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.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has made some progress in creating preconditions for achieving gender equality by adopting relevant legislative and policy framework. However, women remain seriously under-represented in the country’s political institutions. In order to create a genuinely encouraging environment work on several fronts is required, including a sharper focus on implementation of all policy instruments and a corresponding shift of paradigm from equality of rights to equality of results, promotion of institutional processes that ensure women’s equal participation in political parties and parliament and consistent efforts to capacitate and include women in BiH in decision-making processes across board.
During the last general elections in 2014 political parties were obliged to observe candidate lists gender quotas stipulated by the Elections Law but this has not resulted in greater numbers in women elected. Women are under-represented in the legislative power at all levels, at 17.1%, which is in an obvious breach of the Gender Equality Law. Similarly, in the executive bodies, out of 152 ministerial positions in BiH at all levels, there are only 23 women. Only two women are represented at the Council of Ministers, and the members of tripartite BiH Presidency are (and always have been) men. Of the 183 registered political parties in BiH, not a single one is headed by a woman. The discrepancy between the lists and mandates, and the praxis of side-lining women by the political parties in which they should become visible and responsible in political life has caused much damage and discouraged women from engaging actively in politics . At local level, the numbers of women elected are even lower. After the 2016 local elections, the number of women candidates stood at only 6.8%, which represented a decrease from previous elections in 2012
This project is funded by the Government of Sweden and implemented by UNDP BiH and UN Women BiH, in partnership with local governments (Agency for Gender Equality BiH, Central Election Commission BiH, Parliamentary Assembly of BiH- Committee on Gender Equality)
The overall objective of the Women in Elections Project is to strengthen women’s leadership and participation in political life, vertically by making structural adjustments to accommodate greater numbers of women in politics, as well as horizontally by nourishing the next generation of women leaders in communities through tailored networking and capacity building initiatives and increased democratic participation and accountability. Guided by the strict observance of the highest standards of political neutrality, the project will apply the UNs Gender Equality in Elected Office approach (6 steps approach) to insure an encouraging environment for having more women elected across board, in all spheres of decision-making in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In order to create encouraging environment for this social transformation, the project activities would have to be based on the relevant data. It is therefore crucial to conduct capacity building of institutions which contribute towards a greater and more substantive role of women in political and public life in Bosnia and Herzegovina.  In order to address the parliamentary strengthening step, UN Women is seeking to engage a national consultant to summarize work and key results of the Gender Equality Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH, and to define key messages to be distributed and communicated to the new members of the Committee, newly elected parliamentarians as well as to the wider public.

Duties and Responsibilities

Outputs:

• Desk review of the Committee’s reports and presentations and other relevant work;
• Summary of key achievements of the Committee’s work and milestones for gender equality they represent;
• Creation of key messages for dissemination and communication;

ACTIVITIES, DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME

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

Tasks / Deliverables Days estimate

• Conduct a desk review of the Committee’s reports and presentations 3;
• Summarize key results of the Committee’s work and milestones for gender equality they represent and prepare them for communication and dissemination 2;
• Create key messages and present them to the team, integrating any modifications to produce a final version of key messages 2.

The consultancy will last for 7 working days in the period 27 May 2019 to 7 June 2019

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:

• University Degree in social sciences (BA)
• Master’s degree in communications, journalism or related field such as international development, gender studies or social science will be considered an asset.

Skills and Experience:

• At least 5 years of demonstrated work experience in in communications, including  experience in media relations. Relevant experience at the national level in delivering communication services to promote the activities of international development organization will be considered an asset
• Experience in promotion of gender issues
• Experience in producing communication materials (print and online) for a variety of media
• Knowledge of stakeholders in the country, including the national institutions, CSOs, and the international organizations working in the field of gender mainstreaming and development is an asset
• Track record of work relevant to the assignment
• Excellent verbal and writing skills in English and BiH languages

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:

1. Expression of interest
2. Detailed financial proposal inclusive of all costs (which includes consultancy fees, travel, accommodation, subsistence etc.)
3. 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 and financial criteria.

Criteria:
Technical Evaluation (80%),
Financial Evaluation (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.

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.