Antecedentes

NOTE: Signed Offeror’s Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and availability - https://www.ba.undp.org/content/dam/bosnia_and_herzegovina/docs/Operations/Jobs/Offerors%20Letter%20to%20UNDP%20Confirming%20Interest%20and%20Availability.docx - Letter to UNDP Confirming Interest and Availability.docx - to be sent to e-mail ba.shared.hr@undp.org with Subject: Job ID 100556.

The main objective of the Women in Elections (WiE) project is to strengthen women’s leadership and participation in political life in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Guided by the strict observance of the highest standards of political neutrality, the project will apply the UNs Gender Equality in Elected Office approach to help secure an enabling environment for getting more women elected across board, in all spheres of decision-making in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It will foster women’s engagement in public life and their position in the decision-making and ensure they are given a realistic and equal chance as their men counterparts in the forthcoming general elections (2018), and in the longer term, the next local elections in 2020 by advocacy for women’s equal rights and political participation.

The WiE project includes the following components:

• Strengthening Women’s Leadership supports building the new generation of capable women leaders from all spheres of social and economic life, to broaden up the resources pool, by strengthening women’s leadership and participation in political life, specifically through empowerment women leaders, and increase in women’s political participation in partner LGs.

• Fostering Political Participation of Women is based on contextualizing and applying the UNs Gender Equality in Elected Office approach, with the aim of getting more women elected across board, in all spheres of decision-making in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The project is funded by the Government of Sweden and implemented by UNDP BiH, in partnership with BIH institutions (Agency for Gender Equality BiH, Central Election Commission BiH, Parliamentary Assembly of BiH Committee on Gender Equality).

The project activities at the local level encompass 10 partner local governments (LGs): Banja Luka, Bijeljina, Gracanica, Laktaši, Ljubuški, Nevesinje, Olovo, Stari Grad Sarajevo, Tešanj and Zenica.  

The main purpose of this consultancy is to support completion of the process of transformational change by anchoring gender equality in municipal endeavors and strengthening women’s agency, leadership, and participation in public and political life.

This process is based on provisions of the Law on Gender Equality of BiH. Its Article 24 stipulates that all levels of governance in BiH are obligated to undertake measures to implement the Gender Action Plan (GAP) through regular programmes, through ensuring budgetary funds and obligation of collection, maintenance, analysis and displaying gender segregated statistics, among other.

The objective of the consultancy is to update and complete local gender action plans (LGAPs) in three (3) partner LGs of the WiE project: Banja Luka, Gracanica and Laktaši.  The process was initiated in 2020, and the initial analyses as well as draft LGAPs were completed based on available data from 2019. Since the partner institutions indicated that significant changes occurred within a year, due to COVID-19 pandemics, collection of up-to-date data and review of the draft LGAP documents is required.  

Travel will be rquired to Banja Luka, Gracanica and Laktaši.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The consultant is expected to follow already adopted methodology while providing updates to previously developed draft LGAPs. S/he will clearly define modus for elaborating a set of strategic, appropriately structured and implementable measures that respond to the local context.  Stakeholders’ responsibilities will be assigned and benchmarks will be defined within reasonable timeframe and budget.

The tasks will be performed through desk review of relevant documentation, discussions with the WiE project team and relevant actors in participating municipalities, entity gender centres, and civil society. It will also include conducting public discussions with relevant stakeholders in participating LGs, as well as taking into consideration the findings from the Baseline Study on Barriers to Political Participation of Women in BiH[1] and comparable best practices in the field.

Concretely, the Consultancy will consist of three main tasks:

i)Conduct desk review and produce Equality Status Analysis for partner LGs;  

ii)Provide technical support to the three (3) participating LGs in development of LGAPs;

iii)Produce final versions of three (3) LGAPs.

Task 1: Conduct desk review and update Equality Status Analysis for partner LGs

Under this task, the Consultant will:

a. Conduct desk review of the relevant documentation, that includes, but is not limited to, the Baseline Study on Barriers to Political Participation of Women in BiH, existing Methodology for development of LGAPs, documentation available from the previous process of LGAP development, etc. The activity will be conducted in close online coordination with the Gender Center of FBiH and the Gender Center of RS, the partner LGs and the WiE project team that will provide relevant information; (1 day)

b. Conduct half-day online consultations with working groups and committee members of each participating LG, in collaboration with the gender centres, partner LGs and the WiE project team in order to obtain available data and identify additional information necessary to have the LGAPs; Propose a working method to the Project team for approval. (2 days)

c. Develop an updated analysis, with emphasis on gender equality in different areas (social and demographic information; education; labour market; social protection; health care; security and public life and decision-making) and gender responsive budgeting for each partner. (up to 6 days).

Estimated level of effort for this task is 9 working days.

Task 2: Provide technical support to participating municipalities in updating LGAPs

Following the verification of the working method under this task, the Consultant will:

a. Develop and present a work plan of the consultancy, and (re)identify previously identified strategic issues, as defined in the Methodology for Development of LGAPs, through communication with each participating LG, in close coordination with the gender centers. (1 day)

b. Carry out the process of validation and presentation of the results of analyzes to participating LGs, the gender centres and the project team. (1 day)

c. Conduct one day verification workshop in each of the participating LGs to identify/confirm previously identified strategic goals and measures (3 days)

d. Updated drafts the LGAPs for three (3) partner LGs that are cleared and verified by the working group and/or relevant committee. This will be done in line with practices of participating LGs. (up to 3 days)

Estimated level of effort for this task is up to 8 working days.

Task 3: Produce Final Version of LGAPs

Under this task, based on the comments received from the participating LGs, the Consultant will:

a. Organize the presentation/public debate of the revised LGAP before key stakeholders identified by each LG. The presentations will take place in participating LGs. Other forms of supplementary public debate (social media, online platforms) will also be used, if found adequate by the participating LG. (3 days)

b. Finalization of LGAP in each LG, based on comments from the public debates in a standard that is ready for adoption in the legislative procedure. (3 days)  

Estimated level of effort for this task is 6 working days.

Total number of days will not exceed 23 workdays overall. 

Deliverables/outputs

[1] Baseline Study on Barriers to Political Participation of Women in BiH - https://www.ba.undp.org/content/bosnia_and_herzegovina/en/home/library/democratic_governance/polazna-studija-o-barijerama-politikom-ueu-ena-u-bosni-i-hercego.html

Competencias

Corporate Responsibility and Teamwork:

• Demonstrates commitment to UNDP’s mission, vision and values;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Plans, prioritizes and delivers tasks on time;
• Strives for and promotes excellence in performance continually;
• Participates effectively in a team-based, information-sharing environment, collaborating and cooperating with others;
• Generates ideas and seizes opportunities to support corporate strategic objectives.

People Skills:

• Demonstrated ability to work harmoniously with persons of different national and cultural backgrounds;
• Recognizes and responds appropriately to the ideas, interests, and concerns of others;
• Builds trust and engenders morale by displaying open, transparent and credible behaviour;
• Respects individual/cultural differences; utilizes diversity to foster teamwork;
• Ensures others’ understanding of, involvement in, and adaptation to a change process.

Partnering and Networking:

• Communicates sensitively and effectively across different constituencies;
• Ability to work as a member of a team as well as work autonomously;
• Results-Orientation;
• Plans and procedures quality results to meet established goals. d. Results-Orientation:

Communication:

• Technical writing skills, formulates written information clearly and persuasively;
• Strong communication skills;
• Shares information openly with co-workers and partners while using discretion to protect confidences;
• Presents information in a clear and articulate manner.

Job Knowledge and Expertise:

• Strong analytical skills;
• Knowledge in strategic planning and methodology development;
• Demonstrates substantive knowledge on security issues and activities with an emphasis on local communities;
• Executes day-to-day tasks systematically and efficiently;
• Initiative and sound judgment.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Academic Qualifications/Education:

• University degree in public administration, economics, law, sociology, political sciences, gender equality or other relevant social sciences;
• Advanced degree will be considered as an asset;

Experience:

• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in the area of gender equality;
• Demonstrated hand-on experience in stakeholder engagement for the purpose of creating strategic documents, preferably previous experience in preparing gender action plans.
• Experience in developing and conducting grassroot consultations with various levels and types of stakeholders within BiH;
• Experience in engaging various levels and types of stakeholders and assessing institutional and individual capacities and needs; 
• Familiarity with key public documents, strategies, trends and practices related to gender equality;
• Proven writing credentials and research capacity: ability to both plan and undertake analysis and research, relying on both quantitative and qualitative methods;
• Experience in the field of gender equality and women empowerment;
• Previous experience with UNDP, UN Agencies and International organisation; .

Languages Requirements:

• Fluency in official languages in BiH,
• Fluency in English.

Longlisting/Shortlisting Criteria

Qualifications as stated in the ToR

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation

Individual  will be evaluated based on the following methodology:

Cumulative analysis

When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract should be made to the candidate whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
a) responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
b) Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

• * Technical Criteria weight-70%
• * Financial Criteria weight- 30%

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

• Personal CV/P11, including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references;

Please scan all above mentioned documents and upload as one attachment only online through this website.

Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.