UN WOMEN Jobs - 77092- Research Consultant – Gender Responsive Budgeting

Research Consultant – Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Home Based (With Travel Assignments), INDIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Mar-2018

Application Deadline :

16-Feb-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

50 working days (spread over 6 months)

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

50 working days (spread over 6 months)

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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 and the third gender as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

All human development and human rights issues involve gender dimensions. UN Women globally focuses on key priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. The six priority areas include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, engaging in all aspects of women peace and security processes, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting through Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

UN Women’s work on GRB involves ensuring that national planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes incorporate a gender perspective. UN Women’s GRB programmes at the regional and country level have made significant contribution towards this by building political support, developing technical resources and capacities, generating good practices for improving women's access to services and increasing accountability for Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment (GEWE). At the forefront of global, regional and local advocacy for application of GRB, UN Women has built partnerships with diverse government, inter-governmental and non-governmental partners, to further efforts and demonstrate GRB’s relevance to sustainable development, aid effectiveness, public sector reform and financing for development.

The report of the Committee on the Status of Women in 1974 brought to light gender perspective on public expenditure. The Five-Year Plans, starting from the Eight Plan (1992-97), recognised the need for committed resources for gender equality and women’s empowerment through recommending significant interventions on GRB. The 8th Five Year Plan acknowledged the need for committed resources to advance Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment measures. Subsequent Five-Year Plans, including the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) have underscored the need for institutionalizing GRB. In 2004-05, the report of the expert group of classification of government expenditure became instrumental in laying out the road map for GRB in India. This was followed by the adoption of “Budgeting for Gender Equity” as a mission statement by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India (GoI).

In 2005-06, the Ministry of Finance, GoI introduced Gender Budget Statement (GBS) which aimed to reflect the quantum of budgetary allocations for programmes/schemes that substantially benefit women. In 2017-18, 35 Union ministries/departments/territories published the GBS, accounting for 5.2 percent of the overall magnitude of the Union Budget of India. Another important mechanism institutionalised by the Ministry of Finance was setting up of Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) which serve as focal points for mainstreaming gender through GRB. GBCs have been set up in 57 ministries/departments of the Union Government thus far.

Over ten years of sustained initiatives on GRB have focused on enhancing institutional and individual capacities, mainstreaming GRB into planning and budgeting (such as gender-aware cabinet notes, Expenditure Finance Memoranda, Budget Call Circulars, etc.) and gender aware policy appraisals. GRB Efforts at the Union Government have been replicated by states. For example, a number of states publish a GBS, have set up GBCs/Gender Focal Points, and constituted committees to assess progress on GRB. While GRB efforts at the Union and State level have been myriad, it is proposed that a GRB Composite Index be developed that measures GRB initiatives against advances in gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE). This Index will thus draw linkages between GRB and the status of development made in achieving GEWE at the outcome and impact levels.

The GRB Composite Index will use key dimensions/indicators for scoring GRB efforts within Ministries/Departments and States to arrive at a cumulative percentile score. Some of the indicative dimensions could be the following.

Inclusion of GRB in planning & budgeting frameworks.
GRB architecture (institutional mechanisms) established/functional.
Magnitude of budgets allocated for advancing GEWE vis-à-vis social, political and economic status of constituencies of women and girls in a given sector/state.
Utilisation of budgets vis-à-vis magnitude of budgets allocated.
Gender-aware intermediary and long-term outcomes of budgets vis-à-vis magnitude of budgets allocated.
Gender aware performance assessment of allocated budgets vis-à-vis activities, outputs and outcomes.

It is within this context that UN Women seeks the services of a Research Consultant to develop a GRB Composite Index.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will be required to undertake the following:

Inception meetings with relevant stakeholders including MWCD and UN Women to understand the purpose of and expectations from developing the GRB Composite Index.
Draft the methodology for computing GRB Composite Index.
Compute GRB Composite Index for select ministries/departments/states in consultation with MWCD and UN Women.
Report and document the technical notes for the Index.

Deliverables:

Concept note detailing the key dimensions and indicators to be assessed for calculating the GRB Composite Index - 20% Payment;
Draft methodology for GRB Composite Index - 30% Payment;
Consolidated notes on computing the index for select ministries/departments/states - 20% Payment;
Final report and documentation of technical notes for the Index for States and UTs - 30% Payment.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates commitment to UN Women’s mission, vision and values;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning:

Shares knowledge and experience;
Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to design, planning and implementation of programme, managing data, reporting;
Ability to provide input to and use new IT based systems.

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 even under pressure;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
Good understanding of gender and development in South Asia;
Demonstrable ability to work in a team;
Ability to work under pressure;
Good writing and communication skills;
Excellent computer literacy and skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Masters/doctorate in Statistics/Mathematics/Economics/Research Methods.

Experience:

Minimum 10 years of experience working on issues of gender equality, women’s rights and public policy.
Familiarity with the issues of gender and budgeting in India.
Ability to work independently and with minimal supervision.

Language:

Excellent analytical and writing skills in English.

Application:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
Minimum 10 years of experience working on issues of gender equality, women’s rights and public policy ( 5 points);
Familiarity with the issues of gender and budgeting in India (5 points).
Excellent analytical and writing skills in English (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

Interview.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.