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Two National Consultants on gender equality and gender-based discrimination

Vacancy Number: Pr19/01874

Location:Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline: 01 Sep 2019, 16:00 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:
04 Sep 2019, 16:00 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:N/A
Starting date: 16 Sep 2019
Reference to the project: Support to Security Sector Reform
Expected Duration of Assignment:up to 4 (four) days
Supporting Documents:
Individual Consultant Procurement Notice
Terms of reference
OFFEROR’S LETTER TO UNDP CONFIRMING INTEREST AND AVAILABILITY FOR THE INDIVIDUAL CONTRACTOR (IC) ASSIGNMENT
UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract



Background

The National Defense Strategy of the Republic of Moldova sets an objective of the integration of the gender prospective into the security and defense policy. It also talks about the need to ensure better gender balance in the human resources that would also help in implementing the commitments under the UN Security Council Resolution 1325.

Two complementary strategies are often used to integrate gender: gender mainstreaming across all Defence sector policies and activities, and promoting the equal representation of men and women in the sector, which includes initiatives to increase the recruitment, retention and advancement of women.[1] A particular attention shall be paid to enlarging the knowledge of gender aspects and developing specific capacities, as they are generally still inadequate to support effective gender mainstreaming in the sector. This relates to capacity in terms of skills, knowledge (legal/policy compliance requirements and theoretical frameworks) and the amount of human, financial and logistical resources devoted to the coordination of gender programming and compliance monitoring.

As the Defense reform processes are concerned with re-conceptualizing security and redesigning defense forces and structures to adjust them to the security needs of the state and its citizens, this could be accomplished only in accordance with the democratic requirements of representation, accountability and transparency. The defense force should reflect the society. It is established to protect, including the defense of its core values such as citizenship and equality. A more balanced gender composition, in turn, favors cohesion and effectiveness in increasingly multidimensional peace operations.

It is important to note, that a gender balance alone does not guarantee that defense reform will be gender responsive. A gender perspective in defense reform shall go beyond numbers and effectively respond to the needs of all in society. The integration of gender issues in Security and Defense Sector Reforms is important for the effective delivery of security services, and oversight and accountability of the security sector, as men, women, boys and girls have different security needs and priorities. Integrating gender issues also highlights the need to support the establishment of representative and non-discriminatory security sector institutions – increased participation of women can strengthen civilian trust and operational effectiveness. Gender responsive internal initiatives, for instance specific policies in management, human resource management, communication, setting of codes of conduct, etc., can help prevent, address and sanction sexual harassment within the armed forces, as well as human rights violations that might be committed by security sector personnel while interacting with the civilians.

Achieving better gender equality in the Armed Forces is also important for the participation in peacekeeping operations, that has become much more complex, while peacekeepers are involved in tasks which go beyond providing traditional security. Peacekeepers often are tasked with service provision to local communities, rebuilding institutions or ensuring free elections. Diversity in forcing composition and gender mainstreaming in operations enables the defense sector to better perform such tasks.[2] However, even without formal barriers, in practice there are often ceilings to women’s career advancement, widespread sexual harassment and other forms of discrimination. In addition, defense sector personnel themselves are often guilty of sexual harassment and Gender Based Violence (GBV), perpetrated against both their colleagues and civilians. There are no available data on the up-to-date situation in the Armed Forces of the Republic of Moldova, though as the Army reflects the situation in the society at large, sexual harassment and sexism are present in the Army and shall be addressed.

At the request of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), UNDP provides assistance in addressing the gender issues towards the implementation of the MoD’s plans for mainstreaming the gender equality in the Ministry’s and in the National Army’s internal policies and practice.

 

[1] Valasek, Kristin, 2005, “Gender and Security Sector Reform: An Analytical Framework”, UN-INSTRAW

[2] UNDP. Gender and Security Sector Reform Toolkit. Tool 3, p. 3.

Scope of work

The consultancy shall contribute to the implementation by the Ministry of Defence of the National Action Plan of the National Programme for the implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 “Women, Peace and Security”, and has the following objectives

  1. Conducting of an interactive training “Psychological aspects of the prevention and combating of the gender-based discrimination” for the National Army’s psychologists aimed at enhancing their knowledge of the gender equality and gender-based discrimination in all its aspects, that will enable them to effectively address these issues in the daily activity.
  1. Contribute to enhancing gender mainstreaming across the activity of the National Army of the Republic of Moldova.

Requirements for experience

Academic Qualifications:

Years of experience:

Competencies:

Proven commitment to the core values of the United Nations, in particular, respecting differences of culture, gender, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, age, HIV status, disability, and sexual orientation, or other status.

UNDP Moldova is committed to workforce diversity. Women, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are particularly encouraged to apply.

 

Documents to be included

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

  1. Proposal:
  1. Financial proposal quoted in USD;
  1. Personal CV including past experience in similar projects and at least 3 references.

Financial proposal

Contracts based on daily fee

The financial proposal will specify the daily fee, travel expenses and per diems quoted in separate line items, and payments are made to the Individual Consultant based on the number of days worked.

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.