Feminist Coalition Building and Civil Society Specialist- For Lebanese ONLY

Contract

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

Background

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, huma n rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. To strengthen gender analysis and accountability for gender equality and women’s rights in the Beirut Port Explosion response, UN Women mobilized 46 feminist civil society actors1 and activists to issue a unified Charter of Demands for a gendered disaster response plan.2 The charter calls for humanitarian assistance that recognizes and addresses existing gender inequalities and seeks to ensure that the needs and priorities of all women and girls (especially the most marginalized) are met, and that the process is transparent and subjected to accountability mechanisms. In the past months, representatives of the charter participated in various advocacy efforts including the support to the development of the 3RF sector plans as well as meetings with representatives of the donor community in Lebanon as well as from the UN, EU and WB to share their priorities and demands.

The Feminist Charter Network has the potential to sustain its role as watchdog for the advancement of women’s rights and gender equality beyond the scope of the Beirut explosion, with an eye on Lebanon’s broader recovery process. UN Women has been asked by the group to serve as a secretariat to it in its first year given the divides within the women’s rights movement and the perceived neutrality of UN Women. To that end, UN Women is working to provide technical and coordination support to the group.

Duties and Responsibilities

Working in close coordination with the UN Women Programme Coordinator, the consultant is expected to prepare the following:

Conduct Consultation with Feminist Charter Members

• Conduct interviews with members of the Feminist Charter (individual and/or group), reaching at least 80% of the network (out of a total of 46 members).
• Conduct interviews with 5 key stakeholders (NCLW, donor community and International delegations).
• Identify and develop opportunities for joint actions and initiatives by civil society actors through the feminist platform.
• Identify and develop opportunities to facilitate engagement between the platform and other stakeholders (such as the NCLW).
• Map and assess the civil society landscape, with a specific focus on new emerging women’s rights and gender equality actors including in the regions.
• Conduct a debriefing session with members of the platform to share findings of the report.

Draft a Strategy and Action Plan for the Feminist Charter Network

The final report must include the following elements:

• Vision for joint advocacy and policy making amongst women’s groups in Lebanon;
• Immediate and long-term goals;
• Approach for maintaining regular communication and coordination between the network and UN Women;
• Engagement of coordination with relevant stakeholders: the public, donors, international institutions and donors, and entities within the Government of Lebanon; this includes specific coordination with the 3RF implementation for Lebanon’s socioeconomic recovery in response to the Beirut blast;
• Plan to expand the membership of the platform to include new CSOs and activists, particularly marginalized groups (migrant women, women with disabilities, and LBQT women).
• Learning and educational opportunities on relevant topics for strengthening the network.
• Communications plan to profile the network and its members.
• Identified challenges and opportunities.

Delivrables :

Deliverables

Timelines

1. Draft Report submitted based on Consultations with 80% of the Feminist Charter Members and other stakeholders.

Complete by March 31, 2021

2. Final report submitted after presenting to charter members and UN Women Submit by April 10, 2021

3. Report on civil society mapping submitted Submit by April 30, 2021

Competencies

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Feminism;
• Professionalism.

Functional Competencies:

• Substantial knowledge and understanding of women’s rights, gender equality, and feminism;
• Demonstrated leadership ability and technical ability to communicate complex ideas verbally and in writing;
• Ability to work flexibly and collaborative on own initiative and as part of a team;
• A positive problem-solving approach and supportive management approach;
• Experience writer similar reports utilizing a participatory and feminist approach;
• Ability to lead development of clear strategies and to provide strategic advice.
• Ability to communicate effectively both in written and oral English and Arabic.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in human rights, gender and women’s studies, international relations, sociology, international development, international law or other social science fields is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• Minimum 4 years of Experience working on and extensive knowledge of the women’s rights and gender equality and civil society landscape in Lebanon.
• Grounded experience of working in partnership with national NGOs and civil society organizations.
• Experience writing strategy documents for organizations or large-scale projects.
• Experience in managing programmes aimed at strengthening the organizational and institutional capacity of civil society organizations.
• Experience in dialogue, communication and consensus building.
• Computer skills, statistics, internet communication and command of MS Office

Language Requirements:

• Proficiency in oral and written English and Arabic is a must.

Evaluation Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

C****ri****t****e****ri****a Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

• Criteria 1: Minimum 4 years of experience working on and extensive knowledge of the women’s rights and gender equality and civil society landscape in Lebanon (25 points)
• Criteria 2: Experience in qualitative research and writing strategy documents (25 points)
• Criteria 3: Experience of working in partnership with national NGOs and civil society organizations on dialogue, communication, and consensus building (20 points).

Financial Evaluation (30%): The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work and previous work portfolio, and ability to meet the requirements, method of engagement and other relevant information;
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily and lump-sum rate.

The above-mentioned documents should be submitted together, incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.