Senior expert on Women’s Economic Empowerment and Local Economic Development

Contract

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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 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.

UN Women Albania is currently implementing its Strategic Note (SN) 2022-2026 which 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, UN Women will focus on three outcomes, which mirror verbatim the areas of focus of the United Nations Albania[1]:

1. Increased and more equitable investment in people to remove barriers and create opportunities for those at risk of exclusion.
2. Innovative and integrated policy solutions that accelerate sustainable, productive and inclusive development.
3. Gender-responsive governance that strengthens equality and non-discrimination.

Across its interventions, UN Women Albania will address key thematic areas of focus in line with the Global Strategic Plan 2022-2025:[2] ending violence against women; women’s economic empowerment; gender-responsive budgeting; gender responsive governance; as well as promoting cross-cutting principles including the principle of Leaving No One Behind, and engagement of new and emerging partners such as the private sector to advance gender equality in the country. This approach aims to support the Government of Albania to implement its commitments on human rights and gender equality, in line with its National Strategy on gender Equality (NSGE) 2021-2030, and the EU Acquis Communautaire. All interventions undertaken by the Country Office aim to address structural causes of gender inequality, addressing discriminatory practices and reach women and girls who are at greatest risk of being left behind.

As part of the implementation of its new Strategic Note, UN Women will continue supporting the empowerment of women from rural areas. In the Albanian countryside, agriculture is the main economic activity, and it employs 41% of the overall population, while about 24.3% of the land is used for agricultural purposes. The agriculture sector is limited primarily to small family operations and subsistence farming because of lack of modern equipment, unclear property rights, and the prevalence of small, inefficient plots of land. Women typically constitute the majority of workers in the small family farms, and women constitute up to 40% of the agriculture workforce, although in most cases invisible and informal.[3] To address these challenges related to women’s economic empowerment, the CO is implementing a number of projects and programmes including:

• Promoting the Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs)
• The UN Joint Programme “EU for Gender Equality”, funded by the European Union
• The Gender Rural Equality and Tourism (GREAT) project, being implemented with FAO and with support from AICS Tirana.

In addition, the area of women’s economic empowerment and equal economic development is an area of continuous resource mobilization efforts from the Country office.

In this context, the country office is seeking to hire a national consultant who will advise on and support the design and implementation of activities related to women’s economic empowerment (WEE) in Albania, including by providing expert-level support to relevant project managers and to the Head of Programme. This will include support to the engagement of the private sector in promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment, with a focus on engagement of the companies signatories of the Women Empowerment Principles; support the design and implementation of perspective and current programmatic activities in the thematic area of WEE including but not limited to the ongoing funded projects (GREAT; EU4GE); and in the design of possible upcoming interventions and projects on promoting women’s economic empowerment, with a focus on rural women.

[1] See UN Albania UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework: https://albania.un.org/en/153115-government-albania-united-nations-sustainable-development-cooperation-framework-2022-2026

[2] See UN Women Global Strategic Plan here: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2021/09/un-women-strategic-plan-2022-2025

[3] According to INSTAT (Men and Women, 2022), in 2021 women are less likely to participate in the labour market than men and their labour force participation rate is at 61.4 %, vs. 77.3%. Employment rate for the population aged 15-64 is 68.2 % for men and 53.8 % for women 45.8 % of women in the labour force are employed in paid positions while 21.9 % of them engage in unpaid work in the family business. For employed men, these figures are respectively 43.2 % and 11.4 %.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the National Programme Officer/Head of the Programme Unit and the direct supervision of respective project manager/s, the national consultant will contribute as senior expert in developing and implementing technical approaches and program activities designed to achieve the results and deliverables related to Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) and Local Economic Development (LED) in Albania, as described in the UN Women Albania Strategic Note 2022-2026.

Possible duties and responsibilities include (non-exhaustive list):

• Provide technical advice and support in designing interventions focused on the women’s economic empowerment, with a specific focus on rural women’s economic empowerment;
• Provide technical expertise for the development of Gender Sensitive Value Chains Analysis (GSVCA) for specific municipalities (to be identified jointly with the UN Women team) and as part of relevant programmatic interventions;
• Contribute to the design of specific interventions based on the GSVCA reports, aiming women’s economic empowerment as well as local economic development (LED) and prepare inputs to documentation related to engaging relevant service providers;
• Conduct missions and consultations with partners and stakeholders upon requests, and provide capacity building support as part of specific programmatic intervention on WEE, and as needed;
• Support the engagement of private sector partners, with a focus on the WEPs community in Albania, in a mutually beneficial way to promote smart and sustainable economic growth in rural areas;
• Prepare analysis and inputs for presentations, project documents, concept notes, reports and other products in this thematic area;
• Contribute in the development of relevant knowledge products, communications and information materials related to the programmatic interventions and UN Women’s approaches to WEE in Albania.

Expected Deliverables:

• Copies of reports, technical inputs, mission reports and other on-demand reports on specific initiatives requested.
• Drafting of assigned sections of reports and provision of comments and inputs from a women’s economic empowerment and local development perspective to other sections drafted by other colleagues/UN agencies.
• Evidence of the support provided for the design of programmatic interventions and proposed activities and partnerships, as well as of the expert advice provided.
• Copies of knowledge products, communication and information materials prepared and contributed to as part of the assignment.
• Summary reports on the deliverables for each instalment.

Quality of deliverables:

• Technical inputs and other on-demand reports on specific initiatives when requested will be evaluated by peer review for quality.
• Quality of relationships with UN Women team and partners is central to success and will be assessed.

Duration and remuneration:

The duration of the contract will be for an initial period of 12-months starting from May 2023. The payment will be made in regular installments upon satisfactory completion of tasks and deliverables, submission of time-sheet and monthly report and approval by UN Women.

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 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:

• Knowledge on women’s economic empowerment and local development, including gender-sensitive value chains.
• Knowledge and familiarity on rural economic development in Albania.
• Diverse organizational skills in various settings.
• Proven ability to work within limited time constraints in the preparation of high-quality documents.
• Strong ability to interact effectively with various partners and stakeholders, with focus on local level authorities and local communities.
• Strong negotiating skills.
• Possesses the ability to work independently.
• Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point).

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications/Education:

• Master’s degree in economics, business administration, marketing, rural development, food and agriculture and/or any other related science.

Work Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in design and implementation of economic development projects including with a focus on gender and women’s economic empowerment;
• Proven experience in gender sensitive value chain analyses and development in urban and rural contexts;
• Experience in engaging with national, local stakeholders and communities/women’s groups as well as the private sector, including capacity development, networking;
• Experience in development and dissemination of knowledge products, technical tools, information and communication products focused on WEE and local economic development;
• Previous experience or familiarity with the UN system or international organizations is considered an asset.

Language:

• Fluency and proficiency in spoken and written Albanian and English required.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

• Financial Proposal specifying the daily fee in Albanian Lek for the tasks specified above, as well as a lump sum for travel- missions, which may be organized as needed and in discussion with the UN Women supervisor, with a focus on the Northern Albania region (regions of Diber, Kukes, Lezha, Shkodra). Additional destinations may be added as needed during the retainer contract. The lumpsum for travel should be broken down for each target region as listed above.

• 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; and (iv) submission of the certification of payment.

Recommended Presentation of Offer:

Qualified and interested candidates are asked to submit their application no later than 21st May 2021:

• A Letter of Confirmation of Interest including a brief description explaining why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment.
• UN Women Personal History Form (P11) including past experience in similar assignment****. Can be downloaded at: UN Women Personal History Form (P11) or http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Financial Proposal specifying the daily rate in Albanian Lek for the tasks specified in this assignment, and a lump sum cost for the expected travel, as specified in the section above.

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:

• Master’s degree in economics, business administration, marketing, rural development, food and agriculture and/or any other related science (max 10 points)

• At least 10 years of experience in design and implementation of economic development projects including with a focus on gender and women’s economic empowerment (max. 15 points)

• Proven experience in gender sensitive value chain analyses and development in urban and rural contexts (max 15 points)
• Experience in engaging with national, local stakeholders and communities/women’s groups as well as the private sector, including capacity development, networking (max. 15 points)
• Experience in development and dissemination of knowledge products, technical tools, information and communication products focused on WEE and local economic development (max 10 points)
• Previous experience or familiarity with the UN system or international organizations is considered 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.

How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- UN Women Personal History Form (P11) or http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, and the Letter of Confirmation of Interest into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded.
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement).
• Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application;'
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above).
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Notes:

• UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications, we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.
• The consultancy post is open to local (Albanian) individuals or foreign individuals with valid temporary or permanent residence in Albania.
• Applications without the financial offer will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
• The individual consultants should take the mandatory learning security course prior to commencement of assignment– details will follow before the issuance of contract.