International Consultant to coordinate Gender Responsive Governance and Ending Violence against Women and Children Joint Programme Formulation

Consultant

Contract

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Background

The United Nations in Bangladesh has recently finalized its United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF 2022- 2026). The UNSDCF upholds the principle of gender equality and women’s empowerment, through a twin track approach where gender is integrated across all strategic priorities, and is also prioritized under Strategic Priority (SP) 5 on Gender Equality and Ending Gender-Based Violence: Empowering Women and Girls where the outcome states that by 2026, more women, girls and sexual minorities benefit from an environment in which they are empowered to exercise their rights, agency and decision-making power over all aspects of their lives and towards a life free from all forms of discrimination, violence and harmful norms and practices.

Under this Outcome and to respond to the 8th Five-Year Plan priorities of gender equality and elimination of gender-based violence, the UN will focus on two interrelated strategic approaches: (i) Strengthen the capacity and accountability of institutions across public and private sector and government at national and local levels to develop and implement laws, policies and programmes that promote gender equality, eliminate GBV and address structural barriers that prevent women, children and girls from exercising their human rights across sectors in a coordinated manner and; (ii) Support civil society and the women’s movement to enjoy expanded political space to effectively represent women and girls, particularly the most marginalized, and drive policy and social change for the promotion of gender equality and elimination of GBV. A specific focus will also be on those who are left farthest behind, such as gender diverse persons, sex workers, people with disabilities, married adolescent girls, women and girls from ethnic and excluded minorities, female migrant workers amongst others, and reducing their vulnerabilities through these strategic means will be prioritized.

In addition, Under SP 2, Equitable Human Development and Well-Being, the main objective is for more people, the most vulnerable and marginalized, have improved access to and utilization of quality, inclusive, gender- and shock-responsive, universal, and resilient social protection, social safety-net and social services.

Outcome 4 under the Strategic Priority on Transformative, Participatory and Inclusive Governance aims at more people, especially the most vulnerable, benefit from more equitable, non-discriminatory, gender-responsive, participatory, accountable governance and justice, in a peaceful and tolerant society governed by the rule of law.

The UN will support review and strengthening of institutional mechanisms, capacity and coordination across the government and public institutions to effectively implement the existing gender-responsive legal, rules, policy and programmatic frameworks to promote gender equality and prevent and respond to GBV such as the National Plans of Action to Prevent Violence Against Women and Children (2018-2030) and the National Women Development Policy 2011 and its Action Plan. Support will be provided to strengthen institutional mechanisms and the use of gender responsive budgeting and planning tools to advance financing for gender equality. Where necessary, it will also support the development of new policies and action plans in line with international and national commitments including CEDAW and other human rights treaties and the recommendations from the Universal Periodic Review (UPR), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the International Conference on Population and Development’s (ICPD) Programme of Action, ILO Convention on Eliminating Violence and Harassment in the World of Work (C190), and Bangladesh’s 8th Five-Year Plan.

The UN plans to engage with senior leadership across Parliament and Government to strengthen political accountability and build ownership of the comprehensive, multi-sectoral and transformative approach needed to accelerate gender equality and prevent GBV. Specific attention will also be paid to promoting gender-responsive and non-discriminatory business practices amongst the private sector in Bangladesh.

Support will be provided for the strengthening of institutional arrangements and enhancing capacity to generate quality, comparable and regular disaggregated gender statistics to address data gaps, support evidence-based policy making and meet normative reporting commitments under the SDGs, CEDAW, CRC, UPR, Beijing Declaration and national plans. This will include data and statistics related to violence against women, gender equal distribution of unpaid care and domestic work, and women’s leadership and participation, among others. Institutional capacity strengthening will be supported for gender-responsive public finance management and planning through capacity building of line ministries and local governments to make strategic budget allocations through mainstreaming gender equality and women’s empowerment in planning and budgeting. Monitoring and measuring the impact of the gender responsive budget allocation will be strengthened.

To catalyse a more comprehensive and survivor-centred approach to violence response, the UN will strengthen capacity and accountability and the multisectoral coordination mechanism of essential service providers, including in health, police, justice, and social welfare. The UN will also promote greater resource allocation and explore innovative financing mechanisms to scale up and expand the reach of GBV services which remain limited for women and children that live in remote rural areas and represent from marginalized, excluded, and ethnic minority communities.

