National Consultant to Strengthen Coordination Mechanism Amongst County Gender Coordinators

Consultant

Contract

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

Background

The 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, peace, and security. UN Women Liberia Country Office Biennial Workplan 2022-2023 is connected to five corporate priority areas: women’s leadership and political participation; enhancing women’s economic empowerment (WEE); engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes (WPS); advancing women’s rights to live free from violence (VAW) and Gender-responsive Budgeting and Governance (GRB).

The Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MGCSP) is the national machinery for promoting gender equality, women ‘s advancement and children ‘s welfare in Liberia. The Ministry is mandated to coordinate and advise the Government on gender mainstreaming efforts to ensure that both women, children and men gain from development programs; integrate women as equal partners with men in the development of the country; monitor and report back on the impact and progress on gender equality programs. At the national and subnational levels, coordination has a complex, fragmented, changing and poorly coordinated system of reporting on gender related issues to enhance effective monitoring and reporting.

Addressing violence against women and girls requires a multisectoral approach. In Liberia, it is the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection, which is often under-resourced, with limited coordination capacity to addressing violence against women and girls. Formal channels of communication and information-sharing between and among government and non-governmental entities working on this issue are also needed for effective coordination, reporting, and data sharing.

Without a strong national multisectoral plan, effective county gender coordinators, and formal mechanisms of coordination and information-sharing, most interventions will be planned and implemented in isolation from one another rather than holistically. As a result, there are severe gaps in the overall approach to ending violence against women and girls, including incomplete and unevenly distributed services; ad-hoc prevention efforts that are independent from response efforts; and law and policy are disconnected from the realities on the ground. Fragmented efforts at the local level mean survivors may not have access to comprehensive services and may be required to travel long distances and to multiple locations to receive them, requiring them to repeat their story time and again and putting the burden of coordinating and tracking their medical, police and legal files on their own shoulders including associated cost. Fragmented efforts also mean that administrative data is not likely systematized, affecting the ability to have accurate, consistent records that shed light on the nature and scale of the problem; on which responses are working and which need reworking; and makes it difficult to integrate findings into larger multi-stakeholder policy and programming frameworks.

In this context, UN Women in very close consultation with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection seeks to hire a national Consultant to enhance the Capacity of County Gender Coordinators (15 counties) with the tools and strategy to mainstream gender into policy and support coordination mechanism at the national and subnational levels.

Objectives of the assignment:

1. Enhance the Capacity of County Gender Coordinators (15 counties) with the tools, approaches, and strategy to mainstream gender into policy and support coordination mechanism at the national and subnational levels.
2. Develop tools for the collection of disaggregated gender statistics to inform policy and decision making; and
3. Build capacity of County Coordinators in coordination mechanisms, data collection and report writing.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of UN Women Deputy Country Representative and direct supervision from the gender-responsive Budgeting Programme Specialist and the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, the consultant will accomplish the following tasks:

Task 1

Develop Consultancy Workplan

1. Conduct a desk review of existing relevant coordination, monitoring and reporting documents;
2. Conduct preliminary consultations with relevant divisions, and department of the MGCSP;

Task 2

Conduct individual and institutional capacity assessment of the county coordinators in the fifteen (15) counties.

1. Conduct preliminary consultation with the specific county coordinators and staff of the 15 counties;
2. Document/map out their roles and responsibilities at the subnational and national levels
3. Recommend practical and easy to use coordination mechanism that will outline how information should flow from the counties to the national level
4. Provide recommendations to address other institutional capacity gaps identified in the 15 counties

Task 3

Develop a standardized data collection tool, and a systemized monitoring and reporting template that is user friendly for information sharing at the subnational and national levels.

Task 4

Organize and facilitate a two-day capacity building training on effective coordination data collection tools and reporting mechanism for the 15 county coordinators and one senior county staff.

Task 5

Develop and submit end of mission report stating the processes, lessons learned, challenges and recommendation for future implementation.

1. Expected Deliverables

The consultant will produce the following deliverables:

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Deliverables

Indicative Deadline

1

Consultancy work plan developed

1 week (March 14-19)

2

Individuals and institutional capacity needs assessments conducted and reported

2 weeks (March 19-29)

3

Standardized data collection, monitoring and reporting tools developed

3 weeks (March 30-April 28)

4

Validation of data collection, monitoring and reporting tools with MGCSP technical team

5

Two days capacity building training on effective coordination, data collection, monitoring and reporting organized and facilitated

4 week (April 29-May 9)

6

Final report submitted

5 week (May 10-16)

I

Competencies

All the deliverables, including annexes, notes and reports should be submitted in English.

Upon receipt of the deliverables and prior to the payment of the first installment, the deliverables and related reports and documents will be reviewed and approved by UN Women. The period of review is one week after receipt.

Inputs

• Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and UN Women will provide the Consultant with background materials relevant to the assignment;
• The Consultant is expected to work using his/ her own computer;
• The Consultant will be based at the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection with regular visits to the UN Women Liberia Country Office
• UN Women shall facilitate consultations/meetings between the consultant and relevant stakeholders

1. Performance evaluation:

Consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.

1. 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 utilised in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal 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 criteria:

The total number of points allotted 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

Education and area of Expertise

30%

Proven Work Experience and skills

60 %

Language and other skills

10 %

Total obtainable Score

100 %

Only the candidates who fit the minimum requirements will be longlisted and may be requested further documentation. Candidates with a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified candidates and will be shortlisted for potential 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 allotted 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 technically 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.

Annex I: Financial Proposal

BREAKDOWN OF COSTS SUPPORTING THE ALL-INCLUSIVE FINANCIAL PROPOSAL

Breakdown of Cost by Components:

DeliverablesPercentage of Total Price (Weigh) for payment)Fixed PriceDue Date The lump sum costs should include all travels and administration costs and expenses related to the consultancy. All prices/rates quoted must be exclusive of all taxes. The lump sum costs must be accompanied by a detailed breakdown of costs calculation.

Submission of package

1. Cover letter;
2. CV, including contact information of 3 referees;
3. Financial proposal. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount per each deliverable, including any travel, per diem and administrative fees, based on the template in Annex 1. The lump sum costs must be accompanied by a detailed breakdown of costs calculation.

All applications must include (as attachment) a CV and financial proposal. Applications without a financial proposal will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further processing.

Please note that only short-listed candidates will be invited for the interview.

Selected candidates will need to submit prior to commencement of work:

1. A copy of the latest academic certificate
2. A statement from a medical doctor of ‘good health and fit for travel’
3. Before any travel outside of Monrovia, the consultant will need to provide proof (certificate) of “Basic and Advanced Security in the Field” (which can be accessed here: undss.trip.org)

Required Skills and Experience

1. Qualification and Experience

The Consultant should fulfill the following requirements:

1. Education

University degree (master’s degree) in gender studies, social sciences, Organizational Management, Public Administration, Strategic Planning, Law, Human Rights or other related fields. PhD could be an added advantage

1. Experience:

• At least 6 years of proven experience in development studies, organizational management, gender mainstreaming and strategic planning;
• Experience leading and working with a range of clients, colleagues, government, and other partners with a broad exposure to private and public stakeholders;
• Experience in coordination with various stakeholders on gender related and other development issues is an asset.
• Expertise on gender equality, women’s empowerment;
• Proven experience in leading and facilitating workshops and trainings;

Language and other skills:

• Proficiency in oral and written English
• Must be capable of effectively using MS Word and Excel
• Excellent facilitation and training skills

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Added 2 years ago - Updated 2 years ago - Source: jobs.undp.org