Background

UN Women’s programme on Second Chance Education (SCE) and Vocational Training aims to reach out to and enable 40,000 underprivileged young women and women in India through education, training, employment and entrepreneurship skills. The programme is trying to address the structural barriers young women and women face in realizing their full economic potential by trying out innovative pilots in all these verticals across project states viz Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan. To support young women and women in getting skilled and gainfully employed, the project adopts an empowerment approach to livelihoods as against the instrumental approach where the focus is merely on skills/income generation. The activities to strengthen women’s learning and earning pathways, therefore, will be coupled by the capacity building initiatives on making women aware about their rights and entitlements, raise voice against violations and demand accountability from duty bearers. The Programme will adopt evidence-based policy advocacy, leveraging UN Women’s and implementing partners’ institutional relationships with key relevant Ministries such as Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Rural Development/National Rural Livelihoods Mission and Ministry of Human Resource Development. The programme intends to create a supportive ecosystem to enhance; women’s participation in the workforce and opportunities of self-employment, at the state as well as national level.

Objectives of the Assignment

As part of UN Women’s SCE programme, UN Women is recruiting a technical expert on gender to be placed at the Odisha Skill Development Authority (ODSA), Bhubaneswar. The expert will also work closely with the Country Programme Manager of the SCE Programme. The expert will focus on developing the expertise of ODSA, on gender equality and mainstreaming through knowledge transfer and capacity development.

1. Capacity building of the State Government officials to strengthen mechanisms for gender equality and women’s empowerment, specifically in the thematic areas of education and skill, employment and entrepreneurship.
2. Strengthening the gender-responsive implementation and monitoring of state policies and programmes, specifically in the thematic areas of education and skill, employment and entrepreneurship.

In this context, UN Women seeks to hire a Technical Consultant to provide support to the Government of Odisha.

Under the guidance and supervision of the Director of Employment-cum-CEO, OSDA  and Country Programme Manager - SCE, UN WOMEN, the Technical Consultant will undertake the following key tasks and other responsibilities as may be assigned.

Duties and Responsibilities

Technical advisory to OSDA on gender-responsive implementation of programmes

• Provide technical inputs from a gender perspective on policies, budgets, programmes and legislations which are proposed by OSDA, having a bearing on the empowerment of women, particularly those relating to education and skilling, employment and entrepreneurship.  
• Assist OSDA in undertaking action on issues related to education and skilling, employment and entrepreneurship and/or as per the mandate and priorities of OSDA
• Assist OSDA in framing and effective implementation of the Gender Action Plans.
• Develop and propose recommendations for restructuring of schemes and programmes of OSDA that are focused on education and skilling, employment and entrepreneurship
• Develop resources to build capacities of relevant stakeholders on addressing  challenge that act as barriers to women’s education, employment and entrepreneurship.
• Prepare briefing notes and updates on the status of women in India and the state of Odisha, particularly on issues women’s education, employment and entrepreneurship.
• Prepare periodic progress reports of the work undertaken by OSDA.

Strengthening coordination and implementation of OSDA initiatives to promote gender equality

• Provide technical assistance to OSDA to strengthen and expand the mechanisms to address issues related to women’s education, employment and entrepreneurship.

• Coordinate and work with other nodal departments towards drafting of an action plan for mainstreaming gender in their existing programmes and policies.
• Coordinate on the programmatic implementation with relevant partner organisations and agencies in the state.
• Coordinate for activities on women’s education, employment and entrepreneurship with relevant team members within OSDA and UN Women, and work with them in - close collaboration to ensure successful implementation of the programmes. This will also include facilitating systematic coordination between UN Women and OSDA.

Conducting research and analysis

• Collection and compilation of data on status of women and young women, with a focus on priority programmes of OSDA.
• Collection and compilation of information on different socio-economic schemes meant for women empowerment.
• Support conducting assessment of existing schemes, policies and programmes for their impact on women.
• Informing policy formulations through evidence based research
• Research and analysis of the political, social and economic situation in the state/country and preparation of substantive inputs for relevant documents.

Follow up

• Preparation of monthly performance reports.
• Any other duties assigned by Supervisors from time to time.

Deliverables:

• Develop a workplan for UN Women to collaborate  with OSDA on initiatives on women’s empowerment and gender equality particularly on women’s education, employment and entrepreneurship.
• Identify opportunities for co-funded collaboration with OSDA on issues of women’s education, employment and entrepreneurship.
• Developing action plan with the OSDA for gender mainstreaming of the development process in the state with specific focus on education, employment and entrepreneurship.
• Facilitate and supervise trainings on women’s education and economic empowerment, with focus on select laws, policies and programmes.
• Periodical reporting as agreed by OSDA.
• All the information related to the assignment.

Competencies

Core Values/Guiding Principles

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Development and Innovation:

• Take charge of self-development and take initiative.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to perform a broad range of specialized activities aimed at effective and efficient functioning of the Programme unit including logistical support;
• Ability to provide input to business process re-engineering, elaboration and implementation of new data management systems;
• Ability to create, edit and present information in clear and presentable formats, using appropriate IT functionality;
• Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
• Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints;
• Ability to establish, build and sustain effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client's perspective; anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly;
• Ability to administer and execute financial processes and transactions;
• Ability to manage data, documents, correspondence and reports information and workflow.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in social sciences, women’s rights, international studies, gender and development, law or any other related discipline.

Experience:

• 5 years of professional experience, preferably with the government or civil society sector;
• Experience of working in women related projects would be desirable;
• Experience of Government functioning;
• Demonstrated verbal and written communication skills;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) required and advance knowledge of spread sheet and database packages desirable.

Language:

• Fluency in English and Hindi. Understanding Odiya will be an added advantage

 APPLICATION

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

Application:

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 Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
• Working knowledge and experience of working with National /State Government (5 points);

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

• Interview - 70 Points
• Writing Samples - 30 Points

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

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.