Background

UNDP partners with people at all levels of society to help build nations that can withstand crisis, and drive and sustain the kind of growth that improves the quality of life for everyone.  For UNDP, creating equal opportunities for women and men is critical for equitable, sustainable development and poverty reduction. Hence, gender equality is in core of the UNDP mandate globally and nationally. 

UNDP Armenia, within the past decade, has continuously implemented projects on women empowerment, gender equality and youth leadership in Armenia.

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.

“Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus” Project (hereafter Project) is an initiative of UN Women, supported by the Swiss Agency of Development and Cooperation and Austrian Development Agency in three countries of South Caucasus. The purpose of the project is to ensure that women, particularly the poor and socially excluded, in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are economically empowered and participate in relevant decision-making.

The Armenian segment of the project is implemented by UNDP Armenia in partnership with RA Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure (RA MTAI), the Ministry of Labor and Social affairs and in close collaboration UN Women Country Office in Georgia.

Partnerships and synergies are ensured with regional, local governments, private companies, civil society organizations, other women empowerment projects in the country and region.

The joint project work in the following directions:

1. Support women, particularly the poor and socially excluded, to use skills, economic opportunities and relevant information to be self-employed and/or to join the formal labor sector in three countries (grass-roots level)
2. Support to legislative and policy frameworks in Armenia and Georgia to enable women’s economic empowerment (policy and legislation level)
3. Support the Government and public institutions to develop and deliver gender-responsive programmes, public services, strategies and plans for women’s economic empowerment in Armenia and Georgia (institutional level)

Throughout implementation of its projects, the partners combine conventional and innovative approaches, allowing room for experimentation and testing of new solutions with application of design thinking and user-centric approaches.

In 2020 UNDP  undertook  Participatory Gender Audit[1] (PGA) at the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs (MLSA) of the Republic of Armenia (RA). Stemming from it, in 2021 UNDP will be supporting the Ministry with the implementation of the PGA recommendations. In parallel effort, UNDP  currently introduces Gender Impact Assessment[2] (GIA) at the Ministry, provides technical assistance in institutionalizing and further builds their in-house capacity for mainstreaming gender in all relevant policies and programmes, administrative systems and processes/procedures, including those related to GIA and internal complaint mechanism against gender-based discrimination.

[1] https://www.ilo.org/gender/Informationresources/WCMS_187411/lang--en/index.htm

[2] https://eige.europa.eu/publications/gender-impact-assessment-gender-mainstreaming-toolkit

Duties and Responsibilities

In relation to the above, UNDP currently intends to hire a National Consultant on Gender Mainstreaming to support the Ministry in implementation of the abovementioned work and perform relevant duties and responsibilities. The consultant will be stationed at the Ministry

The duties and responsibilities of the national consultant are:

• Provide technical support to MLSA in implementation of the PGA recommendations, among other, through the development of internal Gender Equality Strategy and Action Plan by the audited entity. This includes drafting the Action Plan in consultation with relevant MLSA representatives, providing methodological guidance and coaching to assigned MSLA staff in analyzing respective administrative and programmatic frameworks, targets, indicators, procedures, documents, templates, and proposing (including drafting) respective revisions, based on PGA recommendations.

• Provide on-the-job training to respective MLSA representatives on the aspects of gender equality and gender mainstreaming,
• Assist MLSA in institutionalization of Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) methodology.
• Assist MLSA in the development and institutionalization of mechanisms to receive and respond to complaints on gender discrimination in employment, including sexual harassment
• Assist MLSA in adapting to the Armenian context the training materials on gender mainstreaming and Gender Impact Assessment (GIA) methodology, recommended by UN Women/UNDP.
• Assist UNDP in preparation and organization of respective trainings on PGA, GIA and gender mainstreaming for MLSA, as well as training-of-trainers for selected representatives of MLSA and other national institutions to further deliver respective trainings for targeted public servants.
• Assist in facilitating and coordinating the efforts of UNDP’s GIA and gender mainstreaming consultants (contractors) in supporting the Ministry to implement the abovementioned activities.
• Provide technical input (verbal and written) to WEESC project discussions, reporting and knowledge generation on the progress of above-mentioned activities, relevant implementation challenges and lessons learned, as well as on identifying the needs for and designing future activities for the next phase of the project.

General deliverables:

• Technical input provided to drafting of MLSA Internal Gender Equality Strategy (IGES).
• Technical input provided to drafting of MLSA Action Plan on implementing PGA recommendations.
• Meetings and consultations with key MLSA representatives and specialist on IGES and PGA AP.
• Review and propositions (drafting), as needed, on adjusting, editing, rephrasing or redesigning respective MLSA documents (internal policies, regulations, programmes, processes, procedures), based on PGA recommendations and GIA outcomes.
• On-the-job training, coaching and workshop sessions delivered to relevant MLSA representatives.
• Arrangements made and events organized to support capacity building on PGA, GIA, gender mainstreaming and internal complaint mechanism against gender-based discrimination
• As assigned, consultations, presentations and other technical inputs provided to meetings and events related to above-mention work.
• Technical input provided to WEESC project (institutional level) discussions, reports, knowledge generation and forthcoming activity designs.

Payment Terms

Payments will be conducted monthly based on the actual number of days worked per month and submission of a respective report on completed works/outputs at the end of each month. In average, the work will imply up to 20 working days per month.

Competencies

• High level of integrity and professionalism. Demonstrated initiative, tact and high sense of responsibility and discretion.
• Ability to handle big volume and scope of simultaneous tasks, as well as work under the pressure and in circumstances of diverse interests. 
• Demonstrated strong team spirit.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Result-oriented.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and knowledge of spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• University degree, preferably MA, in Social Sciences, public administration, gender studies and/or relevant area.

Experience : 

• At least five  years of relevant professional experience including technical assistance to building, strengthening institutional systems and/or institutionalizing gender equality in organizations.
• Good understanding and proved knowledge and track-record of gender mainstreaming into strategic frameworks, national programmes and action plans.
• Knowledge of analytical methods and tools for mainstreaming gender in organizational settings, systems, processes and procedures is considered a strong asset. Availability of list of relevant thematic researches, publications or written samples is an asset.
• Demonstrated skills and experience in facilitating workshops, focus group discussions, gender-related technical discussions.

Language Skills:

• Fluency in Armenian and English. Command of Russian is an asset.

CANDIDATES WILL BE EVALUATED BASED ON THE FOLLOWING METHODOLOGY:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' technical qualifications, experience and financial proposal.The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR and received the highest cumulative (technical and financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Criteria - 70% of total evaluation - max. 70 points

Financial Criteria - 30% of total evaluation - max. 30 points.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE APPLICATION.

• Financial Proposal and Availability form: OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP (all-inclusive daily fee option is applicable for this assignment)
• CV shall include Education/Qualification, Processional Certification, Employment Records /Experience

General Conditions of Contract is available here: GENERAL CONDITIONS OF CONTRACT

Note: Please note you can upload only one document to this application (scan all documents that should be included in the application in one single PDF file and upload)