UN WOMEN Jobs - 68499- UN Women: Local Consultant to Support Organization

UN Women: Local Consultant to Support Organization of a Skill Test (Open to Nepali Nationals Only)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Home Based Assignment, NEPAL

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

05-Oct-2016

Application Deadline :

23-Sep-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Two months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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 will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of National priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with government, civil society and other relevant actors.

In Nepal, UN Women's programme focus on women's leadership in peace, security and humanitarian action, economic empowerment of women, and gender responsive national planning and budgeting processes, to contribute to achieving the goal of gender equality and empowerment of women. The Women Peace and Security (WPS) Unit of UN Women Nepal is responsible for providing technical support to government, development partners and civil society organizations in the areas of women, peace and security including implementation of National Action Plan (NAP) on United Nations Security Council Resolutions (UNSCRs) 1325 and 1820 in line with the Nepal Country Office Strategic Note and Annual Work Plan (AWP) 2014-2017. In order to reinforce the ongoing efforts especially with respect to the implementation of the NAP on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820, UN Women Nepal has been implementing “Strengthening Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Nepal: Towards Implementation of National Action Plan on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 (SIWPSAN)” project funded by the Government of Finland. UN Women’s WPS works focuses on the implementation of the frameworks of UNSCRs 1325, 1820 and its subsequent resolutions, Convention of Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), Secretary General (SG)’s Seven Point Action Plan on Gender Responsive Peacebuilding, UN Peace and Development Strategy for Nepal, and the Nepal United Nations Development Assistance Framework 2013-2017 (UNDAF).

The overall goal of the SIWPSAN project is 'Women lead and participate in peace, security and governance process at the local level in the Far West Region. The specific objectives of the project area: (i) to enhance the collective capability of national and local level government and other relevant stakeholders to implement and monitor the NAP on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820; (ii) to economically and socially empower conflict affected women and former combatants in three districts through comprehensive assessment of their needs and their operating environment, and innovative programmes and (iii) to enhance the leadership and participation of women in key decision-making structures in the project districts. The project duration is June 2012 to May 2016 and is executed by UN Women and being implemented through a number of partners such as Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MoWCSW), Training Centre Nepal (TCN), Saathi, Krishna Consultancy (KC), Search for Common Ground (SFCG), Local Development Training Academy (LDTA), and three local partners such as Backward Society Education (BASE) in Kailali district, Community Development Society (CDS) in Doti district, Dalit Help Society (DHS) in Bajhang district.

In line with the approved project document of SIWPSAN, UN Women carried out a Mid-Term Evaluation (MTE) to determine if the project is towards achieving its stated outputs and assess whether the outputs are leading towards expected outcomes; and to provide recommendations to UN Women for improvement in the project implementation to maximize its impact. One of the recommendations of the MTE is to formulate an exit strategy that would include engagement of its partners to ensure that the beneficial impact of the project continues after the project ends, identifying potential institutions and mechanism, assigning clear roles and responsibility with action points and timeline to further promote the project gains, embedding skills in local institutions. Adhering to the recommendation of the MTE, exit strategy of the SIWPSAN project is conducted. According to the assessment during the exit strategy, one of the significant visible results determined is the considerable achievement for economic empowerment of conflict-affected women and girls (CAWG) in the project districts. It is evident from the exit strategy that CAWGs are working to scale up their economic status, through small enterprises and there are positive impacts on women’s participation in social and political spheres. However, for the sustainability of the project beneficiaries, one of the recommendations from the exit strategy is to support the skill test by National Skill Testing Board (NSTB) for the women entrepreneurs who have started micro enterprises after completing skill training on different occupations provided by Training Centre Nepal Pvt. Ltd. (TCN). If these entrepreneurs receive a skill test certificate, they can get better opportunity for establishing income generating initiatives in future.

In light to above mentioned context, UN Women in consultation with MOPR is recruiting a local consultant to coordinate and support a skill test by NSTB for the women entrepreneurs who have started micro enterprises after completing skill training on different occupations based on Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT’s) 390 hours curricula provided by TCN in three project districts of SIWPSAN project.

The main objective of this SSA is to coordinate and support the organization of a skill test by NSTB for the women entrepreneurs of three project districts of SIWPSAN project.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under overall supervision of Unit Manager of Women Peace and Security Unit, the consultant will be responsible for coordinating and supporting the organization of a skill test for the entrepreneurs who have started micro enterprises after completing skill training on different occupations based on CTEVT’s 390 hours curricula provided by TCN in three project districts of SIWPSAN project. Altogether, 245 women within the target group have been running their micro enterprises after completing the 390 hours training in 10 different subjects (hand embroidery, tailoring, off-season vegetable farming, community livestock rearing, mixed cooking, mobile repairing, beautician skills and poultry farming). The consultant will coordinate for skill testing to be organized for only 229 women out of the total 245 successful graduates since NSTB has no provision to conduct skill testing in livestock rearing and Mixed Cook.

