Local Consultant for Economic Empowerment of Women Artists using Non fungible tokens (NFTs) in BiH

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, the UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world.

Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is providing technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental) in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, it facilitates networking and exchange of good practices and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life. According to its mandate, UN Women works in five thematic areas, such as leadership and participation, women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women, women peace and security and governance and national planning fully reflect accountability for gender equality commitments. UN Women is also the lead Agency in coordinating the UN Country Team on gender equality.

The UN Women Country Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been supporting relevant stakeholders in the country to advance economic empowerment of women and the efforts are intensifying along the four primary programming streams – knowledge generation and sharing, support to women in entrepreneurship, raising awareness and policy response to the needs and potential of the care economy, advancing potential of women in rural areas and advancing role and participation of women in tech driven industries .

The arts and women artists are highly marginalized in BiH, they struggle to generate an acceptable income. All artists must register formally in the country if they plan to sell art, this also makes it difficult for women artists to hold second or third jobs.

NFTs (Non fungible tokens) are a revolutionary way for artists and organizations to build and manage their communities without the need for centralized institutions (e.g., museums and galleries) to build a trusting relationship between the artist and the collector. In the field of traditional art, museums and galleries have notoriously taken a large percentage of the sale price and offered zero ongoing royalties on sales in the secondary market.

UN Women Country Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina is seeking to recruit a local consultant to support the Economic Empowerment of Women Artists using NFT in BiH. The local consultant will work under the direct supervision of WEE Programme Associate and overall supervision of UN Women Representative, and will be responsible for designing and implementing related programmatic interventions for NFT project in close partnership with UN Women and BiH Modern Art Museum and relevant stakeholders and women’s groups.

The consultant will lead the work to create the foundation for Economic Empowerment of Women Artists using NFT initiative including networking, partnership, assessment, capacity building and raising awareness of relevant stakeholders and women artists themselves.

The objective of the assignment is to strengthen the capacities of women artists and support the Economic Empowerment of Women Artists using NFT through education and briefing and learning sessions and raising awareness and networking.

Duties and Responsibilities

Based on the above-described objectives of the assignment, under the supervision of UN Women WEE Programme Associate and in close collaboration with UN Women WEE programme team, the local consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks and responsibilities:

Prepare briefing materials for use in face-to-face meetings, for online briefings, for others to independently access online and go through in their own time.
Conduct educational briefings and online discussions, and reflections with individuals and small group of artists to inform, train and educate artists on the use of NFTs.
Provide range of content references related to digital art and NFTs to enable others to do their own research.
Liaise and work closely with UN Women partner institution (Museum of Modern Art of RS) and UN Women team to reach out to a broader range of women artists as possible.
Liaise with UN Women partner who will mint the NFTs.
Prepare educational content to contribute to the digital exhibition of winning art pieces, content will describe what NFTs are how they work.
Conduct meetings with partners and explain what NFTs are, how they are being used, how they are created, what options exist.
Conduct meetings with partners and explain how NFTs are bought and sold, how crypto currency funds can be received sent, accessed, and used.
Support networking between the Museum and groups of artists especially women to raise awareness about NFT and how it works.
Directly reach out to and establish contacts with international NFT collections to promote the NFT artists and art.
Prepare one quarterly progress report summarizing results (changes in capacities and progress)
Prepare final report with recommendations on how to prepare and implement a next NFT collection project in BiH and submit to UN Women and the Museum.

The local consultant will be expected to complete the below tasks within the indicative timeframe:

No.

Deliverables

Indicative number of consulting days

Due dates

1

Work plan and proposed approach for the assignment submitted and approved by UN Women

1

1 October 2022

2

Prepared detailed materials to brief artists and partners on NFTs and all related aspects. Conducted face to face briefings, online discussions and reflections with individuals and small groups to inform, train and educate artists on the use of NFTs in coordination with UN Women and Museum. Materials submitted and approved by UN Women

15

1 December 2022

3

Prepared and submitted educational content for the digital exhibitions of winning art pieces, content will describe what NFTs are how they work. Support to the exhibition.

6

5th January 2023

4

Conduct outreach in conjunction with UN Women and the Museum to raise awareness of the NFT collection, before the auction. Including 5 meetings conducted with partners. Outreach to international NFT collections and actors. Outreach plan submitted before implemented, report on outreach to capture success factors submitted and approved by UN Women

10

25th February

5

Drafted and submitted final report recommendations and submit to UN Women and Museum in English.

3

15th April 2023

35

Any envisaged travel and accommodation costs should be covered by the consultant. 35 working days within 7 months period (please note, this is a lump sum arrangement and the lump-sum should include all travel related costs and insurance)

Under the overall supervision of the WEE Programme Associate the local expert will develop and deliver the above listed deliverables in accordance with the indicative timeframe. Payments will be processed based on approved deliverables and the schedule of payments outlined in the contract.

All deliverables of an acceptable standard and quality should be submitted to the UN Women and in English.

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 Consultant knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
Cultural sensitivity and respect for diversity - Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Additionally, the individual should have an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Planning & Organizing – Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks and makes allowances accordingly.
Organizational Awareness - Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
Teamwork - Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost and quality standards.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

Shares knowledge and experience
Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women
Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills
Development and Operational Effectiveness
Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies
Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy
Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported
Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems
Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource

Leadership and Self-Management

Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure
Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate
Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications:

Master’s degree in computer science, information systems, social science, public administration, arts and science, gender studies, or other degrees relevant to the requirements of the TOR. Bachelor’s degree in the relevant field is acceptable in lieu of a master’s degree with additional 2 years of experience.

Experience:

Minimum of 5 years of professional experience preferably in project management, social or women empowerment-related projects
One year of experience working with digital assets, cryptocurrencies, ideally NFTs
Experience in designing/ training/awareness-raising programmes for different audiences

Language

Fluency in BCS and English is required

Evaluation

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process that takes into account both the technical qualification of potential consultants as well as the financial proposals submitted in support of consultant applications. Candidate applications will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of applicant experience, qualifications and a financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

responsive/compliant/acceptable,
and having received the highest score out of technical and financial criteria defined below.

Based on a desk technical evaluation, only candidates receiving a minimum of 50 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for financial evaluation and validation interview.

Criteria:

Technical Evaluation (70%) – 70 points

Master’s degree in computer science, information systems, public administration, economics, gender studies, or other degree relevant to the requirements of the TOR. Bachelor’s degree in the relevant field is acceptable in lieu of a master’s degree with additional 2 years of experience. – SATISFACTORY/UNSATISFACTORY
Minimum of 5 years of professional experience preferably in project management, social or women empowerment related projects- 20pts
One year of experience working with digital assets, cryptocurrencies, ideally NFTs – 30pts
Experience in designing/ training/ awareness raising programmes for different audiences – 20pts.
Fluency in BCS and English is required – SATISFACTORY/UNSATISFACTORY

Financial Evaluation (30%) – 30 points
Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30
S - score received on financial evaluation
Fmin - the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round
F - financial offer under the consideration.