Background

UN Women (the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of 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 line with UN Women Global Strategic Plan (2022-2025), and its Country Strategic Note (2019-2022), in Turkey UN Women works towards three overarching goals:  

1) Women lead, participate in, and benefit equally from governance systems.  

2) All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence. 

3) Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action.  

Towards these goals, UN Women implements programmes and projects that aim to advance gender equality, improve women’s access to opportunities, rights and services in political, social and economic life and combat gender stereotypes, discrimination and violence, as required by international and national legal and policy commitments. UN Women collaborates with numerous partners – central and local level government authorities, civil society organizations, including women’s organizations and platforms, academia, private sector companies, other UN agencies. It commits itself to the Leaving No One Behind principle, by supporting targeted actions to remove the obstacles that marginalized and vulnerable groups of women face in accessing their rights and to promote them as agents of change. 

Globally and in Turkey, UN Women engages with and supports civil society organizations (CSOs), in particular women's organizations, as key advocacy and knowledge partners, as well as implementing partners in operational activities in advancing women's economic, political and social rights. UN Women's work with civil society encompasses facilitating and expanding spaces for CSOs to come together for coordinated actions and to engage in dialogue with duty-bearers and decision-makers at local, national, regional and international levels, and in the context of inter-governmental processes. UN Women is focused on convening multi-stakeholder partnerships and engaging a wide variety of stakeholders, including men and boys and young people, to bring forth transformative change towards gender equality, in line with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Sustainable Development Goals and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Under this framework, UN Women embarked on a new three-year project `Strengthening civil society capacities and multi-stakeholder partnerships to advance women's rights and gender equality in Turkey`, funded by the European Union. The overall objective of the project to be implemented until April 2024 is to reduce gender inequalities by enhancing the ability of CSOs in Turkey to be agents of transformative change towards gender equality and women's rights. The specific objective is "Women's rights groups, women-led CSOs and other relevant rights-based CSOs more effectively influence the gender equality and women's empowerment agenda at the national and local levels."

Under this project, UN Women will provide ‘Small Grants’ to approximately 40 women's CSOs and women-led CSOs operating in Turkey working in fields that pertain to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), in particular SDG Goal no 5 'Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls' and its related targets in the framework of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The first call for applications for Small Grants were published on 15 June 2021 and 18 CSOs were contracted between November and December 2021. The main purpose of "Small Grants" is to develop and strengthen women's CSOs' and women-led CSOs' institutional capacities and enable them to implement their missions and objectives in advancing gender equality. Small Grants are intended for contributions to CSOs in the range of USD 2,500 to USD 30,000 for a maximum duration of 12 months to finance a limited range of activitiesto support the development or strengthening of a CSO's institutional capacity. The eligible activities to be supported under the Small Grants are:

• Introducing and improving organizational systems, tools, and processes;
• Training of workforce in technical and managerial skills;
• Supporting with equipment such as copiers, scanners, printers, laptops and computers as long as the cost of such equipment is limited to 30% of the proposed  Small Grant budget or USD 5,000, whichever is lower

 The CSOs awarded with Small Grants will also benefit from further capacity development support, experience sharing, networking, dialogue, solidarity and coalition building activities to be organized by UN Women.

UN Women seeks to hire 2 national consultants for 100 non-consecutive days between 1 March 2022 to 31 March 2023 to provide substantive and technical support to UN Women and to the CSOs implementing Small Grant Agreements as per the functions specified under part II.

Duties and Responsibilities

Functions

Within the scope of the assignment, under the direct supervision of UN Women Programme Specialist and in close collaboration with the Programme Analyst and UN Women staff, the national consultants will be responsible for the below listed generic tasks:

