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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women is working to support the government of Lebanon and national stakeholders, within a UN joint programme in partnership with FAO and UNDP, “Gender Responsive National Budgeting and Private Investing for SDG2-Zero Hunger”. The project seeks to ensure that the national stakeholders, including the Government of Lebanon, donor partners, and the private sector invest adequately in an equitable, gender responsive and transparent manner to maximize opportunities for vulnerable men and women in Lebanon. The project aims to change the budgeting culture within the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Finance, to allow integration of gender responsive budgeting within all cycles.

To ensure gender responsiveness, UN Women aims to provide robust gender analysis and expertise to support the Ministry of Agriculture. This will include reviewing selected project’s budgets and providing analysis to ensure ministerial budgeting is gender responsive withholding international GRB standards.

UN Women will provide Gender Responsive Budgeting analysis in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture, to assess all related programs in terms of gender relevance and effectiveness, which will be followed by the development of criteria and recommendations to ensure prioritization of GRB practices in budget formation. UN Women will also provide support to partner UN agencies in mainstreaming gender responsiveness throughout project activities.

To accomplish the above, UN Women is looking to hire a part-time Gender expert, with strong experience and understanding working on agricultural issues and Gender Responsive Budgeting, to provide analysis, reviews, develop roadmaps and recommendations, while ensuring gender is mainstreamed throughout the implementation of the project.

The main objective is to provide:

1. Strong gender analysis from a Gender Responsive Budgeting perspective, make gender mainstreaming recommendations and technically support the Ministry of Agriculture through the systematic analysis of its programmes and budgets and
2. Develop recommendations to ensure that gender is systematically mainstreamed in the joint programme approach and all interventions 

This includes working in partnership with key SDG 2-zero hunger stakeholders, including UN joint programme partners, Government of Lebanon partners (e.g. the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Finance etc.) and all relevant local and international actors.

Responsibilities and Tasks:

The main objectives to be completed within this consultancy are five-fold, as follows:

1. Review the budgets of the Ministry of Agriculture programs related to the joint programme;
2. Assess relevance of budgets, programs, projects, in terms of gender equality and women economic empowerment using robust yet user-friendly standardized criteria;
3. Develop planning and budgeting tools allowing the MoA to integrate gender sensitivity and/or responsiveness into its programming and prioritize  gender responsive programmes for financing in upcoming national budgeting cycles;
4. Work in close partnership with the senior economist at the Ministry of Finance to  develop recommendations to improve the current and upcoming national budgeting cycles so that they capture gender systematically using SDG-2-zero hunger as a model/pilot from both demand (sector ministry) and supply-sides (Ministry of Finance);
5. Ensure gender is mainstreamed in all aspects and interventions of the joint programme, in coordination with UN joint programme partners.

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.

Functional Competencies:

•   Substantial knowledge and understanding of Gender Responsive Budgeting;
•   Demonstrated leadership ability and technical ability to communicate complex ideas verbally and in writing;
•   Experience in analysis, drafting research findings and recommendations;
•   Familiarity with processes and thematic issues related to the SDGs;
•   Ability to lead development of clear strategies and to provide strategic advice to senior management;
•   Ability to communicate effectively both in written and oral.

Education:

• Master’s degree in international Affairs/Development, Sociology, Public Administration, Economics, Finance, Gender and Women’s Studies, Agriculture, with strong knowledge of gender issues, or related discipline.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of relevant experience in areas of public and ministerial budgeting, gender responsive budgeting, research & analysis, with focus on agriculture desirable;
• Expertise on gender and agriculture related issues Lebanon;
• Experience working with ministries and public institutions.
• Computer skills, internet communication and command of MS Office is required

Language Requirements:

• Written and oral English and Arabic is a must, French is an asset.

Evaluation Criteria:

Consultants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of qualifications and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
• Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Technical Evaluation (70%) split such as:

• Education: 20%
• Professional Experience & background: 30%; should detail work experience, specifically experience which is relevant to the consultancy requirements indicated above;
• Cover note: 20%; cover note should clearly state the availability and method of engagement to deliver on key outputs, while clearly explaining how the candidate meets the requirements and their ability to deliver in due time.

Financial Evaluation (30%): 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

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 previous work portfolio, and ability to meet the requirements, method of engagement and other relevant information;
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily and lump-sum rate.

The above-mentioned documents should be submitted together, incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.