Skill testing will be conducted for following:

Tailoring (Number of Participants: 59);
Poultry Farming (Number of Participants: 21);
Beautician (Number of Participants: 21);
Community Livestock Assistant (Number of Participants: 20);
Off-season Vegetable Producer (Number of Participants: 69);
Sweet and Snack Maker (Number of Participants: 16);
Mobile Phone Repairer (Number of Participants: 11);
Hand Embroider (Number of Participants: 12);
Mix Cook (Number of Participants: 6); and
Goat Raising (Number of Participants: 10).

Note: NSTB can organize skill testing for the trainings mentioned above from serial number 1 to 8. The Occupation Profile is not ready with NSTB for the trainings mentioned above of serial number 9 and 10.

The consultant will be responsible specifically for:

Reviewing the project document including Result and Resource Framework (RRF), partners’ progress report, Mid-term Evaluation report, exit strategy report, TCN progress report, donor report to gain understandings on progress and results achieved so far;
Coordinate with technical Institute partner especially TCN, government agencies such as Women and Children Office (WCO) at the project districts and other local CSO partners to identify 229 women trainees and entrepreneurs and manage for their skill testing certification by NSTB in eight different occupations;
Coordinate with 229 women of Bajhang (85 women entrepreneurs), Doti (62 women entrepreneurs) and Kailali (82 women entrepreneurs) district and get the applications submitted to NSTB;
Coordinate with NSTB to plan skill testing date for different occupations;
Manage skill testing venue, equipment, materials and other logistics arrangement of the participants;
Manage transportation of the participants to the training venue;
Coordinate with NSTB to collect skill testing result and hand over to the participants.

Expected Deliverables:

An inception report and clear work plan with precise actions, timeline and specific tools and techniques in line with the scope of work and specific tasks;
At least 4 meetings including orientations held with the relevant stakeholders and women entrepreneurs of SIWPSAN project;
Preparation class for the skill test conducted for 229 women entrepreneurs, following this, the exams conducted for the skill test and certificate received;
Detail report on the whole process from various meetings held; orientation of the skill test provided to the entrepreneurs to the preparation of classes and also the achievement after the skill test.

Methodology: The consultant will develop a detail methodology for conducting the orientation and coordinate for preparation of the classes. The methodology may include interview with relevant stakeholders of the SIWPSAN project. Focus Group Discussion (FGC) with women entrepreneurs, consultation with WCO and local district partners including other relevant officials, and desk review of relevant documents. The consultant will also look at the sustainability of the skill test certificate provided to the women entrepreneurs.

Principles to Guide the Strategy:

Gender equality and social inclusion
Participation of (conflict affected) women
Transparency, accountability and good governance
Human rights based approach
Conflict Sensitivity including Do-no Harm

Contract Supervision: The overall and day to day guidance will be provided by the Unit Manager of WPS Unit, UN Women

Schedule of Payments:

Upon submission of an inception report presenting a clear work plan with timeline and specific tools and techniques to be utilized followed by clearance of Unit Manager, WPS Unit (20% of total contract, within two weeks time);
Upon submission of progress report of the orientation and preparation class conducted for the women entrepreneurs and field visit followed by clearance of Unit Manager, WPS Unit (50% of total contract, within four weeks time); and
Upon submission of final report of the whole process undertaken for the conduction of skill test along with the completion of skill test exam taken by the women entrepreneurs and certificate received by them followed by clearance of Unit Manager, WPS Unit (30% of total contract, within four weeks time).

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Proven ability to write reports, briefs and concept notes;
Proven ability to coordinate with Nepal government ministries; and
Ability to multi task, work on many concepts at once, and work in a team.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in Economics, Sociology/Anthropology, Enterprise Development Gender and Development, Social Science, Business Management, Law, Media or any other related fields.

Experience:

A minimum 5 years’ of experience working in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, including peace and security;
Experiences in facilitating group of entrepreneurs for providing skill test;
Experiences working with local governance system and procedure;
Excellent communication skills and intercultural sensitivity;
Good knowledge of computer applications especially Microsoft Office applications such as word and excel together with a good presentation skills.

Language:

Excellent command of written and oral English and Nepali.

How to Apply

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:

Expression of interest containing earliest starting date;
UN P11 form (blank form can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment/);
Samples of writing a programme/ project strategies, briefs, concept notes, press releases, op-eds;

A separate attachment of lump-sum financial proposal including followings:

Transportation of participants up to Skill Testing Venue;
Rental Charge of Test Venue;
Rental Charge of Equipments;
Consumable Materials for Test;
Snacks for Participants;
Overhead Charge for Coordination; and
NSTB Fees

Note: Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Please upload as one attachment of the documents as mentioned above online through this website. If it is not feasible to include all in one single document, the relevant research or working or policy papers (as mentioned above) can be send to separate email address jobs.np@unwomen.org.

Selection Process

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/interview and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for further evaluation process. The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest price proposal among the qualified candidates. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion.

Technical Evaluation including desk review/interview (70%).
Financial Evaluation (30%);

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

Qualification (20);
5 years’ of experience working in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, including peace and security (30);
Experience in facilitating group of entrepreneurs in skill testing (20);
experience working with government system including local governance (10); and
Writing skills based on samples submitted (20).

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.

The candidate who scores highest cumulative score will be considered for the service.

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.