Consultant - Technical Support to National Institute of Open Schooling - Second Chance Education Programme (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

Background

UN Women’s programme on Second Chance Education (SCE) and Vocational Training aims to reach out to and enable 40,000 underprivileged young women and women in India through education, training, employment and entrepreneurship skills. The programme is trying to address the structural barriers young women and women face in realizing their full economic potential by trying out innovative pilots in all these verticals across project states viz Bihar, Maharashtra, Odisha and Rajasthan. To support young women and women in getting skilled and gainfully employed, the project adopts an empowerment approach to livelihoods as against the instrumental approach where the focus is merely on skills/income generation. The activities to strengthen women’s learning and earning pathways, therefore, will be coupled by the capacity building initiatives on making women aware about their rights and entitlements, raise voice against violations and demand accountability from duty bearers. The Programme will adopt evidence-based policy advocacy, leveraging UN Women’s and implementing partners’ institutional relationships with key relevant Ministries such as Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, Ministry of Rural Development/National Rural Livelihoods Mission and Ministry of Human Resource Development. The programme intends to create a supportive ecosystem to enhance; women’s participation in the workforce and opportunities of self-employment, at the state as well as national level.

The programme work closely with the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) to mainstream dropout girls and young girls into formal education. To amplify the impact of the intervention UN Women will support the NIOS to implement national and state commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment, through mainstreaming gender in its programmes and policies, as well as developing and implementing targeted modules for Women’s Empowerment.

Objectives of the Assignment:

As part of UN Women’s SCE programme, UN Women is recruiting a technical expert on gender to be placed at the NIOS. The expert will also work closely with the Country Programme Manager of the SCE Programme. The expert will focus on developing the expertise of the NIOS, on gender equality and mainstreaming through knowledge transfer and capacity development.

Duties and Responsibilities

The roles and responsibilities of the Consultant include:

Capacity Development of the staff of NIOS on gender equality and women’s empowerment:

• Review of NIOS Gender Policy and undertake assessment of status of implementation (curriculum changes, adherence in centers)
• Undertake a capacity needs assessment of NIOS staff on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Assess the current status of integration and promotion of gender equality in the programmes and policy guidelines of NIOS and of Rajasthan, Bihar, Odisha and Maharashtra – State Insitute of Open Schooling.
• Support and provide main guidelines aimed at designing and implementing of gender responsive policies and programmes.
• Prepare a sensitisation and capacity development plan based on the findings of the assessment with a detailed sustainability plan on how the efforts will continue beyond the tenure of the gender expert
• Undertake trainings on gender equality and women's empowerment for NIOS in batches
• Engage young women and women to understand the issue they face in accessing the government schemes, particularly on education, vocational training, skilling and entrepreneurship

Provide technical advice and guidance to NIOS on gender equality and women’s empowerment:

• Provide policy and strategic advice to NIOS on gender equality and women’s empowerment
• Review programmes and policies of NIOS and provide inputs for gender responsive implementation
• Develop guidelines for evolving gender equal Model NIOS Centers

Manage and develop research and knowledge products on gender equality and women’s empowerment:

• Conduct workshops with different stakeholders to inform the ongoing work on women’s economic empowerment
• Prepare assessment report for advocacy with relevant stakeholders
• Engage line departments for securing buy in for improved budget, better infrastructure and effective delivery of the current programmes of NIOS.

Any other work assigned by the supervisor in the thematic areas of education, vocational training, skilling and entrepreneurship.

Deliverables:

• Time sheet and Monthly progress reports;
• An outline of the gender audit frame-work and work-plan detailing the contents and structure, including, but not limited to, contexts to be covered in the assessment;
• Power-point presentation on gender audit frame-work and initial findings; i.e. distilled findings and analysis, lessons learned and recommendations;
• Final Gender Audit Report not more than 10 pages (without the annexes) including an Executive Summary and a chapter on recommendation - along with a Power Point Presentation providing a succinct over-view of the final report;
• Review of NIOS Gender Policy and undertake assessment of status of implementation (curriculum changes, adherence in centers);
• Identify best practices from States – Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Odisha and Bihar;
• Evaluate policy gaps and provide recommendations for gender equal implementation;
• Develop guidelines for evolving gender equal Model NIOS Centers;
• Conduct evaluation of NIOS State Offices and recommend next steps based on ground realities and best practices.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Functional Competencies:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in Social Sciences/ Social Work /Gender Studies/Public Administration/Policy or related fields.

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of experience at the national/state level working with development projects including hands-on experience of design, implementation and monitoring/evaluation of projects preferably on Gender Equality and Women’s Rights;
• Experience on quantitative and qualitative research is required;
• Substantive experience of conducting trainings/workshops/capacity building exercises essential;
• Experience of working with national/ state governments; particularly on Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women is a must.
• Work experience with national education institutions would be an added advantage

Language:

• Proficiency in English; good command over Hindi in reading and writing.

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org.

Application:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from  http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment;
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted;
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria: 

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
• Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
• Working knowledge and experience of working with National /State Government (5 points);

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Interview

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.