Background

I. Organizational Context

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 support to Member States’ efforts and priorities in meeting their gender equality goals and for building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In Türkiye, in line with its global Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and Country Strategic Note (2022-2025), and the overall UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Turkey (UNSDCF) (2021-2025), UN Women works towards the overarching goal of “Women and girls including those at greatest risk of being left behind fully exercise their human rights, enjoy a life free from violence and discrimination, and lead, influence and benefit from sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development towards the advancement of gender equality in Turkey”. UN Women works in four thematic areas: (i) governance and participation in public life; (ii) women’s economic empowerment; (iii) ending violence against women and girls; and (iv) women, peace and security, humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction. In that framework, UN Women in Türkiye contributes to three outcomes of the UNSDCF:

1) Women and girls have improved and equal access to resources, opportunities, and rights, and enjoy a life without violence and discrimination;

2) By 2025, Persons under the Law on Foreigners and International Protection are supported towards self-reliance.

3) By 2025, governance systems are more transparent, accountable, inclusive and rights-based with the participation of civil society, and quality of judicial services is improved

The conflict in Syria has caused the largest humanitarian displacement crisis in the world, which has resulted in Türkiye becoming the world’s largest host of refugees, with over 3.7 million registered Syrians of which around 46 percent are women.[1] Furthermore, Türkiye has received 566,063 applications for international protection between 2010-2020.[2] Despite the efforts by the Government of Türkiye, civil society, and the international community in support of refugees, Syrian women and girls under temporary protection (SuTPs) and women and girls from other nationalities  (referring to international protection status holders and applicants) in Türkiye continue to face numerous barriers in meeting their basic needs and in effectively participating in social, economic and public life. Existing risks, vulnerabilities and inequalities faced by women and girls have been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under its Refugee Response Programme (RRP), UN Women in Türkiye has been collaborating with the central government, local authorities, civil society organizations and other UN agencies to empower SuTPs as well as women and girls from other nationalities and the host community, to improve their access to opportunities, rights and services, as required by international treaties and national legislation. The Refugee Response Programme consists of several projects, including the project ‘Increasing Access of Refugee Women and Girls to Protection Mechanisms and Available Public Services’ funded by the Kingdom of Norway. The project has an overall objective to increase and expand the role that women play and better serve them in humanitarian response and recovery efforts.

Women’s leadership and participation are essential for conflict prevention, stabilization of societies and establishment of sustainable peace. UN Women works with grassroots women’s organizations and groups of women from Syrian and host communities based in Türkiye, with the objective of bolstering access to decision making platforms and influencing decision-making over their rights and protection needs; women´s leadership role and meaningful participation in community-based solutions for refugee response. Since 2017, UN Women has been supporting refugee women’s committees, including Eve Women Committee in Izmir, Tomorrow’s Women Committee as well as the SADA Women’s Cooperative in Gaziantep. Through trainings and one-on-one mentoring, UN Women has been providing technical capacity development support to women-led organizations and to CSOs working with/for women and girls in the framework of refugee response in Türkiye. This support aims to boost technical and organisational capacities in areas that have been identified with a needs based approach, such as finance, program management/administration, fundraising, prevention of violence against women and girls, prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse, national and international protection frameworks, gender-sensitive refugee response, women’s empowerment and leadership.

The COVID-19 crisis has interrupted progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Türkiye along with many countries in the world and is likely to impact progress on the 2030 Agenda. The crisis has had particularly noticeable repercussions for specific groups and increased the importance of the principle of “leaving no-one behind”. During COVID-19, SuTP and women and girls from other nationalities have faced additional challenges in accessing essential services. Women are particularly vulnerable to loss of employment, business and income during the pandemic. Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a so called “shadow pandemic”, referring to the devastating increase in violence against women which has been observed around the world, due to lockdowns and stretched services, coupled with deepening economic and social stress. Refugee women are at higher risk of domestic violence while facing other protection risks and reduced access to health care and essential services.

Against this background, UN Women is seeking to deploy a national consultant to provide capacity development and leadership support to refugee women-led organizations and committees based in Türkiye to further contribute to empowerment and leadership of women and girls. Capacity development trainings will be provided to ensure participated groups will act as an informal support groups within their communities for gender-responsive identification and referrals for women and girls from refugee and host communities to available protection and livelihood support services provided by local service providers.

[1] Directorate General of Migration Management. 2022. Distribution of Syrians under Temporary Protection by Year. Available at: https://en.goc.gov.tr/temporary-protection27

[2] Directorate General of Migration Management.2021. International Protection Applications by Years. Available at: https://en.goc.gov.tr/international-protection17

Duties and Responsibilities

II. Functions

Within the scope of the assignment and under the overall supervision and guidance of the UN Women Refugee Response Project Coordinator or his/her delegate, the consultant is expected to provide consultancy services for the below listed tasks:

1. Organize meetings with Eve Women Committee and Tomorrow’s Women Committee to assess their needs and the capacity development areas for gender responsive referrals
2. Prepare and provide capacity building and leadership trainings to two Women Committees in identified areas including but not limited to outreach, needs assessment, mechanisms for protection, response and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls
3. Map the existing services provided by public institutions and NGOs in Gaziantep and Izmir to develop gender responsive referral matrix with support of RRP partners.
4. Prepare a standardized needs assessment which will be utilized by committee members in registering the needs of women and girls in their communities.
5. Facilitate the organization of at least two meetings for women committees to bring the women committees and the local duty bearers, including related units from metropolitan and district municipalities, staff of Provincial Directorates such as Migration Management, Family and Social Services, Bar Associations, etc. together.
6. Submit a final report summarising the work undertaken under the present assignment.

