Supervision session for women prison counselors

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 center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997. UN Women Palestine Office focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely, to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In support of this goal, and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the Palestinian context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions in its current strategic cycle (2018-2021) toward the realization of four strategic goals: Ensuring that women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy, all women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence, women and girls contribute and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience, and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and from humanitarian action, and a comprehensive and dynamic set of global norms, policies and standards on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls is strengthened and implemented.

In line with the Palestinian Government’s commitment to  achieve gender equality and to fight Violence Against Women (VAW), and in full partnership with the Justice, Security and Social Sectors, UN Women, within its joint programme with UNDP and UNICEF- “Promoting the Rule of Law in Palestine- SAWASYA II” is supporting the justice, security and social institutions  to mainstream gender into  their procedures and policies, and develop and provide gender responsive services to women victims and survivors of violence, through providing institutional capacity building and policy level interventions amongst others.  Within this framework, UN women is supporting the Ministry of Social Development’s (MoSD) to enhance the capacity of Women Prison’s Counsellors (WPCs) to respond to the needs of women inmates at the Correction and Rehabilitation Centers (CRCs), and provide them with  quality and responsive services.

Many women inmates struggle with mental health issues, history of sexual and domestic violence and poor ties and support from family members and local communities.  In view of this, UN Women within Sawasya programme is supporting women inmates’ access to fair trial, through facilitating the provision of legal aid, and psycho- social support, by collaborating with mandated civil society organizations and semi- governmental bodies.  

The role of MoSD’s Women Prison Counselors (WPCs) is critical to enhance the social welfare of women inmates. They provide women inmates with multi-dimensional support, including: individual counselling and support, strengthening and facilitating relationship between female inmates and their families, developing reintegration programmes, following up with the welfare support provided by MoSD and facilitate legal aid. Despite the critical role they play, MoSD WPCs face multiple challenges when managing cases of women inmates. This is mainly due to the challenging legal and social context in Palestine that shapes the reality of women caught in the criminal system, in addition to the institutional challenges within MoSD, including, the limited resources and capacity building opportunities. Furthermore, MoSD prison counsellors are at constant risk of experiencing indirect, secondary traumatic stress, and compassion fatigue, which leads most often to work burn out and limit their professional capacity.

Objective of the assignment:

UN Women within its joint Rule of Law programme “Sawasya II” and through partnership with the MoSD, is seeking to recruit a national consultant to strengthen the capacity of MoSD prison counselors, by raising their awareness about the complexity associated with the situation of women caught in the criminal justice system,  and  support WPCs psychological wellbeing and professional development. This assignment will seek to achieve its aim through the provision of individual and group supervision session targeting WPCs, which will allow WPCs to develop personally and professionally. Issues to be addressed will include; practitioners’ burn out, transference and countertransference phenomena during counseling, different defense mechanisms in counseling, professional boundaries and other psychological phenomena in addition to supportive intervention techniques.

More specifically, the supervision sessions will address the following:

1. Introduce WPCs to key concepts related to women caught in the criminal justice system, and relevant international frameworks related to their rights, such as, the Mandela Rules and the Bangkok rules.
2. Increase WPCs knowledge and skills to provide gender responsive services to women inmates. This includes enhancing their counseling skills, case management skills, including their role in enhancing protection and reintegration after release.
3. Provide WPCs with professional tools to deal with the psychological implications of their work with women caught in the criminal justice system, at the personal and the professional levels, particularly within complex context in light of the current COVID-19 crisis

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of UN Women Special Representative, the direct supervision of Sawasya UN Women Programme Specialist, and working in close cooperation and coordination with UN Women Programme Analyst- Gender Responsive Prosecution, the selected consultant will undertake the following tasks:

Develop an inception report that includes the work plan and methodology and share with UN Women for discussion and approval.

• Based on consultation with UN Women and the MoSD, to develop an initial work plan that includes the objectives, targets, deliverables and time frame, and a detailed working methodology and share with UN Women for review and approval.
• To meet with UN Women’s technical team and the responsible officers at the (MoSD), including 2-3 Women Prison Counselors to assess needs and agree on the work plan, including the methodology, sessions outlines and targets.
• Based on the results of the meetings, the consultant will revisit and refine the methodology, meetings outlines, targets and time frame and share with UN Women for inputs and approval.

