National Consultant to provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Health and Social Protection to implement commitments in the area of Gender Responsive Policies Planning and Budgeting

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; empowerment of women; and 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, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Government of Albania has made national and international commitments to advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women in many different socio-economic aspects. Several international conventions and platforms, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Beijing Platform for Action, demonstrate Albania’s commitment to the realization of women’s rights and the achievement of gender equality.

UN Women Albania Strategic Note (SN) 2022-2026 aims to ensure that “All Women and girls enjoy and exercise their human rights in a gender equal society and meaningfully contribute to Albania’s sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development and EU integration”. To achieve such result, across its interventions, UN Women Albania addresses key thematic areas in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2022 – 2026, specifically Outcome C1. By 2026, governance is more transparent and accountable, enabling people and especially vulnerable groups, to enjoy quality, inclusive services, enhanced rule of law and access to justice in line with Albania’s human rights commitments; and Outcome C2. By 2026, gender responsive governance strengthens equality and non-discrimination, promotes women’s empowerment and human rights, and reduces violence against women and children.

Over the past years, UN Women in Albania has provided support to national and local stakeholders in strengthening democratic governance and advancing women’s rights through initiatives aimed at mainstreaming gender in policy planning and budgeting. Gender Responsive Budgeting -GRB is a legal requirement in both the Organic Budget Law (2016) and Local 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; empowerment of women; and 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, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Government of Albania has made national and international commitments to advancing gender equality and the empowerment of women in many different socio-economic aspects. Several international conventions and platforms, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the UN Beijing Platform for Action, demonstrate Albania’s commitment to the realization of women’s rights and the achievement of gender equality.

UN Women Albania Strategic Note (SN) 2022-2026 aims to ensure that “All Women and girls enjoy and exercise their human rights in a gender equal society and meaningfully contribute to Albania’s sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development and EU integration”. To achieve such result, across its interventions, UN Women Albania addresses key thematic areas in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework 2022 – 2026, specifically Outcome C1. By 2026, governance is more transparent and accountable, enabling people and especially vulnerable groups, to enjoy quality, inclusive services, enhanced rule of law and access to justice in line with Albania’s human rights commitments; and Outcome C2. By 2026, gender responsive governance strengthens equality and non-discrimination, promotes women’s empowerment and human rights, and reduces violence against women and children.

Over the past years, UN Women in Albania has provided support to national and local stakeholders in strengthening democratic governance and advancing women’s rights through initiatives aimed at mainstreaming gender in policy planning and budgeting. Gender Responsive Budgeting -GRB is a legal requirement in both the Organic Budget Law (2016) and Local Government Financial Management Law (2017) which allows for effective inclusion of GRB in all the phases of central and local financial management cycles (medium term and annual budget programming, monitoring & reporting, evaluation and auditing). GRB is currently an important tool for advancing gender equality in key national documents as in accordance with existing Albanian national policy documents on social inclusion and gender equality. UN Women is implementing a regional programme with participation of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Serbia, and North Macedonia on “Transformative Financing for Gender Equality towards more Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Western Balkans” (2020-2024) funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation. UN Women in Albania will work with the Government in guiding and assisting institutions to apply gender responsive budgeting across the public finance cycle and consider carefully links between the National Strategy on Gender Equality, gender-related objectives and measures in sectoral strategies and respective budgeting through the medium-term budget programming at central and local level.

In addition, UN Women is implementing jointly with UN agencies, the UN Joint Programme “Leave No One Behind 2”. UN Women interventions within the project aim to empower vulnerable women to have equal access to public services that support their social rights, social inclusion, and well-being. In that regard, UN Women is working to strengthen capacities of state authorities at central and local level to apply a gender and intersectionality perspective in the development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of strategies, policies and plans relevant for social inclusion and protection.

The Ministry of Health and Social Protection (MoHSP) is one of the key partners of UN Women towards common efforts of improving overall government capacities to design, implement and monitor gender-responsive social protection and inclusion polices and services for vulnerable women and sanctioning a proactive approach of government institutions to plan, budget, monitor, track expenditures, and leverage resources for GEWE in the country as guided also by the respective normative framework.

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide technical support to the MoHSP to perform its duties related to compliance and implementation of national and international commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment and in particular on the increased application of gender responsive policies, planning and budgeting processes as put forward also in the National Strategy for Gender Equality 2021 – 2030 and related legislation and policies. The consultant will be primary based at the Directory of Social Inclusion and Gender Equality of the Ministry of Health and Social Protection.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Program Manager for Gender Responsive Policies Planning and Budgeting and in close collaboration with the Directory of Social Inclusion and Gender Equality at the Ministry of Health and Social Protection, the consultant is expected to contribute to the following areas:

1. Support the Implementation of the current legislation on gender responsive budgeting and the NSGE 2020-2030 by:

• Providing technical assistance to and advising the MoHSP on the overall implementation of the Albanian legislation and national policies related to gender responsive planning and budgeting and interlinkages with the National Strategy on Gender Equality and Action Plan 2021-2030.
• Supporting the MoHSP to lead and coordinate work with the national gender equality mechanism to ensure gender mainstreaming and reflection of gender equality priorities in resource allocations, execution, and monitoring.
• Supporting MoHSP to lead and coordinate work with Albanian School of Public Administration on building capacities of public administration at central and local level on Gender Responsive Budgeting including through preparation of specific curricula and organization of training programmes.
• Supporting MoHSP with development and availability of system-wide resources such as, guidelines, checklists, training for public administration, and improvement and use of available gender-disaggregated data and statistics pertaining the areas of gender responsive planning and budgeting.
• Providing suggestions and support the MoHSP to develop and coordinate with other national partners, including oversight institutions, to implement gender responsive budgeting initiatives.
• Supporting and advising MoHSP to lead and coordinate work for preparing gender budget analysis and statement, gender budget briefs, gender budget guidance to central and local partners as per MoHSP mandate.
• Providing relevant inputs to various monitoring and reporting processes on the implementation of Gender Equality and Gender Responsive Budgeting obligations.

2. Support and advise MoHSP to implement joint workplan with UN Women for “Leave No One Behind 2” UN Joint Program through:

• Technical assistance to MoHSP in the integration of gender perspective in the development and implementation of social inclusion legal, policy, and regulatory frameworks.
• Support to MoHSP to validate actual social policy guidelines and/or establish gender markers on any related funding mechanisms.
• Support and coordinate MoHSP work for gender mainstreaming in the Social Protection Strategy.

Other duties and responsibilities include:

• Draft inputs for the work progress reports and for the programmatic areas as per ToRs
• Support MoHSP in reviewing and providing comments/recommendations from a gender perspective to various draft strategies and plans as relevant.
• Support MoHSP in the coordination of monitoring and reporting processes of social inclusion and protection policies from a gender perspective including the application of GRB.
• Support MoHSP in the coordination of partners contributing to the gender equality dimensions of the programme.
• Conduct research and assist in collecting and analyzing data related to social inclusion, gender budgeting and gender equality in Albania.
• Prepare policy and legal reviews and analyses related to required legal and policy changes.
• Prepare short briefs, notes and presentations on the ToRs programmatic results and impact or any other related documents relevant to programmatic interventions.
• Participate and contribute to meetings online and in person (as requested by UN Women and MoHSP) as well as major programme-related events.
• Provide inputs and contribute to the organisation of events part of the projects, where MoHSP is convening or contributing.
• Support the country office for the preparation of inputs and reporting to treaty bodies, EU annual progress reports as well as inputs to UN Women project documents.
• Support the country office to revise and provide inputs relevant to social inclusion, GRB and gender equality to reports/publications and other knowledge products developed by the office or its partners.
• The consultant will be responsible also for other tasks that may be decided and agreed by the MoHSP and UN Women, Albania.

Expected deliverables:

• Workplans for the consultancy agreed and discussed with representatives of the MoHSP and cleared by UN Women;
• Copies of documents drafted to support the activity of MoHSP, in accordance with the duties and responsibilities under these terms of reference, including draft monitoring reports, concept notes, communication with various stakeholders, minutes of meetings, visibility documents
• Copies of reports, technical inputs, briefs, presentations and other on-demand reports on specific initiatives requested.
• Written detailed reports on the meetings held.

Note:

• Technical inputs and other on-demand reports on specific initiatives when requested by the MoHSP will be reviewed and agreed with UN Women for quality assurance;
• Quality of relationships with partners is central to success and will be assessed by the MoHSP and UN Women through the duration of the contract.
• The MoHSP and UN Women will provide the Consultant with background materials related to the assignment.
• The consultant is expected to work using her/his own computer.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• 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:

• Proven research, analytical and drafting skills,
• Demonstrated ability to interact effectively with various public and non-public stakeholders including in the areas of gender equality , social inclusion and gender responsive budgeting;
• Excellent writing skills in English and Albanian;
• Strong interpersonal skills;
• Strong initiative-taking;
• Focuses on impact and results for the partner;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience:

Academic Qualifications/Education

• Advanced university degree in human rights, social sciences, development studies, gender studies or similar discipline;

Work Experience

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in the areas of gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• At least 2 years of experience in designing and implementing initiatives on issues related to social policy, inclusion and gender responsive policy planning and budgeting;
• Experience in training, coaching, mentoring of public administration and other audiences working in policy development, implementation and monitoring;

• Previous experience in collaborating and coordinating with the central and local government institutions, parliament, academia and other stakeholders;

• Previous experience or familiarity with the UN system or other international organizations would be an asset.

Language requirement

• Proficiency in written and spoken English and Albanian.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

• Financial Proposal specifying the daily fee in ALL (Albanian Leke) for the tasks specified above. Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services
• Payment will be made as per the payment schedule in the contract upon (i) satisfactory completion of tasks; (ii) provision of deliverables specified in the ToRs; (iii) submission of and approval by UN Women of final draft; and (iv) submission of the certification of payment.

Recommended Presentation of Offer:

Qualified and interested candidates are required to apply online:

• A Letter of Confirmation of Interest including a brief description explaining why the individual considers her/himself as the most suitable for the assignment.
• Completed and signed UN Women Personal History Form (P11) that can be downloaded at link:UN Women Personal History Form (P11) or http://www.unwomen.org/en/about- us/employment
• Financial Proposal specifying a daily fee in ALL (Albanian Leke) for the tasks specified in this assignment, following the instructions under the above section on Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments.

Evaluation of applicants:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. 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.

Technical Evaluation –70 points:

• Advanced university degree in human rights, social sciences, development studies, gender studies or similar discipline;(max 10 points);
• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in the areas of gender equality and women empowerment; (25 points);
• At least 2 years of experience in designing and implementing initiatives on issues related to social policy, inclusion and gender responsive policy planning and budgeting; (15 points)
• Experience in training, coaching, mentoring of public administration and other audiences working in policy development, implementation and monitoring (15 points).
• Previous experience or familiarity with the UN system or other international organizations would be an asset (max 5 points)

Financial Evaluation – 30 points

• Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.
• The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. The calculation formula applied is as follow:

p = 30 (µ/z); where: p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated; µ = price of the lowest priced proposal; z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

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.