Local Consultant to support Ministry of Finance to conduct gender analyses of the impact of COVID-19 on women and men and provide respective policy and budgetary recommendations

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. Placing women's rights at the centre 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.

In Kosovo, the gender equality objectives are enshrined in the Law on Gender Equality which determines the general and specific measures to ensure and protect the equal rights of men and women. The Kosovo Programme on Gender Equality (2020-2024) sets the general framework for integrating gender equality into laws, policies, and public services. The Law on Gender Equality requires gender mainstreaming of all policies, documents and legislation which implies analysis of policy documents and legislation on from gender lenses. It introduces the concept of Gender responsive budgeting (GRB) in all areas encompassing institutions in central and local level.

Within the overall framework of Kosovo’s development priorities, including Kosovo’s Development Strategy 2016-2021,Economic Reform Programme 2019-2021, Health Sector Strategy 2017-2021, and the Strategy for Employment and Social Welfare 2018-2022, as well as Kosovo’s Stabilization and Association Agreement with the EU, the United Nations have been aligning efforts and resources with a view to ensuring that its COVID-19 response contributes to Kosovo’s longer-term development agenda as set out in Kosovo’s 2018 SDG Resolution.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had great impact socio-economic life in Kosovo and particularly more on vulnerable women and women are at the forefront of the COVID response, including as the default unpaid family caregivers2. COVID-19 has disproportionately affecting women compared to men, and risks to deepen gender inequalities The Kosovo Institutions has taken immediate strong actions to combat and respond to Covid-19. A series of financial and non-financial support packages have been introduced by the institutions aiming to provide special administrative measures and support to the most affected groups and sectors. Those efforts culminated with the designing and approval of the 2020-2023 Government Program for Kosovo and the Plan for the Implementation of the Program for the Economic Regeneration during the summer of 2020.

All funds for the implementation of the Economic Recovery Program related to the subsidization of interest rates or bank fees to lending institutions licensed by the Central Bank of Kosovo (CBK) will be allocated to the Treasury of Kosovo (MoF), for a specific purpose, on behalf and for the account of the relevant ministries implementing the Economic Recovery Program measures, which provide for such activity. In order to implement this Decision, all ministries responsible for the implementation of measures according to the Annex to this Decision are obliged to prepare plans, instructions and sectorial criteria for the implementation of measures, which require budget allocation under point 2 of this Decision.

In this regard the program is highly relevant for Kosovo particularly during current and post COVID 19 Pandemic, a time when it is crucial for the Kosovo Institutions to receive technical support while reviewing public budgets to ensure space and financial allocations for the new measures. Moreover gender equality objectives are included in the MTEF 2020-2022 and GRB examples are included in several of Budget Circulars for budget organizations at the central and local level in Kosovo although these documents however are not gender mainstreamed properly and most of the priorities are not gender sensitive. In order to strengthen the capacities of the institutions and ensure sustainability of the interventions on GRB, UN Women has initiated a regional programme with participation of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo*, Serbia and North Macedonia on “Transformative Financing for Gender Equality towards more Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Western Balkans” (2020-2024) funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation. The main programme approach will be transformative financing as an enabler factor for policy and financing actions to accelerate implementation of existing national and international commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Under the framework of the program UN Women will cooperate with the government while drafting such socio-economic reforms to ensure that foreseen interventions consider, the different needs of women and men, girls and boys, while handling the emergency situation. UN Women in Kosovo will work with the responsible institutions in guiding and assisting them to apply gender responsive budgeting in the new planning cycle and consider carefully measures needed for excluded women and girls and ensure that women and men, girls and boys in Kosovo benefit equally from all social, health, financial and non-financial support schemes, and No One is left behind from the support provided by Kosovo Institutions at all levels in facing the actual emergency situation, as well as in long-term plans for recovering from this pandemic.In this context, UN Women seeks to recruit one local consultant to provide direct two fold support to Ministry of Finance in initially conducting gender analyses of the impact of COVID-19 on women and girls in specific sectors, assess and incorporate gender data and mainstream gender to plans in emergency response in Kosovo. and draft protocols that are gender sensitive in the sectors identified as mostly impacted by budget cuts due to Covid-19 pandemic and that respond to the needs of women and girls from the most left behind communities which can be modelled and used in the future outbreaks and emergency responses in the country. Secondly, the local consultant will conduct the analysis of the distribution of funds allocated for implementation of the selected measures of the Economic Recovery Program from gender perspective.

The consultant will coordinate with UN Women team and the Ministry of Finance , Ministry of Local Governance , Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare , Ministry of Agriculture,Forestry and Rural Development and the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports on all related assistance.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Head of Office and the GRB Project Coordinator in Kosovo and in close collaboration with the Directory of Budgets within Ministry of Finance the local consultant is expected to conduct the following: 

Component 1

• Support MoF to assess with gender lenses distribution of funds for implementation of the selected measures of the Economic Recovery Program allocated to the abovementioned Ministries and provide gender responsive recommendations;
• Support MoF to map all potential beneficiaries and targeted groups benefiting from the Economic Recovery Program under the selected Ministries;
• Support MoF and other relevant ministries to establish necessary additional criteria for the selection and awarding of the funds to the identified targeted beneficiaries and propose necessary changes on the existing application templates/instruments;

Component 2

• Assist MoF with technical expertise to assess with gender lenses the medium-term budget framework 3 for specific sectors and related budget cuts done during the emergency; and map programe budgets that were cut as result of CoOVID response and have posible impact on GE;
• Assess and identify possible impact of budget cuts to the delivery/implementation of GE policies/startegies and actions with focus on women and girls.
• Provide recommandations which are gender sensitive and usable for contingency provisions in the future;
• Support MoFs and line ministries with gender technical expertise during any further budget cuts and reprioritization of expenditures and public budget reallocations and propose how to accommodate the space for additional budget requirements without having negative impact on gender equality.
• Support MoFs and line ministries during formulation of priorities and allocations in the new budget cycle, including drafting of gender budget statements;
• Support MoFE with specific gender equality analyses and draft simple checklists and guidelines while deciding sector specific emergency responses; At least in one.
• Provide monthly reports (in English) to UN Women on the implementation of activities as it will be specified in the monthly consultancy Work-pla

Expected deliverables:

• A consultancy work plan that includes timeline and a proposed outline and methodology for the consultancy (to be consulted with and approved by UN Women);
• Final Draft Analysis of medium-term budget framework and related budget cuts done during the emergency for selected sectors including proposals for the reprioritization of expenditures and public budget reallocations with gender lenses;
• Provide recommendations which are gender sensitive and usable for contingency provisions in the future;
• Checklists and guidelines in place for an engendered sector specific emergency response;
• Monthly reports on the technical support provided within the time period to UN Women;

Technical inputs and on-demand reports on specific initiatives when requested.

DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAMEThe Consultant will be expected to complete the tasks within the indicative timeframe:

 

Deliverables	Days		Deadline
A consultancy work plan in English that includes timeline and a proposed outline and methodology for the consultancy (to be consulted with and approved by UN Women);	1 day		by October 5th 2020
Technical assistance in Albanian and English, on gender budgeting provided to MoFs and relevant institutions as per the tasks above , documented in monthly reports, monthly list of key messages for social media content, and timesheet; approved by UN Women;	9 days 10 days 8 days 8 days		by 20th October 2020 by 30th October 2020 by 10 th November by 20th November 2020
Compiled report in English, of the main findings from the sectors which have been impacted most from the budget cuts and developed checklists and guidelines while deciding sector specific emergency responses, prepared by other countries in the Western Balkans, that are going throught the same exercise	2 days		by 10th of December 2020
Final report, in English, on findings, conclusions and suggestions for follow-up, at the end of the consultancy	2 days		by 25 th of December 2020
Total		40 days

Evaluation of applicants:Consultants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of qualifications and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, andb) Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

 

Evaluation Criteria			Max points
TECHNICAL EVALUATION (70%)
Education	Master’s degree in economy/finance, gender equality, human rights, and/or any other related science	20 0: without 3 years of experience 10: 3 years of experience 20: more than 5 years of experience
Professional Experience	A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in gender responsive budgeting application either at the central or local level.	30 0: without 3 years of experience 10: 3 years of experience 20: more than 5 years of experience
Language requirements	Fluency in English and Albanian	20 0: without 3 years of experience 10: 3 years of experience 15: more than 3 years of experience

 

Financial Evaluation (30%) – max. 30 points:The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. A suggested formula is as follows:p = 30 (µ/z)Using the following values:p = points for the financial proposal being evaluatedµ = price of the lowest priced proposalz = price of the proposal being evaluated

 

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

 

Functional Competencies:

• Thorough knowledge of Kosovo PFM system, planning and budgeting processes of the MTBP.
• Strong presentation, facilitation, reporting and writing abilities in English and Albanian.
• Diverse organizational skills in various settings.
• Proven ability to work within limited time constraints in the preparation of high quality documents.
• Strong ability to interact effectively with various partners and stakeholders, with focus on central public administration.
• Strong negotiating skills.
• Possesses the ability to work independently.
• Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point).

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications/Education:

• Master’s degree in economy/finance, gender equality, human rights, and/or any other related science.
• Additional trainings and certifications on gender equality and Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting.

Work Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant professional experience in gender responsive budgeting application either at the central or local level.
• Experience in working with central government finance policies and processes – including mid-term budgeting program (MTBP) budgeting methodologies and approaches.
• Experience in gender work;
• Previous experience or familiarity with the UN system and/or international organizations is considered an asset.

Language:

• Fluency and proficiency in spoken and written Albanian and English required.

Duration and remuneration:The duration of the contract will be up to 40 working days between October - December 2020. The payment will be made in installments upon satisfactory completion of all tasks and deliverables in the assignment, and submission and approval by UN Women.

Recommended Presentation of Offer

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• A Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability including a brief description explaining why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment.
• UN Women Personal History Form (P11) including past experience in similar assignment. Can be downloaded at: UN Women Personal History Form (P11) or http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment   
• Financial Proposal specifying the total all-inclusive monthly fee in Euro for the tasks specified in this assignment.

Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant/contractor during the contract period (e.g. fee and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services and travel ). Payment will be made as per the payment schedule in the contract upon (i) satisfactory completion of tasks; (ii) provision of deliverables specified in the ToRs; (iii) submission of and approval by UN Women; and (iv) submission of the respective invoice.

Application Instructions:

• Click on the "Apply now" button;
• Input your information in the appropriate Sections: personal information, language proficiency, education, resume and motivation; You can type in, or paste your short Resume into the last box;
• Upon completion of the first page, please hit "submit application" tab at the end of the page. On the next page, you will be asked to upload your Resume;
• System will only allow one attachment. All docs (CV; P11; financial offer; list of similar profiles should be included as one attachment).
• Please make sure to submit all the requested documents/information; otherwise, your application will be considered incomplete.