Background

1. 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 maintains a large presence throughout Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region, covering 12 countries, with programme presence in Kosovo, Serbia, Tajikistan and North Macedonia; and country offices in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine.

UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (the “ECARO”) has positioned GRB as one of the priority areas in which the ECARO has unique technical expertise grounded in the combined technical skills that has been cultivated with respect to budgetary processes including GRB and the overarching expertise and credibility the Office has with respect to GEWE. Furthermore, this work is in line with global Strategic Plan 2018–2021 under Outcome 2: Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems.

Over the past years, through the technical and financial support UN Women different initiatives have been carried out in Western Balkans’ countries with the goal of strengthening democratic governance and advance women’s rights aiming at mainstreaming gender in policy planning and budgeting. As result, gender responsive budgeting has increasingly been recognized as important tool for advancing de facto gender equality, supporting the SDGs, the 2030 Agenda and other global goals as well as for contributing to the achievements of the commitments of the Western Balkans under the Gender Action Plan in the EU External Relations 2016-2020.

In order to deepen the work previously done, launch new initiatives and ensure sustainability of the interventions on GRB, UN Women initiated a regional programme with participation of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Serbia and North Macedonia “Transformative Financing for Gender Equality towards more Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Western Balkans” (2020-2024). The main programme approach will be transformative financing as an enabler factor for policy and financing actions to accelerate implementation of existing national and international commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the in Western Balkans.

The programme is structured around two outcomes:

•By 2024, national and local governments apply gender responsive budgeting to integrate gender equality principles in public financing processes

• By 2024 public oversight bodies CSOs, women including the disadvantaged, demand transparency and accountability of public policies and budgets to gender equality processes

The programme includes activities focused on enhancing the institutionalization of GRB at central level and local level.

2. Scope of work

UN Women ECA RO seeks to recruit one International Consultant for development of standardized GRB Training Curriculum and Manual for Gender Analyses, Gender Statistics. The Consultant is expected to develop and tailor the curriculum and manual based on the recently developed Gender Statistics Curriculum by UN Women and Statistical Institute for Asia and Pacific and other knowledge products developed by other international organisations with a special focus on the countries of Regional GRB Project’s implementation. The curriculum will be primarily intended for capacity building of public officials at local and central level.

Furthermore, the Consultant is expected to deliver the training curriculum and the manual during Training of Trainers, which will be organized by UN Women ECA RO with the aim to further increase the capacity of GRB trainers.

Duties and Responsibilities

3. Tasks and Responsibilities

Under the guidance of the Regional GRB Programme Manager and Gender Statistics Specialist, the Consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Undertake desk research and analyse of all available materials, training modules with focus on gender analyses, gender statistics and data.
• In consultation with UN Women team, identify the materials which will be used for the development of the Training Curriculum and Manual.
• Draft guidelines on the course content on gender statistics and gender analysis
• Develop the Training Curriculum and Manual and prepare all PPP needed to deliver the training manual including supporting materials such as practical exercises quizzes etc.
• Deliver one-day-training during the TOT (planned to be held in Istanbul / Turkey) which will be organized by UN Women on GRB.

4. Expected Deliverables

5. Reporting

Under direct supervision of UN Women Regional GRB Programme Manager and Gender Statistics Specialist, the International consultant will develop and deliver the above listed deliverables in accordance with the indicative timeframe.

All deliverables of an acceptable standard and quality should be submitted to the UN Women in English.

Competencies

6. Competencies and Qualifications

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 Consultant knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
• Cultural sensitivity and respect for diversity - Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Additionally, the individual should have an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost and quality standards.
• Inclusive Collaboration, Teamwork - Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Planning & Organizing – Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks, and makes allowances accordingly.
• Organizational Awareness - Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Please visit this link 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  

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Good knowledge of gender statistics, gender equality and/or gender responsive budgeting;
• Excellent level of conceptual and analytical capacity;
• Ability to write in a clear and concise manner and to communicate effectively in English;
• Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback;
• Meets deadlines for delivery of products or services;
• Able to work virtually, using communication technologies;
• Strong analytical, communication and interpersonal skills;
• Strong IT skills, including databases, extranet and office software package.
• Ability to adapt all materials and deliver online training instead of in-person training.

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 and good humored even under pressure
• Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
• Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners

Required Skills and Experience

7. Required Qualifications and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree (MA, MSc, MBA) in gender, development, public policy, social studies, or closely related fields relevant to the requirements of the TOR. Focus on statistics is considered an asset.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of experience in design and developing gender-related participatory and interactive training programmes for practitioners
• Proven experience in design and developing gender statistics training curriculum and manuals including development of gender training
• Experience in delivering training using adult learning methodologies and participatory approaches
• Familiarity with GRB

Languages and other skills:

• Proficient in written and oral English;
• Strong writing and communication skills.

8. Evaluation of Applicants

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process. Applicants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications/skills and their financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultants whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive to and compliant with the requirements of the ToR; and
• Having received the highest score out of below combined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30

S - score received on financial evaluation;

Fmin - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;

F - financial offer under the consideration.

9. Duration and remuneration

The international consultant will be engaged for a total of 30 working days during the period of 2 March 2021 until 30 June 2021. Deliverables from the consultant will be reviewed and approved by UN Women before they are considered final. UN Women will process the payment of consultancy fee in two instalments:

• I instalment - 70% upon submission and approval of deliverables 1,2,3
• II instalment - 30% upon submission and approval of deliverables 4,5,6,7

Travels and DSAs will be covered by UN Women in case of Training of Trainers event will be conducted in person, depending on COVID-19 restrictions.

10. Application:

Interested individual consultants are requested to apply electronically through the following link: http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm no later than 5 March 2021 and to submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Short Letter of interest, including financial proposal in USD, indicating a total lump sum for the delivery as per above description. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (consultancy fee, travel and any other possible costs).
• Completed UN Women Personal History (P11) form, that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment.
• UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.
• Candidates should have the ability to quickly produce degree certificates and medical certification (of good health) should they be short-listed in consideration of the consultancy post
• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted for further steps.