Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination and violence 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. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programs and services needed to implement these standards.

UN Women is globally advocating for interventions in the sphere of conflict related sexual violence (CRSV) which would transform the position of survivors in post-conflict societies. In Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), many victims of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) from the war in the 90ties, have not been redressed to this day. The critical need to provide assistance and services to survivors of CRSV is greater than ever. Societal recognition of the harms suffered by women and men during the war is lacking while survivors suffer societal stigma. Moreover, it is estimated that survivors need enhanced access to improved services, such as free legal, access to affordable and appropriate psycho-social, health and mental care services, and economic empowerment.

Joint project “Seeking Care, Justice and Support for Survivors of Sexual Violence in Conflict” was created 3 years ago as a response to the reports and efforts of the Special Representative of the UN Secretary General and the UN Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women who emphasized the lack of broad understanding in society of harms women faced in conflict, and the stigmatization, attitudes and denial within societies towards sexual violence survivors after the conflict. It is implemented by 4 UN activities: UNFPA, UN Women, UNDP and IOM.
Un Women primarily works on economic empowerment of CRSV survivors, ensuring that economic rights of survivors are properly exercised within different government institutions and  by survivors themselves. Last year, UN Women has released economic empowerment grants schemes through CRSV survivor’s associations in 3 locations: Brcko, Bratunac and Gorazde. The objective of these schemes was to increase survivors’ personal and family income and promote their re-integration in the local community, as one of the building blocks of a comprehensive system of support for this group.

A mid-term assessment was conducted in 2017 and showed that beyond increasing family income, the schemes had a positive impact on raising survivors’ self-confidence and sense of purpose (combatting self-stigma), as well as empowered them to have a more active role in their family household and community (reducing family and community stigma). As a demonstration, through the Bratunac scheme, survivors have shown stronger linkage to household members and optimistic views concerning future operations, having new ideas for businesses (65% of participants) or willing to operate in the same branch (35%), either with current capacities (52%) or by expanding their business (44%).

Further assessment and monitoring of the aspects of social and economic empowerment of the beneficiaries of the scheme is necessary to track the increase of income of survivors through the schemes over a period of one year. The final assessment should give important data and lessons learnt for the upcoming programme interventions.

Duties and Responsibilities

Development objective

UN Women is seeking to recruit a National Consultant that will conduct a final assessment of the economic empowerment schemes in Brcko, Bratunac and Gorazde.

Immediate objective

The immediate objective of this assignment is to conduct a comprehensive final assessment examining and analysung both the economic empowerment as well as the social integration and personal empowerment of the survivors within their families and communities. This will require desk research and qualitative analysis of the available data and information. The consultant is also expected to reflect upon the initial objectives of the economic empowerment scheme (as listed below) and assess their level of achievement:

• Ensuring sustainable income for CRSV survivors;
• Helping CRSV survivors establish tighter relations with their families and become active members of their households;
• Empowering CRSV survivors to have accumulate funds at for their disposal and to manage households budget;
• Encouraging CRSV survivors to interact with other members of the society, actively participate in this scheme and  to consider applying to similar government programmes and schemes;

The Consultant is expected to consider results of the mid-term evaluation as well as the field assessment conducted by UN Women CRSV Coordinator and to analyse those results incorporating them in the final assessment. The Consultant is also expected to conduct interviews with representatives of CRSV associations. Finally, the selected Consultant is expected to capture good practices and lessons learned and  to propose recommendations relevant to upcoming programme interventions.

Outputs

The consultant is expected to deliver the following results:

• Review existing information including but not limited to the mid-term assessment and field assessment of economic empowerment schemes for CRSV survivors in BiH;
• Conduct 3 interviews with CSOs in Bratunac, Brcko and Gorazde;
• Prepare a draft document and submit for comments to CRSV Coordinator;
• Submit a final version of the impact assessment of the economic empowerment schemes for CRSV survivors  in BiH.

Activities, deliverables and timeframe

The consultant will be expected to complete the following tasks within the indicative timeframe:

Tasks / Deliverables Days estimate

• Review of the statistical sources, previously accomplished assesments and relevant analysis within the programme, 3;
• Conduct  at least 3 interviews with CSO beneficiaries,  3;
• Detailed analysis and preparation of draft assesment, 6;
• Preparation and final document (in English language), 3

Total 15

The consultancy will last for 15 working days within the period of one month.

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

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, social science or related field, international development, gender studies or similar field supported by relevant experience.

Skills and Experience:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in economics, social sciences or a related field;
• At least 7 years of professional development-related experience working at the international and national levels;
• Professional experience  in addressing economic empowerment of socially marginalized groups from various aspects;
• Knowledge and experience working in the development context of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the particular focus on the economic empowerment of socially marginalized groups;
• Track record of work relevant to the assignment;
• Excellent writing skills, fluency in B/H/S and English language

Documents to be included when submitting the proposals

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:

• Expression of interest
• Detailed financial proposal (which includes consultancy fees, travel, accommodation, subsistence etc in a form of a lump-sum)
• 1-page sample of work on similar subject (in English)
• UN P11 form

Please note: All documents have to be uploaded in 1 single 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 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 50 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for an interview. Top 3 candidates (with highest number of points in the technical evaluation) will be interviewed. The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest price proposal among those candidates who have reached at least 5 points in the interview. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion.

Criteria:

Technical Evaluation (70%),
Financial Evaluation (30%)
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.

Please note that travel costs should be covered by the consultant.

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