National Consultant to support the strengthening of Civil Society Organizations and regional women’s movements’ capacities and engagement in addressing Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and H

Consultant

Contract

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

Background

The Spotlight Initiative (SI) is a global initiative of the United Nations which has received generous support from the European Union. The Initiative is responding to all forms of violence against women and girls. The initiative represents an unprecedented global effort of investing in gender equality and women's empowerment as a prerequisite and driving force for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

The Spotlight Initiative Regional Programme for Central Asia and Afghanistan (Regional Programme) contributes to legal reforms, strengthening the capacity of relevant institutions and women’s movements, promoting norms based on gender equality, as well as improving the quality of data collection and statistics on violence towards women and girls. The Regional Programme is collaborating with a wide range of stakeholders, including civil society, donors, practitioners, academia, and the media, to help eliminate harmful practices (HP) and support further gender transformation in the region. More information can be found on the website www.spotlightinitiative.org

The Regional Programme works on the engagement of women's rights organisations, autonomous social movements, and civil society organisations (CSOs) in processes so they can participate, sustain, and advance progress on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and ending Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) policies and programmes that respond to the needs of all women and girls, including those facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.

The Spotlight Initiative invests in strengthening regional leadership, coordination, knowledge sharing, and networking of women’s rights organizations to support CSOs collective and strategic engagement with governments and other actors within the broader Alliance for Central Asia on SGBV. The Regional Programme worked on establishing a regional CSO network, linked to the Central Asian Alliance, involving WROs, CSOs, activists, and women’s rights defenders across the five countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, to build a coordinated and strong women’s movement for joint advocacy, activism, and accountability. Focus is being placed on ensuring the participation and voice of less-resourced CSO, including rural grassroots organizations, and younger less established organizations. A virtual knowledge platform is being established to facilitate remote knowledge exchange, sharing of best practices, and joint development of advocacy strategies. This will also provide the space for CSOs to introduce and promote the scale-up of innovations across countries

With focus on strengthening institutional capacities of grassroots organization that do not currently have the technical capacities to access funding from international organizations, the SI provided small grants to CSOs in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Capacity development support was incorporated with the provision of small grants to support efficient monitoring, ensure quality control, and best use of funds and to ensure a coherent approach to strengthening CSOs’ capacities for involvement in the women’s movement. Moreover, an existing local women’s rights organization in Central Asia was identified and capacitated as a regional grant-making for grant-making and support to gain the CSOs’ capacity to provide regional leadership and influence policy making.

Duties and Responsibilities

The purpose of this assignment is to provide professional, high-quality, and timely support to the UN Women Spotlight Initiative Team in the achievement of planned outcomes and implementation of interventions for strengthening Civil Society Organizations’ capacities and their engagement in addressing SGBV and HP in Central Asia as a continuation of the Regional Programme’s Phase I and II Pillar 6.

Tasks, deliverables, and timelines

Under the guidance of the Spotlight Initiative Regional Programme for Central Asia and Afghanistan UN Women’s Project Officer (hereinafter - Project Officer) and the Spotlight Programme Manager, the National Consultant will provide programmatic, administrative, and logistical support to the effective implementation of UN Women’s CSOs-focused interventions. S/he will support effective and timely coordination of workflows with the Regional CSOs Network in close cooperation with the Regional CSOs Coordination Group. The Consultant will also work on building CSOs’ capacity through sharing and disseminating knowledge products and tools developed to monitor and advocate for aligning national laws and regulations with international standards and conventions. S/he will support the procedures pertaining to the small grants provided to CSOs by the Regional Programme within Pillar 6; provide expert and technical support for the finalization of the CSOs outreach strategy as stipulated in the Programme Document; will support meaningful engagement of the Regional Grant-making Mechanism in joint work with the Regional CSOs network and Regional Coordination Group for resource mobilization and sustainable financing. The Consultant will work on ensuring CSOs’ active and meaningful participation in the Central Asian Alliance to address SGBV and HP through close cooperation with the Regional CSOs Coordination Group and the Regional Grant-making mechanism. S/he will also contribute, review, and coordinate the submission of programmatic and implementing partners’ financial and narrative reports; provide substantive support to the programmatic and operational closure of CSOs-focused interventions.

1. Regional CSOs Network, the Regional CSOs Coordination Group, Small grants programme, the Regional Grant-making mechanism and their engagement in the Central Asian Alliance

• Coordinate and monitor effectively interventions related to the Regional CSOs Network in close cooperation with the Regional CSOs Coordination Group and the Regional Grant-making mechanism;
• Liaise with the Regional CSOs Coordination Group for meaningful cooperation and the development and implementation of the sustainability strategy;
• Coordinate and facilitate the work of the Regional Grant-making mechanism for resource mobilization and sustainable financing, coordinate with the Regional Virtual Knowledge Sharing Platform (Platform) team on including and updating financing opportunities on the Platform;
• Coordinate Regional CSOs, the Regional CSOs Coordination Group, and the Regional Grant-making mechanism’s active participation in the work of the Central Asian Alliance;
• Prepare letters, briefs, meeting minutes, and talking points pertaining to CSOs’ engagement in the Regional Programme;
• Contribute and coordinate the timely and good-quality submission of financial and narrative reports;
• Contribute, support and finalize UN Women’s procedures pertaining to the Small Grant Programme and grants issued to CSOs during the Regional Programme’s implementation;
• Provide inputs to UN Women’s corporate bi-annual and annual reporting;
• Provide substantive support to the programmatic and operational closure of CSOs-focused interventions.

2. Knowledge management and sharing

• Oversee the process of finalization of the CSOs outreach strategy as stipulated in the Programme Document through the timely contribution to the procurement procedures, oversight of timely and good quality assignment implementation;
• Work on CSOs capacity development through sharing and dissemination of knowledge products developed during the Regional Programme’s implementation;
• Provide technical support to the development of the Regional Virtual Knowledge Sharing Platform including contribution to the mapping of relevant resources, CSOs engagement, etc.
• Coordinate or conduct technical workshops and webinars; facilitate workshop sessions;
• Conduct presentations for CSOs to share knowledge generated during the Regional Programme’s implementation;
• Consolidate lessons learned and key outcomes of workshops and webinars;
• Analyze emerging needs and provide suggestions for technical follow-up;
• Identify opportunities for capacity building of CSOs and other partners and coordinate and facilitate technical/ programming support and training to partners as needed.

3. Programmatic, administrative, and logistical support

• Organize required events, workshops, meetings, consultations with relevant partners for the CSOs’-focused interventions and activities;
• Draft concept notes, agendas, lists of participants, reports, and presentations for the CSOs’-focused interventions, activities, and events;
• Coordinate participation of CSOs’ representatives in events and activities organised in a framework of the Regional Programme;
• Contribute to the preparation of logistic notes and follow up with participants;
• Upon UN Women’s approval represent the UN Women Programme Team;
• Perform other duties and functions assigned by the Supervisor.

Tasks and deliverables

Dates

A detailed work plan with a list of measurable monthly tasks and deliverables. The work plan is to be drawn up for each month and agreed upon with the supervisor

Till the 5-th of the reporting month

Summary report on completed tasks and results achieved in accordance with the agreed detailed work plan

Monthly,

till the 30-th/31st of every calendar month

Considering that Central Asia countries have a lot of in common, but at the same time each country has its own characteristics, the main task of the Consultant is to provide and maintain effective cooperation with the five countries of Central Asia in order to effectively implement the Spotlight Initiative, in particular, achieve results that are within the responsibility of UN Women.

The National Consultant needs to know the socio-economic and political situation in the countries of Central Asia and be in constant communication with the UN Women Country Office in Kazakhstan, UN agencies, the office of the UN Resident Representative in Kazakhstan and the Programme Unit, be proactive, and offer practical solutions, be responsible and inclusive.

