Two national consultants to provide expert support on drafting the new policy document on gender equality.
Vacancy Number: Pr21/02287
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 Moldova Country Office implements its 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, young women, 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 is providing technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental) 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.
Ministry of Health, Labour and Social Protection (MHLSP) is one of the key UN Women’s national partners, collaborating and cooperating in the framework of the Memorandum of Understanding, singed between parties at the beginning of 2018 year. One of the common objectives of the strategic partnership is to contribute to the implementation of the Strategy to ensure equality between women and men for 2017-2021 (GES) and its associated Action Plan (AP), approved in early 2017. The GES focuses on ten areas of interventions such as: women’s participation in decision-making, labor market and gender pay gap, social protection and family policies, health, education, climate. In 2020 MHLSP, with UN Women support undertook the mid-term review of the GES, aiming to update the content and realign the future interventions in accordance with the current national context and taking into consideration the 2020 CEDAW’s Committee Concluding Observations along with the key challenges deriving from COVID-19 pandemic. However, taking into consideration that the GES is coming to its end this year, MHLSP found more reasonable to initiate the development of the new policy document – Gender Equality Program (GEP), rather than amend the current strategy.
Therefore, following the MHLSP request to support the process this process, UN Women, under the current advertisement intends to hire two national consultants to support in undertaking this exercise. They will team up with the third national consultant that will lead the work under the current assignment.
Scope of work
Under overall supervision of the Partnership and Coordination Officer and overall guidance of the UN Women Programme Specialist and Programme Analyst on Women in Leadership and Governance, in coordination with the Department of policies for ensuring equality between women and men, MHLSP, but as well under the leadership of the lead national consultant, the thematic consultant and logistic and secretariat consultant. will provide expert support in drafting the Gender Equality Program (GEP), and its subsequent Action Plan.
Tasks:
The following tasks will be undertaken by two consultants who will provide support in developing of the GEP and its Action Plan:
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Tasks and activities
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Estimated workload (workdays)
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A. Tasks for the thematic consultant (that will be common with the lead consultant):
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Review the results achieved by the country so far in promoting gender equality and women empowerment, including, but not limited to:
· GE Strategy (GES) and Action Plan (AP) 2017-2021;
· Annual reports 2017,2018, 2019 and 2020 on the implementation of the GES and AP
· Mid-term evaluation report of the GE Strategy for 2017-2021;
· Law on ensuring equal opportunities between women and men (Law No.5 from 09/02.2006 and subsequent amendments);
· Law on ensuring equality (Law No. 121 from 25.05.2012 and subsequent amendments);
· Law on preventing and combating domestic violence (Law Nr. 45 from 01.03.2007 and subsequent amendments)
· Electoral Code, Law on Political parties, Law on Political Party financing, etc.
· National Programme on Implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security for 2018-2021 (NAP 1325) and its Action Plan;
· Evaluation report of the first NAP 1325 and annual reports developed by Bureau of Reintegration.
· National Human Rights Action Plan 2018-2022.
· Etc.
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Up to 2 days
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Review the international recommendations from UN mechanisms (Beijing+25 national and regional reports, CEDAW CO 2020, UPR, etc) and the existing studies in the ECARO in the area of gender equality relevant for the national context
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Up to 1 days
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Organize/conduct meetings with the Gender coordination groups, within line ministries and other relevant stakeholders in the process of reviewing the achieved results, identifying the gaps and priority interventions of the draft GEP
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Up to 2 days
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Provide support to MHLSP in collecting all the proposals and suggestions made by the stakeholders active in the area of gender equality, revise and structure the collected proposals in order to include them in the draft GEP and its subsequent Action Plan.
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Up to 2 days
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Elaborate the Concept of the Gender Equality Program for next period, according to the art.34 of GD 386/2020 on planning, developing, approving, implementing, monitoring and evaluating the public policy documents, with the following content:
· Public policy document name
· Public policy document type
· Problem addressed
· Scope of public policy document
· Correlation with the National Development Strategy, National Development Plan, Budgetary framework for medium term etc.
· Planned period for drafting the public policy document.
· Stakeholders
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Up to 2 days
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Consult the Concept of the GEP with State Chancellery, Gender coordination Groups and other relevant stakeholders
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Up to 1 days
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Draft the GEP according to the provisions of GD nr.386/2020 with the following content:
· Introduction (indication of importance and relevance of the subject, proposed implementation period, parties involved in the Program etc.)
