Background

DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE for submission of proposals from the Procurement website link https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=79534.  ALSO download the full terms of reference from the Procurement website link mentioned.

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The work of the Law and Justice sector (LJS) is the Government of Samoa’s new way of working to strategically streamline policy and operational processes and practices based on a multi-sectoral delivery approach to improve the quality of life for all Samoan citizens. Two national studies highlight the prevalence of domestic violence as reaching epidemic figures, in the last two decades, with six out of 10 women experience some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetime, nine in ten children experience some form of verbal, physical, or sexual violence and one in nine girls suffer from sexual violence with 1 in every 5 girls raped. Strengthening the Law and Justice coordinating mechanism would provide the corporate and social accountability from this sector to ensure the sector as an essential institution for service delivery is able to fully implement the Samoa Law and Justice Sector Plan with a renewed priority focus on the elimination of violence against women. 

One of the key indicators for improving quality of life and access to essential services is making sure all women, children, elderly, and marginalized individuals and groups regardless of age, disability and status live in a violent free society – a vision and mission we all strive to make it a reality. All of the fifteen (15) sectors of Government have a strong contribution to ensure commitment to this vision is implemented into action-oriented results.  The Ministry of Justice, Courts & Administration (MJCA)  is the administrator of Family laws in Samoa including the Family Safety Act 2013. Under the strategic coordination leadership of the MJCA, the work of law and justice sector to prevent and respond to violence against women and domestic violence is therefore significantly important as the driving vehicle for provision of essential integrated Gender Based Violence (GBV) interventions are done in a well-coordinated and meaningful manner. The Samoa survey(s) into Family Violence recommendations highlighted the need to strengthen the multisectoral coordination mechanism that will strategically pinpoint context in terms of implementing specific holistic interventions and services, resource mobilization, and collective monitoring and evaluation as not a single sector nor an agency can solve violence on its own. Therefore, this assignment will capitalize on the existing strength of the law and justice sector is the amalgamation of key frontline providers that offer a mixed range of essential support services, funds and program approaches to jointly support comprehensive efforts at the national level to address gender inequalities and in particular GBV and Domestic Violence (DV). 

UNDP in partnership with MJCA /Law and Justice Sector Unit is recruiting a local consultant to support the development and implementation of a strategy to strengthen the coordination and collaborative role of the sector to ensure efficient and effective cross-sectoral engagement to better prevent and respond to EVAWG and domestic violence in line with the strategic direction of the Samoa Law and Justice Sector Plan 2020 - 2025, the SDS and international human rights standards and best practices.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK

The National Consultant (LC) will:

• Work directly with the Samoa LJS using its wide multistakeholder platform to better able to develop and deliver evidence-based programmes that prevent and respond to VAWG and domestic violence.
• Report to the Chair of the Steering Committee (Law and Justice Sector) and the UNDP ARR Governance and Poverty Reduction Unit (GPRU). The LC will ensure the task is co-designed with, women’s groups, key stakeholders within the law and justice sector, survivors of domestic violence, and aligned to existing or new interagency referral planning documents across community/social sector, health, education, in addressing violence.
• Take into account the strategic direction and implementation strategies and operational management procedures undertaken as part of the design of the Samoa law and justice sector plan 2020/2021 – 2025/2026 in particular the institutional roles and responsibilities of key agencies in responding to domestic violence and gender-based violence. 

The local consultant is expected to carry out the following responsibilities from a gender and social inclusion and human rights perspective and within a culturally sensitive manner:

Develop a work plan setting out the work, methodology, or approach and timelines including specific activities required for this assignment to be endorsed within one week of the commencement date of contract signing. Including a section on cross stakeholder engagement with relevant community, civil society, marginalized groups (ie. survivors of violence, Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgendered Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) /Sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI), disability, youth groups, elderly). This will include names of agencies, individuals, groups to be endorsed as part of the plan.

Work with the LJS steering committee to review the current coordination multistakeholder platform or structure in addressing VAWG and DV. This will include consulting with the MWCSD, Community sector as a key partner of the LJS  to determine cross synergies and ensure which is the best sustainable coordination mechanism for GBV and DV taking into account any relevant and active coordination mechanisms currently existing.

