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 and the other gender identities as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

All human development and human rights issues involve gender dimensions. UN Women globally focuses on key priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. UN Women’s priority areas include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, engaging in all aspects of women peace and security processes, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting through Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

UN Women’s work on GRB involves ensuring that national planning, budgeting, monitoring, and evaluation processes incorporate a gender perspective. UN Women’s GRB programs at the regional and country level have made significant contribution towards this by building political support, developing technical resources and capacities, generating good practices for improving women's access to services and increasing accountability for Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment (GEWE). At the forefront of global, regional, and local advocacy for application of GRB, UN Women has built partnerships with diverse government, inter-governmental and non-governmental partners to further efforts and demonstrate GRB’s relevance to sustainable development, aid effectiveness, public sector reform and financing for development.

In 2004-05, the report of the expert group of classification of government expenditure became instrumental in laying out the road map for GRB in India. This was followed by the adoption of “Budgeting for Gender Equity” as mission statement by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India (GoI). In 2005-06, the Ministry of Finance, GoI introduced Gender Budget Statement (GBS) which aimed to reflect the quantum of budgetary allocations for programs/schemes that substantially benefit women. Another important mechanism institutionalized by the Ministry of Finance was setting up of Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) which serve as focal points for mainstreaming gender through GRB. The rigor has been replicated in at least 23 states, some of which have produced GBS and set up GBCs.

UN Women India Country Office is implementing a Technical Assistance (TA) supported by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Japan Fund for Poverty Reduction on ‘Advancing Gender Budgeting in Select States in India - Strengthening Gender Mainstreaming Strategies within Government Stakeholders’. Insights generated from this TA will enable key stakeholders at the national and sub-national level (with a focus on Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Manipur) to accelerate their efforts to ensure that women’s priorities are adequately reflected in national budgeting processes, and to make concrete changes for adequate resource allocation towards women’s priorities.

The TA outcome and four outputs are as follows.

Outcome: Institutional capacities in gender budgeting and gender mainstreaming of state departments and executing/implementing agencies of ADB-assisted projects enhanced.

Output 1: Gender budgeting mechanisms are refined and strengthened.

Output 2: Knowledge products including customized training modules developed.

Output 3: Gender budgeting capacities of government stakeholders strengthened.

Output 4: E-governance tool developed.

Within this context, UN Women seeks the services of a Gender Budget and Governance Specialist in the TA States.

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of Project Coordinator and Team Leader, the Gender Budget and Governance Specialist will:

• Provide strategic advice on e-governance, Information Communication & Technology (ICT) and related issues and lead the coordination of TA activities on e-governance and ICT.
• Contribute to modernized, gender responsive technology enabled government systems to enable horizontal and vertical accountability to all citizens in alignment with the National E-Governance Plan (NEGP) of the Government of India
• Take stock of the IT and e-governance issues from a gender perspective at the national level and in TA states and prepare briefing notes for policy and programmatic purposes.
• Consolidate regional, national, and sub-national level good practices in e-governance and study on gender responsive ICT systems and applications.
• Consult with experts/ women’s group/organizations/academia on successful ICT for women and e-governance models.
• Develop web content plan for an e-governance tool that promotes cross-learning on gender responsive budgeting among states, enables tracking of state GRB action plans, facilitates collation of women’s voices to inform gender budgeting processes, participatory planning, facilitates analysis of gender budget allocations, mapping budget outlays and makes information about government services/schemes for women and access to them easier through one portal.
• Coordinate with Ministry of Women and Child Development for finalization of web content for the e-governance tool.
• Lead the development and design of the e governance tool with support of a web designer/ support agency.
• Undertake pilot of the e-governance tool in each of the four TA states.
• Map key findings from the state scoping studies, state action plans, and sector studies to inform and tailor the web content for the e-governance tool as per specific needs and priorities of the four TA states.
• Map state specific GBI in India and the region and prepare a compendium.
• Support in capacity development in e-governance/ ICT to advance GRB.
• Perform any other tasks assigned by the supervisor.

Deliverables:

• Study on successful ICT for women models that can be replicated and good practices in gender responsive e-governance.
• Undertake desk review of good practices in e-governance as well as study successful ICT for women models.
• Organize consultations with experts/ women’s group/ organizations /academia on successful ICT and e-governance models and document recommendations.
• Develop the content for an e-Governance tool in close consultation with UN Women and Ministry of Women and Child Development to facilitate gender mainstreaming in planning, budgeting, and auditing cycles.
• Develop the strategy and content for a centralized system for monitoring of state specific GRB action plans for integration in the e-governance tool.
• Lead development, design, and piloting of the e governance tool with support of a web designer/agency.
• Map state specific GBI in India and the region and prepare a compendium.
• Documentation of training programmes, state level good practices on GRB.
• Timely compilation and submission of reports.
• All the information related to the assignment.

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Functional Competencies:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills.
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Education:

• Master’s degree in social sciences/economics/social work/gender studies/public administration/policy or related fields.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of experience working in areas related to information and communication technology and e-governance with introduction of innovative strategies and tools in public service delivery.
• Minimum 5 years of experience at the national/state level working with development projects preferably on gender equality and women’s rights.
• Knowledge of national/international level ICT/e-Governance policies, programmes and systems of government is essential.
• Demonstrated track record of delivering high-quality reports and knowledge products on time.
• Sound understanding of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Experience of working on gender budgeting will be preferable.

Language:

• Proficiency in English;
• Good command over Hindi in reading and writing.

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:

• Written Test (30 points)
• Interview (70 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.