Background

UN Women Country Office in Georgia in close partnership and with financial support of the Swiss Development Cooperation Agency is implementing the project “Partnership for Women’s Economic Empowerment in South Caucasus” in Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.  The expected project results will support implementation of UN Framework Agreements concluded between UN agencies, funds and programmes and respective governments in the target countries. The Inception Phase of the project commenced in the beginning of November 2017 with primary objective of establishing project baselines, refining project targets in further consultation with key stakeholders in the three countries. The inception phase will last until the end of June 2018 resulting in the finalization of  agreements and work plans with project’s responsible parties.

The main phase of the project aims to contribute to the following outcome - women, particularly the poor and socially excluded, have increased economic security and access to livelihood and development opportunities, and meaningfully participate in decision-making processes. This outcome will be attained through the achievement of the following three outputs:

Output 1: Women in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, particularly the poor and socially excluded, have increased access to information, skills-building and sustainable economic opportunities, and participate in and contribute to local and regional development;

Output 2: Mechanisms and staff capacities of selected ministries/ state institutions in Armenia and Georgia are strengthened to develop and deliver gender-responsive programmes and services, strategies and plans for women’s economic empowerment, and women’s organizations effectively influence and participate in these processes;

Output 3: Legislative and policy frameworks in Armenia and Georgia are reviewed in line with international human rights standards and commitments on women’s economic empowerment and are based on gender analysis and sex-disaggregated data

In Georgia, the project activities will be implemented directly by UN Women, while project activities in Armenia and Azerbaijan will be implemented by UN Women Responsible Parties to be selected in the inception phase of the project.

During the project inception phase in order to support consistency, complementarity and synergy among planned project activities and results in the target countries - in line with the project outputs and outcome and national development frameworks and priorities, as well as to ensure that all the relevant stakeholders are included in the project design and implementation, UN Women plans to hire national consultant in Armenia to conduct gender analysis of rural development and agriculture policies in Armenia.

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the National Consultant are:

  • To conduct desk review of agricultural policies and programmes in Armenia from a gender perspective – namely looking at if and how these policies and programmes target and benefit women;
  • To conduct follow-up key informant interviews (government, civil society, experts from academia, development partners) to fill in the gaps identified through the desk review of agricultural policies and programmes;
  • To review legal frameworks supporting agricultural activities in Armenia (e.g. establishment of cooperatives);
  • To conduct desk review of rural/local development programmes and policies in Armenia from a gender perspective – namely looking at if and how these policies and programmes target and benefit women;
  • To conduct follow-up key informant interviews (government, civil society, experts from academia, development partners) to fill in the gaps identified through the desk review of rural/local development programmes and policies in Armenia;
  • To gain comparative insights familiarize oneself with Gender Assessment of Agriculture and Local Development Systems conducted in Georgia with UN Women support in 2016 - the assessment can be accessed at UN Women web-page here;
  • To prepare final report in English reflecting gender analysis of rural development and agriculture policies in Armenia – shared with UN Women for inputs and accordingly finalized. The report should reflect key findings and provide recommendations for relevant government as well as development partners.

Deliverables:

The assignment should be carried out within a period of 13 December 2017- 8 March 2018, not exceeding 29 working days, with the incumbent being responsible for delivering the following deliverables:

  • A detailed work plan related to the consultancy (no later than 3 working days after signing the contract);
  • Desk review and all key informant interviews for the purposes of the analysis conducted – 20 working days, completed by 15 February 2018;
  • Progress report describing the qualitative research conducted (desk review and key informant interviews), listing all key policies, laws and programmes reviewed as well as names, positions and dates of key informants interviewed – 2 working days, completed by 15 February 2018; 
  • Final report (in English) on gender analysis of rural development and agriculture policies in Armenia with key findings and recommendations (main body of the text without annexes should not accede 30 pages) finalized in consultation with UN Women - 7 working days, completed by 28 February.

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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

 

Education:

  • Master’s degree in economy, social and political sciences, human rights, gender equality, development studies. PhD degree is an asset.

Experience: 

  • At least 5 years of practical experience of work on gender mainstreaming in development programmes/projects at national (in Armenia) and international levels;
  • At least 3 years’ experience of work on results based management, review and/or evaluation, including in gender data collection and analysis, interviews, survey and focus groups.
  • Demonstrated previous work experience on agriculture and rural development issues; 

Language:

  • Fluency in Armenian and English (knowledge of the Russian language is an asset).

Evaluation of procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated against the following technical and financial criteria:

  • Master’s degree in economy, social and political sciences, human rights, gender equality, development studies (60 points);
  • At least 5 years of practical experience of work on gender mainstreaming in development programmes/projects at national (in Armenia) and international levels (100 points);
  • At least 3 years’ experience of work on results based management, review and/or evaluation, including in gender data collection and analysis, interviews, survey and focus groups (100 points);
  • Demonstrated previous work experience on agriculture and rural development issues (60 points);
  • Fluency in Armenian and English (30 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150.

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 consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management Arrangements:

The Consultant will work under the overall supervision and guidance of UN Women Georgia Country Office team – Country Representative and National Programme Specialist and under day to day management of UN Women Programme Analyst responsible for Women’s Economic Empowerment.

Financial Arrangements:

Payment will be made in the following number of instalments provided deliverables are submitted, accepted and approved:

Instalment I: 40% upon the submission of deliverables 1,2 & 3;

Instalment II: 60% upon the submission of deliverables 4

Application procedure:

*The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR.

Only short listed candidates will be contacted.

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