Community Development and Empowerment Advisor

Consultant Human Rights

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

UN Women in Kyrgyzstan is a strong advocate for improving the lives of women and girls in the country. Building on the vision of equality enshrined in the UN Charter, and in the framework of the UN Women Strategic Note for Kyrgyzstan 2023-2028, the Country Office implements a comprehensive programme with a focus to enhance women's leadership; eliminate violence against women; promote women participation in women, peace and security agenda, all aspects of decision making; financing for gender equality, women economic empowerment, gender mainstreaming in humanitarian action, disaster risk management and climate change adaptation.

In line with an integrated approach, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) portfolio of UN Women Kyrgyzstan Country Office is being implemented in linkages with the interventions on promoting women’s rights in political and social-economic areas, social cohesion and peace building and gender transformative climate change adaptation. This work is being led through the ongoing projects: "Strong Women's Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for Peace in Kyrgyzstan” funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), and “Women in Batken lead social cohesion for peace and development” funded from UK Conflict Stability and Security Fund (CSSF). The Country Office also supports initiatives on “EXPO on Women entrepreneurship” and promotion of women in leadership. The overall approach is to create an enabling environment for women’s and women led organizations’ participation in decision-making at the strategic level as a basis for peace in Kyrgyzstan. The CO’ programme work offers unique and innovative approaches and concepts that have been tested in the Kyrgyzstan context and proved its effectiveness for accelerating the processes of promoting gender equality and women’s rights

Duties and Responsibilities

UN Women is seeking to hire a Community Development and Empowerment Advisor who will be responsible for ensuring effective and efficient delivery of WPS programme activities at the community level, ensuring horizontal and vertical linkages and partnership between local and national stakeholders, promoting women human rights and gender equality in the areas of women, peace and climate security nexus, women economic empowerment and women leadership. The advisor will work under the overall supervision of the Head of Programme. The Community Development and Empowerment Advisor will ensure synergies and complementarities between activities of project partners, as well as facilitate the work of Implementing Partners. She/He should promote a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations and commits to high standards of quality, productivity and timeliness in the delivery of tasks.

Under direct supervision and guidance of the UN Women Head of Programs, and indirect reporting to UN Women Country Representative, the Community Development and Empowerment Advisor will provide support to Programme Team in fulfilling the following tasks:

Tasks:

• Develop the detailed quarterly/ annual work plans, including the milestones for implementation of the set of tasks and deliverables at: 1) community level within the PBF and UK funded projects, 2) national level aligned with the tasks of the initiatives on “EXPO on Women entrepreneurship” and promotion of women in leadership. Identify and provide recommendations on synergies and complementarities between related interventions.
• Support UN Women M&E Specialist in the process of monitoring / generation of base and end-line data for the project measurement of change at Outcomes level of the PBF and UK funded projects, as per the targets of the projects logframes.
• Provide advisory support and ensure the quality of documents produced as part of the processes of implementation and documentation of lessons learnt and practices within the interventions at community level, by application of innovative tools, such as: Design Thinking (DT), Speed Dating (SD), Gender Action Learning System (GALS), tools for ensuring synergy between gender, social cohesion, peace, and climate security issues.
• Lead the process of preparation and conducting “EXPO on Women Entrepreneurship”, conduct consultations with partners, investors, women entrepreneurs, ensure the quality of the EXPO event, including presentations of women entrepreneurs and commitments of potential investors.
• Provide inputs to the work of Responsible Partners (RPs) in the facilitation of the process of co-creation, testing and iteration of local and national level mechanism/s and procedures of engagement of WCSOs on gender, climate, peace agenda.
• Provide advisory support to the RPs in the process of establishment of local grant mechanism for target communities’ initiatives to test and implement social innovations on gender, social cohesion, peace, and climate security issues.
• Provide advisory support and ensure the quality of documents produced by the RPs and short-term experts/consultants on capacity building/coaching support to local WCSOs to engage with a wider group of women, community members and other actors including on documentation and sharing of their experiences on addressing climate-related security issues in the context of sustaining peace.
• Provide advisory support in conducting consultations with a wide range of partners to institutionalize the mechanisms and procedures of partnering with WCSOs on gender, climate, and peace agenda; support decision-making/system-wide policy making and institutional learning for implementing 1325 NAP.
• Provide advisory support in the process of defining possible local (state / private) investments / funding for the defined local initiatives in the area of gender, social cohesion, peace, and climate security issues.
• Undertake regular monitoring missions to programme sites (to ayul okmotys located in Batken) to identify and flag any implementation issues, risks and provide recommendations for addressing these in a timely manner.
• Provide inputs to the preparation of regular reports, ensuring the focus on documentation and reporting on experimentation processes, including progress on up-to-date, challenges and lessons, follow up actions.

Key deliverables and payment schedule

Payments will be made in KGS in a monthly instalment upon submission of work results in accordance with the "Work Plan" adopted and approved by UN Women Country Office. Community Development and Empowerment Advisor must submit a monthly progress report with all necessary attachments describing the amount of work performed during the period of month for which the payment is made.

Deliverables

Target Date

1. Timesheet indicating days worked in table form
2. Report with summary of performed activities, with reflection on tasks as per the approved workplan and advisory support provided.

