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. 

Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is providing technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental) in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, it facilitates networking and exchange of good practices and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life. According to its mandate, UN Women works in five thematic areas, such as leadership and participation, women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women, women peace and security and governance and national planning fully reflect accountability for gender equality commitments.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina UN Women works in three key strategic areas – Women’s Economic Empowerment, Ending Violence against Women and Gender Responsive Governance. In Women’s Economic Empowerment UN Women utilizes a two-pronged approach of influencing the major players and implementing targeted interventions aimed at influencing policies, programmes and funds relevant for women’s economic empowerment. As all fields in which UN Women is engaged with relevant institutions, segment of women’s economic empowerment requires a high level of coordination with all levels of government, across the country. UN Women’s key comparative advantage in this area of work is in the production of knowledge, programming and policy recommendations on key areas of women’s economic empowerment as well as piloting targeted support to policy makers, businesses, and key categories of women that need economic activation.

Over the current strategic period 2021 – 2025, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), UN Women will work to improve policy framework for job creation, including perspectives of care economy and entrepreneurship, and the implementation of existing policies through policy coherence between programmes for gender equality and promotion of women’s access to decent work. At the institutional level, UN Women aims to achieve effective targeting and inclusion of women (especially those most marginalized) in existing labor market measures and programmes based on the action-oriented research of the existing measures and piloting of the new targeted approaches to women’s economic empowerment. Building on previous investments in support of gender responsive policies and budgets, UN Women will support the development and resilience of women owned business and women entrepreneurs and improve the socio-economic position of rural women and their cooperatives, as well as work towards decreasing the burden of unpaid care work on women.

Women’s and girls’ disproportionate responsibility for unpaid care work is a key driver of gender inequality in both the labour market, the household and wider society. Research funded by UN Women ”Baseline Study on Care Economy in BiH”[1] has found that women in BiH reported spending on average of 1.85 times more time on care activities compared to men. Employed women spend about 5.33 hours, more than twice as much time on care work than employed men. And women in rural areas spend slightly more of their time on unpaid care activities than those in urban areas (6.5 hours per day compared to 6.2 hours). Women report that care work and responsibilities are one of the main reasons they do not seek jobs and are also factors that impede job progression and further income generation. BiH has one of the highest portions of inactive women on the labour market in Europe, with the employment rate for women in BiH estimated at around 37%, compared to 53% for men.

The Baseline Study on Care Economy in BiH focused on 4 key aspects of care: housework, child care, care for the elderly and care for people with disabilities (PwD) and it is focused on the policies that will directly influence women and their care activities in these four main segments and proposed a set of policy recommendations, advocacy measures and care models that could be piloted on the local level.

Reflective of the above, UN Women is now seeking to recruit a national expert to provide technical and strategic legislative advice related to Baseline study recommendations and its further implementation.

[1] Baseline Study on Care Economy - Overview of Key Denominators, Policy and Programming Options | Publications | UN Women – Europe and Central Asia

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of this consultancy is to provide support to UN Women BiH to address obstacles and opportunities for contributing to an inclusive environment in which women benefit from resilient, balanced and sustainable growth in BiH through strengthened policy development, support system and access to information

The immediate objective is to provide technical and legislative support to UN Women BiH in the area of care economy and provide further programming recommendations through detailed legislative analysis of recommendations portraying disproportionate unpaid care work identified in the Baseline Study on Care Economy.

Under the supervision of the WEE Programme Coordinator, and the overall supervision of UN Women Programme Specialist, the consultant is expected to comprise but not be limited to the desk review of relevant legal and policy documents directly related to the Baseline study recommendations, with the objective to:

• Create an overview of legislative framework on the proposed care economy recommendations by mapping laws, articles, and legislation related to the recommendations provided in Baseline study; Policy Brief capturing the list of proposed measures can be found under the link in footnote.[1]
• Based on the mapping, conduct an overview of policy priorities and matching governmental levels;
• Conduct  analysis of legal framework opportunities and potential obstacles for the implementation of care economy principles;
• Create a set of legislative recommendations that would allow functional capabilities of each implementing authority to advance care economy programming and services;
• Provide legislative support during the implementation of One Stop Shop pilot module;
• Draft the Concept Note of the event where the consultant would present the legislative roadmap on the care economy , created through the programme interventions listed above, including the stakeholders mapping and participants list for organizing a policy dialogue event.

