Technical Consultant - Credit Offsetting Rice Project (CORE) (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

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.

Aligned with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN Women is implementing GIZ’s Fund to Promote Innovation in Agriculture (i4Ag) to economically empower women farmers in the rice value-chain in the context of climate change. This fund promotes innovations in the agriculture and food sector, focusing on six key areas of mechanisation, digitalisation, renewable energy, research and extension, cooperation wthe private sector and agricultural policy. This project will promote methodologies for reducing carbon emissions in rice cultivation and to show scaling potential in aggregating smallholder farmers. It involves multiple implementing partners who will train and support farmers on approved emissions-reducing rice farming methods as well as those non-approved methods of mitigation with the aim of enabling project beneficiary farmers to see improved resiliency from carbon credit generation, along with a higher proportion of trained female farmers in the community. The project implementing partners include OLAM Agri and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). UN Women’s component will entail reviewing existing training content on agriculture/climate resilient to integrate gender and organizing gender trainings to promote women’s economic empowerment focusing on women’s increasing leadership, voice, choice and agency.

The Credit Offsetting Rice Project (CORE) - A gender transformative approach Project will contribute to the following outcomes: i) More women farmers in the rice value chain have increased access to climate resilient technologies, methodologies, and skills; ii) Women’s voice, agency and capacities are strengthened to transform climate sensitive agricultural practices into enhanced livelihoods (diversified economic opportunities, increased incomes, and resilience); iii) Strengthened availability of sex-disaggregated data to inform gender responsive climate sensitive agricultural practices.

The purpose of this consultancy is to support the activities of the GIZ funded CORE project. The consultant will support in undertaking gender assessment of rice value chains as well to also develop and understanding of women’s roles and responsibilities., socio-economic profile/demographics of women and men farmers that has implications on gender relations as well as women’s decision making capacities as well as overall pattern of women’s work S/he will review the existing training modules of UN Women and other consortium partners from gender sensitive lenses and provide meaningful recommendations and integrate gender in the module content and for delivery of training. S/he will also participate in those training as a keen observer to assess capacities of the facilitators and master trainers to impact gender trainings. S/he will finalize the training modules and impart gender trainings to the consortium partners, master trainers and women farmers. S/he will play a pivotal role in developing the monitoring and evaluation, and data management system of this project. The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Country Programme Manager, WEE in delivering the assigned tasks.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Undertake Gender assessment of rice value chains in consultation with consortium partners as well as other relevant stakeholders including farmers

  • Develop and submit a detailed plan including but not limited to undertake the assessment comprising of methodology, meetings and consultations with relevant stakeholders, documents for desk-based review

• Undertake assessment of gender training needs of consortium/implementing partners; readiness/ capacities of the master trainers to be able to conduct gender trainings.

• Participate in trainings of master trainers conducted by IRRI and organize gender perspective building sessions with the master trainers on Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) technique adopted under the project

  • Based on the findings from the perspective building sessions, assess and build their capacities on integrating gender in farmers’ trainings conducted by them and develop/adapt Gender and AWD modules.

• Conduct gender trainings for consortium/implementing partners.

• Participate in farmers’ trainings as well as conduct sessions with women farmers to understand their roles, work and division of labour, decision making capacities etc.
• Develop/adapt gender modules including from AWD perspective based on gender assessment, perspective building exercise with master trainers as well as interaction with farmers and pilot test them.
• Finalize the training modules integrating gender perspectives, in the training content, methodologies and techniques.
• Develop learning outcomes/indicators to measure the gender impact of the trainings.
• Review existing data monitoring matrix/framework used by consortium partners to measure impact and develop a gender matric (with measurable indicators) for data collection, monitoring and measuring impact through a consultative process.
• Organize stakeholder consultations to validate and finalize the data monitoring matrix.Develop a gender strategy for the project through a consultative process covering situation analysis, needs assessment, women’s perspectives, M&E, Knowledge Management, Risk Management, Resources, any other relevant aspect.
• Provide relevant technical guidance to the project, as required
• Any other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Deliverables and payment schedule:

• Perspective building/gender trainings conducted for 100 Master Trainers and report submitted with recommendations on specific gender components that can be adopted by master trainers in the training of farmers - May 23 - 10%
• Gender assessment of rice value chain report developed and submitted and Gender training needs assessment report of consortium/implementing partners developed and submitted – May 23 - 20%
• Training modules developed/adapted and gender trainings for consortium/implementing partners conducted, and training report submitted and Training sessions with women farmers organized and training report submitted – June – July 23 – 20%
• Gender training modules for AWD developed/adapted, pilot tested, and report submitted and Gender training modules for AWD finalized and submitted including comprising of learning outcomes/indicators to measure the impact of the trainings – July - August 23 -20%
• Gender matric for data collection, monitoring and measuring impact based on the review of existing data monitoring matrix/framework and through a consultative process developed and submitted - October 23 – 20%
• Gender Strategy Document developed and submitted - December 23 – 10%

Competencies

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.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic 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 behaviour 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:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills.
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Gender and Development Studies, or any Social Sciences or a related field;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 8 years of progressively responsible experience in mainstreaming gender equality and women’s empowerment concepts and approaches in rural development/agriculture projects.
• Significant expertise in developing capacity development programmes, gender modules as well as tools for gender mainstreaming and conducting gender trainings particularly in agriculture.
• Extensive expertise and experience in gender analysis, gender sensitive needs assessment and policy analysis in regard to agriculture.
• Good communication skills and the ability to explain technical terms in a non-technical language.
• Experience of working in the similar assignments is preferable.
• Experience of working with UN agencies, international organization is desirable.

Language:

• Strong written skills in English and good command over Hindi.

Application:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
• Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
• Working knowledge and experience of writing on Gender Issues (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Written Sample (20 points)
• Interview (80 points)

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.