National Consultant – Gender and Media Expert

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. 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 in Albania has provided support to national and local stakeholders in strengthening democratic governance and advancing women’s rights through initiatives aimed at mainstreaming gender in policy planning and budgeting. Building on results achieved to date, and aiming to ensure sustainability of GRB interventions, 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.

Furthermore, in Albania, UN Women provides technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental institutions) on the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality. Currently, a UN Joint Programme “Ending Violence against Women” (UNJP on EVAW) funded by Government of Sweden is being implemented by UNDP, UN Women and UNFPA in partnership with the Albanian Government.

In Albania media plays an important role in informing the public and raising awareness on gender-based violence. However, there is a need to increase capacities of media organizations and journalists on international and national legal and ethical standards related to reporting on gender-related issues.  Of particular concern remains the media reporting on violence against women and domestic violence. There is sporadic interest of media for these topics and the relevant news have a tendency toward sensationalist cover, without a proper analysis of the gender-rooted causes of violence against women. As GREVIO noted in its first Baseline Evaluation report on Albania, often in the media reports, articles and TV programme, certain harmful gender stereotypes that lie at the root of gender inequality and violence against women are reinforced. Certain reporting may also lead to victims’ blaming and prejudice. Issues of confidentiality, including minor victims of violence remain a serious concern. In addition, there is need that relevant authorities, including the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA) to provide more guidance to media on ethical and legal standards of gender-related and gender-based violence reporting.

In the framework of the UNJP on EVAW, UN Women has supported the establishment of a Media Forum composed of journalists from different media outlets, who meet regularly and discuss about the improvement of media reporting standards with regards to gender equality and gender-based violence.  UN Women aims at working closely with the media to strengthen the capacities in the area of EVAW and gender budgeting. The role of media has been identified as a powerful tool to advocate for women empowerment and promotion of gender equality. UN Women seeks to systematically integrate Gender Equality and become more transparent at all stages of national and local policymaking and budgeting processes. The traditional patriarchal structures and gender power relations in the public and private sphere have not been eliminated. The situation at the moment is even worse taking into consideration the drastic measures taken by the governments during the Covid-19 response. UN Women will support media with technical expertise on how to use GRB as a tool to assess the impact of government budget on women’s lives and how to finance on gender equality.

In this context, UN Women is seeking a national consultant to support the organization of workshops/information sessions with members of the Media Forum and other journalists and support Albanian authorities provide guidance to media on international and national standards of reporting on gender equality and gender-based violence. Also, the national consultant is expected to support the organization of workshops/information sessions on gender macro economy and GRB with economic field journalists.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Under the overall supervision of the UN Women Project Manager on EVAW, and the Programme Manager on Gender Responsive Policies Planning and Budgeting the national consultant is expected to:
• Support UN Women to organise at least four media forums during 2021, including suggesting topics for discussions, identifying participants, keynote speakers and experts as, well as moderating the events.  
• Conduct research on existing national and international standards and best practices related to media reporting on gender equality and gender-based violence in Albania, within the UN system, Council of Europe, and other international governmental and non-governmental organizations, as well as other countries.
• Based on the research support Albanian authorities, including the Audiovisual Media Authority (AMA) to develop guidelines for media on ethical and legal standards to be followed when reporting on gender-related and gender-based violence.
• Identify and mobilize a group of economy journalists to partake in the capacity building interventions of GRB project.
• Organize at least one training and 2 workshops with journalists of economy sections – print and audio-visual media on feminist economy and Gender Responsive Budgeting
• Support the organization of a competition   with journalists target of the project on financing for gender equality.
• Support UN Women with any other tasks related to media reporting on gender equality and gender-based violence issues.

Deliverables:

• Reports related to the organizations of media forums.
• Report on development of guidelines for media on ethical and legal standards to be followed when reporting on gender-related and gender-based violence.
• Database of identified journalists
• Report related to the organizations of the training and 2 workshops (in English)
• Report on the organization of competition   with journalists target of the project (in English).

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• 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: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Functional Competencies:

• Proven research, analytical and drafting skills,
• Demonstrated ability to interact effectively with media related various public and non-public stakeholders including in the areas of gender equality and violence against women;
• Excellent writing skills in English and Albanian;
• Strong interpersonal skills;
• Strong initiative-taker;
• Focuses on impact and results for the partner;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.

Required Skills and Experience

Qualifications/Education

• Master’s degree in communication, media, or development-related disciplines (international development, gender and social studies, law, public administration or any related field).

Work Experience

• At least 7 years of relevant professional experience in the areas of media/communication with a focus on human rights or gender equality;

• Experience related to the national and international commitments and ethical standards related to the media reporting on gender equality and ending violence against women;
• Experience in conducting trainings and other capacity building initiatives for journalists on international and national standards related to human rights and gender equality reporting.

Language requirement:

• Proficiency in written and spoken English and Albanian

Schedule of Payments:

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; (iv) submission of the respective invoice.

Recommended Presentation of Offer:

Qualified and interested candidates are asked to submit their application no later than 30 September 2021.

The application should contain:

• Cover letter explaining the applicant’s interest in applying for the position.
• Filled Personal History Form (P11 form) including past experience in similar assignments and contact details of referees (blank form can be downloaded from: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment/); please upload the P11 instead of your CV
• Financial Proposal - Financial proposal specifying the daily fee in Albanian Lek. Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall consider 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). Other travel costs different from the above will be covered by UN Women separately

Note: Applications without the financial offer will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Evaluation of applicants:

Candidates will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and

Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Applications will be assessed according to the following Technical Criteria:                      

• Master’s degree in communication, media or development-related disciplines (international development, gender and social studies, law, public administration or any other social science related to development) (15 points);
• 7 years of relevant professional experience in the areas of media/communication, as well as human rights or gender equality (20 points);
• Experience related to the national and international commitments and ethical standards related to the media reporting on gender equality and ending violence against women; (20 points).
• Experience in conducting trainings and other capacity building initiatives for journalists on international and national standards related to human rights and gender equality reporting; (15 points)

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

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. The calculation formula applied is as follow:

p = 30 (µ/z); where: p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated; µ = price of the lowest priced proposal; z = price of the proposal being evaluated.

How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, and Cover Letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement);
• Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application;'
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above);
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Notes:

• UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications, we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.

• The consultancy post is open to local (Albanian) individuals or foreign individuals with valid temporary or permanent residence in Albania.
• Applications without the financial offer will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
• The individual consultants should take the mandatory learning security course prior to commencement of assignment– details will follow before the issuance of contract.