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 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. 
In line with its mandate and the annual workplan, UN Women has the responsibility to drive the UN system in enhancing the accountability towards gender equality, in expanding and strengthening partnership, in advancing results based management from gender perspective and in supporting advocacy leading to new innovative initiatives towards gender equality. During 2017, UN Women is expected to a) develop a new UN Joint Programme that will contribute to the implementation of the Outcome 5 of the UN Partnership for Sustainable Development focusing on increasing state accountability towards gender equality and supporting all women and girls to live without violence and discrimination; b) support the government – in particular the Gender equality machinery - in developing the second National Action Plan for the Implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 1325 and the National Action Plan on Gender Equality. In parallel, UN Women is starting the consultative process of developing the new UN Women Strategic Note for 2018 -2021 and –jointly with other UN Agencies, is advocating for advancing gender equality in the access to labor market and the recognition of the unpaid care work. 
To support the Head of Office and UN Women team in delivering the commitments in the above-mentioned areas, the programme office in Skopje is seeking to recruit a Local Consultant. 

Scope of work

The objective of the assignment is to provide expert support to the Head of Office and the office team in developing the UN Women country strategic note for 2018-2021 and  drafting a Concept note for UN Joint Programme in line with Partnership for Sustainable development workplan for 2017-2018.. To that end, the local consultant will be responsible for conducting desk review and research, as well as facilitating the process of planning/consultations with national stakeholders as well as UN Agencies.  

Duties and Responsibilities

Working under the supervision of the Head of Office/Gender Specialist, the local consultant will support the UN Women team in the realization of the 2017 workplan related to leadership/coordination, partnership, resource mobilization and results based management functions.  The local consultant will be responsible for the following tasks and responsibilities:

  • Carry out desk review, and collect relevant inputs from UN Agencies, national stakeholders and civil society organizations to be used in the process of developing a UN Joint Project on gender equality;
  • Conduct primary and secondary data collection, including desk review of relevant national strategic documents on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and gather inputs of stakeholders, government and CSOs to provide recommendations to UN Women on the upcoming strategic planning process; 
  • Expert support in developing  the inception phase of a cross-border regional project on public and urban safety from gender perspective;
  • Develop advocacy messages pertaining to gender equality and unpaid care work, elimination of gender based discrimination and violence. 

Key deliverables, activities and timeframe 

  • Undertake desk review of existing available data and analysis, as well as UN Women draft global Strategic Note and UN Partnership for Sustainable Development (PSD), for the purposes of supporting the development of: 1) the UN Women Strategic Note;  and 2) UN Joint Programme focusing on gender equality and multiple sources of discrimination (by 20 July 2017);
  • Develop platform for consultations with stakeholders (0 draft matrix for consultations; minutes of meetings/discussions) on UN Women Strategic Note and propose priority interventions based on desk review and consultation for supporting the development of UN Women Strategic Note (by 20 August 2017);
  • Draft of the Concept Note prepared for the Joint Programme on gender equality (by 20 September 2017);
  • Compile all inputs submitted to UN Women for the Joint Programme on Gender Equality (by 20 October 2017);
  • Develop and submit to UN Women team advocacy messages in the areas specified above (by 20 November 2017);
  • Proposals for project intervention in the area of Public and Urban Safety for the capital city, based on the new reports to be produced, such as Skopje Public Space Profile and  Scoping Study on Gender Based Violence in public spaces in Skopje urban area . (by 10 December 2017); 
  • Final individual report in English (max. 3 pages), (by 15 December 2017).

    Reporting

Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Head of Office/Gender Specialist, the Local Consultant will deliver the above listed outputs in accordance with the indicative timeframe.
All deliverables of an acceptable standard and quality should be submitted to the Head of Office/Gender Specialist and in languages as specified above. 

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: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf 

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 

  •     University degree in public administration, legal/social/ development studies, gender studies and/or international relations, or similar.

Experience

  •     A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience working on gender equality projects, including gender based discrimination, gender based violence;. 
  •     Prior experience with the UN and/or international organizations will be considered an advantage;
  •     Prior experience in developing strategic documents and projects;
  •     Experience in coordinating work involving multiple stakeholders;
  •     Demonstrated interest in gender equality work;
  •     Demonstrated ability to work in a team;
  •     Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications (Power Point, Word, Excel).

 Language

  • Fluency in English and Macedonian is required.

 Evaluation of Applicants:

Since this will be direct contracting individual consultants will be evaluated based on her/his CV and the references from the previous jobs. The award of the contract should be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

  •     responsive/compliant/acceptable
  •     fulfilling the technical criteria outlined in the ToR 
  •     acceptable financial offer  

 Duration and remuneration: 

The duration of the contract is in the period of 30 Jun3 until 15 December 2017, on a part-time basis.  UN Women will process monthly lump sum payments upon satisfactory completion of deliverables foreseen in the respective month of the assignment.  

Application 

The candidate will be requested to send the confirmation of availability and financial offer to UN Women.
The application should contain:

  •     Short Letter of interest, including financial proposal, indicating a total lump sum for the delivery as per above description. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (consultancy fee, travel and any other possible costs). 
  •     Completed UN Women Personal History (P11) form, that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment/
  •     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.