Gender Equality Scorecard Assessment Consultant – UNCT SWAP – Afghanistan

Consultant Human Rights

Contract

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

Background

At the 59th Session of the UN General Assembly, Member States, in adopting the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review (TCPR) of Operational Activities for Development of the UN System called on all UN organizations to: “mainstream gender and to pursue gender equality in their country programmes, planning instruments and sector-wide programmes and to articulate specific country-level goals and targets in this field in accordance with the national development strategies”.

Further, ECOSOC Resolution 2004/4 - Review of Economic and Social Council agreed conclusions 1997/2 on mainstreaming the gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system requested: “the Secretary-General to ensure that all United Nations entities develop action plans with time lines for implementing the agreed conclusions 1997/2, which address the gap between policy and practice identified in the Secretary-General’s report, with a view to strengthening commitment and accountability at the highest levels within the United Nations system as well as to establishing mechanisms to ensure accountability, systematic monitoring and reporting on progress in implementation”.

As a direct follow-up to the TCPR, and to ensure a comprehensive response to many of its recommendations, the UN Development Group (UNDG) created a Task Team on Gender Equality as a sub-group of the UNDG Programme Group. The goals of the Task Team are: to support more consistent and coherent action among UNDG member agencies to mainstream gender equality and promote women’s empowerment at the country level; and to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment are mainstreamed into the tools and processes that emerge from the UNDG for UN Country Teams (UNCTs).

In 2006, the UNDG Task Team on Gender Equality commissioned a background paper on accountability mechanisms in UNDG agencies. This paper reviewed accountability for programming in support of gender equality in ILO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WFP and found that: “A common understanding of how to apply gender mainstreaming in UN operational activities is needed. This is because if there is no agreement on what constitutes a minimum level of actions to support gender equality, how will it be possible to hold agencies and UN Country Teams accountable for this.

Reaching agreement across agencies on what constitutes a minimally acceptable performance to support gender equality, through an agreed set of indicators, would contribute to stronger guidance and accountability”. Subsequently this background paper was endorsed at the UNDG Principals’ meeting in July 2006, where agreement was reached on development of a UNCT-level ‘Accounting for Gender Equality’ Scorecard that sets minimum requirements for UNCTs to assess their performance across the system.

The Gender Scorecard was endorsed by the UNDG in 2008 in response to the UN Chief Executive Board for Coordination 2006 Policy on gender equality and the empowerment of women (CEB/2006/2) to establish an accountability framework for assessing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming by UN Country Teams. The UN SWAP formed another part of the accountability framework, focusing on the implementation of the policy at the entity level.

The Score Card is one of three system-wide accountability mechanisms in the UN. The Score Card is focused on the performance of the UNCT, rather than the performance of any one UN organization. It intends to provide an assessment of what the UN as a whole contributes to gender mainstreaming and consequently to the promotion of gender equality. It is intended to complement existing accountability frameworks. The main focus of the Score Card is to measure strategies and processes that are gender mainstreamed rather than development results.

The QCPR calls for the United Nations development system to expand and strengthen the use of the Gender Scorecard as a planning and reporting tool for assessing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming in the context of the UNDAF (OP 83).

In this vein and in line with internal assessments, the UNCT SWAP-Scorecard methodology has been revised in tandem with the United Nations System-wide Action Plan for gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-SWAP) to ensure greater alignment with the UN-SWAP and the SDGs, drawing on good global practices with motivating, managing and measuring institutional change processes.

Duties and Responsibilities

Deliverables and schedule for payment:

The UNCT SWAP-Scorecard methodology has been designed for in-country self-assessment as a means of fostering deeper understanding and ownership of results. An Interagency Assessment Team (IAAT) will be selected to undertake the assessment. The primary objective of this consultancy is to support the Interagency Assessment Team to complete the gender scorecard assessment as well as to provide a set of actions to address gaps identified by the Scorecard exercise.

The envisaged time frame of the consultancy is estimated to be 20 working days during the period from May to July 2021. Payment will be made upon satisfactory receipt and approval of the following deliverables:

No

Deliverable

Date

1

Planning

Develop a work plan for consultancy, including mission dates.

