Consultant - State Technical Assistance Coordinator for Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) - Madhya Pradesh (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

Contract

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

Background

UN Women is the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. UN Women is dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.

All human development and human rights issues have gender dimensions. UN Women focuses on priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. Five focus areas of interventions include ending violence against women; economic empowerment; leadership and participation; peace and security; and national planning and budgeting.

UN Women India Country Office, based in New Delhi, India, works on several fronts for ensuring that national planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes incorporate a gender perspective. UN Women’s Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) programmes at the regional and country level have made significant contribution towards this by building political support, developing technical resources and capacities, generating good practices for improving women's access to services and increasing accountability for Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment (GEWE). At the forefront of global, regional and local advocacy for application of GRB, UN Women has built partnerships with diverse government, inter-governmental and non-governmental partners to further efforts and demonstrate GRB’s relevance to sustainable development, aid effectiveness, public sector reform and financing for development.

In India, the report of the expert group for classification of government expenditure in 2004-05 became instrumental in laying out the road map for GRB in India. This was followed by the adoption of “Budgeting for Gender Equity” as a mission statement by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India (GoI), the nodal Ministry for GRB. In 2005-06, the Ministry of Finance, GoI introduced a Gender Budget Statement (GBS) which reflects the quantum of budgetary allocations for programmes/schemes that substantially benefit women annually. Another important mechanism institutionalised by the Ministry of Finance was setting up of Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) which serve as focal points for mainstreaming gender through GRB. The rigour has been replicated in at least 19 states, some of which have produced GBS and set up GBCs.

UN Women India is currently implementing a technical assistance project with the objective of identifying strategies and operational approaches to strengthen on-going efforts on GRB. Insights generated from this project will enable key stakeholders at the national level and in select 4 States (Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Manipur) to accelerate their efforts to ensure that women’s priorities are adequately reflected in national budgeting processes, and to make concrete changes for adequate resource allocation towards women’s priorities.

This project focuses on the following dimensions:

• Create and strengthen institutional structures for GRB and institute methodological changes in Planning-Budgeting and Auditing (PBA) systems for enabling gender responsive actions
  • GRB mechanisms are refined and embedded within the government in the four states
• Enhance capacities of government officials and other stakeholders to implement the gender responsive PBA measures
  • Knowledge products on GRB are developed, including evidence based sectoral studies and customized training modules
  • Gender budgeting capacities of government stakeholders are strengthened and training capacities institutionalized in the four states
  • E-governance tool developed and piloted

Within this context, UN Women seeks the services of a Consultant - State Technical Assistance Coordinator-Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) for the state of Madhya Pradesh. Under the guidance and supervision of the Project Coordinator & Team Lead, and the Head of Department, Department of Women & Child Development, Government of Madhya Pradesh, the Consultant will undertake the following key tasks and other responsibilities as may be assigned.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance and direct supervision of project Team Lead and Gender Budget Expert, the Consultant - State Technical Coordinator (GRB) will support in strengthening the efforts of the State Government on Gender Responsive Budgeting.

The Consultant - State Technical Coordinator (GRB) will work with the Technical Assistance (TA) project team to ensure that the project produces the results in the State to the required standards of quality and within the given time and cost specifications.

The Consultant - State Technical Assistance Coordinator (GRB) will have the following tasks:

• Establish effective coordination within the Departments of Planning, Finance and Women and Child Development for promotion and institutionalisation of GRB.
• Support the nodal GRB department (WCD) in monitoring the State Action Plan for advancing GRB at the State level.
• Provide technical support and inputs on key processes and result areas on GRB to relevant stakeholders.
• Undertake rigorous efforts towards institutionalising of GRB at the State level- advocating for the adoption of proposed structures and institutional mechanisms and support for strengthening the institutional mechanisms.
• Identify opportunities for collaboration, and joint action with State Line Departments to identify the scope for applying GRB across sectors. Support in undertaking sectoral GRB analysis for the line departments.
• Provide coordination and support (IEC/advocacy) on GRB trainings/workshops with select State Departments with Training & Logistics Coordinator.
• Support the State in developing a capacity building strategy on GRB, training calendar to institutionalize trainings in nodal training institute.
• Collate existing training resources on GRB at the state level and work with project team and state nodal training institutes to develop a GRB training calendar, toolkit and create a local pool of GRB trainers and support in organization of TNA and training programmes.
• Develop partnerships with state level resource institutions, agencies, experts and practitioners for capacity building on GRB.
• Participate in key meetings, conferences, and trainings under the project and prepare proceedings report/meeting minutes and training reports.
• Support the capacity development initiatives, preparation of customised modules and adoption by State, prepare reports to capture key issues, achievements and challenges of capacity development initiatives under the project.
• Support in piloting of e-governance tool at the State level for monitoring of GRB initiatives.
• Document and maintain project related reports/files and extend support in preparation of quarterly/biannual/annual narrative reports, and donor interim reports.
• Draft project final report with key project results for the State with support of Lead Gender Budget Expert.
• Coordinate with other implementing partners/vendors and support preparation of financial reports to UN Women.
• Any other tasks assigned by the Supervisor.

Key Deliverables:

• Finalization of capacity building strategy and state training calendar with nodal State GRB Department and training institute, Government of Madhya Pradesh - Final and approved CD Strategy and Training Calendar.
• Support development of state specific training module and calendar with sectoral inputs and policy brief - Final and approved module and toolkit, sectoral studies and policy briefs.
• Liaise with State nodal GRB department, training institute, line departments for participation of officials in State level, zonal and cross-zonal trainings, and support Training & logistics Coordinator to draft training impact assessment reports - State training reports.
• Develop final project report with key results for the State - State Project Report.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills.
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.
• Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities.
• Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in Social Sciences/Economics/Social Work /Gender Studies/Public Administration/Policy or related fields.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of experience at the national/state level working with development projects including hands-on experience of design, implementation and monitoring/evaluation of projects preferably on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment.
• Experience of working with national/ state governments; particularly on GRB is required. State specific experience will be preferable.
• Experience of undertaking budgetary/ policy analysis and capacity building of government officials is desirable.

Language:

• Proficiency in English
• Good command over Hindi in reading and writing.

Application:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points)
• Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points)
• Experience of working with national/ state governments; particularly on GRB is required. State specific experience will be preferable. Experience of undertaking budgetary/ policy analysis and capacity building of government officials is desirable. (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Interviews – 80 Points
• Writing Samples Evaluation - 20 Points

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.