· Analysis of the situation (state of play in the field, including description of possible consequences in case of non-intervention in solving the problem and impact on main affected vulnerable groups, using records according to quantitative and qualitative data)
· General objectives of the field (description of the results to be reached)
· Specific objectives of the field (specific and measurable results derived from the general objectives)
· Impact (description of medium-term effects as a result of Program implementation)
· Costs (estimate of the financial and non-financial resources necessary for the implementation of each specific objective, planned expenditure for the following period, budgetary framework for medium term, estimates of resources available from the external assistance)
· Implementation risks (identification of risks that may arise during Program implementation, probability of intervention and mitigation measures)
· Responsible authorities/institutions (indication of responsible public authorities/institutions, as well as other stakeholders involved in the implementation of the Program)
· Reporting procedures (description of monitoring/evaluation methods, public authorities/institutions responsible for reporting, periodicity of monitoring, evaluation and reporting)
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Up to 6 days
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Elaborate the Action Plan for implementing the GEP for the next period, according to the art.12 of GD 386/2020, with the following content:
· Specific objectives (taken from the descriptive part of the Program)
· Actions (concrete measures to be carried out in the short and medium term for achieving specific objectives)
· Monitoring indicators (relevant indicators for each planned action with reference values and planned targets)
· Implementation costs (costs needed to implement the actions and their funding source)
· Deadline (period and deadline for each action)
· Responsible institution (public authority/institution responsible for carrying out planned activities)
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Up to 4 days
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Elaborate the Informative Note to the draft Government Decision on approving the Gender Equality Program for the next period, according to the Law 100/2017 on legal acts.
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Up to 1 day
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Support in consulting the draft policy documents with line ministries, including Gender coordination groups, and other relevant stakeholders, including UN Women, and address all comments/suggestions and recommendations received in the process of official consultations (table of divergence)
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Up to 2 days
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Finalize the draft Gender Equality Program and its Action Plan
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Up to 1 day
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Perform any other tasks required to ensure successful development of the the Gender Equality Program and its Action Plan
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Up to 1 day
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Sub-total A
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Up to 25 days
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B. Distinct tasks for the logistic and secretariat consultant:
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Provide support in organization of the meetings, drafting agendas and invitations and follow-up on confirmations, ensure logistical arrangements (set up the link/ book venue and catering, print all relevant materials, book translators, keep list of participants etc.)
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Up to 2 days
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Provide logistical support for preparation of other meetings related to the process, like broad consultations with civil society;
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Up to 2 days
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Provide secretariat support (e.g. drafting minutes of the meetings, etc.);
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Up to 1 day
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Drafting posts for social media, drafting articles and other communications materials (communications materials shall be revised and final approved by UN Women and MHLSP)
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Up to 1 day
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Facilitating coordination among consultants and UN Women on logistic arrangements;
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Up to 2 days
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Perform any other tasks required to effectively support the development of the draft policy document on gender equality and its Action Plan.
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Up to 2 days
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Sub-total B
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Up to 10 days
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TOTAL (A+B)
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35 Days
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Note: The overall expected duration of the assignments is up to 35 working days jointly for thematic consultant and logistic and secretariat consultant. The thematic consultant is expected to be involved up to 25 working days, while logistic and secretariat consultant is expected to be involved up to 10 working days. The financial proposals shall be submitted accordingly.
Both consultants will be working under the leadership of the lead consultant, that is currently at the final stage of recruitment process. The tasks under the section A are expected to be carried out by the lead and thematic consultants, estimative workload for each of them being up to 25 working days, that is cumulatively 50 working days for the task under section A.
Note: *In the context of COVID-19 pandemic, the method of meetings/presentations (be it face-to-face or online) will be decided before their de facto organization, based on the recommendations of the national authorities and World Health Organization Country Office.
Expected deliverables
The assignment should be carried out within a period of 6 months, not exceeding 65 working days, with the national consultants being responsible for delivering the following outputs:
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No
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Activities and Deliverables
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Estimated workload (workdays)
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Tentative timeframe for completion of task
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1
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A report on carried out activities related to meetings organized/conducted; proposals and suggestions collected from the relevant stakeholders, consultations on the draft Concept of for the upcoming period (including agendas, intervention materials)
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Thematic consultant: up to 8 days
Logistic and secretariat consultant: up to 3 days
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By mid-September, 2021
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2
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Draft Concept of GEP for next period
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Thematic consultant: up to 5 days
Logistic and secretariat consultant: up to 3 days
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By end – October, 2021
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3
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Draft Program on gender equality and its subsequent Action Plan according to the provisions of GD nr.386/2020, including the Informative Note to the draft Government Decision on approving the GES Program for the next period, according to the Law 100/2017 on legal acts.
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Thematic consultant: up to 9 days
Logistic and secretariat consultant: up to 3 days
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By end - November, 2021
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4
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Final draft Government Decision on approving the Program on Gender Equality and its Action Plan, accompanied by the table with all comments and suggestions (table de divergențe).
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Thematic consultant: up to 3 days
Logistic and secretariat consultant: up to 1 days
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By end - January, 2022
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All written deliverables should be agreed with UN Women and be provided in Romanian Language, electronic copy.
Note: The mentioned number of working days has been estimated as being sufficient/feasible for the envisaged volume of work to be completed successfully and is proposed as a guideline for the duration of assignment. It cannot and shall not be used as criteria for completion of work/assignment. The provision of envisaged deliverables approved by UN Women Partnership and Coordination Officer shall be the only criteria for the national consultants’ work being completed and eligible for payment/s.
Duration of the assignment
The total duration of this assignment is tentatively planned for up to 65 total working days, for 5 months, starting on the 1st of September, 2021, with entire task being accomplished by 31 January, 2022. The consultants are responsible to accomplish the deliverables set up in the table “Activities and Deliverables”.
Management arrangements
The National Consultants will work under overall supervision of the Partnership and Coordination Officer and overall guidance of the UN Women Programme Specialist and Programme Analyst on Women in Leadership and Governance, in coordination with the Department for policies on ensuring equality between women and men, MHLSP. The lead consultant will represent the team of national consultants in report to UN Women and other direct/indirect beneficiaries and parties.
Contributions: UN Women will provide the selected consultants with all available materials and information for the achievement of tasks. The consultants are expected to work remotely, from his or her own premises using his or her personal computer, internet access, phone and other technical means as required. UN Women will provide all the necessary logistical support, if needed, for the organization of the meetings and consultations.
Travel
No travels are envisaged under the current assignment. In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UN Women and the National Consultants, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.
Performance evaluation
The National Consultants’ performance will be evaluated against such criteria as: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.
Financial arrangements
Payment will be disbursed to the consultants based on deliverables presented, upon submission of the timesheet and reports on deliverables and achieved results and certification by UN Women Partnership and Coordination Officer that the services have been satisfactorily performed.
Requirements for experience
Core Values:
- Respect for Diversity;
- Integrity;
- Professionalism.
Core Competencies:
- Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
- Accountability;
- 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: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf.
Required Skills and Experience
For the thematic consultant:
Education:
- University degree in human rights, gender studies, public relations, development studies, law, statistics and/or other social or economic science related to the areas relevant for the assignment.
Experience:
- Minimum 5 years of proven experience working/collaborating with the Government sectors in assisting/supporting drafting policy recommendations/ documents/ reports, coordinating activities.
- Minimum 3 years of proven work experience in the field of gender equality, human rights and development.
- Work experience in developing research, policies, studies, etc. in the field of gender equality and women empowerment will be considered an asset.
- Work experience with international organizations, including UN agencies, will be considered an asset.
Language skills:
- Excellent verbal and written Romanian and Russian languages. Working knowledge of English language is an advantage.
For the logistic and secretariat consultant:
Education:
- University degree in human rights, gender studies, public relations, development studies, law and/or other social or economic science related to the areas relevant for the assignment.
Experience:
- Minimum 3 years of proven experience in assisting with logistical and secretariat support, including in assisting/collaborating with the Governmental structures.
- Minimum 2 years of proven work experience in the field of gender equality, human rights and development.
- Work experience with international organizations, including UN agencies, will be considered an asset.
Language skills:
- Excellent verbal and written Romanian and Russian languages. Working knowledge of English language is an advantage.
Documents to be included
Interested candidates are invited to submit their online applications by 19 August, 2021 with the following documents.
- Duly filled Personal HistoryForm (P-11 form) - including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted.
- 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 (in MDL) - specifying an all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs as per template provided.
Note: Consultants must apply individually for either of the three positions. One consultant can apply for any of the positions advertised.
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