The UN will focus on enhancing the ability of civil society actors and the women’s movement to participate in policy change for the promotion of gender equality and elimination of GBV and ensure accountability of duty bearers. This will include supporting development of a government mechanism where gender equality and women’s rights based CSOs have a key role in informing policy processes across sectors. The UN will engage and capacitate women, girls, and gender diverse rights holders, particularly those that face intersectional discrimination, and women’s organizations to participate in national and local consultative and decision-making processes. Using its facilitating role, the UN will support the creation of diverse networks of support for women leaders, working with professional networks, parliamentarians, CSO networks, social media networks, faith leaders, and youth groups.

Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world. Ending child marriage ( CM) is a relevant and much needed priority under SP 5 and for the government and its development partners. The focus on the many challenges associated with child marriage is critical for the country. Gender relations in Bangladesh have undergone a course of progressive transformation. As reported in MICS 2019, 59 percent of girls in the country are married before at the age of 18 and 22 percent of girls before at the age of 15. There is clear indication to sustain efforts to encourage policies, programmes, and socio-cultural values that continue to shape implicit societal understanding of roles and responsibilities of women and children. Furthermore, research confirms vulnerability to poverty continues to have concrete gender dimensions. Therefore, the UN will support various programmes that engage adolescents in increasing awareness on the diverse consequence of child marriage, simultaneously providing them with marketable skills to help improve their delay in early marriage. The UN will support in aligning the National Action Plan on Early Child Marriage that identifies a combination of strategies to combat child marriage through community engagement, advocacy, and institutional strengthening. The overall focus is to improve social inclusion and increase awareness of children’s rights by strengthening capacities at the national and sub-national levels and develop robust system that address inequality issues through a mix of bottom up and top-down approaches.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the UNSDCF and the coordination of the Gender Equality Thematic Group with the chairpersonship of UN Women and UNFPA , the UN agencies including UNICEF, UNDP are in the process of developing a Joint Programming Framework (JPF), to deliver on this ambition. The JPF will act as an umbrella framework to ensure strong coordination of gender-related initiatives in the UN’s collaboration with the Government of Bangladesh and civil society.

The JPF consists of three separated but interrelated work streams; namely Gender Responsive Governance (GRG), Ending Violence against Women and Children (EVAWC) and Gender Responsive Care Economy.

The scope of the consultancy is two-fold: to support the Gender Equality Theme Group to coordinate and manage the development of the overarching JPF ensuring linkages across the three work streams and to assist UN agencies to coordinate the process of formulation of the EVAWC Joint Programme.

The consultancy will ensure strong linkages and interconnection between the GRG and EVAWC JP, especially for what concerns the identification of strategic priorities related strengthening the normative framework, gender statistics, access to justice and translation of global norms and standards into the national policies and programmes in Bangladesh.

To ensure coordination and synergies across the three work streams, a team of international and national consultants will be hired. The International Consultant will coordinate the GRG and EVAWC Joint Programme Formulation and will be responsible to coordinate this team of consultants to design a joint programme on GRG and EVAWC.

In line with UN Programme formulation guidelines, the international consultant will suggest strategies and interventions for a GRG and EVAWC Joint Programme in Bangladesh, drawing on successful GBV prevention and response initiatives in Bangladesh and globally. This includes the RESPECT Prevention Framework on GBV Prevention and the Essential Service Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence on Violence Response, amongst others.

The programme formulation will consist of coordinating a team of consultants to conduct a situational analysis, through desk research, development of a theory of change, facilitation of consultations with other UN Agencies, governance and Civil Society Organizations as well as to develop a fully-fledged joint programme proposal.

More specifically, the international consultant will be supported by:

• One national consultant in charge of supporting the design of the EVAWC JP by conducting desk review, mapping, and situational analysis

• One national consultant responsible for the design and coordinate the formulation of the JP on GRG

  Scope of Work:

The consultancy has two main objectives:

1. Coordinate the formulation of the Joint Programming Framework, especially by ensuring connection and interrelation on the interlinked sectors between GRG, Child Marriage and EVAWC, such as access to justice, strengthening the normative framework, gender statistics and gender responsive budgeting and planning.
2. Coordinate the process and a team of consultant for the design of the Joint Programme on EVAW and GRG.

More specifically, the international consultant will be responsible for:

• Coordinate a team of international and national consultant to conduct consultations, mappings and assessments for desk research and develop situation analysis;
• Supervision of the consultant in charge of designing the Joint Programme on GRG;
• Facilitate consultations with UN partners, civil society and Government to develop a Theory of Change;
• Concept note formulation for the JP on EVAWC and validation with development partners, Government and CSO;
• Finalization of Joint Project proposal on EVAWC and GRG.

