Background

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, the UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action globally. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Republic of Serbia is a signatory to a number of important international treaties, which guarantee the equality of men and women and prohibit gender-based discrimination, most notably the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Istanbul Convention. National commitments on gender equality are in place, and despite the existing legal and policy framework, gender inequalities are prominent in Serbia and present in all spheres of life, in access to resources, in participation to decision-making processes and in interpersonal relations.

The Government of the Republic of Serbia established a Coordination Body for Gender Equality in 2014 through a Government Decision[1] with a mandate to coordinate Government actions in the area of gender equality. The Coordination Body for Gender Equality considers all issues, and coordinates and monitors the work of authorities related to gender equality, and submits its proposals, opinions and expert explanations to the Government. The Coordination Body for Gender Equality leads and monitors the implementation of the national policy on gender equality. The establishment of the national gender equality mechanism is important for the European integration process and key to accessing EU gender equality principles and grounding them into their public policy. The Coordination Body for Gender Equality, a national gender equality mechanism, is the key partner of UN Women in Serbia, under the signed Memorandum of Understanding, signed in February 2015.

UN Women Programme Office in Serbia is implementing a three-year Project “Support to Priority Actions for Gender Equality in Serbia”, funded by the European Commission within the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) II. The Project supports the Government of the Republic of Serbia in effective implementation of the EU Gender Equality Acquis and international and national obligations, and through support to women CSOs. UN Women Serbia will implement the Project, in close cooperation with the Coordination Body for Gender Equality, the Ministry of European Integration, the EU Delegation in Serbia and other partner institutions and women's organizations’. Furthermore, the project will advance the position of women and will support local communities in fulfilling their commitments on gender equality.

Under the Result 1 the Project will ensure that the Coordination Body for Gender Equality has the administrative capacities to implement the international and national obligations and to perform gender mainstreaming of state funded programmes. Therefore, the Coordination Body for Gender Equality and UN Women are seeking two National Consultants for Gender Equality to support the Coordination Body for Gender Equality in implementing activities in line with its mandate and in leading the implementation of the national commitments.

[1] http://www.mgsi.gov.rs/lat/dokumenti/odluka-o-formiranju-koordinacionog-tela-za-rodnu-ravnopravnost

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective

The objective of this assignment is to strengthen the institutional capacities of the Coordination Body for Gender Equality in leading the implementation of the international and national obligations in the field of gender equality, with the special focus on newly established Law on Gender Equality, and in conducting activities in line with the Coordination Body for Gender Equality mandate.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Working under the overall supervision of the President of the Coordination Body for Gender Equality and UN Women Gender Specialist, the consultant will be responsible to provide support towards the effective and efficient implementation of the international and national obligations in the field of gender equality and for provision of specific deliverables:

• Assist in implementing of Coordination Body for Gender Equality mandate and obligations  to ensure effective and efficient internal and external communication; 
• Administrative and logistic support to CBGE relating to communication with the government institutions, international organizations, CSOs, media and other relevant partners, through material preparation, communication with national and international stakeholders, ensuring quality and timely reporting; 
• Preparing overview reports on implementation of activities and programmes of the Coordination Body for Gender Equality;
• Prepare substantive inputs to the Coordination Body for Gender Equality documents, which includes the analysis of data on women's position in Serbia and the opportunities for inclusive engagement of women in the country development processes;
• Prepare substantive inputs to the proposal for the Coordination Body for Gender Equality for engaging with the gender equality advocates, both within government and non-governmental organizations, to have a stronger voice in decision-making processes that shape lives of women;
• Preparing policy briefs and reports on key strategic processes in the country and providing support in ensuring that gender equality considerations are clearly reflected and mainstreamed in the content and process;
• Organize forums of dialogue and strategic and policy discussions on gender equality, and women’s empowerment issues with the key national and local stakeholders from Government, academia, civil society at the national and communal level, private sector and key international actors to build and strengthen strategic alliances and partnerships on women’s rights and gender equality initiatives;
• Support planning and organizing events and relevant advocacy activities, including organization of conferences, roundtables and trainings with key partners.

Deliverables and Timeline:

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.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded, and reported;
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify, and resolve operational problems;
• Strong report writing skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• University degree in in the area of gender studies, management, international relations, political sciences, social sciences, or an area relevant to the requirements of the TOR. Master degree will be taken as advantage.

Experience:

• At least 2 years of the professional experience working with the government institution or non-governmental organisation or international organisation;
• At least 2 years of experience in providing technical, administrative and logistic support to the implementation of programmes and projects;
• Experience in preparing briefs, reports or similar for various audiences;
• Experience in collecting and systematizing complex data and in identification of sources of information related to policy-driven issues will be considered as an advantage.
• Previous experience in the field of gender equality considered an asset;
• Ability to work in an independent manner and organize the workflow efficiently;
• Previous experience with the UN system is considered an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in English and Serbian (written and oral).

Application procedure:

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• P11 with past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=3539 . Signed copy of P11 should be submitted.
• Financial Proposal Specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this Terms of Reference. Can be downloaded from the following link: http://www.undp.org.rs/download/ic/Confirmation.docx. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (daily rate and number of anticipated working days and any other possible costs).

In order to apply please merge your P11 and the financial proposal into a single PDF file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded.

Any request for clarification must be sent by standard electronic communication to the e-mail vacancy.rs@undp.org.

Evaluation of applicants:

Consultants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of qualifications and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: 

a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and 

b) Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria. 

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

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

z = price of the proposal being evaluated