One of the tasks of the National Consultant would be independently assess the quality of processes and documents, and if necessary, involve a third party in accordance with the procurement rules of UN Women.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Tolerance and respect
• Honesty
• Responsibility
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration

Required Skills and Experience

Education****:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/ women’s studies, international development, or a related field is required

Experience:

• At least 5 years of relevant work experience in development programme/project implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, donor reporting and capacity building;
• Experience in women’s movement building and/or CSO capacity development;
• Experience coordinating and liaising with government agencies and/or donors is an asset;
• Experience of managing multi-stakeholder development programmes is an advantage;
• Familiarity with UN development programmes and working methods, and particularly with UN Women policies and programming procedures, desirable;
• Knowledge and experience in data/statistics collection, analysis and presentation;
• Experience working on gender equality, SGBV, human rights related projects;

Languages:

• Excellent reading, writing and speaking skills in Russian and English

Evaluation process

Applicants must meet the above minimum qualification requirements, which will be included in the technical evaluation process in the future. The next stage of the evaluation process will be maintained by cumulative analysis methodology of the technical proposal (70%) and the financial proposal (30%) of the applicant.

Technical evaluation criteria:

Criteria

Maximum points

Education

Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/ women’s studies, international development, or a related field is required

50

Work experience

At least 5 years of relevant work experience in development programme/project implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, donor reporting and capacity building

5 years 160

5-10 years 200

<10 years 240

Experience in women’s movement building and/or CSO capacity development;

100

Experience coordinating and liaising with government agencies and/or donors is an asset;

50

Experience of managing multi-stakeholder development programmes is an advantage;

50

Familiarity with UN development programmes and working methods, and particularly with UN Women policies and programming procedures, desirable;

50

Knowledge and experience in data/statistics collection, analysis and presentation;

50

Experience working on gender equality, SGBV, human rights related projects;

80

Languages

• English (15)
• Russian(15)

30

Maximum total technical evaluation scoring (70%):

700

Only candidates, who will score at least 490 (70%) out of the maximum 700 points during the technical evaluation process, will be qualified for financial proposal *.

* Each candidate will be invited to submit consolidated financial proposal in KZT (a ‘consolidated financial proposal’, which includes applicant’s all the expenses required to perform the assignment).

The financial proposals of technically qualified candidates will be requested and will be weighted in terms of selection points as per the following formula:

B = T + Clow / C x 300, where

T is a universal technical score awarded to the evaluation of the proposal (only those proposals that pass 70% of the technical evaluation);

C is the financial proposal of the candidate; and

Clow is the lowest financial proposal among all evaluated candidates.

300 is the maximum financial point that can be obtained.

The successful candidate will have accumulated the highest aggregated point (technical and financial scoring).

Payment will be made only if the expected results will be achieved, agreed package of documents and reports provided without delay and approval by UN Women.

Application Process:

All documents should be sent as one file including:

• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Technical proposal describing how the expected assignment will be performed. The technical proposal should also include:

1. Candidate's experience in development programme/project implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, donor reporting and capacity building (Supplementary Materials or link to a website where documents are available to learn about the Candidate's experience);
2. experience in women’s movement building and/or CSO capacity development (supporting materials or a link to a site where documents are available to learn about the candidate's experience);
3. experience working on gender equality, SGBV, human rights related projects (supporting materials or a link to a site where documents are available to learn about the experience of the candidate);
4. experience of working with UN agencies and/or other international organizations on similar issues in the field of gender equality and human rights.

• Financial proposal in USD for daily consultancy services.

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

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

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy for conduct that is inconsistent with the goals and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of power and discrimination. All selected candidates will be required to adhere to UN-Women's policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN-Women staff and will therefore be subject to a thorough background and background check. (A background check will include verification of academic credentials and employment history. Selected applicants may be required to provide additional information in order to conduct a background check.)

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