National Consultant to Assist Organizations with the Development of Internal Sexual Harassment Complaints’ Mechanisms

Background

With the support of the Norwegian Ministry for Foreign Affairs, in December 2017 UN Women launched the project “Joint Action for Women’s Economic Empowerment in Georgia” (JAWE). With the overall goal that women, particularly the poorest and most excluded, are economically empowered and benefit from development in Georgia, the project works with private sector companies; government agencies; and women, including women entrepreneurs. The project’s expected outputs are:

1. Private businesses have increased understanding of the gender dimension of corporate sustainability and strengthened capacities to implement Women’s Empowerment Principles (Launched in 2010, the Women's Empowerment Principles are a set of Principles for business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. They are the result of a collaboration between UN Women and the United Nations Global Compact. For more information, see http://www.weprinciples.org/Site/PrincipleOverview/);
2. Government and other actors are supported to apply international standards and create an enabling environment for women’s economic empowerment in partnership with the private sector; and
3. Women, particularly the most vulnerable, have increased capacities, skills and opportunities to access decent work, and women business enterprises are more active in the market.

To address gender-based discrimination in the workplace, UN Women Georgia developed an online sexual harassment course for public servants and since early 2017 the Public Defender’s Office (PDO) has been hosting the course on its website. UN Women office in Georgia has further advocated for inclusion of a clause on non-acceptability of sexual harassment at the workplace in the Code of Ethics for Public Servants and supported the Ministry of Defence and the former Ministry of IDPs from the Occupied Territories, Refugees and Accommodation in the development of internal complains’ mechanisms on the cases of sexual harassment and gender-based discrimination.

In 2018, UN Women in partnership with national statistical office – GEOSTAT and generous funding from the EU completed a nation-wide survey on Violence against Women that has found that 20 per cent women has experienced sexual harassment in Georgia and 10 per cent of women have admitted experiencing it at the work-place. The reported prevalence rates are high provided also that the field work for the research was carried out in the beginning of 2017, before the global #metoo campaign and few high profile sexual harassment allegation cases brought to public attention also locally in Georgia. These events further increased public’s awareness and sensitivity to sexual harassment prompting the Gender Equality Council of the Parliament to come forward with an initiative to better regulate sexual harassment in the Georgian legislation in line also with the recently ratified Istanbul Convention.

With this increased awareness and the improved regulation of the issue in making, several public institutions, civil society organizations and private companies express interest in developing internal procedures and policies to receive and accommodate sexual harassment complaints. To meet this growing demand, UN Women Georgia Country Office would like to hire a National Consultant to assist various organizations (up to 15 – mainly project partners or WEPs signatory companies) with the adjustment and operationalization of the internal sexual harassment complaints’ mechanisms.

The objectives of the assignment are:

1. To translate/adjust the existing model sexual harassment complaints mechanisms (developed by UN Women International Consultant) for civil society organizations (CSOs), public sector, academic institutions and private companies (hereinafter target organizations) to their internal procedures and systems (up to 15 organizations);
2. To support civil society organizations (CSOs), public sector, academic institutions and private companies (up to 15 organizations) to operationalize the internal sexual harassment complaints mechanisms.

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities of the National Consultant are to:

• To engage in consultation with selected representatives of target organizations to better understand their organizational set-ups for adjusting the existing models of sexual harassment complaints’ mechanisms to their internal policies and systems;
• Depending on the size and type of the organization, facilitate creation of the internal working group (reference group) within the target organization on sexual harassment complaints’ mechanism;
• To adjust the draft models of sexual harassment complaints mechanisms to internal organizational set-ups of the target organizations;
• To conduct one day trainings for each target organization’s staff on the key principles for designing an effective sexual harassment complaints’ mechanism and operationalizing it;
• To prepare the final policy paper spelling out the sexual harassment complaints mechanism and submit to relevant decision-making structure in the organization for final endorsement;
• To prepare final report about the work carried out, key observations and recommendations for successful operationalization of sexual harassment complaints mechanisms.

Deliverables:

• Work plan with timelines in line with duties and responsibilities spelled above (1 working day) –by March 20, 2019;
• Consultations held with the selected representatives of target organizations (up to 15 organizations) and relevant sample materials (organigrams, charters, codes of conduct) reviewed, reference groups created (as necessary) (30 working days) –by April 30, 2019;
• Draft complaints mechanism developed/adjusted for each target organization (15 working days) – by May 17, 2019
• 1-day trainings conducted for each target organization’s staff on the key principles for designing an effective sexual harassment complaints’ mechanism and operationalizing it, draft complaints mechanisms finalized/validated (15 working days) - by June 7, 2019;
• Final drafts of the policy papers spelling out the sexual harassment complaints mechanism prepared and submitted to relevant decision-making structure in the organization for final endorsement – (15 working days) – by June 28, 2019;
• Coaching and support provided to target organizations according to their further needs in operationalizing the mechanisms (5 working days) – September 10, 2019;
• Final report prepared and submitted to UN Women (2 working days) – September 30, 2019.

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

Education:

• University degree (Masters) in Law, Gender, Human Rights, Labor relations, Sociology or similar fields;

Experience: 

• At least two (2) years of proven experience of work on sexual harassment complaints mechanisms for different sector institutions;
• At least three (3) years of working experience in the field of labour rights and relations and/or discrimination and violence against women in the workplace;
• Sound understanding of women’s rights, gender equality, sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment;

Language:

• Fluency in Georgian and English (speaking and writing).

Evaluation procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated against the following technical and financial criteria:

• University degree (Masters) in Law, Gender, Human Rights, Labor relations, Sociology or similar fields (max 30 points);
• At least two (2) years of proven experience of work on sexual harassment complaints mechanisms for different sector institutions (max 100 points);
• At least three (3) years of working experience in the field of labour rights and relations and/or discrimination and violence against women in the workplace (max 100 points);
• Sound understanding of women’s rights, gender equality, sex-based discrimination and sexual harassment (max 90 points);
• Fluency in Georgian and English (speaking and writing) (max 30 points).

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150

S – score received on financial evaluation;

Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;

F – financial offer under consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management arrangements:

The contractor will report to and work under direct supervision of UN Women Programme Analyst on Women’s Economic Empowerment and UN Women Programme Specialist, under overall guidance of UN Women Deputy Representative.

Financial arrangements:

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by UN Women Programme Analyst that the services have been satisfactorily performed as specified below:

• Deliverables 1, 2 – 30%;
• Deliverables 3, 4, 5 – 40%;
• Deliverables 6, 7 - 30%.

Application submission package:

• CV;
• Duly filled Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Financial Proposal - lump sum proposal/offer* in GEL (including breakdown of this lump sum amount indicating all necessary costs to complete this assignment).

*The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR).

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

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