National Consultant to Conduct Gender Responsive Analysis of Existing Legislation and Gaps in Implementation for Disability Inclusion, Capacity Building of Government and Civil Society Organizations in CRPD Implementation

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 centre 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. UN Women 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 in Bangladesh supports the government to implement commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. The new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2022-2026 was launched in 2021 and the corresponding UN Women Bangladesh Strategy Note (2022-2026), defining UN Women’s strategic engagement in Bangladesh, has also been finalized. The country strategy focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s access to decent and safe work; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as other threats to peace and security. UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in Bangladesh including the government, civil society and women’s organisations, youth, UN agencies and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.
The Ending Violence Against Women (EVAW) portfolio contributes to UN Women Bangladesh Strategic Note 2022 – 2026 Outcome 1.4: By 2026, more women, girls and sexual minorities benefit from an environment in which they are empowered to exercise their rights, agency, and decision-making power over all aspects of their lives and towards a life free from all forms of discrimination, violence and harmful norms and practices.

Under the EVAW portfolio, a project funded by UN Partnership on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNPRPD) was initiated within a UN joint collaboration to accelerate implementation of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and disability inclusive SDGs following a multi-partner approach that includes the government, OPDs, the UN, CSOs and others. It aims to strengthen building blocks, namely equality and non-discrimination, with a specific focus on discrimination against women and girls with disabilities and ensuring accountability, governance, and participation. Capitalizing from existing partnerships with the government and CSOs and following success factors for a results-based programme designing, planning, implementation, and monitoring and to address the already identified gaps, the envisioned project will ensure evidence-driven programming and advocacy to foster meaningful participation among Organizations of Person with Disabilities (OPDs), especially women’s rights organizations, and stronger compliance with the UNCRPD.

UN Women BCO requires a national consultant to provide support in conducting gender responsive analysis of existing legislation and gaps in implementation of the National Disability Act 2013, National Action Plan 2019 and CRPD implementation. In addition, the consultant will provide technical support to facilitate advocacy consultation with the relevant ministries and capacity building of OPDs in doing advocacy for necessary legal reformation for disability inclusion.

Duties and Responsibilities

The national consultant will be responsible to undertake following duties in coordination with UNW EVAW team.

Conducting gender responsive analysis of existing legislation and gaps in implementation of the National Disability Act 2013, National Action Plan 2019 and CRPD implementation

Develop research methodology and research questions following UN Women research frameworks/principles
Develop research tools and finalize the tools in consultation with other UN Agencies who are the actors in implementing UNPRPD (UNICEF, ILO) funded project.
Conduct quality assessment with relevant stakeholders and consult with key personnel from the relevant ministries
Collate, compile and analyse the data and information
Validate the findings with the relevant actors and stakeholders (Ministry of Social Welfare- MoSW, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs- MoWCA) and partnering UN Agencies.
Synthesize the report on findings into short, medium and long-term recommendation with clear guideline for necessary actions by different stakeholders.

Produce policy brief focusing on the recommendation to address the gap in existing legislation from gender perspectives.
Develop advocacy strategy for and in consultation with the OPDs for discriminatory law reforms with government stakeholders and conduct validation of monitoring and implementation plan of the advocacy strategy with the OPDs
Facilitate and share the findings and recommendation to address gaps in existing legislation and women and girls with disability issues in inter-ministerial meeting with MoSW, MOWCA, and other relevant ministries
Provide technical support to conduct advocacy consultation on law reformulation with MoSW, MoWCA, Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs (MoLJPA) and disability focal of line ministries to address women and girls with disability issues following the findings and recommendations from the research over a period of time from March 2022 – December 2023
Provide technical support to MoSW for coordination, capacity building and advocacy for gender responsive disability inclusion programming with MoWCA to address the issues of WGWDs

Expected deliverables and payment schedule

Tasks and Deliverables

Total days

Timeline

Payment Schedule

Deliverables for 2022

20 days

Deliverable 1: Develop an inception report and workplan for the assignment

1 day

By 30 September 2022

25% of total contract value will be paid upon satisfactory submission of deliverables ( 01 – 02)

Deliverable 2: Conducting gender responsive analysis of existing legislation and gaps in implementation of the National Disability Act 2013, National Action Plan 2019 and CRPD implementation

Develop research methodology and research questions following UN Women research frameworks/ principles
Develop research tools and refine the tools in consultation with other UN Agencies who are the actors in implementing UNPRPD (UNICEF, ILO)
Conduct quality assessment with relevant stakeholders and consult with key personnel from the relevant ministries
Collate, compile and analyse the data and information

19 days

By 20 December 2022

Deliverables for 2023

50 days

Deliverable 3: Validate the findings with the relevant actors and stakeholders (Ministry of Social Welfare- MoSW, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs- MoWCA), Responsible parties, OPDs and partnering UN agencies

