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National consultant to provide capacity building on gender equality and women’s leadership for various groups.

Vacancy Number: Pr18/01692

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	21 Mar 2018, 11:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	02 Apr 2018
Reference to the project:	UN Women
Expected Duration of Assignment:	Up to 50 working days in the period of 6 April- 30 November 2018
Submission Instructions: This is a local position, therefore only citizens of the Republic of Moldova are eligible to apply. Applications should be submitted on line and include fully completed UN Women Personal History Form as attachment instead of CV/resume, with the mark “National consultant to provide capacity building on gender equality and women’s leadership for various groups” by 21 March, 2018, COB. Failure to disclose prior employment or making false representations on this form will be grounds for withdrawal of further consideration of his/her application or termination, where the appointment or contract has been issued. Note: The system will only allow one attachment, hence all supporting document e.g. P11, CV and Cover letter must be scanned as one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. Only qualified, shortlisted candidates will be contacted for test and interview. In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.
Supporting Documents: ToR_National expert to provide capacity building on GE and women’s leadership for various groups Procurement Notice Annex I Annex II Personal History Form (P11) UN Women UN Women Conditions of Service Consultants

Ms. Elena Ratoi.

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.

UN Women’s presence in the Republic of Moldova has evolved from being a project-based office in 2007 to a Country Office with full delegated authority as of 2015. In 2018 UN Women Moldova Country Office started to implement its newly approved Strategic Note (SN) for 2018-2022, which is aligned with the Republic of Moldova–United Nations Partnership Framework for Sustainable Development 2018–2022 and the Global Strategic Plan of UN Women. Under its current SN, UN Women cooperates closely with the government, civil society, academia, private sector and the media to advance social, economic and political rights and opportunities for women and girls, placing special focus on those from marginalized, excluded and under-represented groups. These include rural women, Romani women, women with disabilities, women living with or affected by HIV, women survivors of violence, women migrants, elderly women and others. UN Women’s operation in Moldova focuses on bringing about concrete change in the lives of women and the society towards the long-term impact of achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in the country. Specifically, the SN 2018-2022 advances progress under the following three Impact Areas (IA): IA1: More women fully participate and lead in gender responsive governance processes and institutions, including in the security sector, IA2: Women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy, IA3: Public authorities, institutions and communities prevent violence against women and girls and deliver quality essential services. Towards these Impact Areas, UN Women works with variety of national and international partners to challenge gender-based stereotypes and towards the creation of an environment, whereby women act as key agents of change towards greater equality and development, in partnership with men and boys.

The Republic of Moldova still has some backlogs related to fully ensuring equal opportunities between women and men. Although some improvements have been recorded in the past few years, women continue to be underrepresented in most of the spheres. In 2018, the share of women MPs in Moldovan Parliament represents only 20.8% or 21 MPs, the share of women mayors after the local elections held in 2015 represents 22.5% and the share of women in local councillors is 35.2%. The employment rate of women is 39%, compared to 43% for men and women earn on average 12.4% less than men. Women are under-represented in highly paid and in demand sectors, and are mostly employed in lower-paid jobs in the “feminized” sectors of the economy, which include public administration, education, health and social assistance, and trade, hotels, and restaurants. According to the first prevalence study “Violence against Women in the Family” carried out by the National Bureau of Statistics and commissioned by UN Moldova in 2011, 6 in 10 urban women and 7 in 10 rural women in Moldova experienced some type of violence (psychological, physical or sexual) from husband/partner during her lifetime, and 1 in 10 was exposed to all forms of violence. The Republic of Moldova committed itself to ensure equal opportunities between women and men by ratification of the UN Convention on elimination of all forms of discrimination against women (CEDAW) in 1994. The Recommendation REC (2003)3 as of 12 March 2003 of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which Moldova is a part to, promotes a set of measures, including temporary special measures, to ensure balanced participation of women and men in political and public decision making. Adopted in 2017, the National Strategy on Ensuring Equal Opportunities between women and men for 2017-2021 stipulates in its Action Plan a series of activities oriented towards increasing society’s understanding related to gender equality and women’s rights, i.e. Activity 3 “Build the capacity of women in decision making positions on the topic of gender equality” (Specific Objective 1.1.), Activity 7 “Build the capacity of women from groups that are under-represented at decision making level, in order to increase political leadership and activism” (Specific Objective 1.1.), Activity 2 “Build the capacity of civil servants in the local and district councils ensuring the complex approach of gender equality” (Specific Objective 2.3.), Activity 5 “Rise awareness and inform the employers (military, public, with special status, and civilians) in the security and defense institutions on the right of women and men to equal treatment during the service and work-family reconciliation” (Specific Objective 4.1.), etc.

