Background

Globally, the business case for advancing gender equality is clear: Unlocking the potential of women and girls results in significant positive impacts on business productivity. Studies show that companies with diverse workforces are more innovative, productive, have higher profitability and higher customer satisfaction.

In 2010, UN Women and the United Nations Global Compact launched the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), the set of seven principles for business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Globally, over 1,900 CEOs from around the world have already signed the CEO Statement of Support for the WEPs and committed to continuous leadership and improvement on gender equality. Moreover, about 300 companies in 61 countries have used the initiative’s free gender gap analysis tool to help managers implement the WEPs in the workplace. To learn more about the WEPs, and its tools and resources see http://weprinciples.org/ and https://weps-gapanalysis.org/

The UN High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment highlights four key barriers to women’s economic engagement: “adverse social norms; discriminatory laws and lack of legal protection; the failure to recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid household work and care; and a lack of access to financial, digital and property assets” (Report of the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Panel on Women’s Economic Empowerment, Leave No One Behind, p. 38.). In Georgia, there is little to no gap between male and female educational attainment, but gaps in economic activities are visible. In 2016, 53% of women were reportedly employed in Georgia compared to 67% of men. Family and social pressures on women not to work are likely to contribute to women’s economic inactivity rates.

Discriminatory gender norms deem specific professions as inappropriate for women or vice-versa as feminine; Despite women’s overrepresentation in some sectors (such as education, healthcare, social work), men in each of these sectors make more money. As in other contexts, a persistent gender pay gap of about 36% affects women in Georgia.

The lack of women’s participation in the economy is likely hurting economic growth. Some research suggests that enhancing women’s economic empowerment by improving entrepreneurship and leadership contributes to economic growth, job creation and prosperity (OECD, Enhancing Women’s Economic Empowerment through Entrepreneurship and Business Leadership in OECD Countries (2014). Available from http://www.oecd.org/gender/Enhancing%20Women%20Economic%20Empowerment_Fin_1_Oct_2014.pdf.). The World Bank has estimated that women’s lower levels of economic engagement in Georgia depresses GDP by 12 per cent (Mercy Tembon, Beyond celebrating—Removing barriers for women in the South Caucasus (World Bank, 2017). Available from http://blogs.worldbank.org/europeandcentralasia/beyond-celebrating-removing-barriers-women-south-caucasus.). Other research suggests economies and firms become more efficient as women’s economic engagement increases (Rachel Heath, “Women’s Access to Labor Market Opportunities, Control of Household Resources, and Domestic Violence”, Policy Research Working Paper, No. 6149 (World Bank, 2012). Available from http://hdl.handle.net/10986/11987.). Moreover, barriers to women’s economic participation are likely to slow innovation since the best talent is not efficiently allocated.

Companies are not generally aware of the business case for corporate action to promote women's empowerment and only few are taking tangible actions for gender equality. Although 11 companies have already signed onto the WEPs in Georgia and some have developed Action Plans to operationalize their commitments, there is a need to reach out to new private sector audiences and mobilize a greater number of companies to join the WEPs movement.

Against this background, with the support of the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, UN Women launched the project “Joint Action for Women’s Economic Empowerment in Georgia. The project seeks to engage the private sector in promoting women’s economic empowerment through the WEPs. This is possible only, if the private sector is aware about the global evidence, good practices and tools available for making gender equality reality.

To effectively and widely communicate to companies operating in Georgia that investing in women and gender equality is the smart thing to do, UN Women will implement a targeted communication campaign in Georgia. The target audience of the campaign is small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large private sector operating in Georgia.  Specifically, the campaign will 1) increase the awareness of companies on the benefits of investing in women within and outside the workplace; 2) motivate companies to sign onto the WEPs and make public, tangible gender equality commitments; and 3) inform companies about real-life business practices for women’s empowerment from around the world.

In order to design and implement a campaign that is fit for purpose, UN Women would like to contract an International Communications Consultant. The objectives of the assignment are:

1. To design a strategic communications campaign that effectively reaches private sector companies operating in Georgia with the campaign’s key messages; and
2. To support the implementation of the campaign through creating campaign content and assessing technical production of the campaign products.

Before the end of the consultancy assignment, UN Women will separately contract a communications company for the technical production of the products (e.g. videos).

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the International Consultant are:

• In close cooperation with a dedicated staff in the UN Women office, conduct a desk review of documents on the project, key WEPs materials, UN Women´s overall messaging on the business benefits of gender equality and previous campaigns on women´s economic empowerment;
• Produce a workplan with timelines for the duties and responsibilities spelled above;
• Conduct consultations and interviews with UN Women, key partners and target audience representatives in Tbilisi to identify the appropriate messaging style and map the relevant channels for the dissemination of the campaign content in Georgia;
• Present the outline and key ideas of the private-sector targeted Campaign Strategy and Plan to UN Women and key partners in Tbilisi;
• Develop the Campaign Strategy and Plan that will serve as a roadmap for UN Women´s campaign targeting private sector companies in Georgia. The Strategy and Plan must include, at least: objectives, target audiences, key messages, activities with descriptions, scenarios for the campaign products, channels for disseminating the campaign content, monitoring and evaluation indicators and sustainability strategy. The Plan must include a digital media and online component. The messages must be easily memorized and attractive for the target groups;
• Based on the approved Campaign Strategy and Plan, compile and produce the content (e.g. international research studies’ highlights, good company practices from around the world) for the campaign products and design the campaign activities (to be implemented by UN Women);
• Produce a ToR for a communications company for the technical production of the campaign products, to be used in UN Women’s Request for Quotations/Proposals;
• Participate in assessing and scoring the proposals received under the UN Women-launched Request for Quotations/Proposals for the technical production of the campaign products;
• Review and provide comments on the draft campaign products produced by the communications company contracted by UN Women;
• Produce a final report about the completed work, including recommendations for the next steps.

Deliverables:

• Desk review completed and a workplan with timelines for the duties and responsibilities spelled above submitted to UN Women (5 working days, home-based by 31 August 2018);
• Consultations and interviews conducted with UN Women, key partners and target audience representatives, and the outline and key ideas of the Campaign Strategy and Plan presented to UN Women and key partners (6 working days, in Tbilisi, Georgia by 15 September 2018);
• Comprehensive Campaign Strategy and Plan produced (4 working days, home-based by 20 September 2018);
• Campaign content and activity designs submitted with UN Women (5 working days, home-based by 30 September 2018);
• ToR for the technical production of the campaign products with relevant specifications produced (1 working day, home-based by 5 October 2018);
• Scores and narrative assessment of the proposals received from companies under the UN Women-launched Request for Quotations/Proposals provided (1 day, home-based by 31 October 2018);
• Comments on and suggestions for improvements of the draft campaign products provided (1 day, home-based by 3 December 2018);
• Final report on the completed tasks, including recommendations for the next steps prepared (2 working days, home-based by 5 December 2018).

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

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 (or equivalent) in communications, public relations, or relevant field;

Experience: 

• At least five years of professional work experience in planning, managing, implementing and monitoring communication campaigns;
• At least three years of work experience in producing media contents, including for online and digital products;
• Knowledge of gender and women’s economic empowerment issues;
• Knowledge of corporate responsibility issues is a strong asset;
• Knowledge of the Georgian context is an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in English.

Evaluation procedure:

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

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in communications, public relations, or relevant field (max 30 points);
• At least five years of professional work experience in planning, managing, implementing and monitoring communication campaigns (max 80 points);
• At least three years of work experience in producing media contents, including for online and digital products (max 80 points);
• Knowledge of gender and women’s economic empowerment issues (max 60 points);
• Knowledge of corporate responsibility issues is a strong asset (max 40 points);
• Knowledge of the Georgian context is an asset (max 30 points);
• Fluency in English (max 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 guidance of the UN Women Country Representative and direct supervision of the UN Women Programme Specialist, while working closely with the UN Women Communications Analyst.

Financial arrangements:

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by UN Women Programme Specialist that the services have been satisfactorily performed as specified below:

• Deliverable 1 (5 working days) – 20%;
• Deliverables 2, 3 and 4 (15 working days) – 60%;
• Deliverables 5, 6, 7 and 8 (5 working days) – 40%

Application procedure:

• CV;
• Duly filled Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Financial Proposal - lump sum proposal/offer* in USD (including breakdown of this lump sum amount indicating all necessary costs to complete this assignment).

*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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