Senior National Consultant – Gender Equality and Women Rights

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.

In Nepal, UN Women focuses on strengthening women’s voice, agency and leadership across sectors to advance women’s rights, provide space for women’s meaningful participation, and contribute to tangible differences in their lives. In prioritizing inclusive governance UN Women Nepal seeks to advance women’s political empowerment and leadership and enhance women’s access to justice in Nepal’s federal structure. Towards this goal UN Women will work with elected officials, civil servants and citizens at all levels. The approach will extend beyond policy and law reform, to implementation and monitoring of policies, supporting the development of plans and budgets, enhancing the capacity of key government officials, and promoting gender equality and social inclusion in local governance. In addition, UN Women will work together with excluded groups to support their active participation and enable their voices to be heard. Throughout this work, UN Women seeks to contribute to transforming discriminatory social norms and eliminating harmful practices and behaviours, including violence against women. All of the above contribute to fulfilling Nepal's obligations to international treaties and commitments, including regular reporting on progress related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Beijing Platform for Action and to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

UN Women Nepal, in collaboration with governments, development partners, other UN agencies, and civil society, is supporting a coordinated response to strengthen capacity of newly elected women officials in local government from local election 2022. Additionally, several efforts are underway to contribute to a more enabling environment for gender responsive and inclusive local governance. Further development of UN Women Nepal programming entails review and summarizing of political developments and other ongoing initiatives to support sub-national government such as PLGSP, field missions to potential and existing programme sites, consultations with key stakeholders, and synthesis of key insights from diverse assessments being undertaken into capacities and needs of sub-national governments and officials. For this purpose, UN Women Nepal is seeking to engage a Senior National Consultant on a retainer basis to support the Country Office’s programming efforts in line with the new UNSDCF and UN Women’s global strategic plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Programme Officer and in close consultation with the programme team, the National Consultant will provide support and strategic guidance to the implementation of UN Women’s programme. The detailed scope of work and responsibilities of the assignment are as follows:

• Lead and support policy research/advisory initiatives as well as related advocacy efforts on key gender equality and women’s rights issues .
• Provide technical inputs and substantive analysis of strategic planning and programming documents including UNSDCF, UN Women NCO’s Strategic note ( 2023-27) .
• Design/facilitate capacity development initiatives and multi-stakeholders dialogue on GE/WR including normative frameworks;
• Design and implement monitoring/evaluative tools and provide recommendations to UN Women on areas for improvement.
• Conduct technical review and quality assurance of knowledge products (including inception reports, methodology notes, drafts and final products);
• Develop concept notes for resource mobilization, in line with the new SN 2023-27 and national priorities outlined in periodic plans and CEDAW Concluding Observations 2018;
• Provide technical support to UN Women’s coordination efforts, including by participating in meetings and events with UN Women and other stakeholders to share findings of desk reviews and field missions and the implications for current and future programming;
• Participate in reference/expert group meetings for UN Women’s implementing partners including research studies

3. Expected deliverables

Expected deliverables may include:

• Policy Research/studies and/or analytical reports
• Reviews/summaries of key findings of policy advocacy work;
• Evidence of technical review and substantive analysis of programming/planning documents including UNSDCF, Strategic note(2023-27);
• Evidence of capacities development including but not limited to agendas/session plan, presentations, trainers/facilitators report
• Evidence of facilitating multi-stakeholders dialogues including but not limited to agenda, list of participants, proceedings/thematic reports
• Evidence of monitoring/evaluative tools designed and implemented including a set of recommendations to UN Women in areas for improvement;
• Evidence of technical review and quality assurance of knowledge products, including development processes, drafts and final products;
• Concept notes for resource mobilization, in line with the new SN 2023-27 and national priorities outlined in periodic plans and CEDAW Concluding Observations 2018, and evidence of support to implementation;
• Quarterly reports of technical support provided to UN Women’s coordination efforts evidence of field mission reports and reports of stakeholder’s coordination meetings
• Written summaries of reference group meetings for UN Women’s implementing partners;

4. INPUTS

• UN Women will provide reference materials and facilitate coordination with key stakeholders.
• The consultant is expected to work remotely. UN Women can give access the UN Women office for printing of relevant documents during the assignment, if required.
• The consultant will be required to provide their own local communications such as SIM cards and mobile phone.
• It is the Consultant’s responsibility to arrange private insurance.
• It is mandatory for the consultant to participate in a UN security briefing and to follow UN security rules and guidance.
• The Consultant will be required to provide a Statement of Good Health, endorsed by a certified Medical Practitioner.

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

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in Gender and Development Studies, Political Science, Social Science, or any other related field of studies.
• A minimum of 15 years of professional experience in working with gender equality and women’s empowerment and/or inclusive governance.
• Proven expertise in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Previous experience working with different levels of government, civil society and development partners. Experience working with the UN system is a considerable asset.
• Fluency in written and oral English and Nepali is required
• Ability to handle documents and the information contained therein with strictest confidentiality is a non-negotiable requirement

Duration of the assignment and duty station

This is a home-based assignment for one year (1 August 2022 – 30 July 2023) on retainer basis (as and when required) with a maximum of 120 working days. The assignment may also include field missions outside of Kathmandu and participation in meetings and consultations in Kathmandu. UN Women will not be committed to purchasing any minimum quantity of the Services, and purchases will be made only if there is an actual requirement upon the issuance of a Purchase Order based on this retainer contract. UN Women shall not be liable for any cost in the event that no purchases are made under this retainer contract.

Schedule of payments

Payment will be made on the basis of quality of the work actually delivered upon certification of satisfactory performance by the supervisor. The contractor’s performance will be evaluated against such criteria as: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communications, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered

DOCUMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WHEN SUBMITTING THE PROPOSALS?

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Expression of interest explaining why you are interested to this position and what professional skills and experiences make you a strong candidate.
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• A sample of original writing produced within the last three months where the applicant is the lead author
• A separate page of financial proposal indicating the professional fee per day. Please note that DSA for field missions will be paid at UN rates and travel, booked in compliance with UN Women policy, will be reimbursed at actual cost so these costs do not need to be included in the financial proposal.

Evaluation criteria

A two-stage procedure is applied in evaluating the proposals.

1. The technical proposal is assessed first based on the qualifications listed above. Those proposals that meet a minimum threshold (scoring at least 70% on the technical assessment) will be considered further, including through assessment of the financial proposal.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

• Qualification (10 points);
• Relevant experience (25 points);
• Previous experience working with different levels of government, civil society and development partners and experience (10 points);
• Working with the UN system (5 points);
• English written skill based on the writing sample (20 points)

1. The financial proposal of candidates who meet the technical assessment threshold will be evaluated. The financial assessment will count as 30% of the total points. In this methodology, 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 formula is as follows:

p = y (µ/z)

Where:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated