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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system’s efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts towards building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The 30-year armed ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka brought about a significant transformation in women’s roles in society. With the large loss or disappearance of spouses, over 1.2 million women became heads of households. These female heads of households must now sustain a livelihood for their families and take on roles not traditionally held by women in their communities. Carrying out a new role as the ‘head-of-household’ in a post-conflict climate has resulted in multiple intersectional vulnerabilities and exploitation of women. Poverty, gender-based discrimination, limited support structures, insecurity, vulnerable forms of employment, indebtedness, limited access to basic services, goods and resources, and the extent of trauma undergone by widows converge to increase the likelihood of exploitation and re-victimization, particularly through sexual exploitation and sexual bribery.

Financial instability is foremost amongst the vulnerabilities identified, together with concerns over physical health, children’s education and personal (in)security. As traditional labor participation methods are not applicable to this specific beneficiary group, many opt for home-based self-employment and microenterprises. Even in cases where female heads of households have undergone skills training, their limited access to resources continue to hinder and constrain any available opportunities. According to recent research, a number of women have expressed a strong desire to access some credit in order to start their own businesses.

In addition to being a basic right, women’s economic empowerment under gender equality has long been recognized as “smart economics” as its impact permeates throughout individual, community and national levels. At the individual level, women’s entrepreneurship provides not only employment opportunities based on women’s own ideas, innovation and resources, but also economic empowerment, which is an essential building block for women’s dignity and self-worth as well as social recognition. The effect of women’s economic empowerment expands to the community level, as multiple studies have proved that women are more likely than men to invest a higher proportion of their household income in the education and health of their children.  Moreover, through the empowerment of women, they gain a stake in negotiating and sustaining peace.

It was shown that in emerging markets, women reinvest 90 per cent of their earnings in their families and communities. Their accumulated assets and enhanced economic security prove that women can contribute to breaking inter-generational poverty and foster economic growth of Sri Lanka by creating new jobs and expanding the pool of available human resources and talents.

Likewise, women’s entrepreneurship will not only facilitate social cohesion and reconciliation but become increasingly significant in Sri Lanka’s development trajectory to reach an upper-middle income status.

With generous support of the Government of Japan, the UN Women project on Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Sri Lanka aims to focus on empowering vulnerable groups of women from different ethnic and faith groups, including Female Heads of Households (hereinto referred to as FHHs). The project will empower target groups of women on entrepreneurial skills to support sustainable income generation, to relieve dependency and indebtedness, and enable resilience against re-victimisation by enabling them to establish sustainable, long term self-employment. It will further encourage women to play a key role on social cohesion and peacebuilding, as evidence across the region establishes that women’s individual and collective roles in promoting peacebuilding extend beyond their family roles to civil society and religious settings where they can shape the decisions of community members to refrain from violent activities. In particular, it aims to address the specific limitations faced by vulnerable groups of women, including FHHs in accessing the necessary knowledge and information regarding markets and value addition of products, as well as access to financial resources.

The project aims at refurbishing the key government buildings occupied by the development officers, counselling officers that provide support for women in three districts of Ampara, Monaragala and Vavuniya. This is to ensure that government premises are better equipped to serve women who require services, information and support from the relevant government officers such as women development officers (WDOs), counselors etc. The project expects to refurbish the government-owned sales centres that provide access to women entrepreneurs and businesses to ensure that they are better facilitated to run their own businesses in the sales centres. As part of empowering women entrepreneurs, the project looks at provision of mobile sales centres for selected beneficiaries to ensure they have access to markets, equipped with navigable sales centres to tap into varying market demands and sales spaces.  

Meanwhile, COVID-19 has called for more attention on addressing some of the Sexual and Gender Based Violence issues encountered by women and particularly women migrant workers. The nation-wide curfew and the lockdown that was administered as a precautionary measure to curtail the spread of the COVID-19 gave rise to a number of SGBV complaints/cases, which in return called for increased capacities at safe houses supported by the Government, especially in the districts of Batticoloa and Jaffna. The situation was further aggravated with the repatriation of migrant domestic workers from the Middle East. The State Ministry of Women and Child Development, Pre-school and Primary Education, School Infrastructure and Education Services has requested to provide safe house facilities to 80 single, pregnant women repatriated from the Middle East. This assignment includes assessing the needs for increasing the existing safe house capacity to ensure women’s safety and security in two districts; Batticaloa and Jaffna.

Devoirs et responsabilités

Construction Supervision for Procurement of Mobile Sales Centres:

Under the supervision and guidance of the UN Women Programme Analyst, Sri Lanka, the consultant will undertake the following tasks. The consultant will remain accountable for the timely submission of the deliverables as per the timeline given below.

Construction Supervision for Refurbishment of Government Buildings in Ampara, Batticaloa, Monaragala, Vavuniya and Jaffna districts:

Expected Deliverables[1]

Construction Supervision for Procurement of Mobile Sales Centres:

[1] Payments will be made upon installment basis upon the submission of each deliverable subjected to approval of the UN Women Programme Analyst, Sri Lanka

Construction Supervision for Refurbishment of Government Buildings in Ampara, Batticaloa, Monaragala, Vavuniya and Jaffna districts:

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]
• Total number of points: 200 points

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal 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 technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically-qualified candidates who may be contacted for validation interview.

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal 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 consultant to incorporate the transport and accommodation cost to the financial proposal.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted 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 price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Compétences

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

• Adaptability to UN procurement guidelines
• Ability to monitor the work of vendors, deliver on best value for money

Qualifications et expériences requises

• Bachelor’s degree in civil engineering with minimum of 10 years of experience in Construction Supervision, Contract Administration for Construction Contracts and technical expertise in steel fabrication.
• Minimum 5 year experience in structural and civil engineering
• Similar experience working with government sector, remodeling and refurbishing existing buildings
• Prior experience in liaising with government officers, district and divisional secretariats
• Excellent grasp in developing bids, identifying technically and financially sound vendors
• Experience in supervising the construction contracts, liaising with the government offices, companies coordinating field visits and work with stakeholders of the project.
• Experience in monitoring the progress of the construction work and reporting to clients
• Proficiency in English and official languages of Sri Lanka.

Contract Period/Location

The consultant will be hired during 5 February 2021 to 30 November 2021. He/She will be working under supervision of Programme Analyst – UN Women Sri Lanka. This consultancy is home-based with report to UN Women Sri Lanka Office occasionally as required by hiring unit. He/she may be traveling on missions. The cost of most economic and direct travel on mission must be pre-approved by Programme Analyst of UN Women Sri Lanka and it is reimbursable upon submission of evidence of travel, following UN Women Travel Guidelines.

Submission of application

Interest candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org and avanthi.kalansooriya@unwomen.org not later than 28 January 2021 17.00 hrs, Bangkok Time.

Submission package includes:

• Updated CV
• 3 reference checks
• Personal History Form (P11). The P11 form can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• Financial proposal as per the template below with break-down cost:

Construction Supervision for Procurement of Mobile Sales Centres:

Construction Supervision for Refurbishment of Government Buildings in Ampara, Baticaloa, Monaragala, Vavuniya and Jaffna districts:

Summary of Financial Proposal:

Payments

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed.