National consultant for development of guidelines for the private sector on gender responsive crises response

Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (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 leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It supports Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In line with UN Women Global Strategic Plan (2018-2021), and its Country Strategic Note (2019-2022), in Turkey UN Women works towards three overarching goals:  

1) Women lead, participate in, and benefit equally from governance systems,  

2) All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence,  

3) Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action.  

Towards these goals, UN Women implements programmes and projects that aim to advance gender equality, improve women’s access to opportunities, rights and services in political, social and economic life and combat gender stereotypes, discrimination and violence, as required by international and national legal and policy commitments. UN Women collaborates with numerous partners – central and local level government authorities, civil society organizations, including women’s organizations and platforms, academia, private sector companies, other UN agencies. It commits itself to the Leaving No One Behind principle, by supporting targeted actions to remove the obstacles that marginalized and vulnerable groups of women face in accessing their rights and to promote them as agents of change. 

In addition to its stand-alone projects and programmes UN Women Turkey works with private sector under three UN Women global frameworks which have been implemented locally:

• Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) since 2010 (global), since 2011 (Turkey)
• HeForShe since 2014 (global), since 2015 (Turkey)
• Unstereotype Alliance (UA) since 2017 (global), since 2019 (Turkey Chapter)

Within the framework of its gender responsive COVID-19 resonse and promoting evidence based policy making, UN Turkey Office the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSIAD) and the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation (TÜRKONFED)  collaborated on design, implementation, and assessment of a survey to understand the challenges businesses are facing, how they are responding to women and men employees’ specific needs and protecting their wellbeing, and how they see the role and contribution of women during the COVID-19 outbreak through to recovery. The survey was conducted online for TÜSIAD and TÜRKONFED members on from 6 to 24 July and it covered 339 member enterprises, 140 of which are SMEs and 7 are cooperatives, operating in different sectors and regions.

It has been verified by the research that WEPs signatory companies responded to the impact of the crisis on women in the workplace in a more gender responsive way by taking measures for work-life balance and against domestic violence. Based on this finding following the assessment, partnering organisations agreed on developing a practical guide on “Managing the Crisis in an Equitable Way” in 2021 to be framed by 7 women’s empowerment principles and which will enable private sector to plan equitable and transformative interventions which will not magnify gender inequalities in times of crisis situations.

UN Women would like to hire an experienced National Consultant to develop guidelines for the private sector companies and the business organisaitons on gender responsive crises response.  In addition the consultant will conduct a rapid gap assessment in the implementation of WEPs in Turkey which will help the UN Women turkey team to plan the key intervntions in the implementation of WEPs.

The Consultant will work closely with the Private Sector Team of UN Women Turkey Office under the direct supervision of Programme Management Specialist.

Duties and Responsibilities

Within the scope of the assignment the consultant shall provide consultancy services for the below listed tasks:

• Prepare a detailed work plan including a clear timeline and methodology,
• Conduct a detailed desk review that includes reviewing the “Covid-19 Impact On Women In The Workplace: Corporate Responses, Good Practices And The Way Forward” research report, relevant workshop and research reports developed by UN Women Turkey and other key institutions in Turkey, international and national policies, guidelines and best practices on gender-responsive employment response and recovery and best practices from the private sector,
• Developing the content of the guidebook and discussing the proposed content with UN Women Turkey Private Sector team and other partners;
• Collect data on the private sector companies’ challenges, lessons learnt and best practices which they have faced/developed during COVID-19 period,
• If deemed necessary by the Private Sector Team, organise and/or attend thematic and/or sectoral stakeholder meetings with private sector stakeholders and report on the stakeholder meetings,
• Prepare the draft guidelines and present the draft guidelines to relevant stakeholders,
• Organise debriefing session with the participation of private sector companies, TUSIAD and TURKONFED,
• Monitor the pilot implementation of the draft guideline in two selected companies,
• Finalize the guidelines as per the comments received from the stakeholders and the feedback received from the pilot implementation,
• Prepare the the ppt for the smooth presentation of the content of the guidebook including infographics,
• Presentation of guidelines to external partners such as TÜSIAD and TÜRKONFED, other stakeholders and media;
• Conduct a rapid gap assessment in the implementation of WEPs in Turkey and provide suggested actions.

Duration of this assignment is 35 working days between 01 June 2021 and 31 December 2021.

Expected Deliverables and Payment Schedule:

The following table summarizes the main activities and expected deliverables against the targeted submission deadlines and indicative working days to be invested by the Consultant.

Deliverables	Target Deadline	Estimated Working days assigned	Payment Schedule
Draft Content Scheme	8 June 2021	5 w/d	15%
Draft Guidebook and Presentation of the Draft Guidebook to Stakeholders	22 June 2021	10 w/d	55%
WEPs Rapid Gap Assessment Report	12 July 2021	10 w/d
Final Guidebook	13 August 2021	8 w/d	30%
Presentation of the guidebook to external partners	31 December 2021	2 w/d
Total Working Days: 35 w/d

The guidebook and the presentation will be prepared in Turkish and will be translated into English by UN Women Turkey. However, the consultant will be responsible for the editorial reading of the English versions of the final products.

All deliverables shall be received and cleared by the UN Women in Turkey.

Note: The mentioned number of working days has been estimated as being sufficient/feasible for the envisaged volume of work to be completed successfully and is proposed as a guideline for the duration of assignment. It cannot and shall not be used as criteria for completion of work/assignment. The provision of envisaged deliverables approved by the UN Women in Turkey shall be the only criteria for the Consultant’s work being completed and eligible for payment/s.

Payment Schedule:

The amount paid to the Consultant shall be gross and inclusive of all associated costs such as travel, social security, pension and income tax etc. Payments will be made upon submission and approval of deliverables above, and certification by the UN Women supervisor that the services have been satisfactorily completed.

National Consultant shall be paid upon successful completion of the deliverables in three installments as per the above table. Payment shall be affected only if all the deliverables in this TOR are submitted to UN Women within the timeframes stipulated in the TOR and they are approved by the supervisor. Without submission and approval of the deliverables, the Consultant shall not receive any payment even if s/he invests time for this assignment.

Travel:

This is a home-based assignment with no travel foreseen. In case of an unforeseen travel, UN Women Turkey Office will cover the organization and the costs of the consultant’s travel as per UN Women’s rules and regulations. UN Women will not cover transportation cost within duty station including the taxi costs.

Mandatory Courses:

Mandatory courses for this assignment are estimated to take approximately 1 working day to complete. The Consultant shall complete all the mandatory and further required UN courses, training and modules on time. The certificates shall be submitted to the Hiring Manager.  . Please note that the required training courses could vary based on contract content and duration, the nature of the work and inclusion of travel. Hence, the Consultant is obliged to follow the instructions of his/her Hiring Manager upon which training modules to complete and when to complete them.

Key Performance Indicators

• Timeliness, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered,
• Willingness to shares knowledge and experience,
• Demonstration of excellent written and oral communication skills and communicating sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies,
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported,
• Adherence to UN Women standards and rules.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• Ability to think conceptually, strategically and analytically.
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings
• Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Results oriented, flexible and problem-solving skills.
• Good knowledge of technical area
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637.

UN Women does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:	Master’s degree or advanced university degree in social science, gender/women’s studies, programme management, or other related fields PhD is an asset.
Experience:	Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment is required. Minimum 1 year of experience in gender responsive analysis and assessment is required. Specific assessment experience on crisis context is an asset. Previous experience with private sector in Turkey is an asset. Previous professional experience with the international organisations and/or United Nations is an asset.
Language Requirements:	Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and Turkish is required.

Application Procedure:

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

• Cover letter to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised assignment.
• CV in English containing the relevant educational and professional experience.
• Signed UN Women Personal History (P11) Form including past experience in similar assignments which can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

• Financial proposal to be sent via e-mail to turkey.procurement@unwomen.org  indicating the name of the position applied in the subject line of the e-mail no later than the application deadline - Please see Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template and Annex II: Price Proposal Submission Form.

