Background

Background and Justification

UN Women, 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 center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates 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.

In Nepal, UN Women focuses on strengthening women’s voice, choice, agency and security across sectors to advance women’s rights, provide space for women’s meaningful participation and to demonstrate tangible differences in their lives. It is guided by Nepal’s stated priorities and its commitments to relevant normative frameworks, the country’s United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2018-2022, the CEDAW Concluding Observations (2018) and UN Women’s Corporate Strategic Plan 2018-2021. The programme promotes national ownership, capacity development and institutionalization, inclusiveness, coordination and partnerships, and knowledge generation and management, and seeks to prioritize engagement with and support to key duty bearers who are responsible for advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE). The goal of the programme is to “achieve gender equality and social inclusion and empower women and girls in Nepal to realise their human rights.” The key strategies to achieve the goal include: (a) normative support for the development, reform and repeal or amendment of discriminatory laws using a CEDAW lens; (b) providing technical support and integrated policy advice to stakeholders to implement gender equality policies and action plans; (c) building institutional capacities at federal and local levels to promote gender-responsive governance, rule of law, prevention of violence and delivery of minimum essential services through innovations, long-term trainings, peer learning and focused workshops; and (d) advocacy and social mobilisation with excluded and vulnerable groups to build alliances and mobilise political will to drive public support for GEWE. Since the Resource Mobilization (RM) Strategy’s adoption in late 2017, the NCO has made strong progress in centering the principles of leaving no one behind within its work. Financial, technical and political partnerships have been established and/or deepened with national and international stakeholders. The tools and procedures under the RM Strategy have been tested by the NCO team and refined. In 2019, the RM Strategy was updated to integrate the “Gender@Work Analytical Framework”, which was adopted to guide NCO’s overall work. The RM Strategy, in applying the Framework, outlines the capacities, tools, systems, and partnerships required to meet the RM goals set in the NCO’s Strategic Note. In the second quarter of June 2021, the RM strategy was further updated to incorporate the changing contexts regarding COVID-19 and recent political developments and its impacts on NCO’s RM efforts.

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Country Representative and in close collaboration with Deputy Representative, Programme Unit Manager, Operations Manager, Unit Leads and NCO donor focal points, the consultant is responsible for providing technical support to NCO to strengthen its RM efforts through capacity enhancement training, donor engagement support and advisory support to relevant staff through consultations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Key Activities

In coordination with Communication for Development Officer/NCO RM focal point provide RM support, on need basis, focusing on the followings:

• Conduct four RM capacity building training (at least 1.5 hours each) for NCO donor focal points and relevant staff.
• Provide one-on-one session (total 10 sessions approximately 1.5 hours each) on donor engagement support to NCO donor focal points in establishing/fostering relationships with bilateral and multilateral donors, including non-traditional donors such as private sector and foundations for potential funding opportunities.
• Review the NCO RM and Partnership Strategy to ensure that it remains relevant to the changing contexts (internal and external) at least two times (in six months intervals)
•  Technical review of NCO documents (concept notes, proposals; 5 documents).

Deliverables

• Zoom recordings of RM capacity building training package and training report.
• Report on donor engagement support provided to NCO.
• Copy of revised NCO RM and Partnership Strategy with technical inputs/comments.
• Copies of documents with technical inputs/comments.

Time Frame

This is a home-based assignment for one year (20 Sep 2021 – 19 Sep 2022) on retainer basis (as and when required).  

Payment Schedule

Payment for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payment will not be based on the per deliverable fee quoted by the consultant in her/his financial proposal.

Travel and Accommodation expenses

No travel requirement is expected for this assignment. If required, UN Women will bear the travel and accommodations costs beyond commuting distance from the consultant’s usual place of residence for UN Women authorized travel as per the UN Women standard guidelines.

Competencies

Values and Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

• Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
• Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work; and
• Respect for diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

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

Functional Competencies:

• Good coordination, resource mobilization and donor relation skills;
• Strong knowledge of gender equality and women’s rights issues;
• Strong analytical and communication skills;
• Good knowledge of Results Based Management and Human Rights Based Approach;
• 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 writing and editing skills;
• Excellent interpersonal and networking skills, and ability to work in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environments; and
• Ability to work under pressure on multiple projects whilst maintaining high-quality and timeliness.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s Degree in international development studies, gender/women’s studies, business studies, communication, economics, political science, related social sciences, or any other resource mobilization related discipline.

Experience and Knowledge

• A minimum 10 years of relevant work experience in resource mobilization, donor engagement or related field;
• Proven understanding of development work in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment; and
• Experience in working with donors, international organizations or the UN previously in similar assignments is an asset.

Language skills

• Excellent command of written and oral English; and
• Knowledge of additional UN language is an asset.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the applicants who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

1.Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100 which will be later converted into 70 points out of total obtainable (technical and financial) score of 100 points. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

• Required degree and qualification (20 points).
• Relevant years of experience in programme/project development, proposal/concept note writing, research, editing, creative writing or related field (40 points).
• Proven understanding of development work in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment (30 points).
• Experience in working with donors, international organizations, or the UN previously in similar assignments is an asset (10 points).

Only the applicants who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified applicant.

2.Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

The financial proposal of only those applicants who meet the technical assessment threshold will be evaluated. The financial assessment will count as 30% of the total points. In this methodology, 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.

The formula is as follows:

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

How to Apply?

How to Apply?

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• Expression of interest/cover letter.
• Completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded:  http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment; and
• A financial proposal (in a separate page of the same PDF document) using the following template:

You will be able to upload only one attachment. Please combine your all documents into one single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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.