Background

In December 2018, UNDP, UN Women, UNFPA and ESCWA launched The Gender Justice Initiative, which was based on a series of 18 country reports, verified at the country level, on Gender Justice and the Law in the Arab Region. The reports assessed existing legal frameworks affecting gender equality and protection against gender-based violence. Through their publication, the partners sought to encourage legal, policy and institutional reforms to address barriers to gender equality and women’s empowerment. In 2019, the four UN agencies embarked together on phase II of the initiative, which focused on commissioning a regional report and dashboard to bring a unique regional lens to the detailed examination of legislative provisions included in the country reports, notably penal, personal status, nationality and labour codes. This phase was carried out in consultation with a regional Advisory Group of 15 experts from academia, government, civil society and the legal profession. In December 2019, the regional report on Gender Justice & Equality before the Law: Analysis of progress and challenges in the Arab States region was launched. It was complemented by the Gender Justice and the Law Dashboard, a color-coded chart that visually illustrates the status of legislation in 18 Arab States.

To ensure that both the regional report on Gender Justice & Equality before the Law: Analysis of progress and challenges in the Arab States region and the Gender Justice and the Law Dashboard continue to serve as useful tools for advancing gender-sensitive legal and policy reform in the region, the four agencies have launched phase III of the gender justice initiative. This phase focuses on expanding the scope of issues covered in the country reports and the dashboard, for example to include laws on sexual and reproductive health and rights and violence against women, and the launch of a dedicated Gender Justice website that hosts the data and information made available by the gender justice initiative.

In parallel to this consultancy, UNDP and UNFPA will have similar consultancies to cover the remaining countries under the programme. ESCWA is the administrator for the Gender Justice website (to be launched in June 2020) and is responsible for harmonizing all the consultants’ inputs, including ensuring their quality and consistency.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall purpose of this consultancy is to review and analyse the existing legislative frameworks in seven focus countries regarding the promotion and enforcement of women’s civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, utilizing an assessment tool developed by the four agencies. The seven focus countries are: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and Sudan.

To contract an individual to review and analyze the existing legislative frameworks in seven focus countries in the Arab Region regarding the promotion and enforcement of women’s civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights, utilizing a pre-designed assessment tool and criteria; and to update existing country reports with new legal analysis.

Objectives of the Consultancy:

1. Based on the pre-developed assessment tool and criteria, collect data on laws in the focus countries regarding gender equality. Particular focus is on political participation, violence against women, employment and economic participation, marriage and family life, and sexual reproductive health and rights.
2. Identify and analyse gaps between the existing laws and policies and international standards in the focus countries.
3. Update the 2018 country reports to include the new legal analysis and to reflect any changes in relevant laws since the 2018 assessments. 

OUTPUT AND DELIVERABLES:

The International Consultant shall coordinate and contribute to the production of the following products which outlined in the below table:

Competencies

Corporate competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of the United Nations.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional Competencies

• Background knowledge of status of legislation in the Arab region including CEDAW and relevant human rights instruments.
• Proven intellectual and practical capacity to understand and interpret different texts and provide a sound synthesis and analysis.
• Ability to handle confidential and politically sensitive issues in a responsible and mature manner.
• High level logical and methodical organizational skills.
• Good writing skills.

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Seeks and applies knowledge, information and best practices from a variety of sources.
• Demonstrates a strong capacity for innovation and creativity in providing strategic policy advice and direction.

Judgment/Decision-Making

• Mature judgment and initiative.
• Proven ability to provide strategic direction to the project implementation process.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor degree in law. Advanced degree in law will be an asset.
• Additional course work in Women/Gender Studies and/or International Development is desirable.

Experience: 

• At least three years of experience in legal research including data collection, qualitative data analysis and report writing;
• Proven knowledge of human rights, and/or gender and equality in the Arab region, particularly in the focus countries;
• Familiarity with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals;

Language:

Excellent command of English and Arabic.

INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENT

• S/He shall perform tasks under the general guidance and direct supervision of the ROLSHR consultant and Regional gender adviser.
• The supervision will include approvals/acceptance of the outputs and deliverables as identified in the previous section;
• The individual may be expected to liaise and collaborate in the course of performing the work with other consultants, suppliers and UN colleagues;
• The individual is required to provide periodical progress reports on a regular and needed basis throughout the assignment to monitor progress;
• The individual is required to maintain close communication with UNDP-RBAS on a regular and needed basis at any period throughout the assignment in order to monitor progress. In the event of any delay, S/he will inform UNDP promptly so that decisions and remedial action may be taken accordingly;
• Should UNDP deem it necessary, it reserves the right to commission additional inputs, reviews or revisions, as needed to ensure the quality and relevance of the work.

DURATION OF THE WORK AND DUTY STATION

The Consultant is expected to start on 15 June 2020 for 51 working days spread over a period of 4 months.  All work will be home-based.

 In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminals expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and the Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed upon UNDP IC Rule and Regulations.

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications. Candidates that fail to submit the required information will not be considered.

1. Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
2. Brief Description of why you consider yourself as the most suitable candidate for this assignment;
3. Writing sample of previous legal research assignment
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive Deliverables/Outputs based total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided. The terms “all-inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consumables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal. If an 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 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.

All necessary information including: Complete Procurement Notice, the Selection Criteria, and Annexes are found on the following link under Procurement http://procurement-notices.undp.org/

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications to Job advertisement website (https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm) and should submit their proposal by e-mail to the following address: proc.contract.rscjo@undp.org not later than 1 June 2020. Candidates that fail to submit the required information on or before the set deadline (will not be considered.

Please do not submit financial proposal in this stage. Financial proposal shall be requested from Candidates who are considered technically responsive

EVALUATION

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Step I: Screening and desk review:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Applications will be first screened and only candidates meeting the following minimum criteria will progress to the pool for shortlisting:

• Bachelor degree in law.

• At least 3 years experience in legal research.
• Proven knowledge of human rights, and/or gender and equality in the Arab region.
• Excellent written and oral English and Arabic.

Shortlisted Candidates will be then assessed and scored against the following evaluation criteria (max 100 points):

• Criteria 1: University degree in law. Advanced degree in law will be an asset –Max 15 points (10 points for bachelor’s degree, 5 points for advanced degree);
• Criteria 2: Minimum three years relevant research experience – Max 25 points.
• Criteria 3: Analytical, research and writing abilities as evidenced by submitted research sample Max 30 points
• Criteria 4:  Proven knowledge of human rights, and/or gender and equality in the Arab region, particularly in the focus countries Max 25 points
• Criteria 5: Excellent command of English and Arabic – 5 points

Step II: Final evaluation

The final evaluation will combine the scores of desk review and financial proposal with the following weights assigned to each:

• Technical evaluation: 70%;
• Financial proposal: 30%