Background

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 centre 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. UN Women 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 in Bangladesh supports the government to implement commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. The UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2022-2026 was launched in 2021 and the corresponding UN Women Bangladesh Strategy Note (2022-2026), defining UN Women’s strategic engagement in Bangladesh, has also been finalized. The country strategy focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s access to decent and safe work; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as other threats to peace and security.

UN Women works on Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) supporting disaster and climate-vulnerable women from the most disaster-prone parts of the country and generating knowledge and evidence on how gender inequality drives vulnerability and marginalization and determine ways in which achieving gender equality can lead to a more resilient and empowered Bangladesh.

UN Women jointly with UNEP is implementing a regional programme “EmPower: Women for Climate-Resilient Societies” to strengthen gender equality in disaster risk reduction and climate change actions in Asia and the Pacific. The three year project (2023- 2025) aims for women and marginalized groups in three countries : Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam to become more resilient to the adverse impacts of climate change and disasters. The approach is to generate knowledge on gender and climate change, enhance capacities of relevant government entities at national and local level through producing tools, and capacity building training. The  project also seeks to  strengthen the leadership capacity of women led CSOs in locally led climate change adaptation.

UN Women co-chairs the Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) Working Group with Department of Women Affairs, to ensure integration of gender equality into all humanitarian actions so that the needs of all affected populations – women, men, girls, boys, and gender diverse groups are addressed equally, their rights protected, and women’s leadership and decision-making promoted. The overall aim of the group is to support the realization of gender responsive programming by mainstreaming gender equality in the actions of each of the thematic clusters, inter-cluster working groups (WG) and the overall joint response and preparedness efforts throughout the humanitarian action phase (emergency response preparedness, assessment, analysis, strategic planning, resource mobilization, implementation, monitoring, review, and lesson learning).

Objectives of the assignment

The overall objective of this assignment is to:

Provide programme implementation, technical and coordination support to the DRR/CCA/HA programme team of the UN Women Bangladesh Country office.

Duties and Responsibilities

Specific deliverables for this assignment are:

1. Programme Implementation

• Coordination and administrative support provided for the implementation of the EMPOWER project and GIHA interventions.
• Provide technical assistance and capacity development support to project partners.  
• Support administrative details such as hiring, contracting with vendors, financial operations, dissemination of promotional materials
• Coordinate and monitor the implementation of project activities.
• Assist in finalizing Bi annual workplans and budget.
• Support team in reviewing, coordinating and monitoring the submission of implementing partner financial and narrative reports.
• Operational support to select implementing agency for the project
• Provide inputs to quarterly reports and annual reports of the project, donor reports and other reports on outputs and outcomes.

Provide technical and coordination support.

• Organize and facilitate meetings and trainings with/for  partner organizations, including on RBM.
• Provide technical inputs to periodic internal, and donors reports as well as partner reports.
• Provide technical inputs and review research studies and knowledge products.
• Liaise with consulting firms/vendors as required, and provide technical guidance as per UN Women’s requirements in consultation with the Programme Manager
• Conduct background research, prepare briefing materials/ talking points.

Assist the GiHA Coordinator in implementing the workplan of the GiHA working group.

Under the guidance of the Programme Specialist and in consultation with the Project Officer

• Assist in preparing AWP, and follow up implementation of the workplan, and develop 2024 workplan.
• Assist in onboarding consulting firm/vendor to undertake studies and provide technical support to the selected vendor as required.
• Support team expanding GiHA local chapters.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of UN Women Programme Specialist, the national consultant is expected to work with the DRR/CCA/HA programme team of UN Women Bangladesh Country Office.

Deliverables linked with payment Milestone.

Supervision and performance evaluation

The national consultant will work under the direct supervision of UN Women Programme Specialist DRR/CCA .

Inputs:

UN Women will provide office space and other logistics support (laptop and internet) to support day-to-day administrative works and perform the deliverables.

Travel and DSA:

No DSA will be paid at the duty station. If unforeseen travel outside the duty station is required for this assignment, upon prior agreement/approval from UN Women such travel expenses shall be borne by UNWOMEN and the individual contractor/SSA shall receive a per-diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s) and actual travel 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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree (At least Master’s) in Disaster Risk Management, Gender/Women Studies, Development Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, or other relevant disciplines.

Experiences:

• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience at the national or international NGOs, UN Agencies, and Development Partners. 

• Minimum 3 years of experience working on GEWE, especially gender responsive DRR, climate change policy context in Bangladesh. 

• At least 1 year of demonstrated experience in conducting and managing research studies. 

Additional Capacity

• Ability to develop high-quality reports in English.  

Language

• Excellent communication, analytical and writing skills in English.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all
costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, only  and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the SSA in completing the assignment.

The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon
completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages

Evaluation Method and Criteria:
Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation and determined as:
1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the
solicitation;

Only candidates obtaining a 70 mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.
Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 49 points out of 70)

Criteria-01; Academic Qualification  - Max Point 15

Criteria-02; Proven experiences working in the fields of gender equality, especially DRR, climate change, humanitarian action- Max Point 35

Criteria-03; Experience in conducting and/or managing research. Max Point 20

The total number of points allocated for the weighted qualification component is 70. 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 (49) will be considered as technically-qualified candidate.

Interested candidates will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

To be included as part of the proposal: Only applications including all items mentioned above will be considered.

Submission of package

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

Application submission package:

• Duly filled in Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process
• CV.
• Financial Proposal – The financial proposal shall specify a daily rate and total fees for 72 days (Professional Fees). The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs and components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee only and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the SSA in completing the assignment.

How to Submit the Application:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), CV and the Financial Proposal into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded.
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement).
• Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application;'
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above).
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Notes:

• UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.
• Applications without the financial offer will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
• The individual consultants should take the mandatory learning security course prior to commencement of assignment– details will follow before the issuance of contract.

Only applications will all items mentioned above will be considered

Note: The individual consultant who does not meet the above eligibility criteria shall not be considered for further evaluation. Necessary documentation must be submitted to substantiate the above eligibility criteria

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided based on qualifications, competence, integrity, and organizational need. If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check).