Antecedentes

UN Women (UNW), 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 centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system 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, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997 (as UNIFEM). UN Women Palestine Country Office focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In support of this goal and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the Palestinian context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions toward the realisation of following strategic goals: Increase women’s leadership and participation; Increase economic empowerment of women; Prevent violence against women and girls; Enhance women’s leadership in peace, security and humanitarian response; Enhance accountability to gender equality commitments in national planning and budgeting processes.

The Palestinian Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA) is the principle national machinery for coordinating gender policy development, monitoring and reporting. In that regard, UN Women has been supporting MoWA since its establishment in 2003 to fulfill its mandate in providing support to other government institutions in mainstreaming gender, including providing capacity building and technical assistance support for the promotion of gender mainstreaming. In this context, UN women supports the relevant government ministries and institutions to enhance the integration of gender in their planning and budgeting by providing technical expertise, design and capacity-building support to secure opportunities for exchange of knowledge and experiences with other countries in the region.  These efforts have contributed to a significant achievement in the gender sensitivity and responsiveness of the current Palestinian National Policy Agenda 2017-2022 as well as the inclusion of gender equality and women’s empowerment in national priorities and the high commitment among decision makers in government ministries and institutions to promote and support the mainstreaming of gender in planning and budgeting.

In 2017, with the support of the Government of Spain (through The Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) UN Women introduced a new project with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs to enhance the implementation of the Cross Sectoral National Gender Strategy 2017-2022. The project aims to strength the national capacity and accountability to enhance national commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment and to create an enabling environment for the implementation of the Cross Sectoral National Gender Strategy (CSNGS) through setting accountability systems and mechanisms in planning, programming, policy setting and financing decisions. In that regard, UN Women would like to contract a national technical expert to support the implementation of the CSNGS 2017-2022 through provisioning of technical and capacity-building support to MoWA and other relevant ministries and national bodies in accordance with national commitments and the relevant national and international frameworks, UN treaties and conventions.

Objectives of the Assignment:

Overall Objective: To support the implementation of the CSNGS 2017-2022 in Palestine in the context of SDGs, CEDAW and other key frameworks.

Specific Objectives: 

1. Build capacity of Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA); and
2. Strengthen the national women’s machinery as a mechanism for overseeing the implementation and monitoring of the CSNGS.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Under the overall guidance of UN Women Special Representative and the direct supervision of UN Women Human Rights Programme Manager and in close cooperation with the UN Women Programme Coordinator, the national gender expert will undertake the following duties and responsibilities in relation to the above objectives:

Building Capacity of Ministry of Women’s Affairs, include:

1. Undertake a full mapping of key evaluations and recommendations with regards to the capacity and functioning of the Ministry;
2. Undertake consultations and joint reviews with the leadership and technical staff of the Ministry to define the priorities for capacity building of the ministry staff and of gender equality machinery for 2018-2019;
3. Assist the Ministry to develop its internal capacity development plan;
4. Facilitate the process of the implementation of the capacity development plan with concrete monitoring on quarterly basis;
5. Build capacity of the MoWA to advocate and promote gender sensitivity of the national budget; and
6. Support the Ministry to coordinate the support that is offered by international development partners for the benefit of the internal capacity development plan.

Strengthen the national women’s machinery as a mechanism for overseeing the implementation and monitoring of the CSNGS:

1. Undertake a review of the NWM’s functions in line with international and local good practices (including on the basis of existing studies, reviews, assessments, etc.);
2. Facilitate the process of developing a plan to build the NWM’s capacity for 2018-2019;
3. Facilitate the process of implementation and follow up of the capacity development plan; and
4. Assist the NWM to coordinate its efforts with the partners, such as CSOs, Donors, other Government institutions for better results within CSNGS.

During the assignment period, and according to the above background and requested duties and responsibilities, the National Gender Expert will be expected to deliver the following:

Under the Task of building capacity of Ministry of Women’s Affairs (MOWA):

1. MOWA’s internal capacity development plan (end March); and
2. Quarterly report on the follow up to the capacity development plan (end June, Sept, Dec)

Under the Task of strengthening the national women’s machinery as a mechanism for overseeing the implementation and monitoring of the CSNGS

1. NWMs capacity development plan (end March); and
2. Quarterly report on the follow up to the capacity development plan (end June, Sept, Dec.)

The assignment is expected to start on 01 February 2018 and to be finalized by 31 December 2018 (up to 100 working days)

Competencias

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity; and
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies:

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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Build strong relationships with partners, focusing on impact and results for the partners and responds positively to feedback;
• Ability to work under pressure and with multi-disciplinary and multicultural teams and processes;
• Good programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills;
• Good knowledge of Results Based Management;
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings and recommendations;
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail;
• Excellent interpersonal skills;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas;
• Ability to perform a wide range of varied, inter-related administrative services;
• Ability to interpret and analyze data and resolve operational problems, propose solutions;
• Ability to work with minimum supervision, and to plan and organize work;
• Ability to provide inputs to business process re-engineering and development and implementation of new systems;
• Ability to focus on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Ability to organize and prioritize work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines; and
• Ability to approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education: 

• Master degree in gender or women’s studies, social sciences and/or closely related development field.

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of working experience in the field of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, with a strong background in Gender Mainstreaming;
• A minimum of 5 years of working experience in coordination with government, donors and civil society on gender equality at the national level;
• Five years of experience in programme planning with focus on gender and women's rights;
• Experience in training (on the job coaching) and ability to organize and implement training sessions of a minimum of 5 years is required;
• Experience in facilitating and leading discussions and building consensus among government partners of a minimum of 2 years;
• Experience working with national and international frameworks on gender and women human rights of a minimum of 2 years is considered a strong asset; and
• Experience working with UN agencies or other agencies in the development sector is considered an asset.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in Arabic (written and oral) and working knowledge of English are required

Application procedure:

This SSA modality is governed by UN Women General Terms and Conditions. UN Women will only be able to respond to applicants who meet the minimum requirements.

Candidates should be able to quickly submit degree certificates, medical certification (of good health), a written sample such as a gender mainstreaming work plan, a final report on a previous consultancy assignment, a gender sensitive strategic plan, should they be requested in consideration of this consultancy.

Evaluation of applicants:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. A contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer receives the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 50 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for financial evaluation.

Technical Evaluation (70%) – max. 70 points:

Technical requirement and maximum number of points:

• Relevant education (5 points)
• A minimum of 7 years of working experience in the field of Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, with a strong background in Gender Mainstreaming and experience working with national and international frameworks on gender and women human rights of a minimum of 2 years is considered a strong asset (20 points)
• A minimum of 5 years of working experience in coordination with government, donors and civil society on gender equality at the national level and five years of experience in programme planning with focus on gender and women's rights, and experience working with UN agencies or other agencies in the development sector (10 points)
• Experience in training (on the job coaching) and ability to organize and implement training sessions of a minimum of 5 years is required and experience in facilitating and leading discussions and building consensus among government partners of a minimum of 2 years. (15 points).
• Written sample: e.g. policy papers on gender mainstreaming, analysis reports on gender issues, workplans, assessment reports on gender issues. (10 points)
• Interview: (10 points)

Total: 70

Financial Evaluation (30%) – max. 30 points:

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 suggested formula is as follows:

p = 30 (µ/z)

Using the following values:

• p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated;
• µ = price of the lowest priced proposal; and
• z = price of the proposal being evaluated