International Gender Expert- Framework Agreement

Consultant

Overview

Ensure gender considerations are mainstreamed in UNDP projects

You have:

• Master's Degree in social science especially gender studies, or relevant discipline
• Ten years of professional experience in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment, gender-based violence/domestic violence of which five years with UN Agencies and other international organizations
• Extensive experience in research and policy-level analysis, and in-depth knowledge of qualitative research methods
• Substantial experience in design, implementations, monitoring and evaluation of gender projects
• A minimum 5 years of experience in humanitarian and development environments, including documented experience in armed conflict settings
• Familiarity with (prior working experience in) the CIS region
• Proven experience with gender-responsive SDGs implementation
• Experience in delivering trainings and producing learning tools and resources on gender equality and women empowerment
• Fluency in written and spoken English with excellent technical writing skills is a requirement; knowledge of Azerbaijani is an advantage
• In person interview

Contract

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

Background

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the UN’s global development network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.

Gender Equality is one of the core objectives of UNDP and is implemented throughout the organization in a two-pronged approach: mainstreaming gender in all core practices; and dedicated interventions that empower women and promote gender equality. UNDPs work on gender is guided by the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework, and country specific gender priorities.

Gender equality, centered in human rights, is both a development goal on its own and a critical factor for achieving sustainable development. It underlies one of the guiding principles of the 2030 Agenda for Development – the concept of 'leaving no one behind'. UNDP supports partners to eliminate gender inequalities through targeted, gender-focused programmes and by working to ensure that all development efforts consider the experiences, needs, and contributions of women.

UNDP works with national partners across the globe to build legal and policy frameworks efficiently combatting Gender based Violence (GBV). UNDP’s focus in GBV response encompasses a support for national capacities to prevent violence and end impunity for perpetrators, access to justice and protection and multi-sectoral support and services. UNDP’s strategy in addressing GBV includes strengthening community-based action, engaging men and boys in prevention and partnering with the private sector for women’s economic empowerment.

In Azerbaijan, in partnership with the Government of Azerbaijan and with the support of International Donor community UNDP is implementing the number of programmes and projects with the focus on women economic empowerment, socio-economic development, social entrepreneurship, support and strengthen community-based mechanisms to address gender-based/domestic violence and build community resilience, gender sensitive SDG implementation, democratic governance, disaster risk reduction, climate change, energy and environment.

Duties and Responsibilities

In this context, the role of the Gender Expert will be to ensure that gender considerations are fully mainstreamed into all relevant components throughout the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes of the UNDP projects.

Specific responsibilities will include:

• Provide technical oversight and serve as a lead gender expert for the provision of gender technical assistance and capacity building initiatives for the “Economic Empowerment for Employment and Entrepreneurship” project, with the focus on Addressing GBV through comprehensive and coordinated community effort component of the project; The project goal is to support and strengthen community-based mechanisms to address GBV/DV and build community resilience through women’s economic empowerment, increased trust to state institutions and broad attitudinal change. In particular, the expert will be responsible for:
• Developing the manual on community response to GBV with a section dedicated to TOT; and delivering ethical, gender-sensitive and safe GBV response, focus on community-based first responders). The Manual includes step-by-step guidelines on integrating community mechanisms in the MSR systems;
• Developing regional roadmaps for GBV response for 10 project target regions. The Roadmaps incorporate the findings and recommendations of the study on connections between GBV and community resilience;
• Conducting the Assessment of gaps and challenges in assistance provision to GBV and an in-depth Study of connections between GBV and community resilience. The Assessment issues recommendations for full integration of community mechanisms into the emerging MSR systems;
• Conducting qualitative study in select communities to explore connections between GBV and community resilience to a range of risk factors. Preparing comprehensive report on the study findings and recommendations;
• Provide technical oversight and serve as a lead gender expert for the provision of gender technical assistance and capacity building initiatives for the “Developing innovation-driven and sustainable civil society in Azerbaijan project”. The project pursues two specific objectives: 1) to increase CSOs capacities to engage in policy-making and foster local development; 2) to build an enabling ecosystem and capacities for social entrepreneurship and social innovation. The project will build capacities of the CSOs for policy engagement around development issues. The project will also work with and build capacities of the region-based CSOs as actors in local development processes. The project will target CSOs, social purpose SMEs, public agencies and innovation/acceleration labs. In particular, the expert will be responsible for:
• Development of a walkthrough manual/guidelines for gender transformative and gender responsive policy development and delivering of a 3-day training on gender mainstreaming in policy development and M&E;
• Development of a walkthrough manual/guidelines for designing and implementing gender responsive and gender transformative community projects and delivering of training on designing and implementing gender-responsive and gender transformative community projects;
• Provide technical oversight and serve as a lead gender expert for the provision of gender technical assistance and capacity building initiatives for any other projects or Programme/Operations Units of UNDP as required that may include:
• Drafting training manuals and delivery of trainings including ToTs;
• Development of research tools and materials;
• Drafting guidance notes, brochures and booklets;
• Conducting baseline assessments to support gathering additional evidence to inform the project interventions;
• Conducting gender-sensitive organizational analysis among selected government agencies at the various levels;
• Conducting trainings in gender-sensitive service delivery;
• Production and launch of gender reports;
• Compilation, analysis and interpretation of gender, GBV issues and statistical data, thorough research and preparation of top quality analysis and reports;
• Provision of top quality analysis and substantive inputs to strategic documents;
• Support the Country Office and contribute to country level inter-agency initiatives related to gender issues as required;
• Support the Programme Unit with mainstreaming of gender in related perspectives within UNDP programmes and project as required;
• Assessment of the country's gender policies, review of legislation and provision of advice on gender mainstreaming as required;
• Training and capacity building support for UNDP staff and Government officials, public institutions, civil society organizations on gender issues.

MONITORING AND EVALUATION:

The assignment is commissioned by UNDP Azerbaijan. The Country Office will provide logistics and administrative support as needed. The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Deputy Resident Representative and assigned Programme Analyst and/or Gender Focal Point and in collaboration with the entire Programme Unit, project teams, national consultants and Government officials. The Programme Unit and project teams will provide assistance in facilitating field trips, organizing meetings, providing access to information.

REPORTING

The consultant will provide assessment results, reports on deliverables and recommendations to the Project Manager and Programme Analyst. The consultant will report at the end of the contractual period to Manager of the project as well as to Program Analyst, UNDP.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Promotes knowledge management in UNDP and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example.

• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more Practice Areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills

  Innovation and Marketing New Approaches - Developing new approaches

• Seeks a broad range of perspectives in developing project proposals;

• Identifies new approaches and promotes their use in other situations;
• Creates an environment that fosters innovation and innovative thinking;
• Makes the case for innovative ideas from the team with own supervisor.

Self-management/Emotional Intelligence

• Stays calm and maintains composure under stress or during a crisis, keeping disruptive emotions under control
• Adapts flexibly to changing situations, overcomes obstacles and recovers quickly from set-backs
• Tolerates conditions of stress, uncertainty or ambiguity and continues to maintain a positive outlook and to work productively
• Is realistic about own limits using support mechanisms as needed and maintaining an appropriate work-life balance
• Senses the emotions of others, understanding their perspective, taking an active interest in their concerns
• Fosters a positive outlook and maintains focus during period of stress and heavy work load, inspiring and guiding others towards goal achievement
• Creates a climate of enthusiasm and flexibility, where people feel encouraged to give their best
• Stands up to group pressure, not giving in out of a desire to please or to avoid confrontation and conflict

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing - Developing tools and mechanisms

• Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
• Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise - In-depth knowledge of the subject-matter

• Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;
• Keeps abreast of new developments in area of professional discipline and job knowledge and seeks to develop him/herself professionally;
• Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments;
• Have effective interpersonal and negotiations skills and ability to coordinate complex, multi-stakeholder projects and be able to think in a strategic manner on complex and difficult projects.
• Strong drafting, presentation and reporting skills;

• Excellent written communication skills.

  Client Orientation - Contributing to positive outcomes for the client

• Anticipates client needs;

• Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
• Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master's Degree in social science especially gender studies, or relevant discipline (10 points)

Experience:

• Ten years of professional experience in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment, gender-based violence/domestic violence of which five years with UN Agencies and other international organizations; (20 points);
• Extensive experience in research and policy-level analysis, and in-depth knowledge of qualitative research methods (15 points);
• Substantial experience in design, implementations, monitoring and evaluation of gender projects (15 points);
• A minimum 5 years of experience in humanitarian and development environments, including documented experience in armed conflict settings will be an asset;
• Familiarity with (prior working experience in) the CIS region will be an asset (10);
• Proven experience with gender-responsive SDGs implementation (10 points);

• Experience in delivering trainings and producing learning tools and resources on gender equality and women empowerment (10 points).

  Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English with excellent technical writing skills is a requirement; knowledge of Azerbaijani is an advantage (10 points)

Interview:

• In person interview (10 points)

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

• Cumulative evaluation that takes into account both financial offer and the technical expertise of the potential candidates

  A two-stage procedure will be utilized in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical component being completed prior to any price component being reviewed and compared. The Price Component will be reviewed only for those individuals whose Technical Component meets the requirements for the assignment. If the substantive presentation of a technical proposal achieves the minimum of 70 percent, the competitiveness of the offered consultancy expenses will be taken into account and the maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest fees proposed that is compared among those invited individuals which obtain the threshold points in the evaluation of the technical proposal. The technical expertise of the potential candidates will be evaluated based on the following scoring:

  If the substantive presentation of a technical proposal achieves the minimum of 49 points, the competitiveness of the offered consultancy expenses will be taken into account in the following manner:

  The total amount of points for the fees component is 30. The maximum number of points shall be allotted to the lowest fees proposed that is compared among those invited individuals which obtain the threshold points in the evaluation of the technical proposal. All other proposals shall receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest fees; e.g.;

  [30 Points] x [US$ lowest]/ [US$ other] = points for other proposer’s fees

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS:

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

• Offeror's letter to UNDP conforming interest and availability for the Individual Contractor (IC) Assignment
• Duly filled out and signed Personal History Form or CV
• Brief description of Approach to Work

• Financial proposal indicating following:

  • Daily Consultancy Fee; (Inclusive other costs such as communication, insurance, utilities, other consumables and etc.)
  • Estimated cost of 1 round trip economy class ticket to Baku, Azerbaijan;
  • Any terminal cost not exceeding UN standard if applicable;
  • Daily Living cost; not exceeding UN DSA rate for Baku and regions of Azerbaijan

• The application system allows only one attachment uploaded. Thus, the applicants are required to make all their application as one single file and upload accordingly

  The applicants may download the forms mentioned above from the following link:

  https://www.az.undp.org/content/azerbaijan/en/home/procurement.htmlThe contract will be based on the daily fee to be paid on the actual days worked, however, whenever travel to Baku is required and approved by UNDP the cost of travel based on the above proposal could be additionally covered by UNDP.

  During the evaluation only daily fee of the consultants will be considered and benchmarked for comparison as this is expected to be the major cost component during the assignment.

  Travel cost only can be paid as per the above, whenever during the assignment the travel is required (if situation with COVID allows) and approved by UNDP.

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Potential interview questions

Added 5 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: jobs.undp.org