International Consultant for Capacity Development on Women Transformative Leadership for Post-Disaster Economic Recovery and Climate-Resilient Livelihood

1. 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.

The UN Women Cambodia Programme Office (CPO) Strategic Note (SN) 2019-2023 focuses on three key priorities to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE). The priority is to strengthen government capacity and accountability to integrate international norms and commitments (CEDAW, SDGs, Beijing PfA, Sendai) into national legislative and regulatory frameworks, including supporting dialogue and CSO engagement in accountability for GEWE commitments. The second area of focus is Ending Violence Against Women where CPO’s focus includes creating an enabling environment to prevent, respond to and prosecute all forms of GBV as well as ensuring that marginalized women who experience violence, including women migrant workers, access services and protections. Thirdly, CPO works to enhance gender responsiveness in climate change action and disaster risk reduction (DRR). A focus on empowerment, women’s leadership, challenging negative gender norms and leaving no one behind runs through the programme.

The CPO recognizes the complex relationship between gender issues, climate change, and disasters like COVID-19. The CPO is looking for an international consultant to support on two key projects that respond to these interlinkages. The first project is the Gender-Responsive COVID-19 Socio-Economic Recovery which aim to integrate gender-responsive measures into COVID-19 socio-economic recovery plans to respond to the most urgent needs of highly vulnerable women and girls. The project is currently implemented in Cambodia and Thailand with primary reaching out to migrant workers and women in rural communities in Cambodia and women and youth from ethnic minorities in Thailand, who are disproportionately affected by the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. The second project entitled EmPower: Women for Climate-resilient Society Phase II aims to scale up for regional implementation and generate new regional commitments and national policies, financial mechanisms and tools, methodologies, evidence, and knowledge to further impact. The project will contribute to the overall Impact: “People in Asia-Pacific are less vulnerable to the impacts of climate change and experience greater gender equality and the full enjoyment of their rights, including equal access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.”

Duties and Responsibilities

2. DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

As part of the support to women from vulnerable group?? including migrant workers and women living in climate hazard impacted area whose socio-economic condition has been worsened by Covid-19, the international consultant is expected to develop a women transformative leadership curriculum which specifically tailored to fit the needs of women group in addition to other technical capacity development provided by UN Women CSO partner on financial literacy and management and job search skills. 26 emerging women will be selected to join in the women leadership training to yield ripple effect once they put the knowledge and skill into practice in their community.

The women transformative leadership capacity development aims at promoting women capacity in leadership for their livelihood and their engagement in climate change action which enable them to open up option for climate-resilient livelihood activities and other employment options. The key topics and methodologies should provide transformative and experiential learning for the 26 selected women and allow them to yield ripple effect for other women in their community.

To achieve the result above, in collaboration with UN Women’s programme team the international consultant will work closely with and provide technical support to CSO partner to conduct further coaching and support on the reflection and application of the leadership skills, knowledge and principle which they have acquired for a long-term outcome. Thus, this will include providing capacity development to CSO partners. The detail key responsibilities of the consultant will be as follows:

Provide technical lead on the design of the women transformative leadership programme for target women group to enable their post disaster economic recovery and build back better skills and resilience

Review existing UN Women and CSO partner training materials on women’s transformative leadership.
Building on existing materials, and utilizing a participatory method with the CSO partner, develop a capacity-building programme, including five days' worth of materials for in-person training sessions, as well as coaching and reflection plan.
In collaboration with CSO Partner, develop training guidelines and coaching plan to build capacity of CSO Partner to implement women’s leadership training.
In collaboration with UN Women’s programme team and CSO Partner, conduct the initial/pilot capacity building training for identified community women leaders.
Support CSO partner to apply training programme and methodologies to co-facilitate the workshops and create an experiential and transformative learning space for identified community women leaders.
Revise/update training materials based on lessons learnt from the the pilot stage of the programme.
Ensure handover of training curriculum to CSO Partner and UN Women programme team.

3. EXPECTED DELIVERABLES AND TIMELINES

Task

Deliverables

Target Date

1. An inception report, including workplan outlining key activities, methodology, key information and timeframe

Submission of inception report

15 June 2023

2. Develop first draft of the capacity development program including the detail content, session plan, including methodology, and training material of the 5-day workshop

Submission of first draft of capacity development program

09 July 2023

3.

