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 2015, on 25 September, the United Nations General Assembly adopted unanimously the Resolution 70/1 Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Gender equality and women’s empowerment is at the heart of the agenda, as numerous goals and targets address structural barriers to achieve equal rights and opportunities between women and men, girls and boys.

One of the key areas of concern is the economic empowerment of women. It is expressed in targets and indicators of SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and SDG 8 (Promote inclusive and sustainable development, decent work and employment for all). Progress toward it depends not only on the adoption of a set of public policies by governments, but also on the existence of an enabling environment and active engagement of the corporate sector. This is also relevant to the achievement of SDG 1 (Poverty Reduction), SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities) and SDG 17 (Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development).

About 90 per cent of jobs in the world are in the private sector. This represents a huge potential to implement transformative actions in the world of work and social responsibility in favour of women, benefiting the whole society. There is an increasing consciousness, interest and commitment of private and public sector companies on the value and benefits of gender equality and the economic empowerment of women and its role to achieve it.

UN Women - in partnership with the European Commission is implementing a regional programme (covering 7 countries: India, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam) “Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women at Work in Asia – WeEmpower Asia” to contribute to the economic empowerment of women, recognizing them as beneficiaries and partners of growth and development, by increasing commitment of private companies to gender equality and women´s empowerment and strengthening companies’ capacities to implement these commitments.

The programme will achieve this through three complementary outcome areas to be implemented in seven selected middle-income countries in Asia:

• Women’s networks, public institutions, and the private sector will collaborate and share expertise and knowledge to build an enabling business environment for women’s economic empowerment in the workplace and in the market place,
• The capacity of women-owned businesses and women entrepreneurs will be developed to enable them to engage with government and private sector corporations in policy development and dialogues for advancing women’s economic empowerment, and
• The private sector will be supported to implement gender-sensitive practices and culture within their businesses through the take-up of the Women Empowerment Principles (the WEPs – a set of guiding principles to achieve gender equality within companies).

The guiding platform will be the Women’s Empowerment Principles - a set of Principles for businesses offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community.  Coordinated by UN Women and the UN Global Compact, the Principles emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women's empowerment and are informed by real-life business practices and inputs gathered from across the globe.

The programme will targeting women led enterprises and networks, multi-national companies, and relevant stakeholders to promote business opportunities for women entrepreneurs and women-owned enterprises while supporting national and inter-regional dialogue and exchange of good practices to increase the capacity of the private sector more broadly in the implementation of gender-sensitive business culture and practices.

The programme will liaise closely with key Indian Government Ministries/Departments e.g.  with Ministry of Corporate Affairs in supporting its commitment for promotion of socially responsible businesses.  With the gender equality perspective, the programme will provide technical advice and support for policy development at the national and sectoral levels, and assistance for policy implementation through strategic partnerships leading to women’s economic empowerment.

Under WEA, UN Women supported  the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, in developing gender responsive recommendations based on a consultative process and review of women’s labour rights for the National Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights and presented to the Ministry.

UN Women seeks the services of a national consultant/technical expert to be placed at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs who would bring in analysis, research and technical expertise to mainstream gender through in the national policy instruments including but not limited to:  National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights (NAP), National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) as well as the research support to assess the implementation of mandatory laws on promoting gender equality in the corporate sector and demonstrating responsible business conduct.

Under the direct supervision of Country Programme Manager-WeEmpower Asia Programme and in close consultation with the designated official in Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the national consultant will provide technical expertise to Ministry of Corporate Affairs in the following areas:

• Review National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) and provide inputs and recommendations from a gender perspective to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs;
• Undertake research to assess the implementation of mandatory laws by companies on promoting gender equality in the corporate sector and demonstrating responsible business conduct;
• Technical support to the Ministry on mainstreaming gender in their ongoing programmatic and policy initiatives including National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights;
• Facilitate MCA’s collaboration with UN Women’s WEPs leadership trainings programmes and other interventions on promoting inclusion and diversity in companies;
• Travel as required.

Deliverables:

• Develop and submit gender specific recommendations/ indicators for National Guidelines on Responsible Business Conduct (NGRBC) on which companies will report their progress, in alignment with Women’s Empowerment Principles (February- March 2021).
• Report on assessment of the implementation of mandatory laws by companies on promoting gender equality in the corporate sector and demonstrating responsible business conduct.  (by May 2021).
• Technical support to the Ministry on mainstreaming gender in their ongoing programmatic and policy initiatives including National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights. (ongoing).
• Identify areas of collaboration around UN Women’s training programmes on leadership, diversity and inclusion and other relevant interventions with MCA (ongoing).

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates commitment to UN Women’s mission, vision and values;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning:

• Shares knowledge and experience;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

• Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to design, planning and implementation of programme, managing data, reporting;
• Ability to provide input to and use new IT based systems.

Leadership and Self-Management:

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Remains calm, in control even under pressure;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
• Good understanding of gender and development in South Asia;
• Demonstrable ability to work in a team;
• Ability to work under pressure;
• Good writing and communication skills;
• Excellent computer literacy and skills.

Education:

• Masters’ degree in Gender and Development Studies, Law, Public Policy/Administration or any Social Sciences.

Experience:

• Minimum 6  years of professional experience in   policy research .Demonstrable understanding of gender, business and human rights, development, policy and issues in the context of women’s economic empowerment and Indian private and corporate sector companies.
• Relevant papers, articles and knowledge products published.
• Ability to work independently and with minimal supervision.

Language:

• Strong written skills in English and good command over Hindi as medium of communication.

Application:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
• Expertise and Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
• Demonstrable experience on research and policy  advocacy with the government and other stakeholders (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Writing Samples (20 points)
• Interview (80 points)

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

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.