Historique

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.

In Nepal, UN Women focuses on strengthening women’s voice, agency and leadership across sectors to advance women’s rights, provide space for women’s meaningful participation, and contribute to tangible differences in their lives. In prioritizing inclusive governance UN Women Nepal seeks to advance women’s political empowerment and leadership and enhance women’s access to justice in Nepal’s federal structure. Towards this goal UN Women will work with elected officials, civil servants and citizens at all levels. The approach will extend beyond policy and law reform, to implementation and monitoring of policies, supporting the development of plans and budgets, enhancing the capacity of key government officials, and promoting gender equality and social inclusion in local governance. In addition, UN Women will work together with excluded groups to support their active participation and enable their voices to be heard. Throughout this work, UN Women seeks to contribute to transforming discriminatory social norms and eliminating harmful practices and behaviours, including violence against women. All of the above contribute to fulfilling Nepal's obligations to international treaties and commitments, including regular reporting on progress related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Beijing Platform for Action and to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused great suffering and damage in every region of the world. It has profoundly impacted human capital, including lives, learning, basic well-being, and future productivity. Various forms of violence experienced by women, unpaid work including care, financial insecurity, have also contributed to stress, anxiety, mental health and psychosocial problems.

UN Women Nepal has been supporting inter-generational feminist movement building initiative through Thought Workshops since 2017. The Inter-generational Feminist Thought Leaders came up with the Feminist Position Paper (FPP) in 2019. The Position Paper focuses on the value, ethics, and principles of the group in the context of federalism and current humanitarian context.

Few crucial initiatives have been undertaken by the Inter-generational Feminist Forum (IGFF) Group during the COVID-19 content. With facilitation support by UN Women, the group contributed to  the development of the Charter of Demands and submitted to the relevant Government counterparts at the Federal and Provincial levels.  The Group also continued to hold several meetings with Government and non-Government actors in all seven provinces. In addition, the group revised the FPP aligning it with the current COVID-19 context.

With the hit of COVID-19 pandemic, women’s unpaid work including care has been increased. Hence, it is important to bring together the thought leaders to churn on this issue and own the issue as part of women’s movement in Nepal. Further, development of UN Women Nepal programming in both development and humanitarian context will benefit from public advocacy to advance GEWE at the federal, provincial and local levels.

For this purpose, UN Women Nepal is seeking to engage Senior National Consultant on a retainer basis to support the UN Women Country Office to provide technical support for public advocacy to advance gender responsive inclusive governance and women’s economic empowerment in both development and humanitarian context.

Devoirs et responsabilités

Under the overall supervision of the Programme Analyst, the Senior National Consultant will provide support to public advocacy to advance gender responsive and inclusive governance and women’s economic empowerment on emerging issues. The scope of work and responsibilities of the assignment are as follows:

• Support public advocacy to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment on emerging issues including COVID-19 and other forms of humanitarian crisis that require urgent attention of decision makers (including Members of Parliament, and members of the key political parties) to push for change in “real time,” as developments occur.
• Development of initiatives to support bridging of efforts between civil society and key decision makers on GEWE. Essentially creating platforms to support gender advocates to “reach” decision makers for high-level decision making on GEWE

3. Expected deliverables

Expected deliverables include:

• CSO capacity development on public advocacy to advance GEWE;
• Number of strategic interventions with decision makers on emerging GE issues including COVID-19 / other humanitarian crisis context;
• Roadmap for public advocacy building on emerging issues including COVID-19 or any other humanitarian crisis;
• Number of meetings and consultations held with the women leaders and excluded groups to bring in diverse voices in public advocacy efforts on GE and women’s rights including COVID-19 or any other humanitarian context;
• Support the development of Charter of Demands as part of the pre-budget advocacy;
• Coordinate with the IGFF for the advocacy role in the COVID-19 and any other humanitarian crisis context;
• Prepare and monitor implementation of road map of IGFF with timelines and clear milestones;
• Review documents and provide inputs prepared by UN Women in development and humanitarian context; and
• Review the Nepali translated version of documents to ensure its accuracy in development and humanitarian context

4. INPUTS

• UN Women will provide reference materials and facilitate coordination with key stakeholders.
• The Senior National Consultant is expected to work remotely. UN Women can give access the UN Women office for printing of relevant documents during the assignment, if required.
• The Senior National Consultant will be required to provide their own local communications such as SIM cards and mobile phone.
• The Senior National Consultant will be responsible to arrange private insurance.
• It is mandatory for the Senior National Consultant to participate in a UN security briefing and to follow UN security rules and guidance.
• The Senior National Consultant will be required to provide a Statement of Good Health, endorsed by a certified Medical Practitioner.

5. Duration of the assignment and duty station   

This is a home-based assignment for one year (21 June 2022 – 20 June 2023) on retainer basis (as and when required) with a maximum of 60 working days. The assignment may also include participation in meetings and consultations in Kathmandu. UN Women will not be committed to purchasing any minimum quantity of the Services, and purchases will be made only if there is an actual requirement upon the issuance of a Purchase Order based on this retainer contract. UN Women shall not be liable for any cost in the event that no purchases are made under this retainer contract.

6. Schedule of payments

Payment will be made on the basis of quality of the work actually delivered upon certification of satisfactory performance by the supervisor. The contractor’s performance will be evaluated against such criteria as: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communications, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.

Compétences

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Qualifications et expériences requises

• Master’s degree in Gender and Development Studies, Political Science, Social Science, or any other related field of studies.
• A minimum of 15 years of professional experience in working with gender equality and women’s empowerment and/or inclusive governance and closely linked with women’s movement in Nepal.
• Proven expertise in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment. 
• Previous experience working with different levels of government, decision-makers, civil society and development partners.  Experience working with the UN system is a considerable asset.  
• Fluency in written and oral English and Nepali is required.
• Ability to handle documents and the information contained therein with strictest confidentiality is a non-negotiable requirement.

8. DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS?

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Expression of interest explaining why you are interested to this position and what professional skills and experiences make you a strong candidate.
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded:  http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment  
• A sample of recent original writing (unedited publications/documents of maximum 2-3 pages for example concept note, project brief, strategic paper, report)
• A separate page of financial proposal, professional fee per day.  Please note that DSA for field missions will be paid at UN rates and travel, booked in compliance with UN Women policy, will be reimbursed at actual cost so these costs do not need to be included in the financial proposal.

Note: Evidence of  advisory services provided by the Senior National Consultant under this TOR can include written products, including but not limited to:  event/consultation reports, meeting minutes, planning notes, programme design(s), analysis, recommendations, etc

9. Evaluation criteria

A two-stage procedure is applied in evaluating the proposals. 

1. The technical proposal is assessed first based on the qualifications listed above.  Those proposals that meet a minimum threshold (scoring at least 70% on the technical assessment) will be considered further, including through assessment of the financial proposal.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

• Qualification- Master’s degree in Gender and Development Studies, Political Science, Social Science, or any other related field of studies (10 points);

• A minimum of 15 years of professional experience and expertise in working on gender equality and women’s empowerment and/or inclusive governance with different levels of government, decision-makers, civil society and development partners and closely linked with women’s movement in Nepal. - (35 points)

• Working with the UN system (5 points);

• English written skill based on the specific writing samples from unedited publications/documents of maximum 2-3 pages including but not limited to concept note, project brief, strategic paper, report. (20 points)

1. The financial proposal of candidates who meet the technical assessment threshold will be evaluated. The financial assessment will count as 30% of the total points.  In this methodology, the maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion.

A formula is as follows:

p = y (µ/z)

Where:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

How to Apply?

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

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• Expression of interest
• Completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) of all the team members which can be downloaded:  http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• A separate page of financial proposal

The financial proposal shall specify the per day consultancy fee based on which the total contract value will be calculated. UN Women HR might request the candidate to share evidence of the per day consultancy fee of the previous assignment(s).

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form and the written sample will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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.