Deliver supervision sessions (virtual in case of lockdown): 

• Conduct 24 individual supervision sessions targeting WPCs as follow: 4 individual sessions per month for 6 months.
• Conduct 6 group supervision sessions (one day each) targeting prison counsellors.
• Prepare progress report covering the first three group sessions and the first 12 individual sessions.

Prepare and submit a final report:

• Submit a final report that includes a description of the assignment’s methodology, main interventions, target groups, findings, lessons learned and recommendations. 
• In addition to that, the consultant has to meet with UN Women on regular basis to update on progress and challenges faced during the assignment and consult with them on the way forward.

Deliverables: 

Deliverable 1:

• An approved workplan and methodology. Expected delivery date is 30 December 2020.

Deliverable 2:

• A successful completion of the first 12 individual supervision sessions for women prison counselors, and the first 3 group supervision sessions for prisons counselors.  Expected delivery date is 30 January 2021.
• Approved mid-term report, covering all activities and sessions conducted in the first three months.  Expected delivery date is 10 February 2021.

Deliverable 3:

• A successful completion of the second 12 individual supervision sessions for WPCs and the second 3 group supervision sessions. Expected delivery date is 31 April 2021
• A final approved report. Expected delivery date is 15 May 2021.

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

• Strong background on violence against women, criminology, and women access to justice.
• Sound knowledge of international framework on women in conflict with the law, and the role of service providers within the criminal justice system.
• Sound knowledge of gender equality, including gender from socio- geographic and socio-political perspectives.
• Strong dialogue and communication skills.
• Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective; anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

• A Master’s degree in Social Works, or Psychology or Psycho-social therapy.

Experience: 

• At least 4 years working experience in the field of social works or psychology or therapy including working directly in providing support for women victims and survivors of violence.
• At least 3 previous assignments related to providing individual and group supervision for service providers (for example social workers, therapists, psychologists, and others as relevant).
• Proven record working in women in conflict with the law.
• At least 3 previous assignments related to working in the area of violence against women(VAW) (providing direct support to women survivors of violence, or conducting training on VAW, or supervising service providers), Or two years of working experience on VAW.
• Experience with the UN system or/and International Organizations is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Professional knowledge of English, and fluency in Arabic

Evaluation Criteria:

This SSA modality is governed by UN Women General Terms and Conditions. UN Women will only be able to respond to applicants who meet the minimum requirements.

Candidates should clearly indicate how they meet the above-mentioned criteria in their applications.

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application. Please make sure you have provided all requested materials:

• UN Women P11 including experience in similar assignments; the P11 form can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted.

Note: Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Please upload as one attachment of the documents as mentioned above online through this website

Candidates should have the ability to quickly submit degree certificates, medical certification (of good health) expression of Interest (EoI).

Evaluation of applicants:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications mentioned above, and financial proposal. A contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer receives the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 35/50 points in the technical evaluation will be interviewed. Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 50/70 in both technical evaluation and interview will be considered for financial evaluation conditioned they score the minimum passing score of both technical evaluation (at least 35/50) and interview (at least 15/20)

Technical Evaluation (50%) – max. 50 points:

• Master’s degree in Social Works or Psychology or Psycho-Social therapy. Max 5 Points

• At least 4 years working experience in the field of social works or psychology or therapy,  including working directly in providing support for women. Max 15 points
• At least 3 previous assignments related to providing individual and group supervision for service providers (for example social workers, therapists, psychologists, and others as relevant). Max 10 points
• Proven record of working in the area of women in conflict with the law. Max 10 points
• At least 3 previous assignments related to working in the area of violence against women(VAW) (providing direct support to women survivors of violence or conducting training on VAW or supervising service providers working on VAW), Or two years of working experience on VAW. Max 5 points
• Experience with the UN system or/and International Organizations is an asset. Max 5 points

Technical interview: (20%)- Max. 20 points.

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 evaluated

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Only long-listed candidates will be contacted.

Financial proposal. Shortlisted candidate will be requested to submit a financial proposal. The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount breaking down a daily professional fee, proposed number of working days and any related expenses, i.e. travel and communications expenses.