Consultant - Strategic Engagement (Open to Indian National Only)

Contract

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

Background

UN Women’s programme on Second Chance Education (SCE)and Vocational Training aims to reach out to and enable 40,000 underprivileged young women and women in India through education, training, employment and entrepreneurship skills. The programme is trying to address the structural barriers young women and women face in realizing their full economic potential by trying out innovative pilots in all these verticals across project states viz Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan. To support young women and women in getting skilled and gainfully employed, the project adopts an empowerment approach to livelihoods as against the instrumental approach where the focus is merely on skills/income generation. The activities to strengthen women’s learning and earning pathways, therefore, will be coupled by the capacity building initiatives on making women aware about their rights and entitlements, raise voice against violations and demand accountability from duty bearers. The Programme will adopt evidence-based policy advocacy, leveraging UN Women’s and implementing partners’ institutional relationships with key relevant Ministries such as Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Rural Development/National Rural Livelihoods Mission and Ministry of Human Resource Development. The programme intends to create a supportive ecosystem to enhance; women’s participation in the workforce and opportunities of self-employment, at the state as well as national level.

The programme works closely with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to mainstream dropout girls and young girls into formal education. To amplify the impact of the intervention UN Women will support the NIOS to implement national and state commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment, through mainstreaming gender in its programmes and policies, as well as developing and implementing targeted modules for Women’s Empowerment.

Objectives of the Assignment

As part of UN Women’s SCE programme, UN Women is providing Technical Support to Odisha Skill Development Authority (ODSA), Bhubaneswar. Technical support is focused on developing the expertise of ODSA, on gender equality and mainstreaming through knowledge transfer and capacity development.

• Capacity building of the State Government officials to strengthen mechanisms for gender equality and women’s empowerment, specifically in the thematic areas of education and skill, employment and entrepreneurship.
• Strengthening the gender-responsive implementation and monitoring of state policies and programmes, specifically in the thematic areas of education and skill, employment and entrepreneurship.
• Joint design with Government on how UN Women can extend support to Government in the State, to improve the education and skilling of girls and women who have not been able to complete their education, or access skilling opportunities.
• Coordination with other UN officials based in the State.

In this context, UN Women seeks to hire a Technical Consultant to develop a design for our collaboration with the State, in consultation with the Chairperson (OSDA). This will entail preparing a strategy for UN Women’s engagement with OSDA, Govt of Odisha. Under the guidance and supervision of the Country Programme Manager - SCE, UN WOMEN, the Technical Consultant will undertake the following key tasks and other responsibilities as may be assigned.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant is responsible for ensuring the following:

• Outlining the framework of the assignment with clear timelines.
• Working closely with the UN Women Second Chance Education Team, to agree on approach, meeting schedule, and priorities, and keep in close dialogue on issues and way forward.
• Meeting with key government institutions, as decided in consultation with UN Women, which may include, but are not limited to Odisha Skill Development Authority, Department of Women and Child Development, Department of Skill Development & Technical Education, Civil Society Partners, and relevant UN agencies, to understand and document their views on UN Women’s strategic engagement with OSDA and discuss ways to best strengthen the work.
• Meet with UN Women India’s relevant staff, to discuss their views on how best to strengthen the engagement with OSDA, given evolving State contexts and priorities.
• Review all relevant UN Women reports and documents with regards to SCE programme, to drive proper linkages and lay the base in determining the key building blocks for an increasingly coherent strategy.
• To provide a context for engagement with key partners, stakeholders and key constituencies.

The Consultant is expected to deliver the following outputs:

• An Inception Note (max. 3 pages excluding annexes, i.e. meeting schedules, mission plan) outlining the approach to the consultancy including key issues to discuss with each group of partners, method of working (with a specific focus on consultation and discussions, including frequency and modality of discussions with the UN Women India SCE Team). The Inception Note shall be delivered no later than 10 working days after the start of the Consultancy, after the Consultant has had the opportunity to read most relevant documents.
• Meetings with the UN Women India Senior Management Team (SMT) and other relevant Staff, to present the objective of the assignment and brief them of the work that SCE programme has been doing in Odisha and to garner their views and inputs on how best to strengthen the engagement with OSDA, given evolving State contexts and priorities.
• Meetings with identified key government, civil society and UN Agencies and other stakeholders for their inputs.
• Identify areas of short-term, medium-term and long-term engagement with OSDA and prepare an action plan.
• Build capacity of officials on gender including faculty from ITIs.
• Gender mainstreaming in skilling and support the chairperson in carrying out the tasks mentioned in action plan.
• Draft Strategy Note and Action Plan, including a Monitoring & Evaluation framework for review to UN Women SCE Team.
• Present the draft strategy note to UN Women India and key stakeholders.
• Deliver the final Strategy note and Action Plan, including a Monitoring & Evaluation framework, incorporating the inputs received.

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.

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.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Post Graduate Diploma of Master’s Degree in Social Sciences/ Social Work /Gender Studies/Public Administration/Policy or related fields.

Experience:

• Minimum of 10 years progressively responsible experience in the area of strategic planning for policy or programme work with field experience in the theme of skilling, gender and employment.
• Proven expertise on gender.
• Prior experience of working with Government.
• Strong understanding of skilling eco-system in Odisha.

Language:

• Proficiency in English.
• Knowledge of Odiya an added advantage.

APPLICATION

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

Application:

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);
• Working knowledge and experience of working with National /State Government (5 points);

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

• Interview (70 Points)
• Writing Samples (30 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