The consultant will set out a weekly plan of proposed activities in line with the deliverables below, and within the indicative timeframe:

The consultant should in the development of the deliverables allow time for deliverables to be reviewed and commented by UN Women before their finalisation.

Any envisaged travel and accommodation costs should be covered by the consultant and incorporated under the received financial offer. 

All deliverables should be provided to the UN Women WEE Programme Coordinator and WEE Programme team bilingual - English and Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian.

[1] 20230515_Care Economy_Policy Brief_ENG.pdf (unwomen.org)

Competencies

Core Values/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 Consultant knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
• Cultural sensitivity and respect for diversity - Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Additionally, the individual should have an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Planning & Organizing – Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks and makes allowances accordingly.
• Organizational Awareness - Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Teamwork - Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost and quality standards.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Shares knowledge and experience
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
• Development and Operational Effectiveness
• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
• Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy
• 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
• Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource

Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
• Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
• Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Master degree in law studies, gender, economics, social studies, psychology, or any other area relevant to the requirements of the TOR.
• Bachelor’s degree in combination with at least three additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted. (minimum 8 years of experience).

Skills and Experience:

• At least 5 years progressively responsible experience in  legislative support, gender, women´s rights, women´s economic empowerment, recovery or related area of work; 
• Minimum 3 years of experience in drafting legislative reports, policies, initiatives and strategic documents;
• 2 years of professional experience in working with diverse public and private actors on legislative cooperation, preferably in the area of law, gender, socio-economic empowerment and response;
• Excellent writing skills required, as demonstrated by previous high-quality research/analytical reports on relevant topics
• Previous experience in working with UN agencies will be considered an advantage; 

Language requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English and Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian is required. Candidates to provide certificate of English knowledge or sample of a part of study conducted in English (one to two pages maximum)

EVALUATION OF OFFERS

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process that takes into account both the technical qualification of potential consultants as well as the financial proposals submitted in support of consultant applications. Candidate applications will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of applicant qualifications and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
• having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest price proposal among those candidates. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Criteria:

Technical Evaluation (70%) - Maximum Obtainable Points 70

Academic Qualifications:

• Master degree in law studies, gender, economics, social studies, psychology, or any other area relevant to the requirements of the TOR.
• Bachelor’s degree in combination with at least three additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted.

Skills and Experience:

• At least 3 years progressively responsible experience in  legislative support, gender, women´s rights, women´s economic empowerment, recovery or related area of work; (20 points)
• Minimum 3 years of experience in drafting legislative reports, policies, initiatives and strategic documents; (20 points)
• 2 years of professional experience in working with diverse public and private actors on legislative cooperation, preferably in the area of law, gender, socio-economic empowerment and response; (15 points)
• Excellent writing skills required, as demonstrated by previous high-quality research/analytical reports on relevant topics; (10 points)
• Previous experience in working with UN agencies will be considered an advantage;  (5 points)

Language requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English and Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian is required. Candidates to provide certificate of English knowledge or sample of a part of study conducted in English (one to two pages maximum) REQUIRED
• Financial Evaluation (30%) – Based on submitted offer - Maximum Obtainable Points 30        

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30
• S - score received on financial evaluation;
• Fmin - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;
• F - financial offer under the consideration.

TOTAL - 100 points

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:

1. Cover letter explaining why you are the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
2. Expression of interest and confirmation of immediate availability
3. Financial Proposal*- specifying a total lump sum amount in BAM for the tasks specifies in this announcement. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (number of anticipated working days, travel, per diems and any other possible costs).
4. Filled P11 form including experience in similar projects and contact details from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
5. Candidates to provide certificate of English knowledge or sample of a part of study conducted in English (one to two pages maximum)

. Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered (all documents indicated above need to be uploaded).

For any additional information, please contact unwomen.bih@unwomen.org

How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, Expression of Interest 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.

Qualified women and men and members of minorities are encouraged to apply. UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.

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 on the basis of 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. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.