National Advisor on Gender Equality to the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine

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.

UN Women Ukraine implements its Country Strategy for 2018-2022, covering the following thematic areas:

• Making gender equality priorities central to national reforms, governance, planning and budgeting;
• Ending violence against women and girls; and
• Strengthening implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda

One of the key priorities for UN Women in Ukraine is to ensure that the national reforms, policies and public institutions respond equally to the rights and needs of women and men, and to address the deficit of women’s participation in the implementation and monitoring of the reforms. Decentralization reform is one of the key reforms in the national reform agenda. It is led by the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine and has been ongoing since 2014. The reform implementation in general, and in the conflict-affected regions in particular, neglects gender equality and women’s needs. Analysis of vulnerabilities of women and men in the context of decentralization in the conflict-affected areas of Ukraine (VA) revealed that women and men from vulnerable groups such as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), persons with disabilities, people living with HIV, single heads of households, and the older people, face challenges to participation in and equally benefitting from local development. The decisions on decentralization are rarely consulted with women from the communities, thus, neglecting their concerns, needs and opportunities, while implementation of the reforms, particularly in the context of on-going conflict requires recognition of, and response to, differentiated needs of women and men, especially vulnerable, gender and human rights analysis and measures across all reform interventions.

UN Women is successfully applying community mobilization for empowerment methodology to mobilize women in the communities of the eastern conflict-affected oblasts to build their human rights awareness, as well as capacity to effectively advocate for their needs in local recovery, decentralized development planning and budgeting. UN Women also works with local and regional authorities on gender-responsive planning and budgeting and support them to analyse budgets and conduct public consultations regarding funding allocations with the local women’s groups and broader communities. This is in turn leads to increase of the allocations of local funds for gender priorities.

UN Women works closely with the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine to ensure that the decentralization reform is compliant with international standards on gender equality and is informed by the results of the described above gender-responsive regional and local initiatives. Therefore, UN Women seeks to hire a National Consultant to serve the role of a Gender Advisor to provide technical assistance, policy advice and capacity-building to ensure that gender is mainstreamed in the institutional structures, policies and mechanisms of the Ministry.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work/Duties and Responsibilities        

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Country Programme Manager/Head of Office, in close collaboration with the UN Women Project Coordinator, under direct supervision of a designated supervisor at the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services, and in coordination with the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Construction, the consultant will implement a set of tasks, including, but not limited to:

1. Develop a work plan for the provision of advisory services, including tasks, indicators for measuring progress, and a timeline of deliverables.

2. Provide day-to-day technical and policy advice to the Ministry to ensure the Ministry’s policy and legislative framework is in line with international human rights and Ukraine’s international, regional and national commitments on gender equality and women’s human rights.

3. Support the Ministry to ensure gender and the needs and priorities of women and men, especially from vulnerable groups, are recognized and taken into consideration in the implementation of the decentralization reform.

4. Facilitate engagement with women’s groups, including internally displaced women, and civil society organizations to increase their understanding of the decentralization reform and to inform the reform by women’s needs and concerns.  

5. Coordinate and participate in multi-stakeholder and inter-ministerial learning workshops and study tours abroad, on best practices and tools to analyse, formulate and execute gender-responsive policies, reforms, plans and budgets, and support the Ministry to institutionalize these practices.

6. Provide a set of recommendations on gender mainstreaming in legislation, policies, programmes, plans and budgets of the Ministry.

7. Conduct an institutional/functional gender analysis, which would help to identify entry points for mainstreaming gender in the work of the Ministry and in staff competencies.

8. Conduct a capacity needs assessment to identify the gaps in staff understanding of key issues of gender equality.

9. Based on the needs assessment, develop a capacity-building plan for delivering necessary trainings on gender mainstreaming for the staff to increase awareness of issues related to gender equality.

10. Coordinate organization of conferences, trainings, operational updates, periodic and post operation reviews about issues related to gender perspectives for the Ministry.

11. Respond to internal and external requests for information.

Assignment Deliverables:

#	Deliverables	Approximate number of days	Deadlines
1	Monthly time-sheets and brief progress reports about implemented activities and achieved results with attached events’ supporting documents (agendas, lists of participants and reports) submitted	Up to 165, not to exceed 22 working days per month	Monthly, by 5th of next month 10 April 2018 – 26 November 2018
2	Final report about the progress and achievements, lessons learnt and recommendations submitted	10	By 10 December 2018

• All monthly reports and final report should be submitted in English language (the supporting documents, such as meeting minutes, analytical papers, workshop agendas etc. can be submitted in Ukrainian language).

