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National Consultant on strengthening the organizational management of the Equality Council.

Vacancy Number: Pr15/00812

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	16 Feb 2015, 10:00 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	20 Feb 2015
Reference to the project:	Supporting National Human Rights Institutions as per International Treaty Bodies and UPR Recommendations
Expected Duration of Assignment:	20 February 2015 – 10 December 2016 (up to 180 working days with possibility of extension)
Submission Instructions: Proposals should be submitted online by pressing the "Apply Now" button no later than 10:00, 16 February 2015. Requests for clarification only must be sent by standard electronic communication to the following e-mail: natalia.voronova@undp.org. UNDP will respond by standard electronic mail and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.
Supporting Documents: Terms of Reference Procurement Notice Personal History Form (P11) UNDP General Conditions of Individual Contract

Background

The Republic of Moldova is a State-Party to the majority UN and CoE human rights treaties. The National Human Rights Action Plan for 2011-2014[1] contains commitments to protect and advance specific human rights taking into account the recommendations of the UN treaty bodies and a number of UPR recommendations. Related priorities and commitments are established under the UN-Moldova Partnership Framework (UNPF) 2013-2017.[2] Reform of the National Human Rights Institutions is prioritized at the highest level of government. The Equality Council is one of the two major national human rights institutions in the Republic of Moldova working specifically on the issues of equality and non-discrimination.

In May 2012 the Moldovan parliament passed the Law on Ensuring Equality,[3] which is intended to cover all grounds for discrimination in line with the international commitments of the Republic of Moldova. The law provides for the establishment of the Council on the Prevention and Elimination of Discrimination and Ensuring Equality (Equality Council),[4] which is a collegial body established to ensure protection against discrimination and ensure equality of all persons who consider themselves to be victims of discrimination.

A needs assessment of the institution, conducted with the support of Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) identified an urgent need to strengthen the Council’s managerial capacities, including general managerial functions, planning, organization, coordination, control and decision-making. In August 2013 the Council approved the Strategic Plan of the Institution for 2014-2016. One of the Strategic Plan’s Strategic Objectives (No. 5) provides that the Council should continuously improve its capacity to better respond to the needs of the beneficiaries. The implementation of this strategic objective includes but is not limited to the following activities: improvement of the human resources management, development of the managerial documents of the Council, continuous improvement of the managerial capacity of the heads of the subdivisions of the Administrative Apparatus, strengthening the overall managerial performance of the institution.

The overall objective of the project “Supporting National Human Rights Institutions as per International Treaty Bodies and UPR Recommendations” is to contribute to the effective protection and promotion of human rights, equality and non-discrimination in the Republic of Moldova with particular attention to women, minorities, marginalised and vulnerable groups. The project is funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, co-funded and implemented by the UNDP Moldova and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in cooperation with the Ombudsperson Office and Equality Council. 

The main objective is to support the strengthening of the organizational capacities and sustainability of the Equality Council.

Scope of work

The scope of work of the National Consultant will consist in the provision of expertise, advice, substantive support and coordination aimed at strengthening the institutional management and administration, monitoring, planning, delivery and reporting processes of the Equality Council.

In order to achieve the objectives National Consultant shall: 

• Thoroughly analyse and update the available needs assessment reports with regard to the Council;
• Facilitate the development of reports related to the achievement of Strategic Objective No.5 of the Council, including provision of inputs for the annual reports of the Council for 2014, 2015 and 2016;
• Facilitate the development of annual reports of the Council for 2014, 2015 and 2016;
• Conduct a detailed analysis of the provisions of the relevant objective of the Strategic Plan of the Council and facilitate the development of annual work plans for the implementation of the Strategic Objective No.5;
• Contribute to development and updates of internal management documents in compliance with the normative framework and best practices in the field, in consultation with Council administration;
• Develop and carry out annual opinion polls of Council staff on management within the Council and carry out their follow up analysis;
• Work closely with the administration of the Council to improve its human resources management, revision of employment rules and procedures to improve staff gender equality and diversity, and to improve information and premises accessibility for linguistic minorities and persons with disabilities;
• Assess the professional development and training needs of the administration and management of the Council and present recommendations on their improvement, and where applicable suggest, carry out and organize training activities in line with identified needs;
• Facilitate the implementation of the activities aimed at the achievement of Objective 5 of the Strategic Plan of the Council;
• Work with the administration of the Council to ensure and support the strengthening of the managerial and organization capacities of the Council through regular training, coaching and consultancy;
• Perform any other tasks relevant to the strengthening of the organizational capacities and ensuring sustainability of the Council, as identified throughout the consultancy;
• Develop and provide monthly activity reports and other narrative progress reports as specified in the deliverables for the assignment.

For detailed information, please refer to Annex 1 – Terms of Reference.

Requirements for experience

I.          Academic Qualifications:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent (5-year university education) in Management, Public Administration, Human Resources, Human Rights, Social Sciences, or other relevant field;

II.        Years and sphere of experience:

• At least 5 years of experience in carrying out needs analysis, policy/strategy development in/for the public administration;

III.      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;
• Demonstrable strong management skills in planning, monitoring and reporting, as well as human resources management, and a proven record of achieving results;
• Proven experience working in good governance, human rights, transparency, accountability or similar work would be an advantage;
• Proven knowledge of State institutions in Republic of Moldova, their work modalities and reporting requirements;
• Strong leadership abilities and excellent (diplomatic) communication presentation skills, ability to facilitate discussions;
• Proven experience in drafting studies and reports and strong abilities in designing questionnaires, development of methodology for training needs assessment;
• Experience in mainstreaming minority issues and rights of persons with disabilities would be a strong asset;
• Proven experience in working with the international organizations (successful experience in working with UN agencies) is an asset;
• Knowledge of Romanian and Russian languages is a requirement;
• Knowledge of English language would be an asset;
• Knowledge of one or more additional languages relevant for Moldova, including Bulgarian, Gagauzian, Romani, Ukrainian or sign language is an asset;

IV.      Personal qualities: responsibility, creativity, flexibility and punctuality.

The 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 in Romanian, Russian or English to demonstrate their qualifications: 

1. Personal information (as a detailed CV or as a Personal History Form/P11) including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and concrete outputs obtained and names of 3 reference persons and their contacts;
2. Cover letter, which should include:

(i) A list of strategies, action plans, needs assessments, capacity building activities/trainings, reports, analysis documents or other task related activities and documents the candidate has elaborated or contributed to;

(ii) Financial proposal (in USD, specifying a daily fee amount).

Financial proposal

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.

Payments will be made on the basis of the periodic reports and timesheets submitted to the UNDP Moldova Justice and Human Rights Programme Analyst. 

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. 

No travel costs are envisaged under this assignment.