International expert to facilitate consultations with political parties
Contract
This is a International Consultant contract. More about International Consultant contracts.
Background
BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION
UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination and violence against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programs and services needed to implement these standards.
Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) has made progress in creating preconditions for achieving gender equality by adopting relevant legislative and policy framework. However, women remain seriously under-represented in the country’s political institutions. In order to create a genuinely encouraging environment work on several fronts is required, including a sharper focus on implementation of all policy instruments and a corresponding shift of paradigm from equality of rights to equality of results, promotion of institutional processes that ensure women’s equal participation in political parties and parliament and consistent efforts to capacitate and include women in BiH in decision-making processes across board.
Women in Elections project is funded by the Government of Sweden and implemented by UNDP BiH and UN Women BiH, in partnership with BiH Agency for Gender Equality, BiH Central Election Commission, BiH Parliamentary Assembly - Committee on Gender Equality and selected local governments. The overall objective of this project to strengthen women’s leadership and participation in political life, vertically by making structural adjustments to accommodate greater numbers of women in politics, as well as horizontally by nourishing the next generation of women leaders in communities through tailored networking and capacity building initiatives and increased democratic participation and accountability.
One of the important elements of the said project is to support culture change within the political parties regarding gender equality, and the change of their internal rules, manifestos, policies and procedures to make them more gender sensitive and inclusive. UN Women is now seeking to engage an International expert to support facilitation of consultations with political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
OBJECTIVE
The “Women in Election in BiH” Project works closely with institutional Project partners, media and women leaders to engage and promote political participation of women and their leadership. As part of that effort, UN Women is designing efforts to support culture change within the political parties regarding gender equality, and the change of their internal rules, manifestos, policies and procedures to make them more gender sensitive and inclusive.
The immediate objective is to provide support in facilitation of consultations with political parties in BiH under the “Women in Elections in BiH” Project.
Duties and Responsibilities
Under the supervision of the UN Women Governance and Leadership Coordinator and working closely with National Consultant to facilitate consultative workshop with political parties, the consultant is expected to deliver the following results: Consultations with political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Guide and support preparation and facilitation of two-day in-person consultations with political parties – this includes developing a methodology and approach to consultations with political parties by detailing a concept of the consultations, setting up the agenda and preparing conultations materials, providing inputs on the consultations content to ensure all topics are covered with relevant, accurate and timely information, and facilitation of the consultations in person. International Consultant will be supported by a National Consultant in this regard.
- Support preparation and facilitation of individual consultations with political parties (target is 5 political parties) – this includes providing written guidance to the National Consutant in producing a baseline brief for each participating political party and designing the approach to individual consultations.
Production of strategic policy recommendations for political parties in Bosnia and Herzegovina
- Review up to five practical strategic recommendations brief reports for each political party produced by the National Consultant and provide comments in writing.
To facilitate delivery of the above outputs, UN Women will provide the consultant the following:
- Project related documents and contacts, including the Concept Notes
- Women in Elections related knowledge products
- Other documents as necessary
DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME
The consultant will be expected to complete the following tasks within the indicative timeframe:
Deliverables
Indicative Days
Timeline and due dates
1. Workplan based on the consultations with UN Women and selected partners produced and finalized following G&L Coordinator’s approval
1
24 March 2021
2.Two-day in-person consultations with political parties prepared in due time and facilitated in collaboration with G&L Coordinator as per section 3.1 of this TOR
5
30-31 March 2021
3. Written guidance to individual consultations with political parties provided to the National Consultant as per section 3.1 of this TOR
1
1-20 April 2021
4. Detailed review and comments in writing provided to five practical strategic recommendations brief reports for political parties and reports finalized following G&L Coordinator’s approval
5
22 April 2021
Total
12
The consultancy will last 12 days, in the period from 23 March to 30 April 2021. The assignment will not require presence on UN Women premises.
REPORTING
All deliverables should be submitted to the UN Women Governance and Leadership Coordinator in English except where deliverables are required in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian by this TOR. Approval time required to review the deliverables before authorizing payments is 5 days.
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
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637
Functional Competencies: Knowledge Management and Learning
- Shares knowledge and experience
- Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women
- Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
- Development and Operational Effectiveness
- Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
- Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy
- Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported
- Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems
- Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource
Leadership and Self-Management
- Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
- Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
- Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
- Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners
Required Skills and Experience
Academic Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree (BA or BSc) in political science, or related field such as gender studies, development studies, public policy or social sciences. Advanced degree in the same areas will be considered an asset.
Skills and Experience:
- At least 7 years of demonstrated work experience in political advising, gender mainstreaming, human rights advocacy, or relevant area;
- Experience in drafting gender sensitive policies;
- Experience in organizing and facilitating inclusive consultations using online tools and resources;
- Experience working with stakeholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely political parties;
- Previous experience within the UN System or similar intrenational organistions;
Language requirements:
- Fluency in English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian.
EVALUATION OF OFFERS
UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process that takes into account both the technical qualification of potential consultants as well as the financial proposals submitted in support of consultant applications. Candidate applications will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of applicant qualifications and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
- responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
- having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.
The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal will be allocated to the lowest price proposal among those candidates.
Criteria:
Technical Evaluation (70%) – 70 points
- Master’s degree (MA or MSc) in political science, or related field such as gender studies, development studies, public policy or social sciences. PhD in the same areas will be considered an asset. – 10 points
- At least 7 years of demonstrated work experience in political advising, gender mainstreaming, human rights advocacy, or relevant area – 15 points
- Experience in drafting gender sensitive policies – 15 points
- Experience in organizing and facilitating inclusive consultations using online tools and resources – 10 points
- Experience working with stakeholders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, namely political parties – 10 points
- Previous experience within the UN System or similar intrenational organistions – 5 points
- Fluency in English and B/H/S – 5 points
Financial Evaluation (30%)
- Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30
- S - score received on financial evaluation;
- Fmin - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;
- F - financial offer under the consideration.
DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS
Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents:
- Expression of interest and confirmation of immediate availability
- Detailed financial proposal in BAM inclusive of all costs (which includes consultancy fees, travel, accommodation related to the assignment)
- Completed UN Women Personal History (P11) form, that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
Applications that are not complete will not be considered.
Please note that travel and accommodation costs should be covered by the consultant.
For any additional information, please contact unwomen.bih@unwomen.org
How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:
- Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
- Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, Expression of Interest into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
- Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement);
- Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application;'
- Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above);
- You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.
Qualified women and men and members of minorities are encouraged to apply. UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.
Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.