•  Work with the LJS Unit and Steering Committee members, and relevant key stakeholders to review membership, purpose, and efficiency of the current structure to coordinate across different ministries, agencies, non-government and civil society/community-based structures.
•  Based on agreement from LJS steering committee and stakeholders consulted, identify new or strengthen existing multisectoral partnerships/membership, best practice, or new mechanisms for improving coordination of sector prevention and response services in relation to GBV and DV. Ensuring clear synergies are articulated and applied across the work of MWCSD /community sector and health and education sector.

Develop a strategy for improving coordination within the Law and Justice Sector to prevent and respond to GBV/DV.

• Build in the REACH model (based on what has worked well) to improve coordination and referral pathways amongst the different institutions. This model would enable coordination at the national level and improve the consistency and coherence of implementation efforts.
• Develop a new Terms of Reference for establishing an appropriate or strengthening an existing EVAWG and GBV/DV interagency coordinating mechanism within the LJS which follows the principles of ‘do no harm, LNOB, and gender-responsive, culturally sentinel, human rights-based, and participatory policymaking.
• Provide technical advice to guide implementation of the TOR, including resource and budget mobilization for future support and collaboration across agencies, sectors at national, sub-national, and international levels
• Provide ongoing technical advisory support (50 working days) technical support under Spotlight project 2021) to the LJS Sector Coordinator and MJCA CEO as (Chair of Steering Committee) to implement the TOR and ensure coordinating mechanism looks at a whole of government approach and engage multi-stakeholder organizations (civil society, women’s organizations) who will bring to the table innovative prevention and survivor best practice prevention and response.
• Provide capacity building mentoring support to the LJS coordinating unit and members of the task force on addressing VAWG and harmful practices for 50 working days.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Demonstrates commitment to the Government of Samoa mission, vision, and values
• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards.

• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP.
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Functional Competencies                                                                                    

• Strong analytical skills and critical thinking skills;
• Understands and applies survivor – based approach from a gender equality lens
• Creative ideas and the ability to think outside the box while maintaining cultural integrity
• Shares knowledge and experience
• Demonstrated knowledge and application of current international and local GBV prevention best practices
• Understands the work of the Law and Justice Sector in terms of referral pathways, operational procedures in dealing with domestic violence, family protection orders
• Demonstrated knowledge of relevant Samoan legal framework and national policy frameworks for children, women, and persons with disabilities
• Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with various partners including government, civil society, the private sector, UN agencies; development partners; and communities;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan, and applies newly acquired skills

Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client responds positively to feedback
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Remains calm, in control, and good humored even under pressure
• Demonstrate openness to change and ability to manage complexities
• Be able to link and articulate GESI or gender-based violence issues and strategies to the work of Sector
• Good interpersonal and teamwork skills, networking aptitude, ability to work in a multicultural environment

Required Skills and Experience

EVALUATION PROCESS & CRITERIA

The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as;

• Responsive/ Compliant/ Acceptable, and,
• Having received the highest score out of pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

TECHNICAL CRITERIA WEIGHT – 70%

FINANCIAL CRITERIA WEIGHT – 30%

Technical Evaluation Criteria will be based on the information provided in the CV and the relevant documents must be submitted as evidence to support the above required criteria [maximum 100 points]. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% of the total technical points (49 points) will be considered for the Financial Evaluation. Interviews may be conducted as part of the technical assessment for shortlisted proposals.

Qualification and Experience – Evaluation of CVs for Shortlisting

• Mandatory a minimum formal qualification of a Bachelor’s  degree in Arts (BA) or a related field from a recognized university, (15%)
• Mandatory a minimum of 7 years’ experience in policy development, management, and operational processes and or procedures, (25%)
• Mandatory a familiarity with Law and Justice and gender-based violence issues, referral pathways and case management in Samoa (20%)
• Desirable a demonstrated experience in working in the gender-based violence space from a human rights and social development perspective (10%)
• Desirable to have the ability to work in a flexible and responsive manner and ability to engage with counterparts at a strategic and management level (10%)
• Relevant work experience in developing countries in a multi-stakeholder environment with a development organization, government, civil society, private sector, or a research/academic institution is desirable (10%)
• Proficiency in English and Samoan (both written and oral) (10%)

Queries about the consultancy can be directed to the UNDP Procurement Unit procurement.ws@undp.org.  

DOWNLOAD THE TEMPLATE for submission of proposals from the Procurement website link https://procurement-notices.undp.org/view_notice.cfm?notice_id=79534.  ALSO download the full terms of reference from the Procurement website link mentioned.