Despite international and national state commitments towards ensuring the respect of gender equality, the roots of gender based discrimination are very deep fixed in society’s mind. According to the findings of Gender Barometer: How do women and men participate in politics and decision making?, in 2016 only 20.5% of respondents indicate a lack of gender stereotypes and during the last ten years, the perceptions of traditional gender roles have not improved significantly. 64.6% of respondents declared that the men’s responsibility is to be breadwinners and the women’s responsibility is to be caregivers. 51.9% of respondents considers that it’s not good for a man to stay home and take care of children, while a woman goes to work. Despite the fact that the population still has a fixed idea related to gender roles, it could be noticed the increasing of acceptance of ensuring gender parity when it comes to decision making. Thus, according to the same study, the share of population who considers that gender doesn’t matter when it comes to take decisions in politics/public administration/workplace fields increased with 10 p.p. during the last 10 years, or 60.9% in 2006 to 71.7% in 2016. This is a proof that the raising awareness on gender equality conducted by all involved actors in the past 10 years contributed to change of the mindsets amongst population.

The societal attitude towards gender equality could be changed based on a continuous capacity building and raising awareness campaigns. This statement can be supported by the findings of a survey undertaken among 1042 people who participated in 30 debates conducted throughout the country, in the framework of photo exhibitions “Equality through lenses” undertaken within UN Programme “Women in Politics”. According to the survey, 57% of respondents consider that gender equality is not respected, 30% - is respected only sometimes, 13,5% - is respected; 85% of respondents considers it is necessary to address gender inequality issues in the society; 86% consider necessary conducting art events to promote gender equality; 71% of respondents participated for the first time in an event dedicated to gender equality.

Based on the findings of the above, capacity building and general awareness on basic understanding of gender equality constitutes an integral part of the initiatives of changing societal perceptions related to the role of women and men in society and in family. Women and men, stakeholders from among CSOs and public authorities who are important partners in advancing gender equality agenda need to be aware and comprehend gender equality and unpack this for them from its basic concepts to more complex and sometimes sensitive discussion such as gender identity, social construct of masculinities, feminism, etc.  

Therefore, UN Women plans to recruit a national consultant to provide support in delivery of a series of capacity building sessions on gender equality and women’s empowerment for various target groups, including, but not limited, to: public servants at central and local level, (including in security area, employment, judiciary, etc.), civil society organizations (including  Association of Women in Police, National Association of Women in Law Enforcement) youth and public at large. Besides this, the consultant will provide support in development of a Q&A booklet on Gender Equality: debunking myths on Gender Equality in Moldova.

Scope of work

Under the overall guidance and direct supervision of UN Women Programme Specialist and in close coordination with Programme Coordinators, the consultant will be responsible to deliver a series of capacity building sessions on gender equality and women’s leadership for various target groups, including: public servants at central and local level, (including in security area, employment, judiciary, etc.), civil society organizations (including  Association of Women in Police, National Association of Women in Law Enforcement) youth and public at large The session will be delivered on demand, as UN Women will engage with various stakeholders, and will generally be half or one full day in length.

The consultant will also develop a Q&A booklet on Gender Equality: debunking myths on Gender Equality in Moldova to be used in future work of UN Women.

More specifically, the consultant will be responsible for:

• develop and submit the capacity building methodology, which will include training outline, a comprehensive training toolkit, training agendas, supporting material, case studies, simulation models, exercises monitoring & evaluation schemes, assessment surveys and other materials to be annexed to the toolkit. National consultant should present all developed materials for revision and approval to UN Women with sufficient time before training delivery (at least with 10 working days) and should be open to address the comments and suggestions for improvement. 

• deliver training sessions on gender equality and women’s leadership as presented above with focus on the following aspects but not limited to: induction  into gender equality fundamentals, gender equality in everyday life and in different sectors (based on the specific target group)  gender norms and stereotypes, constructions of masculinity/femininity, sexism and sexist language and images, how to be informed and sensitive towards gender issues and how to integrate gender equality aspects into policy making and implementation and national and local level (based on the specific target groups) t Participants will be selected and gathered with the support of UN Women. Consultant should apply the “learning-by-doing” method employing the interactive style of training (including simulations and case studies). S/he should avoid long theoretical sessions and use a skill-based training methodology. National consultant should provide participants all required guidance on available resources in this field.

A total estimate of up to 32 days of training sessions are foreseen (both half days and one full days cumulatively)

• present 3 reports on a quarterly basis with a detailed description of achieved results, description of carrying out activities, provide inputs to development and analyzation of intake knowledge assessment questionnaires and post training feed-back questionnaires, potential risks which could affect the further implementation of assignment, challenges faced by the national consultant and ways to passing through, key recommendations for future similar assignments, etc.  After assignment’s finalization, national consultant should provide the final report, which will reflect the overall description of implemented assignments, including major achievements, changes of participants’ perceptions based on analyzed questionnaires, main challenges and constraints, recommendations for future gender capacity development support to women mayors, etc. 

• national consultant will be responsible to prepare a short booklet with general notions and aspects of gender equality and women’s rights: debunking myths on Gender Equality in Moldova. The booklet should serve as a basic resource to introduce to public at large gender equality principles. The booklet should have up to 20 A4 pages, including illustrations, and should tentatively tackle the following topics:  to explain the notions of gender equality, gender mainstreaming, gender roles, gender stereotypes, why gender equality matters, gender gaps, gender arguments (Q&A session) including on gender quota and TSMs. The consultant should not provide only definitions, but rather the explanations of mentioned aspects, with indication of various examples, facts and statistics. The booklet should be drafted in Romanian. National and international resources may serve as references for the text.

Requirements for experience

Education:

• Master degree in gender equality, women’s studies, social studies, development studies or related field. Additional points will be granted for PhD degree in the fields mentioned above.
• Additional certification in the area of gender equality will be an asset.

Experience

• A minimum of 5 years of proven track record of working on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the Republic of Moldova;
• A minimum of 5 years of proven track record of organization of various capacity building events for various target groups, including for government counterparts;  

• Previous work experience in revision and/or development of various knowledge products on gender equality or women’s leadership;
• Proven experience in working with international organizations (successful experience in working with UN agencies is an asset).

Language Requirements:

• Excellent command of Romanian language
• Working knowledge of Russian. English language will be considered an asset.

Documents to be included

Interested candidates must submit via online submission system the following documents/ information to demonstrate their qualification:

• Letter of Intent with justification of being the most suitable for the work, vision and working approach, specifically indicating experience of mobilization of excluded communities for participation and inclusion

• Duly filled Personal History Form (P11) and/or CV, including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and specific outputs obtained; P11 can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;

• Financial proposal (in MDL) 

Financial proposal

Financial proposal (in MDL) - Specifying a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this Terms of Reference). The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (daily rate and number of anticipated working days and any other possible costs); Please see Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template and Annex II: Price Proposal Submission Form