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. UN Women Jordan Country Office supports the Government of Jordan to implement global norms and standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment; promotes women’s economic empowerment; and implements a resilience and empowerment model for Syrian refugee women and vulnerable Jordanian women. The country office is implementing its Strategic Note for the period 2018-2022 and is prioritizing coherence and interlinkages across its projects and programmes under these three pillars. This requires effective implementation, monitoring and reporting on progress and results and coordination with key stakeholders in government, civil society and the international community.

In the past decade, Jordan’s economic growth has remained stagnant and has been characterized by a persistently low level of labour force participation coupled, especially among youth and women with a highly segmented labour market according to gender, nationality, and formal/informal employment. The labour market of Jordan is deeply segregated horizontally and vertically. Additionally, the recent COVID-19 outbreak will have unprecedented impacts on the global economy, following gendered patterns that disproportionally affect women and girls. While expanding women’s economic opportunities is important, the process is much broader and requires women gaining voice and agency in many other areas of their lives. This should be understood in the context of women and labour rights, social justice and inclusive sustainable development that encompasses social, economic, and environmental dimensions in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

In early 2020, Under the patronage of the Prime Minister, his Excellency Dr. Omar Al Razzaz, the Inter-Ministerial Committee for Women’s Empowerment and the Women’s parliamentary caucus convened a conference on Women’s Economic Empowerment. The Conference gathered a range of participants from across Jordan from the government, the governorates, municipalities, House of Representatives, Senate, the private sector including women business owners and entrepreneurs, the financial services sector, civil society representatives and gender equality advocates to discuss solutions to challenges that hinder women’s economic empowerment. As a result of the second day consultations, governorates action plans for women’s economic empowerment were developed by the participants. Based on the discussions and action plans, the conference participants agreed on recommendations for women’s economic empowerment on the national level for the immediate and short and medium terms, that focused on 8 pillars including: Gender responsive macroeconomic policies, measures for enhancing women’s economic participation, strengthening women’s visibility, collective voice, and representation, enhancing access to productive assets, tackling adverse social norms and promoting positive role models enhancing access to public services – including transportation and childcare.

Civil society organizations (CSOs) play a key role in advancing gender responsive policies and regulations. They have been pivotal to the achievement of reforms related to equal pay and parental leave, and both the National Women’s Strategy and the newly established and funded Mashreq Facility Plan which emphasize the importance of CSOs in advancing gender equality and decent work in Jordan. Moreover, the current pandemic crisis presents to government and companies a unique opportunity to implement effective measures that could protect women from bearing the heaviest brunt during the crisis. For that, civil society engagement is imperative to ensure that all women can articulate, formulate, advocate and monitor the progress of policies and regulations.

UN Women’s strategy to institutional capacity development is based on the three key principles, namely, i) participatory approach; ii) sustainability; and iii) ownership. UN Women plans to support relevant CSOs to develop their structures, systems, procedures and knowledge capacities for effective engagement and lobbying with relevant government stakeholders around gender equality and women’s economic empowerment, and specifically on labour laws, social protection, and policies to respond to the COVID-19 impact.

As part of these efforts, UN Women Jordan Country Office is seeking the services of a national consultant to conduct a mapping exercise and needs and capacity assessment of NGOs and CSOs that are work in promoting women’s rights and women’s economic empowerment in Jordan

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the assignment

The main objective of this consultancy is to conduct a mapping exercise, and a needs and capacity assessment of NGOs and CSOs involved in promoting women’s rights and women’s economic empowerment in Jordan

Scope of Work/Duties and Responsibilities      

Under overall guidance of the Programme Management Specialist and direct supervision of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme Analyst, the consultant will perform the following tasks linked to the mapping exercise and needs and capacity assessment of NGOs and CSOs in Jordan:

1. Submit a concept note and initial workplan for the mapping exercise, capacity and needs assessment.
2. Map NGOs and CSOs involved in promoting women’s rights and women’s economic empowerment in Jordan, based on criteria approved by UN Women, through an electronic platform and in person if need arose based on discussion with UN Women’s team. The mapping exercise should include at least 40 CSOs and NGOs included from all 12 governorates. Amman can take up to 40% of the total number;
3. Brief assessment of previous capacity development initiatives in this area and mapping of good practices/lessons learned
4. Assess the CSOs and NGOs needs, with focus on advocating and lobbying with the government regarding labour laws, social protection, and policies to respond to the COVID-19 impact. There should be at least 40 CSOs and NGOs included from all 12 governorates. Amman can take up to 40% of the total number.

Expected Deliverables

The consultant is expected to deliver the following:

All the documents, including the interview tools, focal group discussion materials and reports should be submitted in written 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.

Performance evaluation:

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 the link below 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

Master’s degree or equivalent in business, economics, social sciences, development studies, gender/women’s studies, law and any other related fields. 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 and skills

• At least 5 years of experience of relevant research experience in areas of women’s rights, women’s economic empowerment, advocacy and mobilization;  
• Proven experience in designing and implementation of needs and impact assessment methodologies;  

Language and other skills

• Fluency in Arabic and English is required
• Knowledge of other UN official working language is an asset

Submission of application

Interested candidates are requested to submit electronic application not later than 02 December 2020.

Submission package

• CV
• UN Women Personal History Form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• 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 Amman Jordan and back), visa and other travel related costs.
• All applications must include (as an attachment) the CV, Personal History Form (P-11) and the financial proposal.  The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all of them since the online application submission does only permit to upload one file per application.  Applications without the above documents including financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
• Please note that only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

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 utilised 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 allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:     

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