CONSULTANCY: POLITICAL EMPOWERMENT & LEADERSHIP CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

Remote | Home Based - May require travel

Organization: UNWOMEN - United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
Location: Remote | Home Based - May require travel
Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
Occupational Groups:
- Social Affairs
- International Relations
- Political Affairs
- Education, Learning and Training
Closing Date: Closed

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.

Women’s political participation is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work, recognizing the role of women’s leadership in strong and stable democratic processes and inclusive societies. It is covered under the Entity’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 Impact Area 1 – Participation and Governance in Public Life: “Women and girls participate in leadership and decision making and benefit from gender responsive governance” and involves several key initiatives. Among these are the support for global normative frameworks and gender-responsive laws, policies, and institutions, including local and national legislatures where ???UN Women is committed to strengthening women’s capacity and influence. UN Women supports gender-sensitive and gender-responsive legislatures in several ways, including capacity building through technical assistance to women's legislative networks (e.g., gender equality committees and women’s caucuses) or for instituting gender-sensitive parliamentary culture and norms reforms.

In this context, UN Women will contract an International Consultant to develop and pilot a global gender-sensitive legislative induction course for newly elected women representatives. The course will provide a critical tool for UN Women country offices to build the capacity of women legislators in partnership with local and national legislatures. The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of UN Women’s Knowledge Management and Capacity Development Specialist (HQ) in cooperation with the Regional Political Participation and Governance Policy Specialist for Europe and Central Asia.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks and deliverables:

Task 1: Draft course development plan for review and validation by UN Women

Draft a work plan with a timeline for deliverables.
Conduct a desk review of relevant publications and training tools by UN Women and other entities (e.g., the Inter-Parliamentary Union, UNDP, national or local legislatures, CSOs) to draw on existing research, good practices, and key principles for legislative inductions.
Conduct interviews with select UN Women staff in coordination with the UN Women team to collect information about training needs, lessons, opportunities, thematic priorities, and recommendations.
Develop an overall course description with course objectives, learning outcomes, and format options (e.g., online, in-person, etc.).
Propose all thematic course modules and units with learning outcomes that cover all necessary aspects of a gender-sensitive and responsive legislative induction to be agreed with UN Women.
Identify and propose potential course formats (e.g., PPTs, booklets, online, etc.)

Task 2: Develop course curriculum

Develop course content for in-person training sessions and share each draft module with UN Women for peer review.
Develop all relevant corresponding support materials (e.g., handouts, PPTs, trainer notes, etc.)

Task 3: Support course pilot in at least 1 country and/or region

In collaboration with the HQ and Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, support substantive preparations to pilot the course with a legislature supported by one of UN Women’s country offices.
Deliver components of the training course to elected women representatives.
Prepare a summary report on the training, with recommendations for improving the draft course.
Apply all recommended revisions to the course and work with UN Women to finalize the materials for global distribution

KEY DELIVERABLES:

Scoping of the course theme and an inception report, including a course development work plan with a timeline for deliverables.
Course description, learning objectives, and outline of modules produced.
Comprehensive draft induction course and training materials.
At least one or two pilot trainings using the draft materials for elected women representatives convened in a country/region.
Revised course based on the pilot is finalized, and guidance is developed to help national trainers roll out the course at the country level.

Competencies

COMPENTENCIES

Core Values:

Respect for Diversity
Integrity
Professionalism

Core Competencies:

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
Accountability
Creative Problem Solving
Effective Communication
Inclusive Collaboration

Functional Competencies

Sound expertise in gender equality and women’s empowerment, including women’s political participation.
Advanced expertise in training curriculum design and development.
Training facilitation experience in different countries.
Knowledge and/or experience working as an elected representative or in a legislature.
Broad knowledge of training techniques and tools.
Solid writing and communication skills.
Fluent in Microsoft Word, Excel, e-mail, web-based applications, and databases.
Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with people from varied cultures and professional backgrounds.

Required Skills and Experience

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Education:

Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Gender Studies, Education-related fields, Political Science, Sociology, International Relations, Law, or relevant field and/or equivalent practical experience.

Experience:

A minimum of 10 years of relevant work experience in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment focused on political participation and/or governance, as well as in training facilitation and curriculum design/development.
Familiarity and experience with legislative inductions, legislative strengthening programming, and or working in legislatures.
Substantive knowledge of and experience in women’s political participation, parliaments and/or local governments, gender equality, and women’s leadership generally.
Experience training, working, and communicating in a multicultural environment and in different electoral and political systems.
Comfort and familiarity with delivering training to Members of Parliament or locally elected representatives.
Demonstrated capacity to draft and produce well-written, clear training manuals and materials for effective understanding, adaptation, and delivery.
Experience with UN organizations and programmes or intergovernmental processes, including those related to women’s empowerment, gender mainstreaming, and gender equality, is an asset.

Language:

Fluency in oral and written English is required.
Working knowledge of other UN languages is an asset.

APPLICATION SUBMISSION PROCESS:

Please submit the following to demonstrate your interest and qualifications:

Price proposal (All-inclusive daily fee)

Interested individuals are kindly requested to submit an all-inclusive daily consultancy fee. The applicable cost for travel from home to duty station (most economical route) will be provided for by UN-Women. Personal CV and/or P11

Interested individuals must submit their applications online through UNDP Online Recruitment System. Applicants are encouraged to fill out and sign a P11 Form and submit it on the online application, although regular CVs are also acceptable. The P11 Form can be obtained at http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment.

Application Evaluation Process

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the Cumulative Analysis methodology [weighted scoring method], where the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a) Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b) Having received the highest score from a pre-determined set of technical and financial criteria for the solicitation.

The following criteria will be used in Technical Evaluation:

A minimum of 10 years of relevant work experience in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment with a focus on political participation and/or governance, as well as in training facilitation and curriculum design/development.
Familiarity and experience with legislative inductions, legislative strengthening programming, and or working in legislatures.
Experience training, working, and communicating in a multicultural environment and in different electoral and political systems.
Demonstrated capacity to draft and produce well-written, clear training manuals and materials for effective understanding, adaptation, and delivery, including to Members of Parliament or locally elected representatives.

UN Women is applying a fair and transparent selection process that would consider both the technical qualification of Consultants and their price proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores.