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 line with UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2018-2021, the UN Women Egypt office is contributing to three interdependent and interconnected outcomes:

• Women lead, participate in, and benefit equally from governance systems

• Women have income security, decent work, and economic autonomy

• All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence.

UN Women Egypt Country Office, in partnership with the Government of Egypt and with the financial support of the Government of the United Kingdom, is supporting a programme entitled

“Egyptian Women’s Empowerment: Development of National Action Plan 1325”. Under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Cairo International Centre for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA) and the National Council for Women (NCW) are supporting the development of the country’s first Women, Peace and Security National Action Plan, through a consultative process with key national stakeholders.   

Women, Peace, and Security is central to realizing women’s rights and gender equality. In this context, UN Women in Egypt will support Egypt’s efforts to translate the WPS agenda from policy to practice and will work to support relevant institutions, including partnering with CCCPA in the conducting training around how to integrated gender equality principles into peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and conflict resolution at the regional levels in the Arab region and the African continent.

Founded in 1994 by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and re-charted in June 2017 by a Prime Ministerial Decree, CCCPA, is an Egyptian public agency specialized in training, capacity building, and research in the fields of peace and security. In addition to adopting a gender-sensitive approach in all its programs and activities, CCCPA is at the forefront of regional efforts of building African and Arab capacities on issues of women, peace, and security since 2013. In addition to its training materials on Conflict Resolution (Dialogue, Negotiation, and Mediation), CCCPA has developed a Gender Mainstreaming in Peacemaking, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding Training Manual and Toolkit” in 2016/2017, which has been used to enhance the implementation of the WPS agenda in Africa and Arab Region.   This tool kit includes modules around gender concepts; international and regional policy frameworks, norms, and standards; mainstreaming gender equality principles into the peacekeeping, peacebuilding, and conflict resolution processes including mediation. 

With the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in the Spring of 2020, and with the evolution of regional and global experiences around gender mainstreaming in peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and conflict resolution processes, the CCCPA is seeking to upgrade its current training tools to reflect the emerging best practices and also within the context of mitigating the impact COVID-19 on women’s leadership and the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda.

To this end, UN Women is recruiting an international expert to update the CCCPA Training materials on Gender and Mediation to reflect evolving practices, tools, and case studies, and to integrate how COVID-19 may be impacting Gender and Mediation, and measures to be taken to ensure women’s voice and leadership in the mediation processes.

Duties and Responsibilities

UN Women is recruiting a team of experts to update CCCPA’s training materials on gender mainstreaming in peacebuilding, peacekeeping, and conflict resolution. A Lead Expert will be responsible for consolidating all contributions. Within this process, and under the overall supervision of the UN Women Programme Analyst on Women, Peace, and Security, and the day to day supervision of the CCCPA, the Gender and Mediation expert will prepare an updated Training Module and Training materials on gender-inclusive mediation.

Specifically, the Gender and Mediation Expert will be responsible for the following, based on a teamwork plan developed by the Lead Expert/Trainer:

• Contribute towards an online “Pre-Assessment” Survey which will be developed by the Lead Consultant/Trainer, to identify training needs of participants. This should also act as a pre-assessment of capacities to establish a capacity baseline and to measure the impact of the Regional Training;
• Overall review of CCCPA’s Gender and Mediation Training Materials, including the training module related to mediation in CCCPA Gender-Mainstreaming in Peacemaking, Peacekeeping, and Peacebuilding Training Manual and Toolkit, as well as CCCPA training manual on Dialogue, Negotiation, and Mediation.
•  Update the mediation-related training modules in CCCPA Gender-Mainstreaming in Peacemaking, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding Training Manual and Toolkit, and Mainstream gender in CCCPA training manual on Dialogue, Negotiation, and Mediation to cover gender-inclusive peacemaking perspectives so as to ensure gender issues are adequately mainstreamed across all modules, including presentations and exercises on gender-sensitive inclusive mediation processes, and the inclusion of provisions on gender in peace agreements at large.
•  Including the identification of areas of revision and opportunities to strengthen training tools and content, and updating/creating new Best Practices/Case Studies;
• Desktop review of the latest tools, policies, and best practices/experiences around Gender and Mediation, including mainstreaming the gender dimension into mediation processes, enhanced accountability towards gender equality within mediation processes, and women’s increased voice and leadership within peace processes. Attention should also be given to capturing any emerging analysis on the impact COVID-19 is having on mediation processes, and the gender dimensions therein, as well as strategies to mitigate the impact of the pandemic on women’s participation in peace processes and gender perspectives in mediation. Global experiences are relevant, but particular importance is given to experiences in Africa and the Arab Region;
• Based on feedback from CCCPA and UN Women, finalize the revised Training modules and tools on Gender and Mediation, in coordination with the Peacebuilding consultant who will integrate these updates into the broader Gender Mainstreaming in Peacebuilding, Peacekeeping and Conflict Resolution Training Manual;
• Deliver virtual training sessions as a trainer and expert on both Dialogue, Negotiation and Mediation, and Gender-inclusive Mediation.

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: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies

• Expert knowledge in Women, Peace, and Security,
• Strong knowledge of the International normative standards guiding the UN’s work on Women, Peace, and Security;
• Experience in mediation in conflict/crisis situations;
• Proven experience in developing and conducting training courses and workshops;
• Knowledge of African and Arab Region considered assets;
• Excellent analytical and communication skills required.
• Excellent written skills in English; Arabic is an asset

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in development or peace and security- related disciplines, gender issues, economics, political science, international relations, public policy, law, or other social science fields

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in gender mainstreaming in Conflict Resolution and Mediation processes;
• Proven experience in the development and conducting of Trainings on Conflict Resolution, Reconciliation, Dialogue, Negotiation and Mediation, Gender and Mediation and knowledge of the Women, Peace and Security framework
• Experience working on inclusive politics in a fragile context.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is a must

Evaluation Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

• Criteria 1: Educational Requirements (10 points)
• Criteria 2:  Minimum 10 years of progressively responsible experience in Women, Peace, and Security processes, including Gender and Mediation/Conflict Resolution Processes (30 points);
• Criteria 3: Development and Conducting of Trainings of both government and non-governmental partners (20 points).
• Criteria 4: Working experience in African and/or the Arab Region (10 points)

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Terms of payment:

Payment will be made based on deliverables and certification of satisfactory performance by the programme manager, after validation of deliverables by UN Women and CCCPA.

Application:

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work and link to the portfolio of work;
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• P11; and Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily rate.

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all them since the online application submission does only permit to upload one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification