National Consultant to undertake a rapid needs assessment to identify relief support requirements of project beneficiaries and government-managed safe houses - Open to Sri Lankan nationals o

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LK Home-based; Travel; Sri Lanka

Application deadline 11 months ago: Thursday 30 Mar 2023 at 23:59 UTC

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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.

Globally, UN Women focuses on six priority areas. These include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, supporting women's participation in achieving and sustaining peace, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

To ensure that women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems, UN Women’s programmes on leadership and participation are designed to train women leaders to help build their capacities and promote women's leadership at all levels of decision-making. It advocates for legislative, policy, budgetary, and constitutional reforms to end discriminatory laws that prevent women from meaningfully participating in all spheres of life. To ensure that women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy, UN Women promotes women’s ability to secure decent jobs, accumulate assets, and influence institutions and public policies determining growth and development. To ensure that women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence, UN Women focuses on women's economic empowerment, early education, respectful relationships, and working with men and boys, recognizing that prevention is still the most cost-effective, long-term way to stop violence.

Presently, Sri Lanka is facing its largest economic crisis in history, triggering political instability and bringing the country to the brink of a humanitarian emergency. The economic downturn brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened existing precarious economic conditions and pre-existing inequalities, and has led to a reduction in incomes across the country. Recent analysis indicates that 73% of households had seen their incomes decline amidst rising prices and inflation. Rising cost of living, including fuel and food prices, have coincided with massive food and supply shortages, pushing communities into extreme poverty and malnutrition. As the Gender Alert: Sri Lanka Crisis (GiHA, August 2022) reveals, the current socio-economic and political crisis generates significant risks to the safety and wellbeing of women and girls in Sri Lanka.

UN Women will respond to the immediate and evolving needs of women and girls, through the provision of short-term aid and income generating resources, while strengthening state infrastructure to support inclusive and gender-responsive life-saving services and livelihoods across the country in 5 targeted districts: Ampara, Colombo, Monaragala, Vavuniya, Mullaitivu. In particular, the project will continue to expand and strengthen the resilience of women’s micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that have been supported through UN Women’s previous programmes but are at the risk of collapse due to the present crisis.

Against this background, UN Women is seeking to hire a national consultant to undertake a rapid needs assessment to identify the relief support requirements of project beneficiaries and government-managed safe houses.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Officer-in-charge of UN Women Sri Lanka, the consultant is expected to undertake the following;

No.

Task

Needs assessment of government-managed safe houses

1

Participate at preliminary discussions with national and local-level government authorities and identify relief support requirements of government-managed safe houses for women.

2

Visit the 10 identified safe houses in the following locations; Colombo, Gampaha, Matara, Rathnapura, Monaragala, Batticaloa, Mullaitivu, Jaffna and 2 in Anuradhapura, and assess the immediate, mid- and long-term relief support requirements of each safe house.

3

Develop and finalise a Needs Assessment report based on the data collected from initial discussions with government authorities, and from the visits to safe houses. The report should consist the needs separately identified for each safe house.

4

Undertake a follow-up, mid-phase needs and satisfaction assessment of the women accessing the services of the 10 safe house facilities, after 3 months of the initial assessment.

Need assessments of project beneficiaries

5

Participate at preliminary discussion with national, district and divisional-level government authorities and UN Women, and identify immediate, mid-term and long-term relief support requirements of project beneficiaries in the districts of Ampara, Colombo, Monaragala, Mullaitivu and Vavuniya. Project beneficiaries are mostly consisted of women entrepreneurs and female headed households.

6

Visits the following divisions of the districts and assess the relief support requirements of project beneficiaries;

  • Ampara: Karaitivu, Navithanveli
  • Colombo: Maharagama, Kaduwela, Colombo
  • Monaragala: Madulla, Siyambalanduwa
  • Mullaitivu: Maritimepaththu
  • Vavuniya: Vaviniya North, Vavuniya South, Vengalacheddikulam

7

Develop and finalise a Needs Assessment report based on the data collected from initial discussions with government authorities, and from the beneficiaries

8

Undertake mid-phase the needs and satisfaction assessment of beneficiaries receiving relief support, after 3 months of the initial assessment.

*Consultant is encouraged to mobilize a team to support with the field study, data collection and data entering.