Expected deliverables.

Deliverables

No. of days

Coordinate the JPF

1. Draft implementation plan for joint programme formulation and division of roles among the consultants’ team

05 days

2. Coordinate a team of international and national consultant to conduct consultations, mappings and assessments for desk research and develop situation analysis;

20 days

3. Supervision of the consultant in charge of designing the Joint Programme on GRG

05 days

4. Facilitate consultations with UN partners, civil society and Government to develop a Theory of Change;

10 days

5. Concept note formulation and validation with development partners, Government and CSO;

22 days

6. Finalization of Joint Project proposal on EVAWC and GRG.

23 days

Payment Milestone Linked with deliverables:

Respective deliverables and documents will be reviewed by UN Women before processing any payment.

Payment schedule is as followings:

Deliverables

Target Dates

Payment milestones

1. Draft implementation plan for joint programme formulation and division of roles among the consultants’ team
2. Coordinate a team of international and national consultant to conduct consultations, mappings and assessments for desk research and develop situation analysis
3. Supervision of the consultant in charge of designing the Joint Programme on GRG
4. Facilitate consultations with UN partners, civil society and Government to develop a Theory of Change

November 2021

50 % of the total contract amount shall be paid upon submission of deliverables from 01 to 04 and all acceptance and certified by the UN Women Bangladesh contract administrator

5. Concept note formulation and validation with development partners, Government and CSO.

6. Finalization of Joint Project proposal on EVAWC and GRG.

March 2022

50 % of the total contract amount shall be paid upon submission of deliverables from 05 to 06 and all acceptance and certified by the UN Women Bangladesh contract administrator

Duration of the assignment: 85 Days spread between September 2021 and March 2022.

Duty station: Home based (No travel required, hence no DSA is applicable under this assignment)

Skills and Experience of the Consultant

The assignment is expected to be carried out by one international consultant. The international consultant will be working under the direct supervision of the UN Women EVAW Programme Specialist, the UN Women GRG Programme Analyst and in close collaboration with staff from UNFPA, UNDP and UNICEF.

Competencies

Functional Competencies

• Proven experience in developing and designing EVAWC related Project and Programmes;
• Proven experience in developing results-based framework, PMF, Logic model and Theory of Change;
• Experience in planning and facilitating high- level consultations, training, and participatory design with key stakeholders and UN agencies;
• Familiarity and knowledge of the RESPECT Framework and Essential Service Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence.
• Previous professional experience with the United Nations, especially UN Women.
• Previous experience in Bangladesh would be an asset.

Core 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.
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in social sciences, economics, public policy/administration, governance, gender studies or similar.

Technical Competencies:

• At least 10 years’ experience in issues related to gender equality, governance, child marriage and ending violence against women;
• Proven experience in programme formulation and resource mobilization.

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, only and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the SSA in completing the assignment. The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages

Evaluation Method and Criteria: Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation and determined as: 1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and 2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation; Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70 mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation. Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 70 points out of 100)

Criteria-01; Academic Qualification- Max Point 15 Criteria-02; Experience in developing and designing gender equality and EVAWC related project and programme- Max Point 20 Criteria-03; Proven experience in developing research methodologies, protocols, results-based framework, PMF, Logic model and Theory of Change in the field of EVAWC and GRG.- Max Point 25

Criteria-04; Previous professional experience with the United Nations, especially with UN Women- Max Point 15

Criteria-05; Familiarity and knowledge of the RESPECT Framework and the Essential Service Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence and RESPECT framework- Max Point 25

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

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points (70) will be considered as technically-qualified candidate.

Interested candidates will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.

To be included as part of the proposal:

• A brief expression of interest: a brief narrative presenting your suitability for this assignment ·
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• 03 Sample work
• Financial proposal: Propose the daily fees (per date USD rate * 85 days).

Only applications including all items mentioned above will be considered.

NOTE: Documents required before contract signing:

UN Personal History Form; Full medical examination and Statement of Fitness to work and travel for consultants with travel involved. (This is not a requirement for RLA contracts); Security Certificate BSAFE: EN: https://agora.unicef.org/course/info.php?id=17891 Individual subscribers over 65 years of age are required to undergo a full medical examination including x-rays at their own cost and obtaining medical clearance from the UN Medical Director prior to taking up their assignment; Release letter in case the selected consultant is government official. Only applications will all items mentioned above will be considered

Note: The individual consultant who does not meet the above eligibility criteria shall not be considered for further evaluation. Necessary documentation must be submitted to substantiate the above eligibility criteria

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Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org