Background

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Moldova supports the Government and civil society to ensure the full realization of children and adolescent’s rights, especially those at risk of exclusion due to geographic disparities, poverty, ethnicity, disability, gender, and lack of, or poor civic participation.  UNICEF’s Country Program Document 2018-2022 has a specific outcome focusing on Adolescent awareness and participation and incorporates wider targets reflected in international treaty body recommendations to the Republic of Moldova, specifically the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child to the combined 4th and 5th reports of the Republic of Moldova.

The work of UN Women in the Republic of Moldova is guided by its new Country Strategic Note for 2018-2022, which is aims to contribute to the realization of the National Strategy on Gender Equality for 2017-2021 (NSGE). Under its 2018-2022 Strategy, UN Women focuses on three main areas where gender equality gaps are still present: 1) strengthening women’s participation in politics and decision making, 2) advancing the economic empowerment of women and 3) preventing and combating violence against women and girls. To achieve progress under these areas, UN Women works with variety of national and international partners and as part of different national and regional initiatives, placing special focus on women and girls from marginalized groups.

The NSGE for 2017-2021?and its associated Action Plan aim to advance gender equality in a wide range of policy areas including political participation, social protection, labour market, health, the peace and security agenda, climate change and overall policy making and budgeting.

Adolescents (aged 14-19) and youth (aged 20-25), account for one-fourth of Moldova’s population, providing a unique potential for strengthened socio-economic growth. The mid-term review of the National Strategy for Youth Sector Development 2020 highlighted the progress made by the Government in strengthening the youth sector and accelerating implementation at national and local level of youth policies. The mid-term review as well highlighted key remaining shortfalls: a still fragmented youth sector and young people continuing to face multiple and interconnected challenges.

The Law on Youth, states that a robust youth sector provides environment in which the rights of adolescents and youth are fully and effectively realized. The Government as well prioritises the work on youth in recognizing that a strong youth sector requires engagement by various stakeholders and more than one institution should collaborate to effectively address the range of topics affecting youth. As of now different ministries and government entities develop and supervise stand-alone policies addressing issues of young people, however, such policies address issues only from a sector specific perspective, while, ideally a strategy on youth should be comprehensive and holistic, involving various sectors.

To comprehensively understand opportunities and challenges of the Youth Sector in Moldova, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research (MECR) requested UNICEF to undertake a comprehensive Youth Sector analysis. To maximize the outcomes of this complex exercise while pooling together comparative advantages of UN agencies and ensure robust advancement of gender equality in the youth sector of Moldova, a gender review of the Youth Sector will be conducted jointly by UN Women and UNICEF. This complex exercise will support the Comprehensive Youth Sector analysis conducted in UNICEF and UNFPA and should inform the Government on effective and efficient gender mainstreaming in further youth sector strategic priorities and policy interventions aligned to national, global and European priorities on youth, and will support the development of a modern, new and visionary Youth Sector Strategy in the Republic of Moldova. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women and UNICEF responsible staff, the Consultant will ensure that gender is mainstreamed in the comprehensive analysis of the youth sector in Moldova. The comprehensive youth sector gender analysis will be carried out in a participative manner, with close involvement of MECR; Ministry of Finance; Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure; Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Protection; civil society; academia; youth and adolescents and relevant developmental partners, including but not limited to EU, UNDP, UNFPA, IOM, WHO and the WB.

The role of the Consultant will be to review and propose specific changes to the below stated documents from gender perspective:

a. The context analysis;

b. The analysis of existing youth related policies;

c. The analysis of youth sector performance;

d. The analysis of the youth sector capacity;

e. The analysis of the information sources and their availability;

f.  Specific recommendations for gender mainstreaming in youth sector.

In addition, the Consultant is expected to participate in the public presentation for validation of findings.

The Consultant will be part of the team of experts which was separately contracted by UNICEF. S/he will work in close consultation with UNICEF Moldova Country Office and UNICEF Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, UN Women Moldova Country Office, the MECR and other line ministries and the National Youth Sector Group established by MECR for the work on the Youth Sector Analysis and Development Roadmap.

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

Functional Competencies:      

  • Mature judgment and initiative;
  • Ability to think out-of-the-box;
  • Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women/UNICEF;
  • Ability to work in multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural teams;
  • Ability to work under pressure against strict deadlines;
  • Ability to present complex issues persuasively and simply;
  • Displays cultural, gender, religion and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Required Skills and Experience

I. Academic Qualifications:

  • Master’s Degree in social studies, gender studies, public policy, development studies and/or another field related to the area relevant for the assignment;

II. Years of experience:

  • A minimum of 5 years of experience in gender equality, which includes provision of consultancy and technical advice services to public institutions related to gender equality and gender mainstreaming;
  • At least 5 years of proven experience in carrying out gender analysis of policy documents, strategies, plans;
  • Demonstrated experience and knowledge in the field of youth or education sector is a strong asset;
  • Experience in working with UNICEF, UN Women or other UN Agencies will be an asset;
  • Demonstrated experience in the field in CEE/CIS region including Moldova is an asset.

III. Language skills:

  • Excellent command of English, both oral and written.Working command of Romanian and/ or Russian is a strong asset.

UN Women and UNICEF applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.

UN WOMEN and UNICEF are committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

APPLICATION INFORMATION AND SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS COULD BE FOUND HERE Pr19/01872:

ALL THE APPLICATIONS SHALL BE SUBMITTED ONLINE IN ONE PDF DOCUMENT ON LOCAL WEB SITE FOLLOWING THE LINK: http://sc.undp.md/jobdetails/1872/ . ALL THE SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS, INCLUDING FINANCIAL OFFER TEMPLATE SHALL BE DOWNLOADED HERE: http://sc.undp.md/jobdetails/1872/ .

  • Interested candidates must submit via online submission system the following documents/ information
  • Letter of Intent to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position;
  • Duly filled Personal History Form P11 and the CV, including records on past experience in similar projects/ assignments and specific outputs obtained; P11 can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment ;
  • Financial proposal – specifying a total lump sum amount for the task specified in Terms of References. The Financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (daily rate).  Please see ANNEX I and ANNEX II which can be downloaded from here: http://sc.undp.md/jobdetails/1872/ .
  • Technical proposal – which shall include:
  1. Description of the candidate’s relevant experience with similar type of assignments (max 300 words);
  2. Proposed approach and methodology (max 1500 words), including: Timeline and milestones and Risk & mitigation measures;
  3. Annex: Short Sample or links to related work previously conducted by the consultant

The Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template and Annex II: Price Proposal Submission Form could be downloaded from here http://sc.undp.md/jobdetails/1872/.

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, scan your documents into one single file.

Qualified women candidates are highly encouraged to apply.