Expected deliverables

No

Deliverable

Target submission date

  1. 1.1 Draft report with the needs assessment of government-managed safe houses

30 April 2023

1.2 Finalised needs assessment report incorporating UN Women feedback

10 May 2023

2.

2.1 Draft report with the mid-phase needs and satisfaction assessment of government-managed safe houses

15 September 2023

2.2 Finalised mid-phase needs and satisfaction assessment report, incorporating UN Women feedback

1 October 2023

3.

3.1 Draft report with the needs assessment of project beneficiaries

10 May 2023

3.2 Finalised needs assessment report incorporating UN Women feedback

20 May 2023

4.

4.1 Draft report with mid-phase needs and satisfaction assessment of project beneficiaries

30 September 2023

4.2 Finalised mid-phase needs and satisfaction assessment report, incorporating UN Women feedback

15 October 2023

Duration of Assignment and Duty Station:

Consultant is expected to start from 10 April 2023 - 31 October 2023. 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 as needed and undertake travel as required by the project.

The consultant is expected to visit the project locations to identify the relief support requirements of project beneficiaries and government-managed safe houses, if travel is not restricted by national health authorities or UN Women due to the COVID 19 health emergency. In such cases, the cost of most economic and direct travel on mission must be pre-approved by Officer-in-charge of UN Women Sri Lanka and will be reimbursed following UN Women’s travel guidelines. Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) and travel costs in compliant with UN Women Travel Guideline will be reimbursed to the consultant at actual amount upon submission of receipts and travel stubs.

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 https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf for more details on UN Women Values and Competencies Framework.

Required Skills and Experience

  • Masters’ degree or equivalent in Gender Studies, International Relations, Development Studies, Public Administration, Law, Human Rights or equivalent in relevant fields of Social Science.
  • A first-level university degree with 3 additional years of progressively responsible experience at the national and/or international level will be accepted in lieu of Master’s degree
  • At least 2 years of demonstrable experience in undertaking research at grassroot levels.
  • Proven experience in undertaking similar needs assessments and related research in sensitive socio-political contexts.
  • Must have experience working on social issues / causes
  • Outstanding organizational and time-management skills
  • Availability and willingness to travel to the project districts
  • Proficiency in English and one of the local languages is required

Evaluation Criteria

  • Applications will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis.
  • Technical Proposal (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 for the financial assessment.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically-qualified candidate.

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Obtainable Score

Education

  • Masters’ degree or equivalent in Gender Studies, International Relations, Development Studies, Public Administration, Law, Human Rights or equivalent in relevant fields of Social Science.
  • A first-level university degree with 3 additional years of progressively responsible experience at the national and/or international level will be accepted in lieu of Master’s degree

20 %

Experience and skills

  • At least 2 years of demonstrable experience in undertaking research at grassroot levels.
  • Proven experience in undertaking similar needs assessments and related research in sensitive socio-political contexts.
  • Must have experience working on social issues / causes

60 %

Language and report writing skills

  • Proficiency in English and one of the local languages is required

20 %

Total Obtainable Score

100 %

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

Interest candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org with cc to nemanika.amarasinghe@unwomen.org no later than 30th March 2023.

Submission package includes:

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

  • Tasks and Deliverables

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.

  1. Finalised needs assessment report incorporating UN Women feedback

    2.

Finalised mid-phase needs and satisfaction assessment report, incorporating UN Women feedback

3.

Finalised needs assessment report incorporating UN Women feedback

4.

Finalised mid-phase needs and satisfaction assessment report, incorporating UN Women feedback

Travel and miscellaneous expenses

Total

*Consultant is encouraged to mobilize a team to support with the field study, data collection and data entering. When providing the financial proposal, the applicant is expected to consider those expenses and provide the budget for travel and miscellaneous expenses. Such expenses can be claimed under the travel and miscellaneous budget lines.

Payments:

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will be made upon submission of deliverables with an approval of Officer-in-charge at UN Women Sri Lanka. A travel and miscellaneous budget will be allocated to the consultancy contract by UN Women and travel and miscellaneous expenses related to the consultancy will be reimbursed upon provision of supporting documents.

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.)

Added 1 year ago - Updated 11 months ago - Source: jobs.undp.org