Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, UN Women, is the global champion for gender equality, working to develop and uphold standards and create an environment in which every woman and girl can exercise her human rights and live up to her full potential. We are trusted partners for advocates and decision-makers from all walks of life, and a leader in the effort to achieve gender equality.

UN Women has a three-pronged mandate focusing on normative, coordination and programmatic engagement. Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is supporting national partners (governmental and non-governmental) in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, it facilitates networking and exchange of good practices and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life. Programatically, UN Women works in five thematic areas, such as leadership and participation, women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women, women peace and security and gender responsive governance. UN Women also invests significantly in the coordination within the UN, with the national institutions, with the civil society organizations and with the international development partners. In 2021 UN Women is commencing implementation of its Strategic Note for the period 2021 – 2025, which is aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF 2021 – 2025) and is looking to further develop normative and coordination engagement with the key partners in the country.
 
Under the supervision of the UN Women Programme Specialist, and overall supervision of the UN Women Representative, in close collaboration with UN Women Project Managers, Communication Associate and Coordination Associate, as well as selected colleagues within the UNCT, the consultant will be responsible for supporting conceptualization and implementation of normative and coordination activities.

DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVE

The outcome of this consultancy will support UN Women and UNCT capacities to design and deliver development initiatives in support to improvement of position of women and girls in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
 
IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE
 
To support design and implementation of the normative and coordination activities in line with the UN Women Annual Workplan 2021 and in support to UNSDCF Joint Work Plan 2021 - 2022.
 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the UN Women Programme Specialist and overall supervision of UN Women Representative, the consultant is expected to deliver the following results:
Normative Support

• Conduct desk review and consultations to update the Normative Overview and Milestones for 2021
• Develop CEDAW Recommendations Action Plan for BiH and the RS
• Develop recommendations for the focused work on normative issues within the process of implementation of UNSDCF 2021 – 2025
• Develop overview and key information on the normative objectives related to gender equality and empowerment of women
• Support to localization of Generation Equality in BIH
• Support to government and CSO consultations

Coordination Support

• Revise training materials and deliver basic and advanced training on gender equality and gender mainstreaming for UNCT project managers and other relevant staff, to cover the following: Needs assessment, Tailored training programme, based on the own and UN Women resources and Evaluation based on participants feedback and recommendation for the future capacity building activities;
• Support Development of the UNCT Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan, based on the assessment of indicators in the SWAP – Gender Scorecard and consultations with the GTG members and implementation of selected activities
• Support implementation of the selected objectives of the UNCT Gender Mainstreaming Action Plan 
• Lead development of the Concept note for UN Women collaboration with the CSOs
• Support organization and facilitation of the CSO Convention

Organize bi-weekly briefings with the UN Women Programme Specialist and Representative to provide status reports;

• Produce monthly and a final consultancy report in English after the completition of tasks, not to exceed 5 pages.

 
To facilitate delivery of the above outputs, UN Women will provide the consultant the following:

• Country Gender Equality Profile;
• Normative Overview for 2021
• UNSDCF 2021 – 2025 and Joint Work Plan 2021 - 2022
• COVID-19 related socio-economic assessments produced by UN Women and UNCT;
• Other documents as necessary.
   

DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME

The consultant will be expected to submit the following deliverables within the indicative timeframe:

The consultancy will last up to 75 consultancy days, in the period from 01 June 2021 – 15 January 2022. The assignment might require presence on UN Women premises. 

Reporting

All deliverables should be submitted to the UN Women Programme Specialist in English. Monthly progress repots and timesheets are due 01 July, 01 August, 01 September, 01 October, 01 November, 01 December, 10 January. The final consultancy report should be delivered by 12 January 2022 and should not exceed 7 pages. Approval time required to review the deliverables before authorizing payments is 7 days. 

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: 
https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637
Functional Competencies:
Knowledge Management and Learning

• Shares knowledge and experience
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
• Development and Operational Effectiveness
• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
• Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems
• Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource

 
Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
• Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
• Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners
   

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

• University Degree in social sciences, law, economics, political sciences or related field
• Master’s degree (MA or MSc) will be considered an asset.

 
Work Experience:

• At least 5 years of demonstrated work experience in gender mainstreaming, policy research/analysis in the fields of gender equality, political science, social sciences or related field;
• Experience in working with developing or implementing international and national legal, policy frameworks regarding gender equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina; 
• Experience working with relevant stakeholders in the country, including gender institutional mechanisms, national institutions, and the international organizations;
• Experience in organizing and delivering gender mainstreaming capacity building training;
• Previous experience working/consulting for international projects/programmes;
• Fluency in English and B/H/S, excellent spoken and written skills.

 
 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. 

 
The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest price proposal among those candidates. 

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%) – 70 points, 

• At least 7 years of demonstrated work experience in gender mainstreaming, policy research/analysis in the fields of gender equality, political science, social sciences or related field – 20 points;
• Experience in working with developing or implementing international and national legal, policy frameworks regarding gender equality in Bosnia and Herzegovina – 15 points;
• Experience working with relevant stakeholders in the country, including gender institutional mechanisms, national institutions, and the international organizations – 10 points;
• Experience in organizing and delivering gender mainstreaming capacity building training – 15 points;
• Previous experience working/consulting for international projects/programmes – 5 points;
• Fluency in English and B/H/S, excellent spoken and written skills – 5 points.

 
Financial Evaluation (30%) – 30 points
Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30
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.
 
 
DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS
 
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:

1. Expression of interest and confirmation of immediate availability
2. Detailed financial proposal in BAM inclusive of all costs (which includes consultancy fees, travel, accommodation) 
3. Completed UN Women Personal History (P11) form, that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

 
Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered (all documents indicated above need to be uploaded).
Please note that any envisaged travel and accommodation costs should be covered by the consultant. 
 
For any additional information, please contact unwomen.bih@unwomen.org
 
How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, and Expression of Interest into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement);
• Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application;'
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above);
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

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.