10 days

By 30 January 2023

20% of total contract value will be paid upon satisfactory submission of deliverables (03 – 05)

Deliverable 4: Synthesize the report on findings and short, medium and long-term recommendation with clear guideline for necessary actions by different stakeholders

Deliverable 5: Produce a policy brief focusing on the recommendation to address the gap in existing legislation from gender perspectives

5 days

By 28 February 2023

Deliverable 6: Develop advocacy strategy, implementation and monitoring plan for and in consultation with the OPDs for discriminatory law reforms with government stakeholders

8 days

By 31 March 2023

35 % of total contract value will be paid upon satisfactory submission of deliverables (06 – 09)

Deliverable 7: Validation of the implementation and monitoring plan of the advocacy strategy with OPDs

2 days

By 30 April 2023

Deliverables 8: Develop training module / materials on CRPD reporting for national and local committees

10 days

By 30 June 2023

Deliverable 9: Conduct the TOT for partner organization and OPDs on training module on CRPD reporting and prepare a training completion report

5 days

Deliverable 10: Facilitate and share the findings and recommendation to address gaps in existing legislation and women and girls with disability issues in inter-ministerial meetings with MoSW, MOWCA, and other relevant ministries

5 days

March - December 2023

20% of total contract value will be paid upon satisfactory submission of deliverables (10 – 11)

Deliverable 11: Provide technical support to conduct advocacy consultation on law reformulation with MoSW, MoWCA, MoLJPA and disability focal of line ministries to address women and girls with disability issues following the findings and recommendations from the research

5 days

March - December 2023

70 days

Supervision

The consultant will be supervised by Knowledge Management and Monitoring Analyst of UN Women BCO.

Contract period and work location
The consultant is expected to be based in UN Women Bangladesh in Dhaka for 70 working days from 25 September 2022 – 31 December 2023.

Input

The consultant is expected to work with his or her own device. No office space or device will be provided for this assignment.

Travel and DSA

No DSA will be paid at the duty station. If unforeseen travel outside the duty station is required for this assignment, upon prior agreement/approval from UN Women such travel expenses shall be borne by UNWOMEN and the individual contractor/SSA shall receive a per-diem not to exceed the United Nations daily subsistence allowance (DSA) rate in such other location(s) and actual travel cost.

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

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent analytical skills
• Strong knowledge on research and result based report writing
• Strong knowledge on national legislation, existing laws and policies and law/policy formulation/amendment process
• Strong knowledge on disability inclusion issues, Gender equality, women rights and empowerment, social norms issues, Gender Based violence (GBV)
• Strong networking skills
• Excellent relationship with government ministries and high officials especially with MoSW, MoWCA, MoLJPA
• Strong inter-personal skills, communicate effectively with staff at all levels of the organization and Civil Society Organizations
• Ability to work in a high motivation and can maintain timeline.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in Law, Public Administration, Gender and Development, Development Studies, or any other Social Science disciplines or related field.

Experience:

Minimum 07 years of relevant work experience in analytical research on legal review, law and policy formulation
Experience at least 5 years in providing technical support to government and CSO in law and policy reform
Experience at least 4 years in advocacy and lobbying with government key policy makers and developing of policy brief
Experience in working on gender and disability issues
Experience in research and research report writing
Experience in conducting capacity building of CSOs on advocacy and legislation and policy formulation
Experience in research or article publication on relevant issues in recognized journals (both online and offline)
Experience in working for UN Women, and/or other UN Agencies, International Agencies is desirable

Language requirement:

Excellent command of both Bangla and English (oral and written), other UN languages is an asset

Price Proposal and Schedule of Payments

Consultant must send a financial proposal based on Lump Sum Amount. The total amount quoted shall be all-inclusive and include all
costs components required to perform the deliverables identified in the TOR, including professional fee, only and any other applicable cost to be incurred by the SSA in completing the assignment.
The contract price will be fixed output-based price regardless of extension of the herein specified duration. Payments will be done upon
completion of the deliverables/outputs and as per below percentages

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology.

Cumulative analysis-

The award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant up on Cumulative Analysis/evaluation and determined as:
1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
2. Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the
solicitation;
Only candidates obtaining a minimum 70 mark in technical evaluation will be considered eligible for financial evaluation.
Technical Criteria for Evaluation (Maximum 49 points out of 70)

Criteria-01; Academic Qualification - Max Point 10
Criteria-02; Experience in conducting analysis on legal review, law and policy formulation. Max Point 20
Criteria-03; Experience in developing policy and advocacy brief, lobbying with ministries and key policy makers on policy reform - Max Point 25

Criteria-04; Experience in working with gender equality and disability issues- Max Point 15

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 70. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points (49) will be considered as technically-qualified candidate.

Interested candidates will submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications.