Antecedentes

As a trusted multilateral partner serving 177 countries and territories around the world, UNDP is uniquely positioned to help advocate for change, connect countries to the knowledge and resources they need to develop and to coordinate the efforts of the United Nations at the country level.

The Gender Team is part of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) which provides policy advice and technical support to all of UNDP’s operations. It is at the forefront of UNDP's commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment. The Team works to implement gender equality as a core objective of UNDP through a two-pronged approach (i) mainstreaming gender in all core practices; and, (ii) dedicated interventions that empower women and promote gender equality.

The UNDP Corporate Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2021 outlines in detail how UNDP works towards gender equality in each of the goals and key results set out in the UNDP Strategic Plan. The Strategy sets out institutional arrangements which are aimed at ensuring oversight and commitment to achieving gender equality both within the organization and in the work of the organization. As part of this process UNDP is committed to building a global, dynamic and highly professional community of practice on gender equality, supported by a robust knowledge management framework.

A core component the of the Gender Equality Strategy is the Gender Equality Seal is a corporate quality assurance mechanism that measures and certifies the achievements and competence of Country Offices in advancing women's rights and gender equality. The Gender Equality Seal has three levels of certification (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) and Country Offices are awarded a certain level of certification according to their gender equality accomplishments. The gender equality seal strengthens capacities and accountability for gender equality results in the organization.

The purpose of this procurement exercise is to contract an individual consultant who will support the implementation of the Gender Equality Seal providing technical support and advise to country offices, unites and partners on gender mainstreaming and on gender equality certification programmes based on UNDP’s Gender Equality Seal experience.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The consultant will provide critical support to the BPPS/Gender Team under the direct supervision of the Senior Policy Advisor on Gender Mainstreaming delivering specific products under the following areas:

1. For the Internal UNDP Gender Equality Seal. As part of the Gender Equality Seal certification 2019-2020 for UNDP offices, the consultant will provide expert assessment capacities on:

• Carry out online assessment of Country Offices: Review Country Offices/Units results and background documents (evidences) from the online assessment tool of the Gender Equality Seal, elaborate report and recommendations.
• Appraisal missions to Gender Equality Seal offices. The purpose of the appraisal mission is to verify evidences in order to establish the level of certification of the office. The appraisal mission intends to also open a meaningful dialogue on gender equality with the COs and consolidate learnings from the experience of the certification process.

2. Advisory support gender team efforts to provide assistance on gender mainstreaming to external entities on the Gender Equality seal:

• Adapt and tailor UNDP Gender Equality Seal methodology to partner institution, including standard indicators and benchmarks; requirements; and means of verification and facilitating validation and agreement of the standards and methodology.

Expected outputs and deliverables:

Deliverables/ Outputs

A. 10 Assessments of Country Offices delivered for the Seal 3rd Round, including desk review, scoring of 40 indicators per assessment, and delivery of 10 matrixes, and 10 reports (Aug-October 2019 – estimated 4 days per assessment with a total of 40 days);

B. 3 appraisal missions to UNDP offices carried out: including Develop an Agenda and methodology, conduct a desk review, carry out the assessment and deliver a final report. (October /February) (27 days) estimated travel to cost per mission $3,500; Planned mission to Panama, Turkey and Ethiopia.

C. 3 external missions to support Seal partnerships with bilateral and UN Agencies: including developing Gender equality awarding programmes and standards tool; developing an agenda and methodology for the mission, conduct a desk review, carry out the assessment and delivering a final recommendations report. Planned missions to Malawi (2) and Uganda.  (Sept-Dec 2019). (18 days) estimated travel per mission $3500;

Competencias

• Demonstrated capacity for strategic thinking, and expertise in global gender equality and mainstreaming strategies;

• Proven capacity to produce high quality qualitative research and ability to absorb, analyze and synthesize large amounts of complex information within tight deadlines;

• Demonstrated ability and willingness to work with people of different cultural, ethnic and religious background, different gender, and diverse political views.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Academic qualifications:

• Minimum Masters or Ph.D. in a development related discipline (women’s studies or gender, development).

Experience:

• Minimum of 5/7 years of comprehensive knowledge in gender and development, institutional development and gender mainstreaming or related fields.

• Experience with the UN and strong understanding of the UNDP, operations and structures, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

• Proven expertise on gender audits, evaluations and capacity assessments for gender mainstreaming.

• At least 2 years field experience.

• Knowledge of gender equality certification schemes.

• Experience in developing partnerships with other organizations

• Proven expertise in designing and implementing gender responsive participatory methodologies.

Language:

• Fluency in spoken and written English. Proficiency in English language for report writing;

• Ability to speak either Spanish or French or Arabic is an asset.

Application Procedure

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• A cover letter with a brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment;

• Personal CV, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references;

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7 hour working day - lunch time is not included - and estimated 21.75 days per month).
• The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; (excluding mission travel); living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.

• If the Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

Travel

Experts shall be required to travel for specific assessments requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.

Evaluation process

Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below.  Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring.  When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (70 points):

• Criteria 1. : Minimum of 5/7 years of comprehensive knowledge in gender and development, institutional development and gender mainstreaming or related fields; participatory methodologies and field experience: Maximum Points: 20;

• Criteria 2. : Proven expertise on gender audits, evaluations and capacity assessments for gender mainstreaming; and knowledge of gender equality certification schemes: Maximum Points: 20;

• Criteria 3. Experience with the UN and strong understanding of the UNDP, operations and structures, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Maximum 15

• Criteria 4.: Experience of implementing gender mainstreaming programmes and projects. Maximum: 15

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (30 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional arrangement

The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of Senior Policy Advisor on Gender Mainstreaming, Gender Team, BPPS and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.

Payment modality

• Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.

• The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7-hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.