Regional Socio-Economic Programme Support Consultant (COVID-19 Response and Recovery)

Consultant

Contract

This is a International Consultant contract. More about International 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 center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality are translated into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts while building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The United Nations Secretary-General has issued an urgent call to action. The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the challenging contexts we have faced in our lifetime, a human crisis with severe health and socio-economic consequences. As the virus is unprecedented in our lifetime, it requires an unprecedented response. As in previous crises, women and girls have been disproportionately and negatively affected. From employment losses and income insecurity (with most women concentrated in service industries, in MSME sectors, in informal employment (all sectors that have been especially hard hit by COVID-19) to an increase in their unpaid care work. Women are also disproportionately essential workers, particularly in health care, and thus face greater exposure to the virus. Furthermore, domestic violence which has spiked as a result of stay-at-home orders, and increased food insecurity limit women’s bargaining power within households. In short, such a crisis threatens the hard-won progress made towards gender equality and women’s empowerment. COVID-19 is threatening to and can actually reverse gains made towards gender equality, and roll-back progress needed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

To counteract the negative effects of COVID-19, the UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECA RO), jointly with UN Women Country Offices in Moldova and the Kyrgyz Republic are implementing a project funded by the Government of Japan: ‘Responding to the urgent needs of women and girls in marginalized and vulnerable situation exacerbated by the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Europe and Central Asia’. In Europe and Central Asia, the pandemic has exacerbated the already weak health, social and economic systems in some countries and disproportionately impacting women, particularly in vulnerable situations, such as minorities, migrant women, rural women, the elderly, people living with disability, survivors of gender-based violence, expectant and nursing mothers, and female single-headed households. Mobility restrictions imposed to curb the spread of the virus stalled livelihood opportunities and deepened gender-based socio-economic inequalities and increased burdens for women and their communities. Under this programme, UN Women will leverage its experiences in gender-responsive programming, and its normative and coordination mandate to provide targeted support to these groups and increase their access to life-saving and livelihood services during and after the restrictions created by COVID-19 and strengthen their resilience to future shocks. The overall goal of the project is that women and girls in most vulnerable and marginalized contexts are empowered and act as agents of change during and in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic through targeted gender-responsive actions.

Reflective of the above, UN Women ECARO is seeking to recruit an international consultant to provide specialist programmatic support to the regional project and its country level implementation.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Goal and objectives:

The main objective of this consultancy is to support the implementation of the regional component of the project, support Moldova and Kyrgyzstan country offices programme efforts, contribute to the policy advocacy around gender-responsive socio-economic support to women in vulnerable situations during the COVID-19 pandemic and provide technical and capacity building support to strengthen gender responsive socio-economic approach to UN Women Country Offices and partners.

2. Scope of work and responsibilities

The international consultant will be responsible for timely meeting milestones and deadlines.

In order to achieve the objectives, the tasks of the consultant will include but will not be necessarily limited to the following:

Contribute to, support and guide project implementation, monitoring and reporting:

• Support the implementation of the regional component of the project ‘Responding to the urgent needs of women and girls in marginalized and vulnerable situation exacerbated by the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Europe and Central Asia’.
• Contribute to monthly and/or quarterly programme meetings for all engaged Offices and partners on programme implementation (to timely assess and address challenges and risks), and performance monitoring and results-based reporting.
• Support the project's monitoring efforts and reporting commitment (including corporate reporting requirements), and the preparation, editing and timely submission of donor reports, progress updates and project briefs.

Support and facilitate policy advocacy:

• Support policy advocacy efforts, using age and sex disaggregated data, impact analysis and research on COVID-19, to promote gender responsiveness in emergency measures and socio-economic support to women hit hard by COVID-19.
• Prepare gender briefs, thematic papers and/or and policy advocacy literature gender related impacts of COVID-19 with special emphasis on women in marginalized or vulnerable situations, including regular and irregular migrant workers, internally displaced populations (IDPs), refugees and other individuals in marginalized or vulnerable situations in the ECA region.
• Provide technical and capacity building support to Country Offices on gender-responsive livelihood and socio-economic programming and policy advocacy to support women impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Build partnerships and facilitate regional dialogues and networking:

• Facilitate and strengthen partnerships with implementing partners at the regional level and provide gender-responsive guidance, technical advice and support to the partners.
• Support regional dialogue and cooperation initiatives between women’s groups, civil society organizations, national women´s machineries, state and non-state actors and build on existing partnerships and networks of current programmatic work in the countries, especially related to the specific services and support to survivors of gender-based violence, policy reforms and other service reform initiatives led by UN Women. The collaboration of women’s groups will be instrumental to include (and not be limited to) the needs and voices of women and vulnerable groups in the current emergency preparedness and response, to prevent and address social stigmatization against women, girls and vulnerable groups, and mobilize community support and protection and safety networks.

Advocate and facilitate knowledge building, knowledge management and communication:

• Monitor, collect and identify best practices, new and innovative policy solutions and approaches to address socio-economic challenges of women in emergency situations, including efforts to reduce women's unpaid care work and burden, and ensure they are documented and shared with policy makers, service delivery institutions and civil society organizations for potential replication.
• Facilitate knowledge management and knowledge sharing between the projects partners and contribute to south-south cooperation and exchange in line with the projects priorities and needs with a specific focus on sharing of best practices of women's economic empowerment and livelihood activities.
• Support development of analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, correspondence, and knowledge products on gender-responsive livelihood and socio-economic support during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Support countries and regional implementation teams to share project experiences at Community of Practices and other relevant thematic groups.
• Support the programme implementation team to define synergies with other UN Women regional programmes and initiatives to ensure complementarities and holistic approaches to contribute jointly to transformative results for women and girls.
• Support the communication and visibility efforts of the project by: working closely with UN Women Country Offices and partners to maximize project visibility and showcase activities and achievements; draft, review and edit press releases, feature stories, case studies and other promotional and visibility materials in close collaboration with the regional communications team throughout the projects duration.
• Support regional efforts to amplify women's voices and ensure women activists from marginalized groups meaningfully participate in policy dialogue to address vulnerabilities as well as ensure their contributions to relevant regional and global dialogues on priorities for gender equality and women’s empowerment (such as Generation Equality Forum, Action Coalitions, etc.)

3. Deliverables

The consultant will be required to support and produce the following indicative key deliverables within a period of 9 months:

Deliverables

Timeframe

Amount of payment

Work plan with list of monthly deliverables to be updated each month and cleared by Supervisor

By 5th of each month

NA

Summary report of tasks performed under expected duties and responsibilities

On a monthly basis, by 25th of every month

Monthly lumpsum

Final consolidated report with indication of key achievements and handover notes

By 15 May 2021

Final month’s lumpsum

Competencies

4. Requirements for experience and qualifications

Core values/guiding principles

• Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
• Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
• Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core competencies

• Ethics and Values: Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity
• Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment
• Development and Innovation: Take charge of self-development and take initiative
• Work in teams: Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multiethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds
• Communicating and Information Sharing: Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication
• Self-management and Emotional Intelligence: Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others
• Conflict Management: Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
• Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge

Functional Competencies

• Strong knowledge and experience related to current policies and practices in the fields of gender equality, women's economic empowerment, protection and humanitarian action and coordination;
• Strong knowledge of the region;
• Strong networking skills;
• Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• Strong qualitative and quantitative analytical skills;
• Ability to write policy papers, reports, speeches, briefings, etc.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications

Master’s degree or equivalent in business management, social sciences, public administration, international relations, communications, gender studies, or a related field is required; A Bachelors degree can be accepted in lieu of a Masters degree with two additional years relevant experience (total 7 years).

Executive Master Degree in Business administration and specialising in project management is an asset.

Experience

• Minimum 5 years of professional experience in gender, women's economic empowerment, socio-economic and livelihood support, or similar work with a focus on gender responsive approach, including in humanitarian settings;
• Minimum 5 years of professional experience at a national and/or international level in programme planning, monitoring, reporting and communications/advocacy
• Minimum 3 years of professional experience in writing, reviewing, editing knowledge products, research papers and/or briefing notes;
• Experience in working with civil society organizations, international institutions, donors and private sector businesses on gender-related issues including the Women’s Empowerment Principles an asset;

Knowledge of the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination and normative roles at the regional and/or country level is an asset;

Language and other skills:

• Fluency in written and spoken English required.
• Proficiency in another UN language is an asset.
• Good computer skills in Windows, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications (Power Point, Word, Excel) required

5. Application procedure

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• Cover letter to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
• P11 (and CV) including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted with the application.
• Financial Proposal a US$ amount for the tasks specified in this Terms of Reference. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (daily rate and number of anticipated working days, and any other possible costs). The consultant may be requested to work from the office dependent on the current restrictions in place relating to COVID-19. In such an event any travel related costs will be covered by UN Women.

Candidates should have the ability to quickly produce degree certificates and medical certification (of good health) should they be short-listed in consideration of the consultancy post.

6. Payment schedule

Work plan will be set at beginning of the contract with clear scheduled milestones/deliverables. This work plan will be agreed between the consultant and the ECA RO supervisor.

Monthly payments will be made based on the supervisor reviewing and confirming that the consultant has met the required deliverables set in this work plan. This will also be accompanied by a time sheet submitted by the consultant to the supervisor.

7. 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:

a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Evaluation Criteria

Max. Points

TECHNICAL EVALUATION (70%)

Language requirements

Fluency in written and spoken English

REQUIRED

Education

Master’s degree or equivalent in business management, social sciences, public administration, international relations, communications, gender studies, or a related field is required;

Executive Master Degree in Business administration and specialising in project management is an asset.

10

Professional Experience

Minimum 5 years of professional experience in gender, women's economic empowerment, socio-economic and livelihood support, or similar work with a focus on gender responsive approach, including in humanitarian settings;

25

Minimum 5 years of professional experience at a national and/or international level in programme planning, monitoring, reporting and communications/advocacy

25

Minimum 3 years of professional experience in writing, reviewing, editing knowledge products, research papers and/or briefing notes;

10

Experience in working with civil society organizations, international institutions, donors and private sector businesses on gender-related issues including the Women’s Empowerment Principles an asset;

10

Specialized Knowledge

Knowledge of the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination and normative roles at the regional and/or country level is an asset;

20

TOTAL Technical

100

Financial Evaluation (30%) – max. 30 points:

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. A suggested formula is as follows:

p = 30 (µ/z)

Using the following values:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

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