Gender Equality Consultant, Reporting and Research Specialist

Background

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is the UN’s Global Development Network, advocating for change and connecting countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life. We are on the ground in over 170 countries, employing participatory approaches to developing local solutions to national and global development challenges. UNDPs core vision is to help countries achieve simultaneous eradication of poverty and significant reduction of inequalities and exclusion. 

Addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment is a key aspect of UNDPs approach to achieving its core vision. In the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and in UNDP’s Strategic Plan, gender equality is both a goal in its own right and an essential catalyst to progress across all development outcomes. UNDP is guided in its work by its Gender Equality Strategy, which details how UNDP works towards gender equality in each of the goals and key results set out in the UNDP Strategic Plan.

The Gender Team of the Bureau for Policy and Program Support (BPPS) is the institutional anchor of UNDP’s work on gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Gender Team provides policy advice and technical support to all of UNDP’s Bureaus and leadership on how to mainstream gender across all areas of their work. 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. In addition, the Gender Team is responsible for all corporate planning, for supporting corporate programming, reporting on gender and for supporting Senior Management in ensuring accountability for gender mainstreaming. Finally, the Gender Team supports the Administrator and senior management in addressing gender equality and women’s empowerment in their convening and representational functions.

The UNDP Gender Team prepares an Annual Report on Implementation of the Gender Equality Strategy that is presented yearly to the UNDP Executive Board.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF WORK, RESPONSIBILITIES AND DESCRIPTION OF THE PROPOSED ANALYTICAL WORK:

Specific Deliverables/Activities:

• Prepare Annual Report on the Implementation of the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy in 2018. This includes gathering inputs from regional and thematic Gender Team leaders, researching and selecting gender equality results from the UNDP Results Oriented Annual Report (ROAR), developing a narrative and fact-checking all materials.
• Prepare Annual Report on the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy implementation in 2018 and performance against the UN System Wide Action Plan 2.0. including uploading required evidences into the online system.
• Oversee approval process for the Annual Report on the implementation of the UNDP Gender Equality Strategy in 2018, including by managing UNDP institutional mechanisms, UNDP Executive Board members via informal consultations and making all required revisions to Annual Report.
• Support Gender Team in preparation and dissemination of UNDP Gender Equality Strategy 2018-2021 as needed, including the development of results framework.
• Preparation of Background and follow-up for GSIC Meetings and perform all logistical and organizational functions.
• Support the development of the MoU with UN Women (planning meetings, briefing of workplans, etc.).
• Follow up and dissemination, social media on paper on "Gender as an accelerator of SDGs" (August through October)
• Support roll out of Signature Solution 6 (methodological notes, guidance for country offices, reporting framework) and other substantive papers/events such as the SDG and Her campaign and High-Level Event during GA 2018 with World Bank and UNW; and the G77 and China campaign on Women’s Economic Empowerment including organization of day long expert meeting.
• Convene and prepare bi weekly team monitoring meetings including minutes and support for follow up actions (ongoing). 

Expected outputs and deliverables:

• Annual Report on Implementation of UNDP Gender Equality Strategy in 2018 prepared, cleared by UNDP management and submitted to Executive Board (November 2018- March 2019); 
• UN SWAP Annual Report 2018, prepared, cleared by UNDP management and submitted to UN Women reporting system (February 2019);
• Gender Equality Strategy results framework developed, and Gender Equality Strategy disseminated (October 2018-December 2019);
• GSIC biannual meeting supported (March 2019);
• MoU with UN Women supported (September- December 2018);
• "Gender as an accelerator of SDGs" paper disseminated;
• Roll out of Signature Solution 6 (methodological notes, guidance for country offices, reporting framework) supported (October 2018-December 2019); 
• The SDG and Her campaign and High-Level Event and the G77 and China campaign on Women’s Economic Empowerment including organization meeting supported ((September- February 2019).

Competencies

• Strong writing skills, organizational skills;
• Excellent interpersonal and cross-cultural communication skills;
• Experience working collaboratively in a team structure in a multicultural environment;
• Respect for Diversity: 
• Understanding of the United Nations system, operations and structures, particularly those related to gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Highest standards of integrity, discretion and loyalty;
• Commitment to UNDP’s vision, mission, and strategic goals;
• Experience working under minimum supervision and tight deadlines.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Degree in Gender Studies, Human Rights or a related field.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in the area of international development, gender equality, with a demonstrated track record in accountability and reporting for gender equality results;
• Experience writing reports is required; writing UN reports highly desirable.
• Experience in work environment of an international agency, UN, or international institutions is desirable; prior experience in UNDP is an asset.
• Experience in developing country contexts and an understanding of development challenges from the field perspective is desirable;
• Required computer skills (MS Windows, MS Office applications, Infographics).

Language

• Fluency and excellent analytical writing skills in English.
• Knowledge of French and/or Spanish for report reading highly desirable.

Application Procedure:

The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one pdf file):

• Online application with brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself 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. The P11 template can be downloaded from this link: http://sas.undp.org/Documents/P11_Personal_history_form.doc . A completed P11 Form will be required at the time a selected applicant signs an Individual Contract (IC) or their employer, if employed by an institution, signs a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA) for work associated with this assignment.
• Link to sample of relevant work.

Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.

Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.

• The financial proposal should specify an all-inclusive daily fee times 125 days.
• 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.
• In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.
• If the Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and the consultant expects their employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing them 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.

Upon request, the Financial Proposal is to be e-mailed as per the instruction in the separate e-mail that will be sent to shortlisted candidates only.

Travel

• No travel is forecast under this consultancy

Scope of Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments:

• Financial proposals must be all inclusive and must be expressed on the basis of “a daily fee” in USD.
• Payment will be made upon submission of a certificate of payment request, indicating outputs achieved and days worked to be verified and cleared for payment by the supervisor.

Criteria for Selection of the Best Offer:

Only those candidates that meet the minimum level of education and relevant years of experience requirements will be considered for the technical evaluation. The technical evaluation will include a desk review to select the shortlisted candidates (those that score at least 49 out of total 70 obtainable scores). The technical evaluation may also include interviews with shortlisted candidate(s).

The selection of the best offer from the shortlisted candidates will be based on a Combined Scoring method – where the technical evaluation (desk review and interview) will be weighted a maximum of 70%, and combined with the price offer which will be weighted a maximum of 30%. The 70% rating shall be based on how well the Offer or meets the minimum qualifications/competencies described above. 

Evaluation Criteria:

The technical evaluation will be based on the following criteria with the corresponding points (out of a total 70 points):

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in the area of international development, gender equality, with a demonstrated track record in accountability and reporting for gender equality results: 15 points
• Solid experience writing reports is required; writing UN reports highly desirable: 20 points 
• Relevant experience in work environment of an international agency, NGOs, UN, or international institutions is desirable; prior experience in UNDP is an asset: 10 points 
• Experience in developing country contexts and an understanding of development challenges from the field perspective is desirable: 10 points
• Interview: 15 points 

Financial Evaluation

Criteria for financial evaluation (30 points maximum):

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

References:

UNDP’s Individual Consultant’s General Terms and Conditions are provided here:

http://www.undp.org/content/dam/undp/documents/procurement/documents/IC%20- %20General%20Conditions.pdf 

Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents):

Annex 1 - UNDP P-11 Form for ICs

Annex 2 - IC Contract Template

Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions

Annex 4 – RLA Template

Any request for clarification must be sent by email to cpu.bids@undp.org 

The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.