Background

Afghanistan officially joined the United Nations (UN) on 19 November 1946. There are currently 24 UN agencies, funds and programmes in the UN Afghanistan Country Team, of which 20 are located in the country. The UN Country Team’s overall vision and work are aligned to the Afghanistan National Peace and Development Framework 2017 to 2021 (ANPDF) and detailed in the One UN for Afghanistan framework.[1] The new United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) that aims to support the Government in delivering on the Afghanistan National Peace and Development Framework (ANPDF II) for 2021 to 2025 is currently under development.

The Gender Working Group in Afghanistan is chaired by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (UN Women). It serves as a key mechanism for joint UN action and coordination on gender equality and women’s empowerment in Afghanistan, strengthens the performance of the UN Country Team (UNCT) on gender equality, and provides a forum for the sharing of information and tools in the implementation of gender equality and women’s empowerment programming. In 2021, the Gender Working Group is focusing on supporting the application of a gender perspective in the new UNSDCF, and on strengthening and monitoring the UNCT’s accountability to gender equality, including through the promotion of the UNCT SWAP-Scorecard.

Within the framework of this work, the Gender Working Group is developing a Gender Glossary for the UNCT. By providing definitions and concepts of some of the frequently used terms and concepts in relation

to gender, the Gender Glossary aims to contribute towards a common understanding of these terms and concepts within the UNCT. As a collective tool for the UN in Afghanistan, it aims to support the UNCT, government, civil society and other development partners in Afghanistan in harmonizing the way it discusses gender and to provide a common vocabulary for gender-related issues in line with the Afghanistan context.

Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Afghanistan Deputy Country Representative and working closely with the Gender Working Group, the National Consultant will be responsible for developing a trilingual Gender Glossary for the UNCT and development partners in Afghanistan.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and responsibilities

Proposed Approach Deliverables and Schedule of Payment:

This assignment will be grounded in qualitative analysis based on literature review, whereby a participatory element will be introduced through validation workshops with key stakeholders. A proposed approach is as follows, whereby the selected consultant may propose the methodology in the inception phase:

1.Desk review: complete a review of key UNCT and other documents to identify gender concepts and terms of relevance to the work of development partners in Afghanistan.

2.Literature review: complete a review of existing Gender Glossaries and other key documents to provide a definition of gender-related terms and concepts.

3.Prepare the main outline/structure of the glossary: define a structure of the glossary that responds to the need of development practioners in Afghanistan.

4.Translation of the glossary: translate the Gender Glossary into Dari and Pashto, ensuring cross-validation of language as required.

Ongoing consultations: take part in consultation activities, which may include virtual and/or in-person evets, to test and verify the selection of terms and concept to be included in the Gender Glossary, its proposed structure as well as the accuracy of translations with the Gender Working Group and other stakeholders as relevant. 

The selected Consultant is expected to work together closely with the Gender Working Group members throughout the assignment, under the overall guidance of the UN Women Deputy Country Representative in Afghanistan. The assignment is home-based with frequent visits to the UNOCA Compound in Kabul.  

The assignment will span twenty-one (21) working days. Payment will be made upon satisfactory receipt and approval of the following deliverables:

Key responsibilities

The consultant is expected to deliver the above products. The consultant will be expected to cover all costs of the home-based activities, attendance of meetings in Kabul, daily rate and any costs associated with translation or other tools within the full proposal cost.

Competencies

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

The consultants must hold the following minimum qualifications:

• Substantive knowledge and experience related to current analyzes, policies and practices in the fields of gender equality, and humanitarian work, including in gender analysis, program planning and policy advice;
• Strong knowledge of the country (especially western region and the IDP informal settlements)
• Excellent networking skills;
• Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research;
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• At least three years of experience in research and survey for marginalized groups for instance IDPs in complex contexts;
• Experience working with national partners to build sustainable solutions that can be managed locally;
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail and accuracy;
• Expertise on research, data analysis, and report writing; and
• Strong knowledge of program development, implementation, results-based management, and reporting
• Adept at queries, report writing and presenting findings.

Required Skills and Experience

Evaluation Criteria:

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilised 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.

1. Submission of application

Interested consultants can submit the following documents online.

1. CV and UN Women P11 which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs)
2. Letter of motivation with professional fee specifying a daily consultancy rate and a breakdown per deliverables listed above.
3. List of 3 professional references that can be contacted.

Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify a lump sum amount breaking down the professional fee for each deliverable on daily basis. All the travels costs will be covered by UN Women according to UN Women’s rules and regulation and should not be included in the financial proposal.

All requested documents of the submission package (CV, Motivation Letter, P11 and financial proposal) should be combined in one document and uploaded when asked to upload the resume. Incomplete submission will not be considered.

Please use "National Consultant: Development of Gender Glossary Terms in Afghanistan” as the subject heading of your application.