Deliverable: Workplan discussed and approved by UN Women and RCO.

21 May (2 working days)

2

Self-Assessment of the gender scorecard Indicators

Support to the Inter-Agency Assessment Team (IAAT) with the in-country assessment of the gender scorecard indicators including:

• Convening the briefing meeting for the IAAT
• Establishing indicator groups
• Support the collection of data and evidence to score indicators.
• Facilitating working sessions and technical support with key stakeholders such as the Resident Coordinator; Heads of Agencies; key programme staff; M&E teams, partners, etc. to discuss and score areas of performance.
• Convening a preliminary feedback meeting for the IAAT
• Completing compilation and finalization of the Scorecard findings based on IAAT discussions and agreements.

Deliverable: A draft scoring matrix report of all indicators including meeting minutes and presentations.

18 June 2021 (10 working days)

3

Final Gender Scorecard Report including Action Plan

• Developing an action plan to improve performance based on findings.
• Facilitating a debrief meeting with the UNCT on assessment results and Action Plan for UNCT endorsement.
• Final gender scorecard report including annexes, ensuring all feedback from the IAAT and UNCT has been integrated and tracked for transparency.

Deliverable: Final gender scorecard report and annexes including the action plan, meeting minutes and presentations

9 July 2021 (8 working days)

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will be based at UN Women with a reporting line to the UN Women Deputy Country Representative in Afghanistan.

Duty Station and Travel Arrangements

This consultancy is home based with travel to Kabul, Afghanistan in compliance with the do no harm principle, safety protocols and measures recommended by the United Nations Department for Security Services, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic related health measures (e.g. requirements related to quarantining, social distancing, etc.)

Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the applications, with an evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the applications, with an evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

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

Functional Competencies

The consultants must hold the following minimum qualifications:

• Substantive knowledge and experience related to current analyzes, policies, and practices in the fields of gender equality, and humanitarian work, including in gender analysis, program planning, and policy advice;
• Strong knowledge of the country (especially the western region and the IDP informal settlements)
• Excellent networking skills;
• Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research;
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• At least three years of experience in research and survey for marginalized groups for instance IDPs in complex contexts;
• Experience working with national partners to build sustainable solutions that can be managed locally;
• Excellent analytical skills with the ability to collect, organize, analyze, and disseminate significant amounts of information with attention to detail and accuracy;
• Expertise in research, data analysis, and report writing; and
• Strong knowledge of program development, implementation, results-based management, and reporting
• Adept at queries, report writing, and presenting findings.

Required Skills and Experience

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Obtainable Score

Education

• Advanced (Masters) degree in social and political sciences, human rights, gender equality etc.

15%

Experience and skills

• At least 10 years of practical experience of work on gender mainstreaming in development programs/ projects at national and international levels;
• At least 3 years experience in results-based management, review, and/or evaluation;
• Experience in gender data collection and analysis, including interviews, survey, and focus groups;
• Experience in conducting gender training for staff of development agencies.
• Previous experience with the Gender Equality Scorecard, narrative report, and follow-up matrix with experience rolling out the tool in a country context is an asset;

75%

Language and report writing skills

• Excellent command of English. Other UN languages an asset

10 %

Total Obtainable Score

100 %

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified candidates who may be contacted for validation interview.

Submission of application

Interested consultants can submit the following documents online.

1. CV and UN Women P11 which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs)
2. Letter of motivation with professional fee specifying a daily consultancy rate and a breakdown per deliverables listed above.
3. List of 3 professional references that can be contacted.

Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify a lump sum amount breaking down the professional fee for each deliverable on daily basis. All the travel costs will be covered by UN Women according to UN Women’s rules and regulations and should not be included in the financial proposal.

All requested documents of the submission package (CV, Motivation Letter, P11, and financial proposal) should be combined in one document and uploaded when asked to upload the resume. Incomplete submission will not be considered.

Please use " International Consultant: Gender Equality Scorecard Assessment in Afghanistan” as the subject heading of your application.

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Added 3 years ago - Updated 3 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org