Vetted Experts Roster - UN System Coordination Expert (UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECA RO))

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 globally. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. The UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECA RO) was established in Istanbul, Turkey, at the beginning of 2014 as a part of the UN Women’s new regional architecture. The UN Women ECA RO leads and supports the field offices in presenting and positioning themselves as thought and action leaders on gender equality and women’s empowerment.  When the General Assembly created UN Women in July 2010, it not only merged all the mandates of the four constituent parts (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UN Women), but it also endowed it "with the additional role of leading, coordinating and promoting the accountability of the United Nations system in its work on gender equality and the empowerment of women".To align with the goal of UN Women's mandates that pertain to its system-wide and inter-agency roles, our Division has developed a strategy that draws on UN Women's first Strategic Plan, 2011-2013 (UNW/2011/9). It further articulates UN Women's system-wide and inter-agency commitment forming a framework for operationalizing its mandate.The following are the four main objectives of this strategy. They apply to UN Women's system-wide and interagency functions and roles: 1. Enhanced UN system coherence and mobilization of joint action for gender equality and empowerment of women (GEEW), 2. Increased system-wide gender mainstreaming, 3. Strengthened accountability for the work on GEEW, 4. Improved gender balance and the status of women in the UN system. Objective:Consultants play an important role in contributing to implementation of activities of the UN Women and they form significant part of capacities of the organization. In order to increase effectiveness of contracting process and enable instant contracting in emergency and urgent situations, ECA RO launched a competitive process to create a pool of qualified consultants and experts in following areas:

• Conducting the UNCT Gender Scorecard exercise and reporting;
• Gender Trainings and facilitation for UNCTs, GTGs and Results Groups on Gender ;
• UN Gender Related Coordination and joint workplans;
• Trainers on UNDAFs/CCAs with gender focus;
• Consultants to assist the preparation of UNDAFs/CCAs with gender focus and conducting gender analysis;
• Development of joint programmes on GEWE;
• Mainstreaming gender in SDGs/2030 Agenda ;
• Localizing the SDGs with Gender Focus.

Duties and Responsibilities

Roster members selected for the consultancy assignment will work with ECA RO and COs in the region in the following areas:

• Provide strategic and operational advice to governments, private sector and/or civil society organizations on the formulation and execution of policies;
• Provide technical support in designing, implementing, monitoring or evaluating projects in the assigned areas;
• Design and delivery of various trainings;
• Facilitation of workshops/retreats on UN coordination on GE;
• Design of joint gender programmes;
• Support to improving legislative framework, processes and procedures;
• Share knowledge, experience, good practices and lessons learned;
• Developing toolkits, guidelines, publications;
• Support to awareness raising;
• Collect and analyze relevant documentation;
• Prepare case studies/best examples on UN Coordination on GE in the region;
• Provide technical inputs to knowledge products and reports;
• Carry out a research and prepare a comprehensive needs assessment report.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UN Women.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats people fairly and without favoritism.

Functional Competencies:

• Strong interpersonal, teamwork and communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and proactively solve problem;
• Capacity to plan, priorities and deliver tasks on times;
• Capacity to engage with national and international staffs, to provide clear feedback and maintain effective rapport with different kinds of people;
• Actively works towards continuing learning and share with other to support local capacity development;
• Ability to research, analyze and present complex information.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master Degree in Gender Studies, Social Science, International Relations, Political Science or related field.

Experience:

• At least 5 years’ experience in development work with specific emphasis on UN Systems Coordination, preferably in the area gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Experience with development, implementation, monitoring or evaluation of development projects;
• Previous experience with UN accountability frameworks on gender equality considered an asset;  
• Experience in this or a related field in Europe and Central Asia would be considered an asset
• Previous professional experience with the United Nations or similar organisations in this or a related field would be considered an asset
• Experience developing analysis and report documents on gender-related issues would be considered an asset
• Experience in conducting trainings is an asset

Language:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN working is an asset.

Contracting arrangements:Successful candidates will be included in the Vetted Roster of Experts for the maximum period of 3 years. Membership beyond the 3-year period must be renewed through a new application process.  Entry into the expert roster system does not necessarily mean that contract with Un Women is guaranteed. Where a request for services arises, the UN Women shall directly contact consultants with the most appropriate experience from the roster. A specific Terms of Reference outlining outputs for each assignment shall be provided and a Special Service Agreement (SSA) will be issued. Conditions of a particular assignment may be negotiable.Application procedure:The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• P11 with past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted.
• Financial Proposal* – maximum all-inclusive daily fee in USD. 
• Examples of previous work related to UN System Coordination area.

*Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee, health insurance, and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services). Financial proposal provided by the consultant is bound to the validity period (max. 3 years), unless the consultant applies to the roster during its re-opening. Consultants will be requested to provide a price offer for every assignment, amount can be reduced to make the offer more competitive, but it cannot exceed maximum daily fee approved for the roster.Evaluation of applicants:Consultants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of qualifications and financial proposal. Membership will be awarded to the individual consultants whose offers have been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and 
• Having received the sufficient score out of below defined technical and financial criteria. 

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation can be recommended for the membership.

Evaluation Criteria:Technical Evaluation (70%) - max. points: 70: 

• Master Degree in Gender Studies, Social Science, International Relations, Political Science or related field - max. points: 20;
• At least 5 years’ experience in development work with specific emphasis on UN Systems Coordination, preferably in the area gender equality and women’s empowerment  - max. points: 10;
• Experience with development, implementation, monitoring or evaluation of development projects  - max. points: 10;
• Previous experience with UN accountability frameworks on gender equality - max. points: 5;
• Experience in this or a related field in Europe and Central Asia - max. points: 5;
• Previous professional experience with the United Nations or similar organisations in this or a related field  - max. points: 5;
• Experience developing analysis and report documents on gender-related issues  - max. points: 3;
• Experience in conducting trainings - max. points: 2;
• Fluency in English; Knowledge of the other UN working language - max. points: 10.

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 evaluatedµ = price of the lowest priced proposalz = price of the proposal being evaluatedDuration and Remuneration:Membership in the roster is valid for a maximum period of 3 years. Duration of contracts can vary from one day (1) to a maximum of three (3) years. Payments will be made as specified in the actual contract upon confirmation of UN Women on delivering on the contract obligations in a satisfactory manner.Consultant’s profile:Profiles of consultants who are included in the roster will be published on internal UN Women roster pages and they will be accessible for UN Women ECA RO and COs.