By the 1 date of each month starting from the 1 October 2023 and ending at the 1 December, 2024

Inputs/resources on behalf of UN Women

UN Women will provide the contractor with a computer, transportation in UN Women vehicles or hired vehicles during the missions, and necessary information and materials for the fulfilment of the tasks as per the TOR. UN Women can provide an office space within the Country Office premises as required.

Reporting requirements

Report should be provided in both in printed and electronic versions in English with detailed description of the fulfilled tasks, according to the present Term of Reference and approved Workplans. Analytical documents and other materials developed by Advisor should be attached to the report as annexes, which will serve as a justification for payment.

Duration of the assignment

Expected duration of work of the Community Development and Engagement Advisor is from September 1 2023 to December 30, 2024.

Competencies

Corporate competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UN Women;

• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

  Functional competencies

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Shares knowledge and experience;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
• Ability to analyze complex situations from a position of impartiality;
• Ability to concisely and to the point document information and findings, targeting a specific audience.

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to Results Management, including support to design, planning and implementation of the projects, managing data and reporting;
• Good knowledge of Results Management Guide and Toolkit.

Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure, uses skills of diplomacy;
• Ability to prioritize and manage competing priorities, grasping the situation quickly;
• Ability to conduct advocacy on sensitive issues, not avoiding but processing conflict.

Required Skills and Experience

Professional skills and experience

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/women's studies, or a related field is required
• At least 5-7 years of relevant work experience of implementing projects in the area of community development with a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the areas of WEE, and Women, Peace and Security.
• Demonstrated substantive knowledge of community mobilization theory and practice, women’s economic empowerment, and gender equality issues in Kyrgyzstan’s context, as well as key players both at the national and grassroots level;
• Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills in Russian and Kyrgyz;
• Competent in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel and etc.);
• Fluency in Kyrgyz, Russian and English languages is a requirement;
• Proven working experience with local self-governing bodies is required, while experience of working with government national agencies (in particular, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Social Development) will be considered as a strong asset;
• Previous work experience with UN agencies and other international development partners is highly desirable.

Application procedure:

Applications must be sent by 11:59 p.m. on August 25, 2023 and include the following package of documents:

• A P-11 form that includes experience in similar assignments. This form can be downloaded at https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process (UN Women Personal History Form (P11)).
• A financial proposal with a total lump sum including all costs as described below

Financial Proposal Format:

#

Item

Per month

Number of months

Total cost

1

Monthly rate

2

Other

Total

Please note that the financial proposal is comprehensive and should take into account the various expenses incurred by the consultant during the term of the contract. The financial proposal must be submitted in KGS. If the proposal is submitted in any other currency, it will be converted at the UN exchange rate on the closing date.

Evaluation of applicants

The evaluation starts with shortlisting of potential candidates and received applications against the mandatory requirements. Only full applications will be considered. Shortlisted candidates will be then evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' technical qualifications and experience, and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

1. Technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR; and
2. Having received the highest cumulative (technical & financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

The selection of candidates will be done in 3 stages:

1st stage: Prior to detailed evaluation, all applications will be thoroughly screened against eligibility criteria (minimum qualification requirements) as set in the present ToR in order to determine whether they are compliant/ non-compliant.

Eligibility Criteria

1

Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/women's studies, or a related field is required

2

At least 5-7 years of relevant work experience of implementing projects in the area of community development with a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment; WEE, and Women, Peace and Security.

2nd stage: Technical Evaluation/ Desk review.

Short-listed candidates will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Criteria

Weight

Max. Point

Technical

70%

70

Education:

15%

Maximum 15 points, including:

An advanced degree in the social and related sciences. A first level university degree combined with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of an advanced university degree;

15%

15

Experience, including:

40%

Maximum 40 points, including:

At least 5-7 years of relevant work experience of implementing projects in the area of community development with a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment; WEE, and Women, Peace and Security.

10%

10

Demonstrated substantive knowledge of community mobilization theory and practice, women’s economic empowerment, and gender equality issues in Kyrgyzstan’s context, as well as key players both at the national and grassroots level;

15%

15

Proven working experience with local self-governing bodies is required, while experience of working with government national agencies (in particular, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Social Development) will be considered as a strong asset;

15%

15

Skills and knowledge, including:

5%

Maximum 5 points, including:

Knowledge and skills of relevant computer applications of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point), knowledge of Internet communications

5%

5

Language Requirements

10%

Maximum 10 points, including:

Fluency in Russian, Kyrgyz and English: 5 points – fluently, 0 points – not fluently

10%

10

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points out of 70 points at the Technical Evaluation/ Interview will be considered for the Financial Evaluation

Financial

30%

30

3rd stage: Financial evaluation will be conducted according to the method described below:

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion.

A suggested formula is as follows: p=30 (µ/z)

Where:

p - points for the financial proposal being evaluated;

µ - price of the lowest priced proposal;

z - price of the proposal being evaluated

The candidate achieving the highest cumulative score for both Technical and Financial evaluations will be recommended by the Evaluation Committee for contracting.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

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Added 8 months ago - Updated 8 months ago - Source: jobs.undp.org