UN Women is the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In 2012, UN Women has extended its work to include the Arab Region through UN Women’s Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS). UN Women is active six impact areas: political participation, economic empowerment, gender-based violence, gender-responsive budgeting, women in peace and security and HIV.

The Governments of Germany, Finland and United Kingdom of Great Britain are supporting the UN Women Regional Office to support Member-State engagement and commitment on women, peace and security (WPS). To this end, UN Women is partnering with regional partners to monitor action on WPS, to support national structures and capacities on this agenda, and to take forward regional commitments made on women, peace and security – including as it relates to the prevention of violent extremism.

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Advisor, Peace, Security and Humanitarian action, the consultant will support project management and the provision of technical assistance to partners and country offices through day to day project management, support to strategic partnerships with implementation partners, the drafting of tools for effective project implementation, and support to knowledge management and lessons learned across UN Women country offices implementing peace and security related work in the Arab States region.

Service overview: 

UN Women Regional Office for Arab States in Cairo requires support in rolling out its programming on the prevention of violent extremism and the facilitation of women and youth in peace making processes across the Arab States region. Through effective project management and technical assistance the assignment will:

• Support women’s engagement in political dialogues and peace processes across the Arab States region;
• Oversee research and dialogue around the prevention of violent extremism in North Africa;
• Support programming on youth, peace and security.

Scope of work and tasks: 

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of the Advisor, Peace, Security and Humanitarian Action in the Arab States regional office, the Consultant will be responsible for supporting the roll out of programming on women’s engagement in peace processes and the provision of technical assistance and coordination support to UN Women Arab States programming on peace, security and humanitarian action. This will include, but will not be limited to implementation of the following:

Implementation of programme activities on women’s engagement in peacemaking and the prevention of violent extremism:

• Take forward day to day planning, implementation and monitoring aspects of the project implementation and operations;
• Periodically suggest updates to the overall project framework on the basis of reviews, lessons learned and best practices derived from different thematic areas and evaluations;
• Identify partners, and support their onboarding and implementing of activities as per contractual agreements;
• Support the timely preparation and quality control of all substantive technical reports, briefs and required documents, including donor reports; and,
• In collaboration with project support, initiate procurement of goods and services including preparation of equipment specifications, ToRs and RFPs, managing process for the selection of suppliers, contractors and partners.

Facilitation of knowledge building and management on women’s engagement in peacemaking and the prevention of violent extremism:

• Identification of sources of information related to policy-driven issues. Identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learnt directly linked to programme country policy goals;
• Ensure that this knowledge is documented and systematized and fed back into project implementation including by contributing to the regional knowledge hub as well as networks both within UN Women and beyond; and,
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

Establish and support partnerships within and beyond the UN system:

• Support the development of strategic partnerships and alliances with other UN organizations, multilateral organizations, regional organizations, academic and technical organizations; contribute to the negotiations in establishing such partnerships, drafting of agreements and monitoring their implementation; and,
• Ensure close co-operation with other UN Women teams; develop alliances and working partnerships (thematic, advocacy, regional resource facilities, etc.).

Deliverables:

 The deliverables for the assignment will be the following:

• Implementation of a workshop on sustaining peace and women’s engagement in political dialogues in the Arab States region (plus final conference report);
• The successful launch of UN Women’s research on PVE, in addition to two regional meetings on gender and PVE; and,
• Oversee deployments of mediation experts to UN Women offices in Iraq and Libya.

Payment will be monthly, based on the submission of a monthly report on deliverables – with deliverables attached, a completed timesheet and certificate of payment.

Inputs:

UN Women team will provide a workspace, equipment and stationery, and support resource materials, and reference documents as relevant; UN Women will provide support in facilitating contact with partners and identification of relevant resource persons for all components of the assignment; UN Women will cover costs of travel as needed, related to the assignment.

Performance evaluation: 

Consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered. VIII.

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

Functional Competencies:            

• Excellent communication skills;
• Excellent organization and planning skills and high attention to detail;
• Excellent command of oral and written English and French
• Ability to meet deadlines and respond positively to feedback;
• Ability to complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
• Ability to manage and maintain relationships with different levels of stakeholders effectively and strategically.
• Ability to diplomatically handle sensitive situations with target audiences and cultivate productive relationships;

The Consultant should fulfill the following requirements:

a. Education: Master Degree or equivalent (required education in International Relations, Law, Political Studies, Economics, Social Sciences or related fields).

b. Experience:

• 1.5 years of professional experience in the areas of UN project management, gender equality and women’s rights – with experience working on women’s engagement in political dialogues and the prevention of violent extremism;
• Proven experience in strengthening institutional capacities of Government or civil society organizations;
• Experience in the development of project manamgement tools and facilitating cross country learning;
• Past experience with UN Women is preferable; part experience with the UN system is also an asset.  

c. Language and other skills: Proficiency in oral and written in English and French.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria: 

Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combines score (financial and technical). The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

(Lowest Bid Offered*)/(Bid of the Consultant) x 30*"Lowest Bid Offered" refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in technical evaluation.

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Technical Evaluation Criteria Obtainable – 100%. This will be based on the following:

• Education;
• Experience;
• Language and other skills.

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically-qualified candidate.

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Submission of application: 

Interested candidates are requested to submit electronic application in response to this request no later than 16 February 2018

Submission of package:

1. Cover letter;

2. CV, including contact information for 3 references;

3. Financial proposal.

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount per each deliverable, including any travel, per diem and administrative fees.

Selected candidates will need to submit prior to commencement of work:

1. 1. Copy of the latest academic certificate
2. 2. UN Women P-11 form, available from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
3. 3. A statement from a medical doctor of ‘good health and fit for travel’; and 
4. in case of travel outside the duty station, consultant has to complete both Basic and Advanced Security courses from DSS Portal ( https://training.dss.un.org )