Conduct a discussion meeting with CSO partner to finalize the capacity development program
Finalize the capacity development program with CSO input

Submission of final capacity development program including Session Plans, training materials and coaching guide

20 July 2023

4. Conduct? initial workshop and discussion with CSO partner to enable them to co-facilitate in the workshop with women

Submission of Report on the workshop

30 July 2023

5. Prepare and conduct workshop with women group with the co-facilitation with CSO partner

Submission of Report on the workshop with women including the recommendation on further support for the group

13 October 2023

6. Provide coaching and reflection workshop guide to CSO partner

Submission of plan and instructions for archiving images

30 November 2023

4. SUPERVISION

The consultant will work in close collaboration with the programme team in Cambodia, primarily the EmPower team, under the direct supervision of Country Programme Coordinator. A workstation will be provided to the consultant to ensure effective consultation and support. The Consultant will bring his/her own personal computer to conduct this assignment. With the facilitation of the CCO team, the consultant will also be expected to engage with external stakeholders, especially with the responsible partner.

5. CONTRACT PERIOD

The consultancy will take place over a multi-year timeframe, reflecting the life of the EmPower project. It is expected to be carried out on a part-time basis for 46 days between 01 June 2023 and 15 March 2024.

6. DUTY STATION

Home-based with missions to Cambodia. The consultant may be required to travel outside of Phnom Penh as needed for the purpose of the assignment where required by UN Women-Cambodia. The standard UN Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) will apply to any travel outside duty station that may be required in the fulfillment of this assignment.

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: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Technical Competencies:

Good knowledge of development of individual agency/self-esteem as well as robust skills in mentoring/coaching young women, women leaders and gender advocates through feminist framework;
A proven history of leadership, management and women’s capacity building through a style of mutual accountability and professional development;
Proven experience and skills in critical analysis, participatory programme design, facilitation/coordination, and report writing;
Proven experience and skill in conducting participatory skill building session, with application of diverse tools/technique to enable audiences to interact and learn from each other experience as well as knowledge; and
A proven ability to liaise and coordinate with a myriad of stakeholders and partners, including gender advocates, formal and informal women’s network, civil society organization as well as university..

Functional competencies:

Knowledge of the social, cultural, and political context in Southeast Asia, including Cambodia and local issues of gender, women’s participation in private and public sphere, multiple challenges that potential young women leaders and gender advocates face to advance their personal development plan as well as participate equally in emergent socioeconomic development;
Promotion respectful and gender sensitive learning environment throughout the assignment and in the office;
Solid experience in coordination and facilitation to engage relevant stakeholders in the process and learning space;
Demonstrated sensitivity, discretion, tact, and courtesy in relation to gender equality and women’s rights, development principles, working with implementing young people and other stakeholders; and
Proven excellent context analysis and writing skills and high-quality reports produced.

Corporate competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism;

Required Skills and Experience

7. REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

Education and certification:

Master’s degree in public policy, gender/women studies, development studies, international relations, or other related disciplines
A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

Minimum 5 years progressively responsible relevant experience, preferably in the field of youth and women empowerment, focusing on building agency of individual and promoting women economic empowerment.
At least 5 years of experience in designing programme and conducting participatory skill building training for vulnerable women group living at rural area;
Sound knowledge of women’s empowerment and feminist leadership concept as well as excellent understanding of multiple gender challenges in socioeconomic aspect;
Working experience on women leadership in livelihood promotion in climate change context is a plus.
Working experience on women leadership in livelihood promotion after disaster time like Covid-19 is a plus.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English is required.
Khmer language ability would be an advantage.

8. EVALUATION

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis:

Technical qualification (100 points); weight: (70%)
Financial proposal (100 points): weight (30%)

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Technical Evaluation Criteria

Obtainable

Score

Education and certification

Master’s degree in public policy, gender/women studies, development studies, international relations, or other related disciplines

A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree

30 %

Experience

Minimum 5 years progressively responsible relevant experience, preferably in the field of youth and women empowerment, focusing on building agency of individual and promoting women economic empowerment.
At least 5 years of experience in designing programme and conducting participatory skill building training for vulnerable women group living at rural area;
Sound knowledge of women’s empowerment and feminist leadership concept as well as excellent understanding of multiple gender challenges in socioeconomic aspect;
Working experience on women leadership in livelihood promotion in climate change context is a plus.
Working experience on women leadership in livelihood promotion after disaster time like Covid-19 is a plus.

50 %

Language skills

Fluency in English is required.
Khmer language ability would be an advantage.

20 %

Total Obtainable Score

100 %