with Gender Responsive Budgeting is an asset.
• Strong communication skills.

Language and other skills:

• Proficient in written and oral English;
• Computer skills, internet communication and command of MS Office.

Evaluation 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 proposals, with the 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 allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

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

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 technically 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.

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from P11 form. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment
• Letter of Interest containing the statement on candidate’s experience in the field of recruitment
• Financial proposal. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount breaking down a daily professional fee and international travel expenses (from the country of origin to Dili and back), visa and other travel related costs.

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.