Background

Since December 2017, UN Women Georgia Country Office has been implementing the project “A Joint Action for Women’s Economic Empowerment” (JAWE), generously funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Norway. The project aims to ensure women's economic rights and inclusion in Georgia by supporting the private sector and the Government to create an enabling environment, and by building women's capacities to capitalize on available decent work opportunities.

The project beneficiaries will include three main target groups: the private sector, government and vulnerable and marginalized groups of women, as well as women business enterprises. The project has three outputs with activities engaging these three groups and building sustainable and mutually beneficial links between them. All outputs contribute to one outcome, for women to fully realize their economic rights with the support of a gender-responsive private sector and an enabling State legislative and economic environment. The outcome aims to contribute to the overall goal that women, particularly the poorest and most excluded, are economically empowered and benefit from development in Georgia.

Herewith, since 2017 Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation has been supporting the project “Women’s Economic Empowerment in the South Caucasus” (WEESC) implemented by UN Women Georgia Country Office in Georgia. The project’s goal is to ensure that women, particularly the poor and socially excluded, in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia are economically empowered and participate in relevant decision-making.

In order to contribute to the set overarching goal/impact, the first main phase of the project aims to contribute to the following three outcomes: 1: Women, particularly the poor and socially excluded, use skills, economic opportunities and relevant information to be self-employed and/or to join the formal labour sector in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia (grass-roots level); 2: Armenia and Georgia implement adequate legislative and policy frameworks to enable women’s economic empowerment (policy and legislation level); 3: Government and public institutions develop and deliver gender-responsive programmes, public services, strategies and plans for women’s economic empowerment in Armenia and Georgia (institutional level).

The above stated projects contribute to Georgia’s nationalized SDGs 4, 5 and 8, to the implementation of the 2014-2020 National Strategy for the Protection of Human Rights in Georgia and the development of a Comprehensive Action Plan on Business and Human Rights. The projects are also aligned with the CEDAW Concluding Observations for Georgia (2014) and the Agreed Conclusions of the 61st session of the Commission of the Status of Women (2017), among other important human rights and development frameworks.

UN Women in collaboration with International Labour Organization (ILO) introduced a methodology of Participatory Gender Audit (PGA) to Georgia in November 2012. In May-April 2018, UN Women in the frameworks of the two projects mentioned above supported the training and certification of PGA facilitators in International Training Center (ITC) of ILO, Turin, Italy. The PGA methodology has been elaborated by ILO in the beginning of the 2000s (The training manual on Participatory Gender Audit was adapted by ILO was first developed by Gender and Development Training Centre for the StichtingNederlandseVrijwilligers in the Netherlands in the early 2000s.) According to the ILO definition:

“…the ILO Participatory Gender Audit is a tool that supports an organization’s commitment to gender equality by examining the extent to which equality is being institutionalized; helping to identify good practices in technical work; and pointing to effective and efficient ways of moving forward in mainstreaming gender in all work activities” (ILO, A Manual for Gender Audit Facilitators: The ILO Participatory Gender Audit Methodology, ILO, 2007, 5.).

Given the above, PGA methodology is a tool, which if fully applied, can in a complexity benefit not only those organizations that will undergo such audits, but also beneficiaries of these organizations. With this vision in mind, it has been decided by UN Women to conduct the PGAs of the Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia (MTA) based in Batumi, Enterprise Georgia, Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development of Georgia and Agricultural Projects’ Management Agency (The Agricultural Projects’ Management Agency is currently going through the reorganization process. In case its name/mandate changes, the PGA will be conducted in its successor organization) based in Tbilisi. The four institutions, along with their strategic importance and relevance for women’s economic empowerment, have also expressed goodwill to undergo such audits that is a decisive factor for successful PGA outcomes.

In each of these institutions the PGA will look whether internal practices and related support systems for gender mainstreaming are in place and effective and reinforce each other; it will monitor and assess the relative progress made in gender mainstreaming in the organizations; will identify the critical gaps and challenges, in terms of effective gender mainstreaming and recommend ways for addressing them; and last but not least, document good practices towards the achievement of gender equality.

To implement the work spelled out in the description section above, UN Women intends to hire in total six national consultants/facilitators to work and perform identical duties and responsibilities in a team and conduct the participatory gender audit of the above-mentioned agencies. Two teams - each consisting of three facilitators - will be formed out of total six consultants/facilitators. Each team will perform the PGA of the two agencies out of four listed further below. As per the key principles of the ILO PGA approach, total of six national consultants will be selected from the roster of ITC-ILO certified group of facilitators of Participatory Gender Audit.

Duties and Responsibilities

Elaborate and submit the work plan and specific methodology on PGAs of the agencies including key activities, and timeframe of the assignment in close cooperation with the UN Women team;

Conduct participatory gender audit of the agencies in line with the finalized and agreed methodology according to the revised ILO manual and procedures on Participatory Gender Audit (2012) (http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/---publ/documents/publication/wcms_093425.pdf). Namely, implement similar activities in each of the audited agency to ensure that all audited entities institutions undergo full-fledged PGA cycle:

• Conduct initial desk review of documents prior to audit meetings;
• Coordinate and conduct meetings and individual interviews in the agencies;
• Conduct and facilitate participatory joint workshops (one for each audited entity) and discuss findings from interviews and desk review;
• Draft PGA reports (one for each audited entity) including process, findings of the study and final recommendations in Georgian;
• Organize presentations of the findings of the PGAs with the related recommendations for the key staff of the agencies.

Finalize, write up and submit the final reports in Georgian with the relevant recommendations.

Deliverables (per consultant encompassing PGA work in two entities):

1. Developed work plan and specific methodology for the PGAs of two agencies, including key activities and timeframe of the assignment in English (2 days per each agency – 4 working days in total);
2. Completed desk review report of all the relevant documents of the two audited entities completed in Georgian (3 days per each agency – 6 working days in total);
3. Conducted at least 30 individual interviews and meetings for gender audit with key staff of both agencies (at least 15 interviews in each audited agency – (4 days per each agency – 8 working days in total);
4. Conducted two (one per entity) two-day participatory joint workshops with the staff of each of the two entities to discuss the findings from interviews and desk review (3 days per each agency – 6 working days in total);
5. Completed draft of the two preliminary reports (one for each audited entity) including process, findings of the study and final recommendations in Georgian (4 days per each agency - 8 working days in total);
6. Delivered presentations on the preliminary findings of the two audited entities (1 day per each agency - 2 working days in total);
7. Completed two final participatory gender audit reports including process, findings of the study and final recommendations in Georgian (2 days per each agency - 4 working days in total).

Timelines:

Enterprise Georgia – located in Tbilisi

Timeline according to deliverables:

1. 12 November 2018
2. 19 November 2018
3. 3 December 2018
4. 7 December 2018
5. 13 December 2018
6. 13 December 2018
7. 31 January 2019

Maritime Transport Agency of Georgia (MTA) – Located in Batumi

Timeline according to deliverables:

1. 13 December 2018
2. 27 December 2018
3. 24 January 2019
4. 1 February 2019
5. 12 February 2019
6. 12 February 2019
7. 15 March 2019

Ministry of Economy & sustainable development of Georgia – located in Tbilisi

Timeline according to deliverables:

1. 12 November 2018
2. 19 November 2018
3. 3 December 2018
4. 7 December 2018
5. 13 December 2018
6. 13 December 2018
7. 31 January 2019

Agricultural Projects’ Management Agency – located in Tbilisi

Timeline according to deliverables:

1. 13 December 2018
2. 27 December 2018
3. 24 January 2019
4. 1 February 2019
5. 12 February 2019
6. 12 February 2019
7. 15 March 2019

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement

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

Education:

• University degree University degree in social sciences or humanities;
• Valid ITC-ILO certificate for Gender Audit Facilitators. Certification process should include all three modules: on-line learning phase (pre-ToF Module), a Residential Training of Facilitators (ToF) and examinations (intermediate + final two-fold examination with a written test including a multiple-choice exam, a scenario analysis, practical exercise and simulations);

Experience and competencies: 

• At least three years of relevant professional experience in the field of gender equality and women’s rights;
• Good understanding and proved knowledge of gender mainstreaming principles;
• Good writing skills with demonstrated ability to plan and undertake participatory gender audit, collect and analyze data;

Language:

• Fluency in Georgian and good knowledge of English.

Evaluation procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated against the following technical and financial criteria:

• University degree in social sciences or humanities (max 30 points);
• Valid ITC-ILO certificate for Gender Audit Facilitators (max 40 points);
• At least three years of relevant professional experience in the field of gender equality and women’s rights (max 100 points);
• Fluency in Georgian and good knowledge of English (max 30 points);
• Solid knowledge and understanding of conducting participatory gender audit its scope and key principles (max 90 points);
• Good writing skills with demonstrated ability to plan and undertake participatory gender audit, collect and analyze data (max 60 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150

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 consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management arrangements:

The Consultant will work under the overall supervision and guidance of UN Women Country Representative and Deputy Country Representative, and in collaboration and day-to-day management of UN Women JAWE and WEESC project teams.

Financial arrangements:

Payment will be made in three instalments per reported number of fee days based on submitted and approved Time Sheet and after all the deliverables are submitted, accepted and approved:

Instalment I: 20% upon the submission of deliverable 1

Instalment II: 60% upon submission of deliverables 2,3, 4, 5 and 6

Instalment III: 20% upon submission of deliverable 7

Application submission package:

• CV;
• Duly filled Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Technical proposal on gender audit methodology explaining why candidate considers her/himself the most suitable for the work and providing a brief methodology concept-vision on how she/he will approach and conduct the work;
• Lump sum financial proposal/offer (in GEL)*, aggregated including all necessary expenses, fee per day and any other expenses essential to undertake the task – in the financial proposal the applicant/s are requested to  accommodate the fee of USD 4870 (per consultant) to reimburse UN Women for  covering tuition and travel expenses paid to  get PGA facilitator’s certified by attending ITC-ILO training in Turin in April-May 2018. By deducting the training fee from financial offer to be submitted the earlier agreement between trainees and UN Women will be considered fulfilled;

*The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer including travel and accommodation as relevant (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR).

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

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