Background

Tales and historical characters are part of each society cultural heritage, disseminated through the generations via oral, pictorial, and written tradition. They play a great role in conveying folklore elements, root values and norms including gender norms. For children, tales constitute an entire part of their socialization process stimulating their imagination, creativity and enabling their identification with characters. While tales allow them to temporarily escape from reality, they have a strong educational power helping girls and boys to grow and develop their personality.

Marking the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action adoption and in line with Generation Equality Forum, expected in 2021 as an intergenerational and intersectional gathering of women’s activists to create a renewed momentum and accelerate progress towards women’s rights and leaving no-one behind, UN Women ECA RO pursues the efforts to vehicle positive change and promote gender equality by devoting a modern fairy tales’ collection targeting at young readers and citizens of tomorrow.

The world is dramatically changing by new technologies, industrial revolutions, and technological progress. It is even ironic that as the COVID-19 pandemic forces people’s physical disconnection, it is also showing how people are all connected by histories, literature and social interactions which are grounded on common values of humanity. Despite all crisis related consequences which the COVID-19 brings, there are also many positive and inspiring changes happening as a result of the pandemic. This time of physical distancing and self-isolation has provided a rare opportunity to re-evaluate priorities and re-think what we value the most. It is a time for reflection and actions to bring gender equality and human rights perspectives into approaches and norms for bringing up a new generation which is expected to live free of discrimination and violence in equal world from 2030.

UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECA RO) initiates a feminist stories and fairy telling campaign with an aim to support a dialogue to change the ways society thinks about women’s and girls’ roles, human potential, and rights. The initiative is expected to expose the role of fairy tales in the cultural struggle over gender equality and feminism. For this purpose, the "forgotten" narratives which highlight shifting attitudes towards the role of women and girls will be applied. We strongly believe that such stories will tell a young generation a great deal about changing attitudes to women, gender equality and feminism. The stories that children grow up with are vitally important in shaping who they are as adults.

UN Women ECA RO’s initiative will bring together feminists to re-work familiar fairytales as well as to bring forgotten women’s characters and stories to overcome the oppressive treatment and historical silencing of women by the patriarchy. The following key milestones and timeline are considered for the initiative implementation:

By end of Jun 2020:                 Set-up of the inclusive Task Force and identify its members

1st week of Jul 2020:                Feminist stories writing workshop

July – August 2020:                 The development of the stories and the communication and dissemination plan

September – October 2020:    Internal and external peer reviews for draft stories to be prepared of fairy tales; a design/illustration of the draft product

11 October 2020:                     Launch of the 1st story on International Day of the Girl Child

November 2020:                      Review of 2nd version of fairy tales (illustrated)

December 2020 – January 2021          Preparations for the launching of the initiatives, including communication and advocacy related actions, partnerships, etc.

ECA RO is looking for an experienced consultant to coordinate implementation of the initiative at all its phases providing expert technical support to the design, coordination, and facilitation of the campaign.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Regional Director and Programme Specialist of the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, and in close coordination with UN Women colleagues at the regional and country levels in the region, the Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Set-up an inclusive Task Force with at least 8 members from children’s book authors, feminist writers, editors, youth representative/s and illustrator/s
• Agree on a detailed implementation plan for the initiative with the Task Force 
• Organize necessary online preparatory meetings/discussions to prepare for the workshop on story writing and follow-up on its outcomes
• Coordinate the story writing workshop and be onsite to facilitate experiences and ideas sharing to come up with a common understanding on key messages and approaches for the stories telling
• Work closely with the writing team to be identified, provide preliminary and follow up feedback/guidance to the writing team and Task Force on the stories
• Lead the stories’ development process based on the outcomes of the workshop and create and maintain a repository of the ideas/drafts and all essential documentation for the Fairy Tales initiative
• Develop the communication and dissemination plan together with Task Force and ECA RO communications team and advise on how the produced stories can be used for advocacy
• Organize a participatory internal and external peer review process for the stories, ensure the review of the stories and their revision as necessary, based on the feedback received from peer review groups
• Work together with the writing team to finalize the first draft of the fairy tales
• Oversee the design and illustration processes of the final product
• Contribute to launch of the campaign and wide announcement through the networks
• Collect readers’ feedback and provide an analysis
• Document experience on the Fairy Tales process, drawing analysis from the initiative, including lessons, good practices, and recommendations from knowledge management perspectives

Expected deliverables

Notes:

• All written deliverables will be submitted in English
• Most of this consultancy is home-based. Consultant is expected to provide written and verbal technical support using Skype/email/phone as needed.

Duration and remuneration

UN Women will fund the costs of the consultancy work and maintain overall oversight and monitoring of the consultancy work. The duration of the consultancy will be from June 2020 – February 2021.

Payments will be made upon evaluation of the satisfactory performance from the direct supervisor upon the approval of the deliverables.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent oral and written skills in English
• Able to communicate effectively with and relate to people of different cultures, demonstrating an ability to see issues from other perspectives
• Ability to use critical thinking, conceptualize ideas, and articulate relevant subject matter clearly and concisely
• Good inter-personal and diplomacy skills
• Able to lead, manage, work independently and in a team
• Good planning, goal setting and prioritization skills
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities
• Adheres to a human rights approach in engaging with all persons
• Strong ability to adapt and manage challenges and changes as they arise
• Proven track record of delivering on commitments

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

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/women's studies, international development, communications, business management, or a related field is required
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree

Experience:

• At least 7 years of professional experience in communication/advocacy areas, GEEWE programming, development and/or story writing projects
• Demonstrated expertise in design, implementation, and facilitation of participatory workshops
• Demonstrated knowledge in and/or expertise with story writing approaches, especially design and system thinking and behavioural insights
• Strong knowledge and/or experience in working on gender equality and women’s issues
• Experience in UN system is an asset

Languages:

Fluency in written and spoken English is required.

Knowledge of Russian is an asset

Other skills:

• Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point)

Application process

The application should include:

• Personal History Form (P-11 form) - including experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted
• Cover letter outlining the submitter’s qualifications and interest in the consultancy
• Financial Proposal:  Specify a monthly amount (daily rate should be included in the Offer) for the tasks specified in this Terms of Reference and considering 20 days for every month expected as working days

Candidates should have the ability to quickly produce degree certificates and medical certification (of good health) should they be short-listed in consideration of the consultancy post.

Note: As specific travel will be confirmed with monthly review of work plan, any travel will be paid separately by UN Women

Evaluation of applicants:

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process. Applicants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications/skills and their financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive to and compliant with the TOR, and
• Having received the highest score out of below combined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 56 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Application:

• Short Letter of interest, including financial proposal in local currency (USD), indicating a total lump sum for the delivery as per above description. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (consultancy fee, travel and any other possible costs).
• Completed UN Women Personal History (P11) form, that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.