• The Consultant is expected to work in the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services using her/his own computer, but may access the UN Women office for printing of relevant documents or should he/she be required to work on-site at any point during the assignment.

  Inputs

• UN Women and the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine will provide the Consultant with background materials related to the assignment.

• The Ministry will provide the consultant with the space and access to the internal institutional documents.

Performance evaluation:

• Contractor’s performance will be evaluated against such criteria as: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered. The evaluation will be carried out and cleared by the hiring manager, which will also be the basis for payment on a month to month basis to the consultant.

Financial arrangements:  

• Payment will be disbursed on a monthly basis upon receipt of the deliverables (as per above matrix) and their certification by the Ministry and UN Women Project Coordinator that the services have been satisfactorily performed.

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: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications Education:

• Advanced (Masters) degree in social sciences, law, public policy/administration, economics, development studies, gender studies or similar.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience with a gender analysis, capacity building and technical support on gender equality and women’s rights issues to the government, parliament, civil society, and international organizations;

• Proven experience of conducting institutional and policy analysis, drafting policy and briefing documents on gender equality, women’s empowerment or women, peace and security issues, as well as provision of capacity building for government officials;

• Proven knowledge of human rights, gender equality, women’s empowerment and women, peace and security frameworks;

• Understanding of national legislation, policy frameworks and governance systems, including decentralization reform;

• Proven experience with organizing and participating in high-level dialogues, consultations and workshops; coordination and organization of multiple stakeholders’ activities and liaison with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders;

• Previous professional experience with the United Nations would be considered an asset.

Languages and other skills: 

• Fluent in Ukrainian and working knowledge of English, knowledge of Russian will be an asset;

• Computer literacy and ability to effectively use office technology equipment, IT tools, ability to use Internet and email.

Evaluation of Applicants:

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis taking into consideration the combination of their qualifications and financial proposal. A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the proposals, with evaluation of the technical proposal being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. The award of the contract should be made to the individuals whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable.

• Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation.

Technical criteria and interview, 70% of total evaluation – max 45 points for technical criteria and max 25 points for interview. Total max 70 points:

• The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 45. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on desk review and following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Technical Evaluation Criteria	Maximum obtainable Points
Criterion A – Relevant education 4 pts Advanced (Masters) degree in social sciences, law, public policy/administration, economy, development studies, gender studies or similar; 5 pts- PhD	5
Criterion B – Language skills  4 pts- Ukrainian; 5 pts - additionally knowledge of English and Russian	5
Criterion C – Relevant Experience with total for all of the following criteria - 35
At least 5 years of relevant experience with a gender analysis, capacity building and technical support on gender equality and women’s rights issues to the government, parliament, civil society, and international organizations; (5 points) Proven experience of conducting institutional and policy analysis, drafting policy and briefing documents on gender equality, women’s empowerment or women, peace and security issues, as well as provision of capacity building for government officials; (5 points) Proven knowledge of human rights, gender equality, women’s empowerment and women, peace and security frameworks; (10 points) Understanding of national legislation, policy frameworks and governance systems, including decentralization reform; (5 points) Proven experience with organizing and participating in high-level dialogues, consultations and workshops; coordination and organization of multiple stakeholders’ activities and liaison with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders; (5 points) Previous professional experience with development agencies and the United Nations would be considered an asset. (5 points)	35
Maximum obtainable score for the interview	25
Total Obtainable Score	70

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation will be further considered and evaluated.

• The total number of points allocated for the financial/price component is 30.

• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 50 points in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

• Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30

• (S - score received on financial evaluation; F min - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round; F - financial offer under the consideration).

Application and submission package:

The candidate’s application should include: P11 with indication of relevant experience in line with the ToR requirements.  Completed and signed UN Women Personal History (P-11) form can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment Financial proposal (sample is provided below): The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount with a breakdown of a daily professional rate per number of anticipated working days, travel costs (daily subsistence allowance and other in-country travel costs) and other related costs (e.g. tele-communication). Interested candidates are requested to apply no later than 9.00 am EET 26 March 2018 by submitting applications to the following e-mail address: procurement.ukraine@unwomen.org with a subject “National Advisor on Gender Equality to the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine”. Applications without financial proposal may be treated as incomplete and may not be considered for further assessment.

Sample of Financial Proposal

The format shown on the following tables is suggested for use as a guide in preparing the Financial Proposal

1. Cost Breakdown per Deliverables*

	Deliverables	# of days and Percentage of Total Price (Weight for payment)	Price, UAH (Lump Sum, All Inclusive)
1
2
3
4
	Total	max. # of working days (100%)	UAH……

*Basis for payment tranches

UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.