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. Placing women's rights at the centre 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.

The Government of Albania has made national and international commitments to advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women in many different socio-economic aspects. Several international conventions and platforms, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Beijing Platform for Action, demonstrate Albania’s commitment to the realization of women’s rights and the achievement of gender equality.

On November 26th, 2019 Albania was struck by a strong 6.3 magnitude earthquake described by national authorities as the strongest to hit Albania in 30 years. The earthquake affected 11 municipalities: Shijak, Durres, Kruja (in the Durres region), Tirana, Kamza, Kavaja, Vora and Rrogozhina (in the Tirana region) and Kurbin, Mirdita and Lezha (in the Lezha region). The affected areas can be divided into three different regions: 1) the capital city of Tirana, 2) the coastal region including the port city of Durres, which is the main tourist and economic hub in the area, and 3) the rural areas in the countryside.

In the countryside, agriculture is the main economic activity, and it employs 41% of the overall population, while about 24.3% of the land is used for agricultural purposes. The agriculture sector is limited primarily to small family operations and subsistence farming because of lack of modern equipment, unclear property rights, and the prevalence of small, inefficient plots of land. Women typically constitute the majority of workers in the small family farms. The main crops cultivated in the earthquake-affected areas are vegetables, fruit trees, vineyards, and forages. On average, 75.5% of the affected farming households rely solely on agricultural activities for their incomes and livelihoods.

Past experiences show that women and girls are differently and often disproportionally affected by disasters and crisis and have different and uneven levels of resilience and capacity to recover. Learning from past outbreaks have shown that a pandemic magnifies all existing inequalities, including economic status, ability, age and gender.

This was also confirmed by the Post Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) (1*) conducted in Albania following the deadly earthquake of November 2019, which points out the disproportionate impact of the earthquake on women and girls in the affected areas. Their economic empowerment will stagnate as they will be pushed further towards traditional roles and activities, including caretaking for children and elderly, family members with disabilities and engaging in agriculture to support their household. They also have less mobility to search for casual jobs, which further aggravates the inequality gap and constrains their ability to recover quickly and to build back better.  Women and girls in these communities are now faced also with the impact of COVID 19 pandemic, which is expected to further widen gender inequalities and exacerbate their socio-economic situation and exacerbating any existing vulnerabilities. The PDNA also stressed the importance of considering the recovery process as an opportunity to strengthen resilience by reducing inequality and the vulnerability of women and other groups.

The earthquake in 2019 specifically shed light on Albania’s lack of preparation to respond to natural disasters in a manner that ensures the protection and support to the most vulnerable groups such as rural women, who face increased risks of losing their subsistence agriculture production; single mothers or women heads of households who are at risk of losing their homes and falling into homelessness and poverty; and women victims of domestic and/or intimate partner violence among other forms of violence, and other groups with an increased vulnerability such as disabled women and men, LGBTI persons, elderly persons, and Roma and Egyptian women and men.

To address some of these needs, UN Women is implementing a project focused on Gender sensitive post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction, funded by the Government of Sweden. The project aims to strengthen resilience by reducing inequality and the vulnerability of women in the affected areas. In this context UN Women is recruiting a senior national expert on women’s economic empowerment and local economic development.

(1*) Albania Post-Disaster Needs Assessment, Tirana, February 2020 https://albania.un.org/sites/default/files/2020-05/no.4-%20Albania%20Post-Disaster%20Needs%20Assessment%20%28PDNA%29%20Volume%20A%20Report%2C%20February%202020.pdf

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the National Programme Officer the national consultant will contribute as senior expert of the Gender sensitive post-earthquake recovery and reconstruction project to support efforts of the Country Office in developing and implementing technical approaches and program activities designed to achieve the results and deliverables related to Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) and Local Economic Development (LED) in the earthquake-affected Local Government Units (LGUs) in Albania.

More concretely the senior expert will:

Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) activities:

  • Contribute together with the project team in designing post-earthquake resilient Gender Sensitive Value Chain Analyses (GSCVA) for the targeted municipalities;
  • Contribute in preparing specifications and related documentation for contracting partners for post-earthquake resilient Gender Sensitive Value Chain Analyses (GSVCA) in the targeted municipalities;
  • Supervise and ensure completion of post-earthquake resilient Gender Sensitive Value Chain Analyses (GSVCA) in all targeted municipalities;
  • Based on the GSVCA reports, design Gender Sensitive Value Chain Interventions (GSVCI) aiming women’s economic empowerment as well as local economic development (LED) and prepare inputs to documentation related to engaging relevant service providers;
  • Supervise and ensure full implementation of the designed post-earthquake resilient Gender Sensitive Value Chain Analyses (GSVCA) in all targeted municipalities;

Local Government Units (LED) activities:

  • Support offering LED coaching, training and tailored technical assistance to targeted municipalities;
  • Support efforts of LGUs to execute gender equality approaches and women’s empowerment activities to inspire local economic growth aiming improvement of the livelihood in rural areas;
  • Advise target municipalities on strategies to improve local economic development and investment;
  • Provide support to building municipal capacities in planning, managing and implementing LED policies and strategies;
  • Support the development of Local Economic Resources Reports (LERR) and economic development plans;
  • Support creation of a LED network between the earthquake-effected selected LGUs;
  • Assist target municipalities to engage with the private sector in a mutually beneficial way to promote smart and sustainable economic growth;
  • Support efforts to collaborate with central and local governments, local communities and businesses and their associations to improve the business enabling environment to promote women’s economic empowerment, competitiveness, job creation, trade and exports;
  • Support dissemination of LED best practices to other Albanian local government units;
  • Support developing training programs for staff in target municipalities to increase knowledge and understanding of the processes that lead to increased economic development, competitiveness and job creation;

Other activities:

  • Contribute as a cross-cutting member of the project team to develop communication channels and tools that will enhance knowledge and raise awareness on WEE and LED in Albania as part of the overall goal of the project.
  • Build and maintain on-going relationship with country office partners related to the project, LGUs, media and communication channels.
  • Provide qualitative and quantitative data on project activities to the Monitoring and Evaluation focal point as specified.
  • Provide technical input for the development of project Work Plan.
  • Contribute written input for periodic reports, briefings, talking points and support developing content for success stories.

Main Deliverables:

  • A consultancy work plan with clear time frame of activities and deliverables (workplan to be consulted with and approved by UN Women);
  • GSVCAs are fully completed in all selected LGUs;
  • GSVCIs are successfully implemented in all selected LGUs;
  • LERRs are fully completed and delivered to all selected LGUs;
  • LED network of earthquake-effected LGUs is established;
  • Monthly reports in English on the work conducted and results achieved during the month.

Duration and remuneration:

The duration of the contract will be for an initial period of 12-months starting from March 2021, (with the possibility of extension) with an estimated 15 working days/month. The payment will be made in monthly installments upon satisfactory completion of tasks and deliverables, submission of time-sheet and monthly report and approval by UN Women.

Competencies

Core Values:

  • Respect for Diversity
  • Integrity
  • Professionalism

Core Competencies:

Functional Competencies:

  • Knowledge on women’s economic empowerment and gender-sensitive value chains.
  • Knowledge and familiarity on rural economic development in Albania.
  • Diverse organizational skills in various settings.
  • Proven ability to work within limited time constraints in the preparation of high-quality documents.
  • Strong ability to interact effectively with various partners and stakeholders, with focus on local level authorities and local communities.
  • Strong negotiating skills.
  • Possesses the ability to work independently.
  • Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point).

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications/Education:

  • Master’s degree in economics, business administration, marketing, rural development, food and agriculture and/or any other related science.

Work Experience:

  • At least 10 years of experience in economic development projects including with a focus on gender and women’s economic empowerment
  • Proven experience in managing interventions/activities in the field of community resilience, local economic development, rural development including gender analyses in value chains
  • Experience in engaging with local stakeholders and communities/women’s groups as well as the private sector.
  • Previous experience or familiarity with the UN system or international organizations is considered an asset.

Language:

  • Fluency and proficiency in spoken and written Albanian and English required.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

  • Financial Proposal specifying the monthly fee in Albanian Lek for the tasks specified above. 

Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services and travel- missions per each municipality). The financial proposal shall include travel. The candidate should indicate the cost for one travel to and from the target municipalities (Shijak, Durres, Kruja, Kamza, Kavaja, Vora, Rrogozhina, Kurbin, Mirdita and Lezha).

  • Payment will be made as per the payment schedule in the contract upon (i) satisfactory completion of tasks; (ii) provision of deliverables specified in the ToRs; (iii) submission of and approval by UN Women; and (iv) submission of the certification of payment.

Recommended Presentation of Offer:

Qualified and interested candidates are asked to submit their application no later than 7th of March 2021:

  • A Letter of Confirmation of Interest including a brief description explaining why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment.
  • UN Women Personal History Form (P11) including past experience in similar assignment. Can be downloaded at: UN Women Personal History Form (P11)  or http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
  • Financial Proposal specifying the total lumpsum in Albanian Lek for the tasks specified in this assignment. The candidate should indicate the cost for one travel to the target municipalities as specified in the section above.

Evaluation of applicants:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ 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 points:

  • Master’s degree in economics, business administration, marketing, rural development, food and agriculture and/or any other related science (max 10 points)
  • At least 10 years of experience in economic development projects including with a focus on gender and women’s economic empowerment (max 20 points)
  • Proven experience in managing interventions/activities in the field of community resilience, local economic development, rural development including gender analyses in value chains (max 20 points)
  • Experience in engaging with local stakeholders and communities/women’s groups as well as the private sector (max 15 points)
  • Previous experience or familiarity with the UN system or international organizations is considered an asset (max 5 points)

Financial Evaluation – 30 points

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. The calculation formula applied is as follow:

p = 30 (µ/z); where: p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated; µ = price of the lowest priced proposal; z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

  • Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
  • Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, and the Letter of Confirmation of Interest into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded.
  • Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement).
  • Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application;'
  • Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above).
  • You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Notes:

  • UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications, we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.
  • The consultancy post is open to local (Albanian) individuals or foreign individuals with valid temporary or permanent residence in Albania.
  • Applications without the financial offer will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
  • The individual consultants should take the mandatory learning security course prior to commencement of assignment– details will follow before the issuance of contract.