Background

BACKGROUND

The UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia launched the third phase of the regional project titled “Promoting Gender Responsive Policies in South East Europe” (2017-2018)) in March 2017. The project is financially supported by the Austrian Development Agency and the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development. The project’s overall goal is to contribute to the implementation of gender equality commitments as enshrined in various international human rights documents including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, CEDAW, the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, EU Equality Directives, and national laws and strategies on gender equality in South East Europe (with a focus on Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Albania, FYR Macedonia and Republic of Moldova).

Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) has been identified as an important tool for advancing gender equality in key national documents, in accordance with the existing BiH national policy documents on social inclusion and gender equality. In accordance with government priorities stated in the national and local plans and strategies, UN Women has been supporting government efforts in using GRB as a tool to advance gender equality and ensure that women’s needs are incorporated in policies and related budgets. The expected long-term result of these initiatives is the incorporation of gender equality principles, perspectives and priorities not only in policy making, but also in budgeting at the national and local levels, leading to greater accountability and transparency of public finances.

Successful implementation of GRB involves requesting governments to relate their spending priorities to the particular needs of women and men, girls and boys. While in BiH we have parliamentarians that are ready to support the introduction of GRB at the state level, we are still missing quality GRB analyses and complete policy reviews of select sectors/programmes that will serve as a basis for further GRB implementation and enable interested parliamentarians to advocate for necessary changes in the Parliament.  UN Women is, in parallel, working on strengthening the capacities of the newly elected members of BiH Parliamentary Commissions in analysing public policies/programmes/budgets and monitoring their implementation from gender perspectives and enabling them to influence decisions and demand more efficient and equitable resource allocations. Such initiatives enhance transparency, accountability and participation by legislators in determination of spending priorities in Government policies.

The project aims to achieve: sectorial programs and budgets at central and local levels that are better able to reflect gender equality concerns; a strengthened oversight of central and local governments’ policies, programs, plans and budgets towards gender equality commitments; and an exchange of knowledge on GRB in order to facilitate replication of good practices and lessons learned.

OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSULTANCY

The ultimate aim of the project is to contribute to the implementation of commitments towards achieving gender equality. To achieve this aim UN Women Country Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina is seeking to recruit a National Consultant who will work on the development of the Report on BiH Gender Responsive Budgeting Knowledge Product. The areas that are expected to be analysed include: legislation, adopted strategies and policies, budgetary instructions, available data, official documentation, reports and other relevant documentation. The final Report should feature a detailed description of all Gender Responsive Budgeting related activities implemented in BiH since 2008.

This consultancy has two main objectives: a) to review the legal framework, adopted strategies and politics, budgetary instructions, data collected, official documentation and reports produced in BiH; b) to develop detailed Report on the Knowledge product development on the Gender Responsive Budgeting achievement in BiH.

IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE

UN Women Country Office in BiH is seeking to recruit a National Consultant that will assist UN Women BiH CO to develop BiH Gender Responsive Budgeting Knowledge Product and Draft Project Document for the next phase of work.  

Duties and Responsibilities

The selected Consultant shall be responsible for the following deliverables:

  • Detailed Methodology. Based on the preliminary discussions with UN Women CO BiH and GRB Regional Project Manager the consultant should develop a detailed proposal of the methodology for review and consultations with the aim of developing a knowledge product on the GRB interventions in BiH to date and proposal for the programmatic intervention in the coming mid-term period.

  • Desk review. The Desk review should at minimum include the review of the following set of documents: international policy documents and tools such as CEDAW Convention, EU Equality Directives, National legislation, strategies, instructions, budget allocations and budget execution reports, products of all phases of GRB programme interventions to date;

  • Knowledge Product.The consultant is expected to produce a maximum 30 pages document based on a) desk review of documentation b) consultation with UN Women and principal stakeholders and c) the fair and impartial judgement of the consultant. The final report should include a) a review of the implemented activities on GRB in BiH starting from 2008, based on the available documentation and thwe consultations with stakeholders and, b) impact analysis of the conducted UN Women GRB programmatic interventions including lessons learned and proposals for the follow-up interventions.

  • Draft Project Document. The consultant is expected to produce a draft project document for the GRB interventions in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the mid-term period (3-5 years) in consultations with the principal stakeholders and UN Women staff locally and regionally, and based on the lessons learned and good practices on effective GRB approach in comparable country contexts.

ACTIVITIES AND TIMEFRAME

The National Consultant will be expected to complete the tasks within the indicative timeframe:

  • Consultations with UN Women - 0.5 days, 05 May 2018;
  • Draft methodology - 1 day, 10 May 2018;
  • Final methodology - 0.5 days, 15 May 2018;
  • Desk review - 10 days,  01 June 2018;
  • Draft Knowledge Product - 5 days, 15 June 2018;
  • Draft Project Document - 5 days, 01 July 2018;
  • Final Knowledge Product - 4 days, 15 July 2018;
  • Final Project Document - 4 days, 20 July 2018;

REPORTING
Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Representative and the direct supervision of the UN Women Programme Specialist, the National Consultant will develop and deliver the above listed outputs in accordance with the above outlined timeframe. All deliverables should be submitted to the UN Women Programme Specialist. All the outputs should be provided in English language in accordance with the above table.

Competencies

CORE VALUES:

  • Respect for Diversity;
  • Integrety.

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

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in gender, development, public policy, social studies or closely related field.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 7 years of relevant professional experience. Previous experience working with international organizations as well as gender equality issues would be considered an asset;
  • In-depth knowledge of gender gaps, gender inequalities and status of women in the country;
  • Experience with Gender Responsive Budgeting and Gender mainstreaming is an asset;
  • Demonstrated experience in programme/project design and management.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

  • Financial proposal (for details see further below);
  • UN P11 form;

Please note: Both documents have to be uploaded in 1 file.

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 a financial proposal. The contract will be awarded, based on the desk review, 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 50 points in the technical evaluation will be considered as qualified and evaluated further. Only top 3 candidates (with highest number of points in the technical evaluation) will be assessed further, based on their respective financial proposals. The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest price proposal among those top 3 qualified candidates. All other price proposals will receive points in reverse order.

Criteria:

Technical Evaluation – documents based (80%)

Out of which:

  • Education – 20 percentage points
  • Evaluation related work experience/expertise – 60 percentage points out of which:
  • At least 7 years of demonstrated work experience in gender and gender responsive budgeting; - 10 percentage points
  • At least 7 years of training development and training delivery experience with government officials – 10 percentage points.
  • Demonstrated experience in project cycle management – 10 percentage points.
  • Demonstrated experience in work with municipal finance office – 5 percentage points.
  • Demonstrated experience work with gender institutional mechanism and ministries of finance – 5 percentage points.
  • Track record of similar assignments (applied research studies, PCM, evaluations) – 10 percentage points.
  • Demonstrated experience with applied research with data collection, analytical and presentation skills and demonstrated ability to structure information – 5 percentage points.
  • Previous experience working /consulting for UN agencies – 5 percentage points.

Financial Evaluation – based on submitted offer (20%)

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 20

  • 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.

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