Background

I. 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.

The UN Women Myanmar Country Office is based in Yangon, with offices in the capital Naypyitaw as well as in Mon, Kachin, and Rakhine States. Under its Strategic Note 2019-2021, UN Women Myanmar focuses on delivering on the following interlinked programme areas underpinned by support for intergovernmental and normative processes:

• Women’s Leadership and Gender Responsive Governance

• Women’s Economic Empowerment

• Women, Peace and Security and Gender in Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Under Gender Responsive Governance, UN Women focuses on strengthening the capacity of the Myanmar national gender machinery at Union and State/Region levels to coordinate and mainstream the implementation of the National Strategic Plan for the Advancement of Women and on linking women’s civil society organizations with the gender machinery and national and local governance processes. The programme area is mostly implemented through the Gender Responsive Governance programme which is funded by the government of Finland.

One of the outputs of the programme focuses on strengthening the existing gender machinery, capacity of sectoral agencies, state/region governments for gender mainstreaming in their policies, planning and budgeting corresponding to Myanmar Sustainable Development Plan (MSDP) and to ensure the National Strategic Plan for Advancement of Women (NSPAW) implementation.

At State, district and township levels, the Women’s Committees, which have been formed to support advancement of gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and lead local implementation of NSPAW require significant support to be both activated and capacitated to pro-actively and strategically engage with existing local governance systems and processes.

The programme will support the establishing and empowerment of Women’s Committees at state and township levels as platforms for government and women organizations  to engage in policy dialogue on gender equality and the empowerment of women, including planning and budgeting at the local level, ensuring that the women’s committees understand and apply governance principles of accountability, participation, transparency and participate in local governance processes in a meaningful way. The Women Committees at state and township will receive standardized training modules on governance principles, leadership, conflict resolution, negotiation, and gender.

II. Objective

The major objective of the assignment is to support DSW/MoSWRR to:

1. Support the strengthening of Women’s Committee at state and township levels in Mon and Kachin ensuring that arrangements are put in place to guarantee women organizations participation at the local level. 
2. Elaborate and provide needs-based orientations to women’s committee to pro-actively and strategically engage with existing local governance systems and processes, including driving the implementation of NSPAW and mainstream GEWE in the implementation of the MSDP and Covid-19 Economic Relief Plan (CERP).

Duties and Responsibilities

III. Duties and Responsibilities:

Working under overall supervision of the UN Women Gender and Governance Advisor in Naypyitaw with travel within Myanmar if necessary and in close coordination with DSW/MoSWRR at two State levels the consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Complete an assessment of capacities (skills and knowledge) of Women’s Committees (financial and technical), its coordination and communication gaps.
• Develop a clear roadmap outlining timelines and clear actions in strengthening and convening of Women’s Committees

• Based on the need assessment outline a set of training modules for women’s committees 
• Develop an orientation module on their roles, responsibilities, operational efficiency, NSPAW, MSDP and CERP
• Conduct orientations for the women committee members on their roles, responsibilities, operational efficiency, NSPAW, MSDP and CERP to enhance gender responsive governance in Mon and Kachin

• Coordinate and initiate dialogue with the with the UNDP TDLG Programme team and other partners to link Women’s Committees to the current ongoing efforts to strengthen township government planning capacities identifying the entry point and strategies for partnerships
• Coordinate with the national training consultant on COVID-19 impact and gender for the training at state level.  
• Provide recommendations on the training modules for women’s committees in Mon and Kachin

IV. Deliverables and timeline

The consultant will work for 30 days intermittently within the period of 3 months and have following deliverables

1. Assessment criteria to be developed and agreed upon for state and township level according to  their functions as outlined in Women’s Committees TOR
2. Mapping of existing women committees in identified townships in Mon and Kachin and their needs assessment in order to function as operational women committees.
3. Mapping of women organizations to ensure inclusiveness in the women committees in identified townships in Mon and Kachin
4. A roadmap outlining all activities of engagement with established Women’s Committees in Mon and Kachin states both at state and township levels. The road map should include wisely timed actions on:

• Needs assessment of the committees
• Strengthening of the committees
• Convening committees

1. Recommendations of training modules elaborated based on the conducted needs-assessment
2. Orientations for the women committee members on their roles, responsibilities, operational efficiency, NSPAW, MSDP and CERP to enhance gender responsive governance at state and township level in Mon and Kachin
3. Report on the orientations with women’s committees from Mon and Kachin with a set of recommendations on how through the gender and governance programme these women committees can be supported to fulfill their expected roles and engage in governance procesess.

Competencies

V. Competencies and Values

Key Indicators:

• Timely and quality of programme delivery in line with budget and workplans, and in line with all   UN Women operational rules and regulations, including security
• Timely and quality monitoring of programme activities
• Relations with partners and stakeholders
• Quality reports and timely submission
• Regular communication with other agencies and partners
• Quality of advocacy and communication initiatives

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

Functional Competencies: 

• Good programme implementation and monitoring skills
• Good knowledge of Results Based Management
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings and
• recommendations
• Good analytical skills
• Good knowledge governance, livelihood, women peace and security
• Good knowledge of gender equality and the empowerment of women
• Demonstrated ability to provide technical support
• Knowledge and understanding of the Kachin State context is an asset.

Please visit the 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

VI.  Required Skills and Experience

 Education:

• Master’s degree in Gender Studies, Political Science, Policy Studies, Sociology, Social Sciences, or related fields

 Experience:

• At least five years of continuing experience working in local governance, community mobilization, capacity building, training methodology development in the fields of gender equality and women’s empowerment, governance, or related field.
• Track record of similar assignments (Experience in working with committees at state and township levels, local governance systems, training methodology development and facilitation)
• Strong understanding of gender and capacity building
• Experience of working closely with Government Agencies at local level is an asset
• Previous experience of consultancy with International Agencies is an asset
• Knowledge of gender institutional mechanisms, legislative and institutional framework for gender equality and women’s empowerment 

Languages and Skills:

• Fluency in English and Myanmar, excellent spoken skills

• Excellent writing and reporting skills in English  

VI.  The Application Process

Application should include

Interested candidates are requested to submit electronic application to via the UNDP online recruitment system no later than 11 August 2020. The submission package includes:

• Personal History Form (P11), which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• Letter of Interest containing the statement on candidate’s experience in the field of recruitment

• 2 pages proposal outlining understanding of the task and proposed workplan
• Financial proposal. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount breaking down a daily professional fee, proposed number of working days and any related expenses, i.e. logistic and communications expenses.

VII.  Payment

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.

VII. Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight: 70%
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight: 30%

 A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal being completed prior to any financial proposal being compared. Only the financial proposals of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

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

Financial proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposals 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 allocated 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 financial proposals will receive inverse proportion to the lowest price.