UN Women: National Consultant to support private sector companies to implement Women’s Empowerment Principles: Equality Means Business.

Vacancy Number: Pr20/01963

Location:Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline: 12 Feb 2020, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:
19 Feb 2020, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:Individual Contract
Starting date: 18 Feb 2020
Reference to the project: UN Women
Expected Duration of Assignment:Up to 106 working days during the period: February - December 2020
Supporting Documents:
Terms of Reference
Procurement Notice
Annex I
Personal History Form (P11) UN Women
UN Women Conditions of Service Consultants

Contacts:

Ms. Irina Cozma.




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. Placing women's rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. 

Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is providing technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental), including private sector, in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, it facilitates networking and exchange of good practices and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life.

The work of UN Women in the Republic of Moldova is guided by its new Country Strategic Note for 2018-2022, aligned with the Republic of Moldova–United Nations Partnership Framework for Sustainable Development 2018–2022, the Global Strategic Plan of UN Women for 2018-2021, the National Strategy on Gender Equality for 2017-2021 (NSGE), and aims to contribute to the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) is a joint initiative of UN Women and the UN Global Compact, launched in 2010 following a year-long international, multi-stakeholder consultation process. The Principles present seven steps that business and other sectors can take to advance and empower women. The WEPs elaborate the gender dimension of corporate social responsibility and business' role in sustainable development and were designed for companies to review their policies on empowerment of women, to acknowledge and to start making changes. In the international community these are recognized principles for women’s equality participation. They represent the global standard that has been accepted all around the world and provide seven principles that all companies can subscribe to. Since the launch of the Women's Empowerment Principles in 2010, over 1,900 CEOs from around the world have signed the CEO Statement of Support for the WEPs, signaling their support for gender equality and the guidance provided by the Principles.

A survey among private sector players in Moldova, undertaken in 2015-2016, confirmed private companies’ readiness to adopt the WEPs and revealed that the existing good practices on women’s economic empowerment need to be further communicated and promoted. Further consultations between UN Women, the World Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and other leading agencies reinforce the above findings. Government partners also recognize that women’s inclusion drives development and acknowledge that achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and national economic and development plans require rapidly moving towards substantive gender equality.

During 2018-2019, a qualitative and quantitative study was realized by a local Company (Business Consulting Institute), contracted by UN Women. As result the private sector companies becomes more aware on promoting Women’s Empowerment Principles. Knowledge products and tools to guide private sector institutions on WEPs implementation and monitoring in their workplaces and industries etc. were developed.

As a follow up at the result achieved so far, UN Women will focus on supporting the already-committed companies to implement WEPs actions and further expanding the number of companies committed to the WEPs. UN Women intend to partner with at least 1-2 business associations that will support with the WEPs outreach. After building their own capacity on the WEPs, they will support their member companies to implement the WEPs.

To implement the above-mentioned work in close cooperation with the business associations, UN Women is looking to hire a National Consultant.

The National Consultant will need to coordinate the work with an International Consultant and with the selected business associations. The consultant will support companies through organizing capacity development activities that address existing knowledge gap, promote implementation of concrete measures WEPs related, and build connections amongst multiple stakeholders from the private sector, government, NGOs, international institutions and academia. These activities will include workshop with representatives of employers’ associations and gender experts and informative sessions with signatory companies.

Scope of work

The objectives of the assignment are:

  1. To increase the understanding of WEPs signatory company representatives in Moldova on the gender dimension of corporate social responsibility and WEPs through diverse (trainings, technical support, round table meetings) events;
  2. To provide technical support to up to 7 private companies and at least 2 business association representatives in conducting company-level gender gaps analysis, designing WEPS Action Plans and implementing them.

 The Consultant will be responsible for informing regularly UN Women and the WEPs international consultant on the progress, and for submitting the required deliverables.

For detailed information regrding the tasks and activities, please refer to Terms of Reference attached.

Requirements for experience

Education:

  • Advanced University degree (Masters) in law, gender equality or other relevant field;

Experience:

  • At least 5 years of professional experience in developing, managing and/or altering corporate social responsibility policies in public/ private sectors;
  • At least 3 years of experience in gender equality issues;
  • At least 2 years of experience in providing advisory services to private sector companies.
  • Experience in working with international organizations is an asset.

Language Requirements:

  • Fluency in written and oral Romanian, Russian and English are required;

Documents to be included

Interested candidates are invited to submit their online applications by 12th of February 2020  with the following documents.

  • Duly filled Personal History Form P11 and the CV
  • Letter of Intent to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position;
  • Financial proposal – specifying a total lump sum amount for the task specified in Terms of References. The Financial proposal shall include a breakdown of this lump sum amount (daily rate).  Please see ANNEX I.

Financial proposal

The financial proposal shall include a breakdown of the lump sum amount. Please see  Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template and Price Proposal Submission Form.