Consultant - Support to the UNDP Gender Equality Seal Initiative

Background

The Gender Team is at the forefront of UNDP's commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment. The Gender Team is part of the Bureau for Policy and Programme Support (BPPS) which provides policy advice and technical support to all of UNDP’s operations. The Gender Team works to implement gender equality as a core objective of UNDP through a two-pronged approach (i) mainstreaming gender in all core practices; and, (ii) dedicated interventions that empower women and promote gender equality.

The Gender Equality Seal is a corporate quality assurance mechanism that measures and certifies the achievements and competence of Country Offices in advancing women's rights and gender equality. The Gender Equality Seal has three levels of certification (Gold, Silver, and Bronze) and Country Offices are awarded a certain level of certification according to their gender equality accomplishments. The gender equality seal strengthens accountability for gender equality results in the organization.

The Gender Team is seeking the services of a consultant to support the Gender Equality Seal initiative during 2018, adapting the Seal to the new context of UNDP’s Strategic Plan and Gender Equality Strategy; and launching the next Gender Equality Seal Certification Round.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant will undertake the following tasks under the direct supervision of the Senior Policy Advisor on Gender Mainstreaming of the UNDP Gender Team in New York.

• Ensure quality and track the implementation of the next round of the Seal in each of the steps of the process: online assessments; action plan to improve; technical support; certifications.
• Provide substantive technical advice to the gender seal team on gender mainstreaming and organizational change, and keep abreast of the latest discussions, innovative experiences, including UN Secretary General Reform on gender equality.
• Lead the learning and capacity building strategy of the Seal: design of webinars, Seal “Talks”, and global learning events. Identify new learning opportunities and innovations.
• Oversight and substantive contributions to the Seal Community of Practice.
• Advise on new partnership and business strategy of the Seal programme, including synergies with other initiatives.
• Provide technical support to Seal COs, including carry out assessment, Scoring Reports, and Recommendations through skype, email and/or technical missions;
• Prepare reports, briefings and deliver presentations to effectively advocate for the Seal both to senior management internally and externally.
• Support external initiatives e.g. Public and private sector seal, other organizations.
• Support project management including administrative tasks of the Seal: develop the work plan of the Gender Seal team; track implementation of workplans and budget; support procurement of consultants and management/ tracking of LTA pool of assessors.

Expected Deliverables/Outputs:

• Monthly reports detailing activities performed, products developed and results achieved as per section C of the TORs and below list with estimated duration indicted.
• Target due dates are the fourth week of each month after the contract is signed until December 2018.
• Review and approvals with be done by  Senior Policy Advisor on Gender Mainstreaming, Gender Team, BPPS
• New round of the Seal launched and COs applicants tracked and supported to ensure they complete each step of the process of certification on time. (June/ July 2018; ongoing)
• Gender equality Technical advice to Seal team on new developments in gender mainstreaming delivered. (June- Dec 2018)
• Innovative Learning plan developed and technical input delivered (webinars, talks, presentations etc.). (June-July 2018; ongoing.)
• Community of practice supported with substantive contributions regularly delivered. (June-Dec 2018)
• New Partnerships and Seal business strategy developed. (June- July 2018)
• Technical support to Seal COs given, including CO assessments verified and scored; final reports delivered. (June-Dec 2018)
• Reports, briefings and presentations delivered. (ongoing)
• External initiatives, Public and private sector seal initiatives supported and delivered. (Nov-Dec 2018)
• Seal Team Workplan developed and tracked; budget monitored; LTAs coordinated (ongoing)

Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant will report directly to the Senior Policy Advisor on Gender Mainstreaming, Gender Team, BPPS.

Duration of the Work

The assignment is for 7 months: 1 June – 31 Dec 2018 ( consisting of 140 working days)

Duty Station

The consultancy will either be Home-based or New York based, depending on specific assignments and agreed workplan.

Competencies

• Demonstrated capacity for strategic thinking, and expertise in global gender equality and mainstreaming strategies;
• Proven capacity to produce high quality qualitative research and ability to absorb, analyze and synthesize large amounts of complex information within tight deadlines;
• Demonstrated ability and willingness to work with people of different cultural, ethnic and religious background, different gender, and diverse political views.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Masters or Ph.D. in women’s studies or gender and development (or relevant Bachelor’s degree with 10 years equivalent experience on gender).

Experience

• Minimum of  5 years of comprehensive knowledge in gender and development, institutional development and gender mainstreaming or related fields;
• Proven expertise on gender audits, evaluations and/or participatory assessments for gender mainstreaming or knowledge of gender equality certification schemes
• Experience in project management, including managing multiple projects, managing and tracking budget, procurement, supervising consultants;
• Proven expertise in designing and implementing gender responsive participatory methodologies.
• Experience with the UN and strong understanding of the UNDP, operations and structures, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• At least 2 years field experience.

Language

• Fluency in spoken and written English. Proficiency in English language for report writing;
• Ability to speak either Spanish or French or Arabic is an asset.

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

All price proposals must be expressed as a Daily Fee: The Daily fee must be “all-inclusive; and for delivery of payment, an IC Time Sheet must be submitted by the Contractor, duly approved by the Individual Contractor’s supervisor, which shall serve as the basis for the payment of fees. 

Travel

Experts shall be required to travel for specific assessments and UNDP will arrange and cover the cost of the official travel in accordance with UNDP rules and procedures by providing tickets, travel allowances, daily substance allowance and terminal expenses. The fare will always be “most direct, most economical” and any difference in price with the preferred route will be paid for by the IC.

The term “All inclusive” implies that all costs (professional fees, travel costs, living allowances, communications, consummables, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor are already factored into the final amounts submitted in the proposal.

Application Procedure

Application is a two-step process:

STEP 1

Qualified applicants are requested to apply online via this website. Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications (note: all documents must be compiled into one file to be uploaded as part of the online application):

• Cover letter explaining why the candidate is the most suitable for the assignment; and
• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references.

STEP 2

Financial Proposal.

After review of applications, shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be contacted by UNDP and requested to submit a Financial Proposal:

• The financial proposal should specify a daily professional rate;
• The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; cost of travel from the home base to the duty station and vice versa, where required; living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.
• If the Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.

The Financial Proposal is to be submitted by email as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.

Incomplete applications will not be considered, so please make sure you have provided all requested materials.

Qualified women are encouraged to apply.

Due to the large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidate(s) about the outcome or status of the selection process.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer

The consultant’s offer will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

Combined Scoring method – where the qualifications and methodology will be weighted a max. of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a max of 30%;

Technical qualifications (Weight 70%)

• Criteria A: Academic background: Master’s degree or Ph.D. in women’s studies or gender and development or relevant Bachelor’s degree with 10 years equivalent experience on gender: 10 points
• Criteria B: Minimum of 5 years of comprehensive knowledge in gender and development, institutional development and gender mainstreaming, gender and organizational change: 10 points;
• Criteria C: Proven expertise on gender audits, evaluations and/or participatory assessments for gender mainstreaming: 10 points.
• Criteria D: Demonstrated project management skills, including managing multiple projects, managing and tracking budget, procurement, supervising consultants: 10 points
• Criteria E: Experience with UN and strong understanding of the UNDP, operations and structures, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s empowerment: 5 points
• Criteria F: At least 2 years field experience on gender equality: 5 points

Having reviewed applications, UNDP will invite the top four shortlisted candidates for interview. Interview: 20 points

Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria shall be considered for the financial evaluation.

Financial Offer (Weight 30%) (30 points) 

The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: 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 Contract Award The candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into IC Contract with UNDP.  Payment modality Payment to the Individual Contractor will be made based on the actual number of days worked, deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.