When applying; the Cover Letter, CV and the signed P11 Form should be merged into one (1) single PDF document since the system will allow only to upload maximum one document. Therefore, please combine these forms and documents into one (1) single PDF document and upload them to the system.

As for the Financial Proposal, please send it separately via e-mail to turkey.procurement@unwomen.org indicating the name of the position applied in the subject line of the e-mail.  Since it is to be submitted separately via e-mail, the Financial Proposal should not be uploaded to the system or be included in the merged PDF which shall consist of the applicant’s Cover Letter, CV,Signed P11 Form and two samples of earlier work submitted (one sample of an evaluation report and one sample of a programme review report). Please make sure not to include the Financial Proposal in the merged PDF document.

Should they be short-listed in consideration of the consultancy, candidates should be able to quickly submit degree certificates, medical certifications or any other requested document.

Incomplete applications such as applications without a financial proposal may not be considered. Applicants are responsible to make sure to have provided all the requested application materials before the deadline.

Evaluation of Applicants

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the Consultant whose offer receives 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.

 

Criteria	Total points	Max. Points
Technical Evaluation (70%)	70
Master’s degree in social sciences, gender studies, or a related field; (Master’s degree - 10 points; PhD 15 points)		15
Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment; (5 years – 15 pts, for 5 – 7 years – 20 points, 7+ years – 25 points)		25
Minimum 1 year of experience in gender responsive analysis and  assessment is required. (1 year – 10 pts, for 1-3 year 15 points)		15
Specific assessment experience on crisis context is an asset		5
Previous experience with private sector in Turkey is an asset.		5
Previous professional experience with the international organisations and/or United Nations is an asset.		5
Financial Evaluation (30%)	30
TOTAL	100

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

An interview/written test may be used as part of the evaluation procedure.

 

Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template

The prospective Individual Consultant should take the following explanations into account during submission of his/her price proposal.

1. Daily fee

The daily price proposal should indicate a "lump sum amount" which is "all-inclusive"; All costs (professional fees, communications, consumables during field related missions, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor needs to be factored into the proposed price.

UN Women will not withhold any amount of the payments for tax and/or social security related payments. UN Women shall have no liability for taxes, duties or other similar charges payable by the Individual Contractor in respect of any amounts paid to the Individual Contractor under this Contract, and the Contractor acknowledges that UN Women will not issue any statements of earnings to the Individual contractor in respect of any such payments.

2.Travel costs

This is a home-based assignment with no travel foreseen. In the case of unforeseeable travel, UN Women Turkey Office will cover the organization and the costs of the consultant’s travel as per UN Women’s rules and regulations. UN Women will not cover transportation cost within duty station including the taxi costs.

Daily Subsistence Allowance

Not applicable.

3.Currency of the price proposal

The applicants are requested to submit their price proposals in Turkish Liras. 

Annex II: Price Proposal Submission Form

To: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

Ref: National consultant for development of guidelines for the private sector on gender responsive crises response

 

Dear Sir / Madam,

I, the undersigned, offer to provide professional consulting services to UN Women within the scope of the referred Assignment.

Having examined, understood and agreed to the Terms of Reference and its annexes, the receipt of which are hereby duly acknowledged, I, the undersigned, offer to deliver professional services, in conformity with the Terms of Reference.

My maximum total price proposal for the assignment is given below:

Costs	TL
Daily fee, all inclusive
Total price proposal for estimated 35 working days

 

I confirm that my financial proposal will remain unchanged for 120 days. I also confirm that the price that I quote is gross, and is inclusive of all legal expenses, including but not limited to social security, income tax, pension, etc., which shall be required applicable laws.

I agree that my proposal shall remain binding upon me for 120 days.

I understand that you are not bound to accept any proposal you may receive.

[Signature]

Date:

Name:

Address:

Telephone/Fax:

Email: