UN Women - International consultant to provide training and mentoring for public administration on the implementation of gender equality principles in the public finance management

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; the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development; human rights; as well as humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women's rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women Programme Office in the Republic of North Macedonia in line with its priorities set in the UN Women strategic plan and in the UN Partnership for Sustainable Development, is coordinating the UNCT on gender equality, supports the country on the normative commitments and is working in two thematic areas – governance and national planning and ending violence against women. In fulfilling its mandate, UN Women is cooperating with UN, the government and the CSOs to advocate for women’s empowerment and advancement of gender equality.

Over the past years, through the regional project “Promoting Gender Responsive Polices in South-East Europe and the Republic of Moldova”, UN Women has provided extensive support to national and local stakeholders to strengthen democratic governance and advance women’s rights through initiatives aimed at mainstreaming gender in policy planning and budgeting. As result, gender responsive budgeting has increasingly been recognized as important tool for advancing gender equality in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Republic of North Macedonia and Republic of Moldova.

UN Women Programme office in Skopje has started with the implementation of the new project “Promoting Gender Responsive Policies and Budgets: Towards Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Republic of North Macedonia” (2018-2022). The project is structured around two outcomes:

1. The Government’s public finance management and the strategic planning processes are improved to respond to the different needs of women and men as a result of effective application of gender responsive budgeting.
2. Civil society organizations, women, including the most vulnerable actively participate in planning and decision-making mechanisms, and their priorities are fully reflected in public policies and budgets. 

The country project includes activities focused on enhancing the institutionalization of GRB at central level and local level.

At central level, the interventions foreseen by UN Women are focused on the ongoing Public Finance Management Reform (PFM) in the country, specifically the component related to programme based budgeting which is integral part of the Government Programme for PFM reform (2018-2021). The process of transitioning from line to programme based budgeting would entail a new budget classification and it represents an avenue for introducing GRB requirements and specific key performance indicators (KPI) including gender indicators. The new programme based budgeting would allow for a possibility to introduce gender specific objectives and KPIs, which will help both budget users and the Ministry of Finance to better measure the performance of program budget by assessing policy plans against actual allocations and gender indicators.

UN Women plans specific activities that are geared towards increasing the capacities of the public officials of line ministries for successful integration of the gender perspective within all its policymaking and budgetary processes.

To support line ministries and MoF to implement the obligations under the Law on Equal Opportunities of Women and Men, the National Action Plan on Gender Equality (2018-2020) and the provisions set in the budget instructions issued by the Ministry of Finance (MoF), UN Women is seeking to recruit an international consultant to extend expert support and mentorship on gender responsive budgeting and on the implementation of gender equality principles in the public finance management.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work

The overall objective of this consultancy is to provide technical assistance through training, mentoring and advise to the line ministries and the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of North Macedonia in adopting principles of gender equality in the public finance management and budgeting processes.

Tasks and responsibilities

Based on the above-described objectives of the assignment, under the supervision of the GRB programme team and the Regional Technical Advisor, the international consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks and responsibilities:

• Extend expert support and technical advice to line ministries and state institutions on gender mainstreaming in budgetary and policy making processes at National level;
• Support line ministries and MoF in understanding the programme-based budgeting and KPIs specifically targeting gender equality commitments;
• Support the Ministries/state institutions that have developed and submitted Gender Budget statements to the Ministry of Finance to assess progress using the gender indicators developed for their programmes;
• Work closely with the Local expert engaged by UN Women to mentor line-ministries/state institutions on the development of Gender Budget Statements;
• Design and deliver 4 GRB training and mentoring sessions for the public officials from line-ministries and local self-government units in North Macedonia;
• Write a final report on the assignment with recommendations for UN Women.

Key deliverables, activities and timeframe

Tasks	Deliverables	Working days
Work-plan with tasks, roles, responsibilities and timeline as agreed with UN Women; Review of ongoing reforms in the public finance management and other related processes	Detailed outline - work plan for the assignment	3 days (By 8 November2019)
Design* and deliver 1 introductory training session for line ministries on programme based budgeting and Gender Budget Statements	Training Agenda, detailed training and mentoring programme with exercises and handouts; Pre/post training evaluation questionnaires; Final analysis of the evaluations and Training reports;	5 days (by 20 November 2019)
Design and deliver training sessions on gender mainstreaming in programme based budgeting at local level and serve as resource person during ToT for LSGUs	Training Agenda, detailed training and mentoring programme with exercises and handouts; Pre/post training evaluation questionnaires to determine impact of training; Final analysis of the evaluations and Training reports;	5 days (by 10 December 2019)
Support MoF in the understanding how gender can be mainstreamed in programme-based budgeting and KPIs specifically targeting gender equality commitments;	Training Agenda Technical advice Final analysis	10 days (by 20 April 2020)
Deliver one 2-day training session on gender mainstreaming in PFM for line ministries and state institutions	Training Agenda, detailed training and mentoring programme with exercises and handouts; Pre/post training evaluation questionnaires; Final analysis of the evaluations and Training reports;	5 days (by 20 April 2020)
Prepare final report summarizing results (changes in capacities, key results achieved, lessons learned and recommendations)	Final report with specific information on the results achieved, challenges and opportunities in English	2 days (by 10 May 2020)
		30 working days

               *All work carried out as part of this consultancy is the intellectual property of UN Women.

Reporting

Under the overall supervision of the to the GRB Regional Technical Advisor and the GRB programme team at UN Women North Macedonia, the International consultant will develop and deliver the above listed deliverables in accordance with the indicative timeframe.

All deliverables of an acceptable standard and quality should be submitted to the UN Women and in languages as specified above.

Competencies

Core Values/guiding principles:

• Integrity - Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
• Professionalism - Demonstrate professional competence and Consultant knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
• Cultural sensitivity and respect for diversity - Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Additionally, the individual should have an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Planning & Organizing – Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks and makes allowances accordingly.
• Organizational Awareness - Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Teamwork - Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost and quality standards.

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

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Shares knowledge and experience
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women
•  Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
• Development and Operational Effectiveness
• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
• Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems
• Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource

Leadership and Self-Management

•     Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
•     Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
•     Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
•     Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate

    Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications

• A university degree in finance, economics or related areas; (Master’s degree would be considered as an asset).

Experience

• A minimum of 5 years of demonstrated relevant professional experience with public finance management;
• Specific expertise in the area of gender equality with focus on gender responsive policy making and program-based budgeting at central and local level;
• A minimum of 3 years of experience in designing and delivering training and/or mentoring programmes on gender equality and gender mainstreaming in policy making and budgeting;
• Experience and knowledge on policy making and budgetary processes in the Republic of North Macedonia is considered an asset;
• Previous experience working with governmental and international organizations is considered an asset.

Language

• Fluency in English is required.

Evaluation of applicants:

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process. Applicants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications/skills and their financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultants whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive to and compliant with the requirements of the ToR; and
• Having received the highest score out of below combined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Criteria	Total points	Max. Points
Technical Evaluation (70%)	70
Relevant education	10	10 0: without relevant university degree 7: A first-level university degree 10: Master’s degree
A minimum of 5 years of demonstrated relevant professional experience with public finance management;	20	20 0: without relevant expertise and experience 0-5: 1 year of experience 5-15: 3 years of experience 20: more than 5 years of experience
Specific expertise in the area of gender equality with focus on gender responsive policy making and program-based budgeting at central and local level;	20	20 0: without relevant expertise and experience 0-5: 1 year of experience 5-15: 3 years of experience 20: more than 5 years of experience
A minimum of 3 years’ experience in designing and delivering training and/or mentoring programmes on gender equality and gender mainstreaming in policy making and budgeting;	10	10 0: without relevant experience 0-5: 3 years of experience 5-10: more than 3 years of experience
Experience and knowledge on policy making and budgetary processes in the Republic of North Macedonia is considered an asset;	5	5 0: without experience 5: Demonstrated experience
Previous experience working with governmental and international organizations is considered an asset.	5	5 0: without experience 5: Demonstrated experience
Language requirements Fluency in English and/or Macedonian is required.	REQUIRED
Financial Evaluation (30%)	30
TOTAL	100

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

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 the consideration.

1.Duration and remuneration:

The national consultants will be engaged for a total of 30 working days during the period of 4 November 2019 until 10 May 2020. Deliverables from the consultants will be reviewed and approved by UN Women before they are considered final. UN Women will divide the payment of consultancy fee into the following instalments:

I instalment - 50% upon submission and approval of deliverables 1-7 (10 December 2019)

II installment – 50% upon satisfactory completion of all tasks in the assignment, submission and approval of final report by UN Women (10 May 2020)

Application

Interested individual consultants are requested to apply electronically through the following link: http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm  no later than 21st October 2019 and to submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Short Letter of interest, including financial proposal in USD, indicating a total lump sum for the delivery as per above description. The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (consultancy fee, travel and any other possible costs).
• Completed UN Women Personal History (P11) form, that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• 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.