• Provide technical support to UN Women Turkey Office for the selection and contracting processes of the Small Grants
• Provide substantive support, regular guidance and advice to the CSOs for the implementation of the Small Grants as per the agreed Utilization Plans, which sets forth the Allowed Activities to be performed with the small grant, completion dates and budget with an explanation for how the Allowed Activities develop or strengthen the CSOs institutional capacity.
• Provide technical support to UN Women Turkey Office to review the Utilization Plans, progress and financial reports submitted by the Small Grantee CSOs.
• Provide technical and substantive support to UN Women for the monitoring of the Small Grant Agreements implemented in different cities in Turkey through indicatively 10 domestic travels and meetings via online tools e.g. Zoom, prepare checklists and minutes and follow-up with the CSOs to implement the agreed action points emanating from the monitoring activities.
• Provide guidance and substantive support to the Small Grantees to submit quality and timely progress, final and financial reports, as well as any ad hoc report required. CSOs will submit one or two brief progress and financial reports (depending on the amount of the Small Grant Agreement) during the lifetime of the Small Grant.
• Provide technical support to CSOs for formulating their internal policy documents such as for procurement, administration, human resources, data privacy/protection, strategic plan, protection against sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), etc.
• Provide expertise and input to the formulation and delivery of online/offline capacity development workshops organized by UN Women.
• Gather information and provide inputs to the compendium of the Small Grants projects in the form of project briefs, human interest stories, etc.
• Support UN Women’s activities to enable dialogue, exchanges and mutual learning among the recipients of small grants and other CSOs, networks and platforms.

Deliverables and Payment Schedule

Duration of the assignment is from 1 March 2022 to 31 March 2023. The Consultant is expected to dedicate approximately 8 working days per month on average for this assignment and to spend up to 100 working days on non - consecutive basis throughout the assignment.

Expected Deliverables and Payment Schedule:

The following table summarizes the main activities and expected deliverables against the targeted submission deadlines and indicative working days to be invested by the Consultant.

All deliverables shall be received and cleared by UN Women in Turkey. All reports shall be presented in English, in electronic version.

Note: The mentioned number of working days has been estimated as being sufficient/feasible for the envisaged volume of work to be completed successfully and is proposed as a guideline for the duration of assignment. It cannot and shall not be used as criteria for completion of work/assignment. The provision of envisaged deliverables approved by the UN Women in Turkey shall be the only criteria for the Consultant's work being completed and eligible for payment/s.

Payment Schedule:

The amount paid to the Consultant shall be gross and inclusive of all associated costs such as Travel, social security, pension and income tax etc. Payments will be made upon submission and approval of deliverables above and certification by the UN Women supervisor that the services have been satisfactorily completed.

The Consultant's payments will be carried out on the basis of monthly timesheets and reports presented and approved by the supervisor. Payment shall be affected only if monthly time sheets and reports in this TOR are submitted to UN Women within the timeframes stipulated in the TOR and are approved by the supervisor. Without submission and approval of the monthly timesheets and reports, the Consultant shall not receive any payment even if s/he invests time for this assignment.

Mandatory Training Courses:

The Consultant shall complete all the mandatory and other required UN training courses and modules on time. The certificates shall be submitted to the supervisor.

Key Performance Indicators

• Adherence to UN Women mandate, standards and rules.
• Timely and quality delivery of the progress and financial reports submitted by the Small Grantee CSOs.
• Positive feedbacks from the Small Grantee CSOs regarding the substantive support provided by the Consultants.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

 Functional Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Programme formulation and implementation skills
• Knowledge of Results Based Management
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf (unwomen.org)

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.  

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application. 

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)  

Required Skills and Experience

Travel:

The Consultant will be responsible for all travel arrangements and expenses and daily subsistence allowances associated with undertaking this assignment. All travels shall be coordinated with UN Women Turkey Office and shall be included in the total contract amount of the Consultant.

Indicatively 10 domestic travels are expected to take place within Turkey. Each mission is expected to last one or two days. There may be different number of days required for accommodation. The financial proposal template is explanatory in this regard. The taxi fees for attending the meetings are also under the responsibility of the Consultant. In case of unforeseeable Travel exceeding the travel budget of the Consultant, such costs should be agreed upon between UN Women and the Consultant prior to the Travel, and will be reimbursed, in line with the UN Women travel policy.

In the context of the assignment, wherever possible, the meetings should be carried out through online conferencing such as Skype, Zoom, MS Teams, etc.

For all the travels under this assignment, the Consultant is required to provide UN Women with the requested travel documentation in a timely manner, both before and after the travels. Please note that failure to do so may result in no entitlement.

Application Procedure:

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• Cover letter to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
• CV in English containing the relevant educational and professional experience.
• Signed UN Women Personal History (P11) Form including past experience in similar assignments which can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• Financial proposal to be sent via e-mail to turkey.procurement@unwomen.org  indicating the name of the position applied in the subject line of the e-mail no later than the application deadline - Please see Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template and Annex II: Price Proposal Submission Form.

When applying; the Cover Letter, CV and the signed P11 Form should be merged into one (1) single PDF document since the system will allow only to upload maximum one document. Therefore, please combine these forms and documents into one (1) single PDF document and upload them to the system.

As for Financial Proposal, please send them/it separately via e-mail to  turkey.procurement@unwomen.org indicating the name of the position applied in the subject line of the e-mail.  Since they will be sent separately via e-mail, Financial Proposals should not be uploaded to the system or be included in the merged PDF which shall consist of the applicant’s Cover Letter, CV, and Signed P11 Form. Please make sure to not include the Financial Offer in the merged PDF.

Should they be short-listed in consideration of the consultancy post, candidates should have the ability to quickly submit degree certificates, medical certifications, or any other requested document.

Incomplete applications such as applications without a financial proposal may not be considered. Applicants are responsible to make sure to have provided all the requested application materials before the deadline.

Evaluation of Applicants:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' qualifications and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the Consultant whose offer receives the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 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. A suggested formula is as follows:

p = 30 (µ/z)

Using the following values:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

An interview/written test may be used as part of the evaluation procedure.

Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template

The prospective Individual Consultant should take the following explanations into account during submission of his/her price proposal.

1.Daily fee

The daily price proposal should indicate a "lump sum amount" which is "all-inclusive"; All costs (professional fees, communications, consumables during field related missions, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor needs to be factored into the proposed price.

UN Women will not withhold any amount of the payments for tax and/or social security related payments. UN Women shall have no liability for taxes, duties or other similar charges payable by the Individual Contractor in respect of any amounts paid to the Individual Contractor under this Contract, and the Contractor acknowledges that UN Women will not issue any statements of earnings to the Individual contractor in respect of any such payments.

2.Travel costs

The Consultant will be responsible for all travel arrangements and expenses and daily subsistence allowances associated with undertaking this assignment. All travels shall be coordinated with UN Women Turkey Office and shall be included in the total contract amount of the Consultant.

Indicatively 10 domestic travels are expected to take place within Turkey. Each mission is expected to last one or two days. There may be different number of days required for accommodation. The financial proposal template is explanatory in this regard. The taxi fees for attending the meetings are also under the responsibility of the Consultant. In case of unforeseeable Travel exceeding the travel budget of the Consultant, such costs should be agreed upon between UN Women and the Consultant prior to the Travel, and will be reimbursed, in line with the UN Women travel policy.

In the context of the assignment, wherever possible, the meetings should be carried out through online conferencing such as Skype, Zoom, MS Teams, etc.

For all the travels under this assignment, the Consultant is required to provide UN Women with the requested travel documentation in a timely manner, both before and after the travels. Please note that failure to do so may result in no entitlement.

3.Daily Subsistence Allowance

Not applicable.

4.Currency of the price proposal

The applicants are requested to submit their price proposals in Turkish Liras.

Annex II: Price Proposal Submission Form

To: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

Ref:

Dear Sir / Madam,

I, the undersigned, offer to provide professional consulting services to UN Women within the scope of the referred Assignment.

Having examined, understood and agreed to the Terms of Reference and its annexes, the receipt of which are hereby duly acknowledged, I, the undersigned, offer to deliver professional services, in conformity with the Terms of Reference.

My maximum total price proposal for the assignment is given below:

I confirm that my financial proposal will remain unchanged for 120 days. I also confirm that the price that I quote is gross, and is inclusive of all legal expenses, including but not limited to social security, income tax, pension, etc., which shall be required applicable laws.

I agree that my proposal shall remain binding upon me for 120 days.

I understand that you are not bound to accept any proposal you may receive.

[Signature]

Date:

Name:

Address:

Telephone/Fax:

E-mail: