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 as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace, and security. UN Women is the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

The Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) is based in Cairo and covers 17 countries in the Arab States region, providing direct support to UN Women country offices in Egypt, Iraq, occupied Palestinian territories (oPt), Jordan and the Morocco Multicounty Office (MCO) covering Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. In addition, UN Women has programme presence in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Libya. In 2014, UN Women started working in Kuwait as a non-resident agency and will pursue this modality in countries where there is no programme or office presence, including in Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The regional office supports country offices in assisting national governments and partners to fulfill their gender equality commitments under the applicable national and international laws. The regional office works with country offices in strengthening areas of programmatic interventions under the six thematic areas identified in the organization’s Strategic plan for 2018-2021. In aid of this, the office seeks to hire an international consultant to produce a secondary research-based thought piece on gender equality issues and returns for Syrian refugees and displaced persons across the region. The research will be based on a handful of KPI’s and secondary data and will be managed by the regional office Advisor on women, peace and security and humanitarian action.

Duties and Responsibilities

UNHCR data shows that there have been over 107,000 spontaneous refugee returns to Syria from 2015- 2018 [1]. 2018 has witnessed a spike in the number of Syrian refugee returns as push and pull factors accelerate. Spontaneous returns mean returning to the country of origin with no formal assistance, voluntarily or coerced. UN Women seeks to ensure that the rapidly increasing humanitarian action and policy on Syrian refugee returns is gender responsive.

There many gender diverse protection risks for women, men, girls, boys and other gender minorities returning to Syria. Women frequently lack equal decision-making power on their family’s decision to return and can have limited access to their personal identification and travel documents. Women also suffer from the lack of legal rights to pass citizenship and residency status to their children, resulting in part in intergenerational stateless amongst displaced Syrians, namely those with a non-Syrian father. This could be a significant problem given the high number of Syrian women and girls who married men from their host refugee country (often for livelihoods), and want to return to Syria, but do not have rights to their children. Men and boys refuse or fear return due to Syria’s forced conscription law mandating the military participation of all men ages 18 to 42. If these policies and practices in Syria remain unchanged, it will likely prevent voluntary repatriation as a durable solution for many Syrian refugee families.

The proposed scoping study will conduct a gender analysis of refugee and IDP returns to Syria from the host countries of Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. The research will examine both the process of spontaneous returns as well as what physical relocation in Syria looks like in terms of housing and property rights, education, health, and legal and social protection. The scoping study has the following objectives:

1. Understand the gendered protection risks, harms, and consequences for women, men, girls, boys and other gender minorities returning to Syria.
2. Clearly synthesize the current spontaneous return processes from Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq.
3. Determine needed areas of gender-responsive research, policy development, or advocacy on refugee returns to Syria.

The research will be informed by a thorough literature review and interviews with practitioners, government officials, experts, and persons of concerns.

The outcomes of this scoping study will help demonstrate active gendered protection risks and will also inform what gender considerations must be included in future formalized repatriation processes by the UN, relevant governments, and other humanitarian actors. The consultant leading the scoping study will:

• Research and identify relevant existing information and data on the gendered impact of returns to Syria.
• Undertake 5-8 interviews (remote or in Lebanon) with practitioners, government officials, experts, and persons of concerns on this topic.

[1] UNHCR Operational Portal, Data on Self-Organized Refugee Returns to Syria by Year,https://data2.unhcr.org/en/situations/syria_durable_solutions.

Note: this is likely higher given that many refugee returns to Syria are not captured in UNHCR return monitoring figures.

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.

Functional Competencies

• Outstanding translation and editing skills in English and Arabic;
• Ability to work under pressure and meet strict deadlines;
• Ability to produce a high volume of quality content;
• Demonstrated willingness to work as part of a team in a multicultural environment;
• Keeping files, personal details and any other sensitive material confidential and safe.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s Degree in Women/Gender Studies, Humanitarian Action or relevant Social Sciences.

Experience

• Minimum of 5 years of experience conducting both quantitative and qualitative research;
• Experience as a researcher in the field of gender and humanitarian action;
• Demonstrated experience collecting, and analyzing secondary data in an efficient and effective way, and presenting the findings in a clear and coherent manner;
• Experience working/conducting research in humanitarian/fragile settings, particularly with displaced and refugee populations;
• Familiarity with the humanitarian system and its processes, particularly as it relates to the Syria crisis;
• Experience working on the Syria crisis;
• Experience with the UN System.

Language

• Fluency in Arabic and English is required.

Evaluation Criteria:

The contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical).

Criteria Weight Technical: 70%

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 70 points. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

• Master’s Degree in Women/Gender Studies, Humanitarian Action or relevant Social Sciences. (10 points)
• Minimum 5 years of experience conducting both quantitative and qualitative research. (10 points)
• Experience in the field of gender and humanitarian action. (10 points)
• Experience in working for an international organization. (10 points)
• Experience in translation and interpretation of UN products is desirable. (10 points)
• Demonstrated experience translating issue of peace, security and humanitarian action. (10 points)
• Fluency in Arabic and English. (10 points)

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 49 points (70%) will be considered as a technically-qualified candidate.

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30%

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined 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 the technical evaluation.

Application:

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work and link to a portfolio of work;
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment; applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily rate.

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all them since the online application submission does only permit to upload one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

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.

UN Women is applying a fair and transparent selection process that would take into account both the technical qualification of Consultants as well as their price proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores.