Women’s Economic Empowerment Technical Advisor

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, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.UN Women works to economically empower diverse women in Lebanon, at micro, meso, and macro levels. Since 2016, when UN Women established its office presence in Lebanon, the Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) programme has predominantly focused on increasing the resilience of vulnerable women and girls in refugee and host communities. At a micro level, this includes quality skills training, business support to female led-enterprises and entrepreneurs, and placing women in jobs within the private sector. Additionally, UN Women Lebanon works at the meso level by supporting the institutional capacity development and service provision of national institutions, to ensure that services provided are gender-sensitive and responsive to specific needs of women and girls. At a macro level, UN Women’s WEE programme seeks to achieve gender-inclusive economic, labour market, and development policies that are responsive to women needs. The recent economic situation in the country and changing conditions for refugees and migrant calls for strategic thinking, planning, and programming on interventions to meaningfully contribute to women’s economic empowerment. UN Women is hiring a consultant to support the innovation and impact of WEE programme, with a targeted focus on its resilience interventions.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main purpose of the consultancy is to provide technical support to UN Women Lebanon’s women and economic empowerment programme, by drafting a 5-year strategy and enhancing the programme design.

Responsibilities, Scope of Work, and Tasks:

Working in close coordination with WEE team, the consultant is expected to prepare to do the following: 

A) Prepare a desk review on WEE in Lebanon:This consolidates and summarizes information on:

• Evaluations, successful project models, and best practices for WEE projects in Lebanon;
• Recent polices and limitation for diverse nationalities of women (Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, migrant workers) in Lebanon;
• Economic opportunities for women (Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, migrant workers) in potential strategic economic sectors, including ICT, social care (elderly, children, nursing), environment, agriculture in Lebanon;
• Gender-responsive economic and labor policy initiatives and reform needs in Lebanon.

*This may include interviews with experts on WEE in Lebanon.

B) Support in a strategy development workshop: This includes:

• Using evidence generated in the desk review to support strategic thinking on WEE in Lebanon;
• Drawing on expertise, to substantively contribute to strategic thinking for the programme with the UN Women WEE unit.

**This can be conducted remotely or in country.

C) Draft the 5-year programme strategy, and programme design: This includes:

• Revised WEE objectives, with separate approaches and change pathways for WEE based on women’s nationality (citizens, refugees, migrants) this includes targeted attention to the Syria refugee crisis;
• Selected WEE project models, with evidence and justification;
• Selected strategic WEE sectors, with evidence and justification;
• Logical framework with outputs, activities, and indicators.

Deliverables and Time Frame:

The following deliverables will be expected:

• 1 literature review with summarized information on thematic areas (Early of October 2019);
• 1 strategy workshop (remote or in country) (Mid of October 2019);
• 1 updated strategy paper, including a programme logical framework (approximately 7-10 pages) (End of October 2019).

Competencies

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

Functional Competencies:

• Substantial knowledge and understanding of women’s economic empowerment;
• Demonstrated leadership ability and technical ability to communicate complex ideas verbally and in writing;
• Experience drafting research findings and recommendations;
• Familiarity with processes and thematic issues related to the SDGs;
• Ability to lead development of clear strategies and to provide strategic advice to senior management;
• Ability to communicate effectively both in written and oral.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Applicants will have an advanced university degree in International Affairs, Humanitarian Studies, Economics, Economic Development and/or with strong knowledge of gender issues, or related discipline.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of relevant experience in the field of promoting gender equality, poverty reduction and economic empowerment;
• Demonstrated strong familiarity with the humanitarian and development nexus in Lebanon;
• Experience in developing and supporting programme strategies and programme design for WEE interventions;
• Experience in livelihoods in the humanitarian response;
• Experience and knowledge of macroeconomic frameworks, the labour market and employment;
• Experience conducting research and analysis in the area of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment with relevant national and regional experience and at least one other related theme: sustainable development, inclusive economic growth, poverty, livelihoods, social protection, unpaid care work.

Language Requirements:

• Proficient in written and oral Arabic is a must. Working level of English and/or French is an asset;
• Computer skills, internet communication and command of MS Office.

Evaluation Criteria:

Consultants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of qualifications and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable;
• Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Technical Evaluation (70%) split such as:

• Education: 20%;
• Professional Experience & background: 30%; should detail work experience, specifically experience which is relevant to the consultancy requirements indicated above;
• Cover note: 20%; cover note should clearly state the availability and method of engagement to deliver on key outputs, while clearly explaining how the candidate meets the requirements and their ability to deliver in due time.

Financial Evaluation (30%): The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application

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

• A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work and previous work portfolio, and ability to meet the requirements, method of engagement and other relevant information;
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily and lump-sum rate.

The above-mentioned documents should be submitted together, incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW, and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

UN Women is applying a fair and transparent selection process that would take into account both the technical qualification of Consultants as well as their price proposals. The contract will be awarded to the candidate obtaining the highest combined technical and financial scores.