Background

The purpose of this procurement exercise is to contract an individual consultant who will support key interventions of the Gender Equality Seal initiative during 2018, adapting the Seal to the new context of UNDP’s Strategic Plan and Gender Equality Strategy; and launching the next Gender Equality Seal Certification Round. The consultant will support the roll out and certification process in Country Offices and support Country Offices to improve gender mainstreaming.

The Gender Equality Seal is a corporate quality assurance mechanism that measures and certifies the achievements and competence of Country Offices in advancing women's rights and gender equality. The Gender Equality Seal has three levels of certification (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) and Country Offices are awarded a certain level of certification according to their gender equality accomplishments. The gender equality seal strengthens accountability for gender equality results in the organization.

The Gender Team is looking for a consultant to support key interventions of the Gender Equality Seal initiative during 2018, adapting the Seal to the new context of UNDP’s Strategic Plan and Gender Equality Strategy; and launching the next Gender Equality Seal Certification Round.

In addition, the consultant will support the Gender Team in the gender marker tool. Global analysis of the UNDP Gender Marker data has been compiled, providing valuable insights into the size and proportions of budgets and expenditures contributions to gender equality. The consultant will support this analysis.

The consultant will provide critical support to the BPPS/Gender Team under the direct supervision of the Senior Policy Advisor on Gender Mainstreaming in the following areas: providing services of the Gender Equality Seal team to Country Offices and Regional Hubs.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK

The consultant will undertake the following tasks under the direct supervision of the Senior Policy Advisor on Gender Mainstreaming of the UNDP Gender Team in New York.  The consultant will support the Gender Equality Seal Certification process, supporting the roll out and certification process in Country Offices and support Country Offices (COs) to improve gender mainstreaming, including:

• Liaison with CO applicants, tracking COs in each step of the Seal certification process, ensure timely response to COs requests, and liaison with regional hubs.
• Provide technical assistance to COs in 7 areas of performance of the Seal: Management; Capacities; Enabling Environment; Communications and Knowledge management; Programmes/ projects; Partnerships; Results and Impact. Technical advice will be provided through skype, email and/or technical missions.
• Coordinate and develop supporting package for COs: including updating good practices document and database.
• Carry out online assessment of Country Offices: Review Country Offices/Units results and background documents (evidences) from the online assessment tool of the Gender Equality Seal, elaborate report and recommendations.

• Support Technical and Hands on mission to offices: liaison with COs, support to develop an agenda and methodology for the assessment mission.
• Support to external initiatives to develop Gender Equality award: Support the development of a methodological package for capacity development and accountability for gender mainstreaming and women’s empowerment implementation for other organizations (including public/ private sector with COs, etc.)
• Gender Marker:  Analyze gender marker data and support production of summary table on gender marker data

     EXPECTED OUTPUTS AND DELIVERABLES     

• Liaison with COs:
  • Technical assistance and support to COs in 7 areas of performance provided, including timely response to COs daily demands/requests delivered.  (May-Dec 2018)
  • Updates on COs performance provided to UNDP coordinator of the project. (ongoing: weekly)
  • Tracking system to ensure COs applicants complete the process of certification on time developed (May-Dec 2018)
• Seal technical support package for COs and good practices database updated. (May 2018)
• Global induction workshop for Seal applicants designed and organized. (June 2018)
• Workshop/ virtual training of assessors on the Seal benchmarking matrix and methodology, to ensure quality of the services delivered (June 2018)
• At least ten/twelve online CO Assessments carried out: verification of documents, assessment of scoring of the results of the Country Office as entered in the online assessment tool. Final report including scoring of benchmarks; (June-July 2018; and ongoing)
• Concise report and specific recommendations for action that can guide the office to improve their work on gender and overall Seal scores within 12 months delivered. (Aug-Sept 2018)
• Technical and hands on missions to COs supported: point of liaison, draft agenda and oversight of methodology for the technical/hand on mission developed. (Sept-Dec 2018)
• External initiatives, public/ private sector seal initiatives supported and delivered. (Nov-Dec 2018)
• Production of gender marker analysis tables (Dec 2018)

Duration of Work

The assignment is for 7 months: 15 May – 31 Dec 2018 (140 days)

Duty Station

     The consultancy will either be Home Based or New York based, depending on specificassignments and agreed work plan.

Competencies

1.  Demonstrated capacity for strategic thinking, and expertise in global gender equality and mainstreaming strategies;
2. Proven capacity to produce high quality qualitative research and ability to absorb, analyze and synthesize large amounts of complex information within tight deadlines;
3. Demonstrated ability and willingness to work with people of different cultural, ethnic and religious background, different gender, and diverse political views.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications:

• Masters or Ph.D. in a development related discipline (women’s studies or gender, development).

Experience:

• Minimum of 5-7 years of comprehensive knowledge in gender and development, institutional development and gender mainstreaming or related fields, required
• Strong understanding of the UNDP, operations and structures, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s empowerment, and experience with the UN, required
• Proven expertise on gender audits, evaluations and capacity assessments for gender mainstreaming, required
• At least 2 years field experience, required
• Knowledge of gender equality certification schemes, required.
• Demonstrated coordination skills and experience liaising and coordinating with Field offices/ projects across countries and regions, required
• Experience in developing partnerships with other organizations will be an asset.
• Knowledge of gender equality marker systems for tracking and reporting on allocations and expenditures for gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment will be an asset
• Proven expertise in designing and implementing gender responsive participatory methodologies will be an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required; Proficiency in English language for report writing
• Ability to speak either Spanish or French or Arabic is an asset.

Application Procedure

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):

• Online application with brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment; and
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references.

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee (based on a 7 hour working day - lunch time is not included - for 140 days up to July 2018)
• The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., , personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.
• In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.
• If the Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.

Evaluation process

Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below.  Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring.  When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.

Technical evaluation - Total 70% (700 points):

• Criteria 1: Academic background: Master’s degree or Ph.D. in a development related discipline (women’s studies or gender, development): 10 points
• Criteria 2: Minimum of 5-7 years of comprehensive knowledge in gender and development, institutional development and gender mainstreaming or related fields; participatory methodologies and at least 2 years field experience: 10 points;
• Criteria 3: Strong understanding of the UNDP, operations and structures, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s, and experience with the UN: 10 points;
• Criteria 4: Proven expertise on gender audits, evaluations and capacity assessments for gender mainstreaming; and knowledge of gender equality certification schemes: 10 points
• Criteria 5: Demonstrated coordination skills and experience liaising and coordinating with Field Offices and projects across countries and regions: 10 points
• Criteria 6:  Interview: 20 points

Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will invite the top four shortlisted candidates for interview. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial evaluation - Total 30% (300 points)

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal:

p = y (µ/z), where

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Contract Award

Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.

Institutional arrangement

The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of Senior Policy Advisor, Gender Team and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.

The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.

Payment modality

• Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.
• The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7 hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.