International Gender in Humanitarian Action (GIHA) Specialist

Contract

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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, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

The UN Women Georgia Country Office supports state and non-state partners towards the achievement of substantive gender equality. In line with national and international commitments, UN Women works on the levels of policies and legislation, institutions and grassroots, in order to achieve transformative results for increased gender equality and greater protection of the rights of women and girls.

UN Women is a non-resident agency in Armenia. The Country Representative in Georgia is appointed as Liaison for the South Caucasus, overseeing all the UN Women’s programmatic activities in Armenia and Azerbaijan, and representing UN Women in UNCT of both countries.

Currently, UN Women works in Armenia at the policy and institutional levels, partnering with the national statistics agency, Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Health and Labour Inspection Body, and the Professional Orientation and Capacity Development agency to strengthen their capacities to develop policies and programmes supporting the economic empowerment of women.

UN Women also works directly with state institutions to support the development of gender responsive policy and programmes. This integrated approach is also used to work towards ending violence against women by addressing harmful social norms and stereotypes.

Following the recent escalation of the decades-long conflict in the region, the Government of the Republic of Armenia reported that between 24 September and 4 October 2023, 100,632 refugees arrived in the country of which 52 per cent of which are women and girls.

UN Women has been engaged in the inter-agency coordination mechanisms since the crisis began, reviewing and contributing to the Inter-Agency Contingency Plan, Inter-Agency Response Plan, and the rapid needs assessment tools to ensure gender mainstreaming from the earliest stage.

Based on the preliminary consultations held by UN Women with women’s organizations and in alignment with UN Women’s Humanitarian Strategy (2022-2025), UN Women’s crisis response in Armenia is envisaged within the LEAP framework and in a multi-phase response. The phases overlap and build upon preceding activities: i) Immediate Needs ii) Early Recovery/Resilience; and iii) Social integration and Economic Empowerment.

Against this background, UN Women in Georgia is looking to deploy an International Gender in Humanitarian Action (GIHA) Specialist to be based in Yerevan, Armenia, to ensure that technical and policy advisory support is systematically provided to the UN Resident Coordinator (RC), UNCT and the ongoing response efforts, including planning, programming, monitoring and capacity building.

The GIHA Specialist will support project staff the design and delivery of triple nexus programming in line with UN Women’s contribution to the UNSDCF:

• Outcome 4: People, communities, and regions benefit from equitable economic opportunities, decent work, and sustainable livelihoods, enabled through Competitiveness and inclusive green growth.
• Outcome 8: All persons benefit from gender equality and equal opportunities to realize their human rights, fulfil their economic, political, and social potential and contribute to the sustainable development of the country.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Georgia Country Representative and Liaison to the South Caucasus and the guidance of the UN Women Regional Humanitarian Specialist at the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO), the consultant is expected to perform the below tasks:

• Technical assistance on gender mainstreaming and support the coordination efforts of crisis response actors
• Capacity building on GiHA and support to gender-responsive localization
• Knowledge building on gender and crisis / response
• Advocacy, partnership and resource mobilization

Deliverables:

• Lead and coordinate gender related initiatives and promote coordination among gender actors responding the crisis including co-leading a dedicated working group.
• Provide gender advisory support to UNRC and sector/working group leads under the Refugee Coordination Forum to ensure the integration of gender throughout the project cycle including providing gender inputs to plans, strategies, sector-specific plans, etc.
• Provide technical support on gender mainstreaming to the response coordination structures to ensure the content of their response plans highlight and address gender concerns and priorities, and that members have increased capacity to respond to emerging gender priorities.
• Regularly review strategic and analyses documents (i.e. Response Plan, Need Assessments, strategies, reports, briefs etc.) to ensure that gender content and sex- and age-disaggregated data are systematically included.
• Identify capacity building needs on GiHA and develop a plan in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
• Contribute to the implementation of capacity building initiatives and deliver different trainings related to gender in crisis contexts as needed.
• Build the capacity of UN Women staff in Armenia on gender responsive humanitarian action.
• Provide technical and capacity building support to women led organizations responding to the crisis.
• Strengthen the capacity of response staff and gender focal points on GiHA and strengthen the meaningful engagement with women CSOs as key partners in the crisis response.
• Support accelerating localization through facilitating/advocating for local women’s organizations and networks participation in response planning, decision making and monitoring/accountability (with a focus on those organizations that work with crisis affected women and girls, including those at heightened risk of violence, exploitation and abuse).
• Identify needs for data evidence and knowledge in humanitarian and recovery context.
• Facilitate the development of a gender assessment informed by secondary data in collaboration with other response actors.
• Build a mapping of Women’s Rights Organization (WRO)/Women’s led Organization (WLO) active in the humanitarian response.
• Contribute to inter-agency assessments and any data collection exercises and provide inputs on gender and guidance on gender responsive assessments.
• Develop knowledge products including briefs, fact sheets, statistics, research, policy briefs, gender alerts, etc. highlighting the gendered impact/gendered dimension of the humanitarian crisis on the affected populations.
• Conduct ongoing/periodic context updates and document gender related emerging trends and challenges also as they relate to working group/clusters response.
• Provide technical advice on the inclusion of Sex Age and Disability Disaggregated Data (SADD) and gender content in sector and inter-sectoral analyses and advocacy messages.
• Ensure that gender is mainstreamed in sector assessments, the Joint Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) and rapid interagency assessments.
• Develop gender related key advocacy messages targeted to relevant stakeholders and communication materials.
• Facilitate a partnership with WLOs/Women Human Rights Defenders (WHRDs) to ensure their access to the regional and global processes/platforms on humanitarian/recovery and development dimensions.
• Support the drafting of strategic notes, talking points, key messages for internal UN Women leadership.
• Support drafting of concept notes and proposals to scale up UN Women’s programming in Armenia, in line with identified priorities in the Response Plan.
• Support to integrate humanitarian and recovery related dimensions into UN Women potential programmes/projects for Armenia.
• Contribute to identifying opportunities-programming and partnerships, including through discussion with clusters, UN entities, INGOs, women CSOs and other stakeholders to develop targeted programming across the humanitarian – development – peace nexus.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

• Strong understanding of the policies and practices in the fields of gender equality, protection and humanitarian action, including humanitarian coordination;
• Strong background in programme development, implementation, results-based management and reporting;
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• Excellent research, analytical and writing skills;
• Ability to think and work logically and work precisely with attention to detail;
• Initiative, sound judgment and demonstrated ability to work harmoniously with staff members of different national and cultural backgrounds;
• Ability to work independently and meet tight deadlines in a high-pressure environment.

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/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in gender, international relations, international development, 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.
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in designing and managing gender responsive programmes, with a particular focus on gender targeted programming across the humanitarian-development nexus is required.
• Technical experience in inter-agency coordination, preferably protection, livelihoods cluster coordination, and/or ProCap/GenCap in a conflict /emergency setting.
• Experience coaching and/or training partners and humanitarian actors on gender equality concepts is required.
• Experience working with partners, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field is required.
• Experience working in a complex conflict context is an asset.
• Experience in the South Caucasus is an asset.
• Experience working with the UN is an asset.

Language:

• Proficient in English
• Knowledge of Russian is an asset.
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language would be an asset.

Evaluation Procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria; technical and financial evaluation.

The candidates must possess following minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in gender, international relations, international development, or other social science fields is required or a first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in designing and managing gender responsive programmes, with a particular focus on gender targeted programming across the humanitarian-development nexus is required.
• Proficient in English

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria followed by technical and financial evaluation.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

• Master’s degree or equivalent in gender, international relations, international development, or other social science fields is required or a first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree (max 40 points);
• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in designing and managing gender responsive programmes, with a particular focus on gender targeted programming across the humanitarian-development nexus is required (max 110 points);
• Technical experience in inter-agency coordination, preferably protection, livelihoods cluster coordination, and/or ProCap/GenCap in a conflict /emergency setting (max 60 points);
• Experience coaching and/or training partners and humanitarian actors on gender equality concepts is required (max 60 points);
• Experience working with partners, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field is required (max 50 points);
• Proficient in English (max 30 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150

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 consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management arrangements:

The selected candidate will report to and work under the overall supervision of the UN Women Georgia Country Representative and Liaison to the South Caucasus and the guidance of the UN Women Regional Humanitarian Specialist at the Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO)

Financial arrangements:

The consultant will be paid in monthly instalments (as per the daily rate in the financial offer) upon submission of the monthly timesheet, deliverables and UN Women approval. The work plan, deliverable milestones, and instalment schedule may be modified in agreement with the consultant and UN Women supervisor.

Application submission package:

• CV;
• Duly filled Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process
• Financial Proposal - lump sum proposal/offer in USD. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum on a daily basis.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

How to Submit the Application:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), CV, samples of previous work and the Financial Proposal 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.

Notes:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)