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National Consultant with legal background to support the Women in Leadership and Governance Area

Vacancy Number: Qu23/02670

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	15 Feb 2023, 12:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	20 Feb 2023, 12:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	27 Feb 2023, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	N/A
Starting date:	01 Mar 2023
Reference to the project:
Expected Duration of Assignment:	Up to 50 working days, from February 2023 until February 2024 (with possibility of extension)
Supporting Documents: TOR_Legal Consultant_WILG Area Annex I Price Proposal Guideline and Template Annex II Price Proposal Submission Form Personal History Form (P11) UN Women UN Women Conditions of Service Consultants

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.

The work of UN Women in Moldova is guided by its new Country Strategic Note 2023-2027, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Moldova (2023-2027),  UN Women Global  Strategic Plan, National Programs and Strategies and aims to contribute to the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Strategic Note focuses on four main areas: 1) Ending Violence against Women; 2) Women’s Leadership and Governance; 3) Women’s Economic empowerment and 4) Humanitarian and Peace development nexus and UN Coordination on Gender equality.

Guided by its Strategic Note, UN Women provides extensive support to relevant national and local stakeholders to ensure promotion of women’s leadership and women’s meaningful political participation. Women and girls constitute more than half of Moldova’s population, yet they are under-represented in the bodies that make key decisions affecting their lives. Although Moldova committed to support the increase of women’s political participation by adopting in 2016 the 40% gender quota and by nationalization of SDGs on gender equality, women remain under-represented in political and public leadership.

In the last few years Moldova faced a significant increase related to women’s political participation, by electing in 2020 its first female President and of 40% women in the Parliament after 2021 Snap Elections due to quota provisions. The new Government Cabinet formed in 2021 is led by a female Prime-Minister and has 29% women cabinet members. Its 2019 local elections contributed less to 22 % women as mayors (compared to 20.5% in 2015), 28.73% women district councilors (compared to 18.61% in 2015) and 36.5% women local councilors (compared to 30.6% in 2015).

Despite the recorded achievements in the area of political participation, Moldova is still far to achieve 50/50 representation as per SDG commitments, with the value of the Political Empowerment Sub-index of the Gender Gap Index in 2020 being still low (0.264 – placing Moldova on 45th place).

UN Women Moldova will continue to support national efforts to advance women’s equal participation in politics and decision making through advocacy towards improvement of the legal and regulatory framework aimed to sustain and expand the gender equality gains and remove existing barriers for women’s meaningful participation in politics at national and local level.

Since 2022, UN Women together with UNDP, UNICEF and UNFPA supported the establishment of a cross-party Women’s Parliamentary Caucus of the XI-th legislature with the goal to strengthen and advance gender-responsive lawmaking and oversight. Concurrently, UN Women is working with Central and Local Public Authorities to advance the systematic integration of gender equality principles in strategic documents, policies, plans and budgets. UN Women continues to provide support to Civil Society Organizations in their advocacy efforts to promote gender equality and women’s leadership in public life.

Scope of work

The main objective of this consultancy is to provide technical support to Moldovan authorities and civil society organizations in initiating/ amending legal, regulatory, and normative framework pertaining to women’s participation in political processes and decision making.

More specifically, the consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

• Provide substantive inputs to draft laws/regulations, normative acts, Position/Advocacy Papers in the area of women’s political participation developed/initiated by select national state institutions and CSOs (to be determined in the course of assignment in consultation with UN Women team);
• Develop/provide inputs and revisions of informative and analytical notes, legal amendments, and other legal drafts in the women’s political participation area;
• Prepare and conduct presentations on draft laws/amendments during public consultations, working groups and provide inputs, intervention where needed, including for advocacy purposes. Provide trainings on legal aspects related to women’s political participation to audiences requested by UN Women team, if needed;
• Final report with lessons learnt;

Requirements for experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in law and/or other related areas relevant for this assignment;
• Additional trainings in one of the areas relevant for the assignment would be an asset;

Experience:    

• At least (3) three years of experience in the field of law;
• At least (3) three years of proven collaboration with public authorities in the elaboration and/or review of relevant legal, policy initiatives;
• At least one (1) year of proven experience in the field of promoting human rights/ gender equality would be an asset;
• Experience with development organizations, including donors and stakeholders would be an asset;
• Fluency in written and oral Romanian. Working language of English is an asset;

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written and oral Romanian. Working language of English is an asset;

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Cultural sensitivity and respect for diversity;
• Gender sensitiveness and empathy towards women’s rights issues;
• Respect for UN principles;

Core Competencies:

• Communication;
• Planning and Organizing;
• Organizational Awareness;
• Team working ability;
• Accountability;
• Leadership;

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Documents to be included

Interested candidates are invited to submit their online applications in the https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=111311 portal, including the following documents.

• Duly filled Personal History Form PHF11 (downloadable from https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process;
• 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 and ANNEX II.