III. Deliverables and Payment Schedule

The assignment will start in the first week of January 2023 and be completed at the end of March 2023. The Consultant is expected to spend up to 23 working days on [non - consecutive basis] throughout the assignment.

Expected Deliverables and Payment Schedule:

The following table summarizes main activities and expected deliverables against targeted delivery deadlines and indicative working days to be invested by the Consultant.

Total Working Days: Up to 23 days.

All deliverables shall be received and cleared by the UN Women in Türkiye. All reports shall be presented in English, in electronic version.

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 the UN Women in Türkiye shall be the only criteria for consultant’s work being completed and eligible for payment/s.

Payment Schedule:

The amount paid to the consultant shall be gross and inclusive of all associated costs such as travel, social security, pension and income tax etc.

Consultant shall be paid upon on a monthly basis based on the deliverables produced within that month in addition to the monthly timesheet indicating the days allocated for the specific deliverables produced in that quarter. Payment shall be affected only if the monthly report and the timesheet are submitted to and approved by the Project Coordinator. Without submission and approval of the deliverables and timesheets, Consultants shall not receive any payment even if they invest time for this assignment.

Travel:

The Consultant will be responsible for all travel arrangements and expenses and daily subsistence allowances associated with undertaking this assignment. All travels shall be coordinated with UN Women Türkiye Office and shall be included in the total contract amount of the Consultant.

Maximum 6  domestic travels are expected to take place within Türkiye to Gaziantep and Izmir. There may be different number of days required for accommodation. The financial proposal template is explanatory in this regard. The taxi fees for attending the meetings are also under the responsibility of the Consultant. In case of unforeseeable travel exceeding the travel budget of the Consultant, such costs should be agreed upon between UN Women and the Consultant prior to the travel, and will be reimbursed, in line with the travel policy.

For the all travels under this assignment, the Consultant is required to provide the relevant project staff with the requested travel documentation in a timely manner, both before and after the travels. Please note that failure to do so may result in no entitlement.

Mandatory Courses:

The Consultant shall complete all the mandatory and further required UN courses, training and modules on time. The certificates shall be submitted to the Hiring Manager.

IV. Key Performance Indicators

• Timely and quality inputs to needs assessment
• Timely and quality inputs to workplans
• Adherence to UN Women standards and rules
• Number of knowledge products developed

Competencies

V. Competencies

Core Values:

• Cultural sensitivity and ability to work in a multi-national environment
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues, particularly in the humanitarian/refugee context
• Accountability
• 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

• Ability to perform a broad range of specialized activities aimed at effective and efficient implementation and management of a qualitative and quantitative research
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings
• Good knowledge of technical area
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail
• Excellent report-writing and analytical skills.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Required Skills and Experience

VI. Required Skills and Experience

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion. A suggested formula is as follows:

p = 30 (µ/z)

Using the following values:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

Annex I: Price Proposal Guideline and Template

The prospective Individual Consultant should take the following explanations into account during submission of his/her price proposal.

1.Daily fee

The daily price proposal should indicate a "lump sum amount" which is "all-inclusive"; All costs (professional fees, communications, consumables during field related missions, etc.) that could possibly be incurred by the Contractor needs to be factored into the proposed price.

UN Women will not withhold any amount of the payments for tax and/or social security related payments. UN Women shall have no liability for taxes, duties or other similar charges payable by the Individual Contractor in respect of any amounts paid to the Individual Contractor under this Contract, and the Contractor acknowledges that UN Women will not issue any statements of earnings to the Individual contractor in respect of any such payments.

2.Travel costs

The Consultant will be responsible for all travel expenses associated with undertaking this assignment. All travels shall be coordinated with UN Women in Türkiye Project Coordinator and shall be included in the total contract amount of the contractor. In case of an unforeseeable travel, the travel arrangements will be handled by UN Women as per the UN Women rules and regulations.

3.Daily Subsistence Allowance

Not applicable.

4.Currency of the price proposal

The applicants are requested to submit their price proposals in USD. In case of proposals in other currency, these shall be converted into USD using the official UN exchange rate for currency conversion to USD at the date of applications’ submission deadline.

Annex II: Price Proposal Submission Form

To: United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

Ref:

Dear Sir / Madam,

I, the undersigned, offer to provide professional consulting services to UN Women within the scope of the referred Assignment.

Having examined, understood and agreed to the Terms of Reference and its annexes, the receipt of which are hereby duly acknowledged, I, the undersigned, offer to deliver professional services, in conformity with the Terms of Reference.

My maximum total price proposal for the assignment is given below:

I confirm that my financial proposal will remain unchanged. I also confirm that the price that I quote is gross, and is inclusive of all legal expenses, including but not limited to social security, income tax, pension, etc., which shall be required applicable laws.

I agree that my proposal shall remain binding upon me for 120 days.

I understand that you are not bound to accept any proposal you may receive.

[Signature]

Date:

Name:

Address:

Telephone/Fax:

Email: