National Consultant for providing technical input to review and finalize the UN Women’s study on the role of women in promoting social cohesion through digital engagement (Sri Lanka national

Consultant Human Rights

Overview

Review and finalize UN Women’s study on women and digital engagement

You have:

• Master’s degree preferably in social sciences, gender studies, human rights, international relations or related discipline
• Minimum 2 years of relevant research and review experience in the area of Women, Peace and Security, PVE, and/or peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka
• Experience in conducting research and review with a special focus on violent extremism and digital engagement
• Fluency in either of the national languages: Sinhala or Tamil
• Excellent command of English (written), with proven written report

Contract

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

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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In 2000, the Security Council adopted the ground-breaking resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security — the first to link women’s experiences of conflict to the international peace and security agenda. It focused on the disproportionate impact of conflict on women, and called for their engagement in conflict resolution and peacebuilding. The Security Council has passed seven additional resolutions on women, peace and security since the adoption of resolution 1325. Among these, Security Council resolution 2242 (2015) provides one of the most important pronouncements of the linkages between countering terrorism and violent extremism, and women, peace and security. It delivers a roadmap and issues a call to action for ensuring a gender perspective in all efforts, and that an emphasis is placed on prevention.

Building on over ten years of experience in the area of women, peace and security (WPS), including conflict prevention and resolution, peacebuilding, security sector reform and access to justice, UN Women has been working to ensure a gender sensitive and gender responsive approach to understanding and preventing violent extremism (PVE). UN Women works at both the country and regional levels on knowledge sharing, research, policy influence, and the empowerment of women and local communities to strengthen social cohesion.

Within this context, the UN Women in Sri Lanka through its project on ‘Implementation of WPS Agenda in Sri Lanka (the G7 Women, Peace and Security Partnerships Initiative) carried out a study on the role of women in promoting social cohesion through digital engagement. The following key-areas were highlighted in the study:

1. Factors that Drive Violent Extremism Online
2. The Effects of Gender Norms on Violent Extremism
3. The Practice of Violent Extremism in Digital Spaces
4. Obstacles to Preventing Online Extremism.

Purpose

The overall objective of this assignment is to review the study prepared by UN Women on the role of women in promoting social cohesion through digital engagement evaluating the contents, language and sensitivity of the study and provide recommendations copy-edit and finalise the report to a publishable quality necessary for the purpose of publishing the same.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance of the Programme Analyst, UN Women Sri Lanka, the consultant will be responsible for undertaking the following duties and responsibilities. The consultant will remain accountable for the timely submission of the deliverables as per the timeline given under Section IV.

Duties and responsibilities:

1. Submission of the initial technical review and comments of the study with special attention to content, language, sensitivity of terminology and publishable quality of the study.
2. Incorporate the necessary edits and comments to ensure that the study is in publishable quality.
3. Final report, addressing comments received from UN Women.

EXPECTED DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINES:

Payment Phase

Deliverables

Tentative

Timeframe

No.1

Submission of a Report containing the Initial Technical Assessment and Review

*Deliverable should be finalised in line with the feedback given by UN Women

24 October 2022

No. 2

Submission of the study with the necessary edits and comments incorporated along with a brief report (1-2 pages) containing the comments and feedback.

*Deliverable should be finalised in line with the feedback given by UN Women

31 October 2022

No 3.

The finalized study of publishable quality incorporating the changes as discussed and agreed with UN Women under deliverable 2.

*Deliverable should be finalised in line with the feedback given by UN Women

14 November 2022

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

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to pragmatically apply in-depth knowledge and experience of issues and practices in the fields of gender equality and ‘Women and PVE’ in Sri Lanka;
• Strong communications skills, and experience in presenting evidence and ideas for policy and programme;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree preferably in social sciences, gender studies, human rights, international relations or related discipline

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years of relevant research and review experience in the area of Women, Peace and Security, PVE, and/or peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka (required)
• Experience in conducting research and review with a special focus on violent extremism and digital engagement (desirable)

Language:

• Fluency in either of the national languages: Sinhala or Tamil
• Excellent command of English (written), with proven written report

CONTRACT PERIOD AND WORK LOCATION

The consultancy is expected to be started on 24 October 2022 and continue until 24 November 2022. The consultancy is primarily home-based. However, the consultant is expected to visit the UN Women Sri Lanka Office located at 202-204, Bauddhaloka Mawatha, Colombo 7 when requested.

PAYMENT

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed, upon the approval of the UN Women Programme Analyst, Sri Lanka. Payments are to be made within 30 days from receipt of invoice.

Evaluation

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 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.

Technical qualification evaluation

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:

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Obtainable Score

A) Education

• Master’s degree preferably in social sciences, gender studies, human rights, international relations or related discipline

20%

B) Experience and skills

• Minimum 2 years of relevant research and review experience in the area of Women, Peace and Security (WPS) Agenda, and/or peace and reconciliation in Sri Lanka (required)

• Experience in conducting research and review with a special focus on violent extremism and digital engagement (desirable)

50%

C) Language and report writing skills

• Fluency in either of the national languages: Sinhala or Tamil
• Excellent command of English (written), with proven written report

30%

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.

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Submission of application

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit their application through the UN Women website: https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs or to UNDP website: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm as well an electronic application not later than Thursday, 13 October 2022, COB

The submission package must include:

• Updated CV.
• UN Women Personal History Form(P11) which can be downloaded from https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• Technical proposal: Brief summary of the proposed methodology for the technical review exercise (1-2 pages).
• At least three sample reports from previous WPS related research that the consultant has conducted (all samples will be kept confidential) or links to website where reports can be retrieved (highly recommended).
• Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify a lump sum of total fees with daily rate, and proposed number of working days. Please see the financial proposal template as below:

Items

Amount (LKR)

Lump Sum fee (equivalent to daily fee x no. of days)

Number of days refers to actual days that the consultant works in order to produce deliverables as required by the ToR, NOT the number of days covering the whole period of consultancy.

Deliverable 1: Report containing the Initial Assessment and Review

Deliverable 2: Report containing the final review, comments and necessary recommendations addressing language, contents and sensitivity of the study.

Deliverable 3: Final report, addressing comments received from UN Women.

Total Financial Proposal

All applicants must include (as an attachment) the CV, P11, technical and financial proposals, and sample reports. Applications without financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION STATEMENT

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.)

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Potential interview questions

Added 3 years ago - Updated 1 year ago - Source: jobs.undp.org