Technical Consultant – Women’s Safety in Supply Chains (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.

Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, the 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.

In India UN Women works on the priority themes of Gender Responsive Governance, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Ending Violence Against Women and Girls and Intergovernmental coordination.

The WeEmpowerAsia (WEA) programme is a collaborative effort between the Regional Office of UN Women for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) and the European Union (EU), which is funding the action under its Partnership Instrument.

The overall objective of the WEA programme is that more women lead, participate and have access to enhanced business opportunities and leadership within the private sector to advance sustainable and inclusive growth.

Under the programme, UN Women works extensively with the private sector to promote gender equality in the workplace, marketplace, and community through adoption and implementation of Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPS). Principle 3 specifically talks about employees health, well begin and safety and focuses on establishing internal policies and procedures preventing all forms of violence and sexual harassment at work including in the supply chains.

Ending Violence against Women

At the country level, UN Women supports Governments in adopting and enacting legal reforms aligned with international standards for ending violence against women and girls. UN Women supports expanding access to quality multi-sectoral responses for survivors covering safety, shelter, health, justice and other essential services. UN Women works with Governments to develop dedicated national action plans to prevent and address violence against women, strengthening coordination among diverse actors required for sustained and meaningful action. UN Women also works with the private sector to improve safety for women at work and at home.

Objectives of the Assignment

The objective of the assignment is to develop the design of a three-year project on ending violence against women and girls (VAWG) in garment/textile supply chains as well as in public and private spaces in Tamil Nadu.

The project aims to forge and strengthen multi-sectoral partnerships in Tamil Nadu (Textile and Apparel) to effectively respond to sexual harassment of women and girls at the workplace and other forms of gender-based violence, through targeted interventions to prevent and respond to VAWG and enhance women workers’ health, wellness, and safety in the Textile and Apparel sector.

Important synergies will be made with other initiatives to improve the safety and wellbeing of women and girls and as part of ensuring the sustainability of textile and garment value chains in India.

UN Women already has an MOU with the Government of Tamil Nadu to support government efforts to end violence and provide support to survivors.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of Programme Manager-WeEmpowerAsia Programme and in close consultation with the EVAW Specialist, the technical consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Develop a desk review and conduct a 5-day Partnership Building and Learning Mission to select locations in Tamil Nadu to establish the foundational framework for collaboration that will also inform the scoping study to be undertaken by UN Women.

• Undertake qualitative primary research/preliminary analysis to inform the scoping research, including identifying entry points for programming.

• Identify and support building a coalition of selected partners, including but not limited to preliminary discussions with management of brands/suppliers/manufacturers/industry bodies/government partners, including through convening at least two expert group meetings.

• Draft a ToR for the Women Safety and Empowerment Platform (WSEP) incorporating UNW's global safety framework for rural spaces and convene the first meeting with relevant stakeholders. The WSEP will consist of a select group of brands/manufacturers/suppliers/individual proprietors industry associations, government and other partners. The platform will take forward the political will of the brands and manufacturers and associations towards concrete actions on the ground to promote women's safety and empowerment. The platform will be co-convened with the relevant government body in India and will have a rotating chair from amongst its members. The platform will not have more than 12 members who are key decision and influencers in the textile and apparel sector.

• Design a co-contribution mechanism and costings for private sector partners to fund this initiative through UN Women.

• Organize and conduct one programme design workshop (presentation of findings, and programme design/validation) to structure the intervention strategies. Produce a short synthesis report on the programme design workshop.

• Identify principal manufacturer/supplier (from among tier 1 and tier 2) for implementation of the catalytic programme on prevention and response to sexual harassment at the workplace and in public spaces (including online spaces).

Time-Frame and Expected Deliverables:

• 5-day partnership building and learning mission undertaken and detailed mission report submitted. Preliminary research and analysis to inform the design. The deadline for the same is 25th October 2022 - 20% payment will be done.

• Two expert group meetings conducted building a coalition of partners through preliminary discussions with management of brands/suppliers/manufacturers/industry bodies/government partners and report submitted. Design of the costings and co-funding mechanism for firms. The deadline for the same is 15th November 2022 - 20% payment will be done.

• ToR for the Women Safety and Empowerment Platform (WSEP) and first meeting with relevant stakeholders convened. This process should be completed by 30th November - 30% the payment will be released.

• One programme design workshop (presentation of findings, and programme design/validation) organized to structure the intervention strategies. A short synthesis report on the programme design workshop produced. The deadline for the same is 10th December 2022 - 20% payment will be made.

• Identification of principal manufacturer/supplier (from among tier 1 and tier 2) for implementation of the catalytic programme on prevention and response to sexual harassment at the workplace and in public spaces. This process should be completed by 20th December 2022 - 10% the payment will be released.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates commitment to UN Women’s mission, vision and values;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrated competence in writing and other forms of communication
• Ability to research and analyse data related to this topic
• Ability to develop and manage excellent partnerships across diverse stakeholders
• Understanding of the impact the private sector can have on women’s development
• Demonstrated expertise working in the ending violence against women and girls sector.

Knowledge Management and Learning:

• Shares knowledge and experience;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

• Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to design, planning and implementation of programme, managing data, reporting;
• Ability to provide input to and use new IT based systems.

Leadership and Self-Management:

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Remains calm, in control even under pressure;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
• Good understanding of gender and development in South Asia;
• Demonstrable ability to work in a team;
• Ability to work under pressure;
• Good writing and communication skills;
• Excellent computer literacy and skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Masters’ degree in Gender and Development Studies, or any Social Sciences.

Experience:

• Minimum 8 years’ experience of working on projects related to women’s empowerment with a focus on ending violence against women.
• Proven experience of working with Government, civil society and private stakeholders in the area of safety and ending violence against women and girls.
• Demonstrated experience in coordinating and convening multi stakeholders platforms/forums especially in the areas of women’s safety and ending violence against women and girls.
• 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 as medium of communication.
• Good command over state language in reading and writing.

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 http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
• 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);
• Expertise and Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
• Demonstrable experience on policy advocacy with the government and other stakeholders (5 points).

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

• Writing Samples – A strong design document/proposal on ending violence against women with multi stakeholder partners. (20 points)
• Interview (80 points)

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

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.