Historique

UN Women is the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. UN Women is dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide.

All human development and human rights issues have gender dimensions. UN Women focuses on priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. Focus areas include ending violence against women, economic empowerment, leadership and participation, peace and security and national planning and budgeting. The UN Women Multi Country Office, based in New Delhi, India, covers four countries of the region, i.e., Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

In India, Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) has been recognized as an effective tool for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD) adopted the mission statement of ‘Budgeting for Gender Equity’ in 2004-05 for universalizing GRB both at the Centre and the States and developed a strategic framework of activities to implement this mission.

Since 2005-06, the Union Government has taken a slew of measures to institutionalise GRB in the country. Production of Gender Budget Statement and constitution of Gender Budget Cells have been key institutional mechanisms for operationalizing GRB at the level of ministries/departments. Akin to the union government, several states have also adopted GRB.

Maharashtra was the first state in India to develop a Women’s Policy in 1994 and thereafter in 2001. The State’s third Women Policy of 2013 recommends gender budgeting. GRB was introduced in Maharashtra after issuance of a government resolution in 2006. The resolution mandated that after meeting the expenditure committed to by the municipal corporation, five per cent of the balance be kept reserved for the work done by women and child welfare committees. Maharashtra is among the few states that have mandated GRB at the local level.

The Government of Maharashtra is committed to Public Finance Management (PFM) reforms to uphold greater transparency in fiscal responsibility laws, fiscal rules and performance based budgeting (PBB). Performance oriented budgeting is a way of incorporating information into the budget cycle that measures the goods and services produced by government and the impacts of government expenditure and revenue raising on the community. Likewise, GRB initiatives are also fundamentally concerned with assessing what goods and services governments produce and the impacts of policies and budgets on men and women, and boys and girls. Hence, PFM reforms in the form of performance based budgeting or performance oriented budgeting offer a potentially valuable framework for GRB.

It is in this context that UNICEF and UN Women are presently working in partnership with the Department of Finance and Department of Women and Child Development (DWCD), Government of Maharashtra to put in place appropriate institutional mechanisms and policy guidelines at the state level since these are an important prerequisite for successful implementation of GRB initiatives. UNICEF and UN Women recently commissioned a scoping study in Maharashtra with the objective of identifying possible entry points for GRB as well as recommending a state specific roadmap. It is now critical that these recommendations are implemented.

UN Women and UNICEF would like to place a technical expert within Department of Finance, Government of Maharashtra to assist the Department in integrating gender concerns into planning and budgeting, through Gender Responsive Budgeting. 

Devoirs et responsabilités

The Consultant will undertake the following key tasks and other responsibilities as may be assigned:

The Technical Consultant will be placed within Department of Finance, Government of Maharashtra to support UN Women Technical Expert on GRB in working with the government in strengthening GRB. Specifically, the consultant will be engaged in the following tasks:

• Liaise with officials of Department of Finance: The consultant will be required to work closely with concerned officials within the Department of Finance, Government of Maharashtra to assess key planning & budgeting documents like demand for grants, Budget Call Circulars, Budget Statements, and Management Information System, etc.
• Pilot Budget Call Circulars with a gender perspective in select Departments:  The consultant will assist UN Women Technical Expert on GRB to pilot revised Budget Call Circulars with a gender perspective in three departments. This exercise will require the Consultant to coordinate with relevant officials of the select departments in identifying key gender issues in programmes/schemes, objectives/outcomes/impact of these programmes/schemes from a gender lens, and appraising allocation of budgets for interventions to be undertaken in these programmes/schemes. The Consultant will also be responsible for ensuring that BCCs incorporating gender concerns are submitted to Department of Finance and they are reviewed from a gender perspective.
• Monitoring & Evaluation: The consultant will be required to collect data from the select departments to monitor progress on gender related issues. S/he will also study and prepare a format for collecting sex disaggregated data for relevant programmes/schemes, where possible.
• Documentation and reporting: The Consultant will record minutes of meetings, concept notes/briefing notes and reports capturing the progress of the work with the select departments.
• Coordination: The consultant will provide logistical support for meetings/trainings and consultations organised with respect to the above work.
• Any other duties assigned by the Supervisor/s from time to time.

Reporting Obligations

• Monthly detailed and comprehensive narrative report of all activities undertaken.

Deliverables

1. Individual work plan
2. Workplan along with clear timelines for working with the select state departments on GRB.
3. Periodic progress reports against proposed work plan for the select departments.
4. Documentation of the process of pilot testing of the budget call circular.
5. Logistics support and coordination required for meetings/discussions with government partners

Compétences

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.

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.

Functional Competencies:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:·        

Post Graduate in Gender studies, Social Sciences or relevant field.

Experience:·        

• Minimum four years of experience of working on gender issues.
• Prior experience of working with governments is desirable.

Language:

• Excellent communication and writing skills in English.
• Knowledge of Marathi (both written and spoken) is desirable.

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:

• Written Test; and
• Interview

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.