Antecedentes

Within the framework of the Nepal Country Office Strategic Note 2014-2017, UN Women continues strengthening women’s leadership roles and economic empowerment in Nepal. In order to reinforce these efforts, it is implementing the “Advancing Women’s Economic Empowerment (AWEE) – Ensuring Nepal’s Sustainable and Equitable Development (2015–2017)” programme.

The goal of the AWEE programme is to support the Government of Nepal (GoN) to develop and implement macroeconomic policies to advance women’s economic empowerment and support excluded women to strengthen their leadership roles and economic empowerment. The programme has been built in to achieve this goal through a multi-pronged approach, i.e. capacity building of government officials to develop gender-responsive macroeconomic policies, vocational skills and leadership development of excluded women for their economic empowerment, and evidence and knowledge based policy and media advocacy to address structural barriers facing women for gender equality.

To carry forward the advocacy, UN Women is seeking the services of a research-based analytical writer to conduct mapping of structural and gender-based barriers to women’s economic and leadership roles in their families and communities. Findings of the mapping will be utilized by UN Women to design public and media advocacy campaigns.

Justification:

An increase in women’s labour force participation results in faster economic growth. Yet, women globally continue to participate in the labour market on an unequal basis with men. Women in most countries earn on average only 60 to 75 percent of men’s wages. Contributing factors include women’s engagement in unpaid family workers, low-productivity activities and the informal sector, with less mobility to the formal sector; and the view of women as economic dependents.

Similarly, most Nepali women are confined to traditional, low-paying jobs with limited possibilities for their livelihood. A study reports that women’s mobility is curtailed by violence, which is pervasive in private and public labour sectors. In most cases, women are side-lined due to the fact that society does not recognize their economic roles. Even when they contribute as much as men do to the household income, women are not seen as the main bread earners for the family.

The social biases, structural barriers and gender-based discrimination heavily impact women’s effective economic and leadership roles in their families and communities, which, in addition to support for their economic empowerment, need to be tackled through social awareness. Public and media advocacy can play a role in challenging these structural inequalities, stereotypes, and social norms that condone discrimination against women’s roles in economic activities.

Objectives:

The specific objectives of this mapping assignment are:

  • To identify structural and gender-based barriers to women’s leadership roles and economic empowerment at their homes, in communities and the labour market; and
  • To recommend content and modality of advocacy campaigns to address structural and gender-based barriers for women’s leadership roles and economic empowerment at their homes and in communities.

Note:

Deberes y responsabilidades

The selected consultant will carry out a comprehensive mapping of gender-based discrimination, unequal gender relations and stereotypes inhibiting women’s leadership development and economic empowerment at the district level. The findings of the mapping will be used to design an advocacy campaign; therefore, the mapping should be designed within this framework. The mapping should:

  • Identify factors impeding women’s involvement in employment and enterprise development; including in agriculture, cooperatives, financial institutes etc.;  
  • Identify target groups for awareness raising through appropriate (media and public) advocacy campaigns;
  • Formulate communication and advocacy messages for awareness raising through advocacy campaigns;
  • Recommend appropriate advocacy means to raise public awareness at national and local levels. This includes surveying of the use of TV, radio, social media and newspapers in the selected districts (Refer the following section for the selected districts); and
  • Draft a detailed Terms of Reference (ToR) to carry out the advocacy campaigns as per the template provided by UN Women and mutual consultation with EE Unit.

The information collection, analysis and report writing should be aligned with national and international frameworks on gender equality, labour and workforce.

Note: Selected consultant shall be able to mobilize individuals/institution in the collection of information from the proposed districts, but the consultant signing the contract will be fully accountable to UN Women for the delivery of the assigned task.

Expected Deliverables:

A final mapping report (not exceeding 10 pages long) that includes but not limited to the following areas: 

  • Detailed assessment of structural and gender-based barriers;  
  • Identification of target beneficiaries for advocacy campaigns;
  • Identification of target audience for advocacy campaigns;
  • Formulation of messages for advocacy campaigns;
  • Listing of appropriate means for effective advocacy campaigns;
  • A review of 8 recognised secondary information / reports / studies etc. on women access to employment and livelihood opportunities. (no exceeding 1.5 pages);
  • A field report (not exceeding 2 pages) from each of the selected districts including findings from KIIs and FGDs;
  • A detailed Terms of Reference (ToR) to carry out advocacy campaigns as per the template provided by UN Women; and
  • A set of high resolution photographs (8-10 from each districts) from the selected districts. 

Methdology:

The consultant is expected to carry out this mapping assignment based on the review of secondary information, key informant interviews and focus group discussions in consultation with UN Women. Possible key informants include but not limited to women leaders, women entrepreneurs, women and girls, community leaders, political party leaders, stakeholders from private sectors and informal sectors, vocational skills training providers, and government officials. There should be at least three focused-group discussions with women engaged in different sectors, such as unpaid family work, informal sector, entrepreneurship, and agriculture.

Guiding Principles:

  • Gender equality and social inclusion;
  • Participation of women;
  • Culturally sensitive approach;
  • Needs-based approach; and
  • Human rights-based approach.

Geographical coverage of the mapping exercise:three selected project districts- Sunsari, Kavre, Kailali and partially in Kathmandu.

Duration of the assignment: Tentatively two months.

Duty Station: This is a homebased assignment with possibility of travel in project districts.

Contract Supervision: The Consultant will work under the overall supervision and guidance of Unit Manager, EE Unit, UN Women Nepal Country Office, and in close consultation with Programme Officer and Communications and Partnership Officer for day-to-day operations.

Schedule of Payment:

  • Upon submission of a tentative work plan, including checklists for Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and focused group discussions (FGDs) and    a review of 8 recognised secondary information/reports/studies etc. (no exceeding 1.5 pages), followed by clearance of Unit Manager, EE Unit, UN Women (20% of total contract, within two weeks time); 
  • Upon submission of a field report (not exceeding 2 pages) from each of the selected district including findings from KIIs and FGDs followed by clearance of Unit Manager, EE Unit, UN Women (30% of total contract, within five weeks time);
  • Upon submission of the first draft report by clearance of Unit Manager, EE Unit (20% of total contract, within seven weeks time); and
  • Upon submission of final report and a ToR by clearance of Unit Manager, EE Unit (30% of total contract, within ten weeks time).

Competencias

  • Demonstrated knowledge of media and women’s economic empowerment;
  • Proven ability to conduct action oriented research and write analytical reports in English;
  • Proven communication skills;
  • Proven ability to work in multi-cultural environment and gender sensitive manner; and
  • Ability to multi task, co-ordinate and work in a team.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

  • Master’s degree in Journalism, Media, Communication, Economics, Public Policy, Gender and Development or any other related fields.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 5 years of proven experience on research-based analytical writing on gender and economic development; and
  • A minimum of 3 years of work experiences with media agencies / companies, preferably on the issues of gender equality, women’s empowerment and economic development.

Language:

  • Excellent command of written and oral English and Nepali.

How to Apply?

Interested individual/consultants must submit the following documents:

  • Expression of interest;
  • UN P11 form (blank form can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment/);
  • At least two samples of original / unedited research-based analytical write-ups / papers (not exceeding 5 pages) published in magazines, journals etc.; and
  • Separate page of a lump-sum financial proposal including consultant fee, field travel cost, and all other relevant cost (preferably cost breakdown per deliverables).

Note: Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Please upload as one attachment of the documents as mentioned above online through this website. The samples of documents can be send to jobs.np@unwomen.org. 

Selection Process:

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process that takes into account both the technical qualification of potential consultants as well as the financial proposals submitted in support of consultant applications. Candidate applications will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of applicant qualifications and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

  • Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
  • Having received the highest score out of below defined technical/interview and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for further evaluation process. The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest price proposal among the qualified candidates. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion.

Technical Evaluation including desk review/interview (70%) and Financial Evaluation (30%); 

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

  • Qualification (20);
  • Experience (a minimum of 5 years of proven experience on research–based analytical writing on gender and economic development) (30);
  • Experience (a minimum of 3 years of field experiences with media agencies/companies) (15); and
  • Two research-based analytical writings/papers (35).

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30

S - Score received on financial evaluation; Fmin - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round; F - financial offer under the consideration.

The candidate who scores highest cumulative score will be considered for the service.

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.