International Consultant in Political Empowerment and Leadership Capacity Development

Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women will work 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 will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Women’s leadership and political participation is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work as mandated in its inception, recognizing the integral role of women in strong and stable democratic processes. UN Women works to implement its Global Strategic Plan 2022-2025 Impact Area 1: Governance and Participation in Public Life Governance & Participation in Public Life which focuses on: Women fully and equally participate in leadership and decision-making and women and girls benefit from gender-responsive governance. Specifically, UN Women focuses on increasing the number of women of all ages who are fully participating, leading and engaging in political institutions and processes; it also focuses on increasing the political participation and leadership of young women, indigenous women and women with disabilities. These efforts are designed to guide countries towards reaching Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 5.5: “ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic and public life.”

UN Women has developed a comprehensive training curriculum designed to support UN Women’s broader programmes on women’s political empowerment and leadership, specifically by helping expand the pool of qualified women willing to run a campaign, win and serve in elective office. To expand its global network of trainers who are qualified on women’s political participation, UN Women is organizing two national trainings of trainers (TOT) for experienced trainers on gender equality, elections and women’s political participation to learn UN Women’s curriculum.

UN Women will organize a Training of Trainers (TOT) for qualified trainers in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia in October and November 2023. Experienced trainers on gender equality, elections and women’s political participation have been selected through a competitive process. Participants will have the opportunity to learn UN Women’s curriculum, deliver some of its components and receive a certificate upon completion of the five-day programme. Select participants will have the opportunity to join UN Women’s roster of Political Leadership and Candidate trainers. Trainers “certified” through the TOT can then work directly with national trainers and implementing partners to train additional pools of trainers at national level.

In this context, UN Women will contract a trainer to facilitate and act as a lead trainer at the two TOTs. Working closely with designated staff from UN Women CO BiH and UN Women Serbia, under the direct supervision of UN Women CO BiH Governance and Leadership Coordinator and overall supervision of UN Women CO BiH Representative, the Consultant will learn UN Women’s curriculum, work with the training team to adapt its methodology for a TOT agenda, help prepare the necessary content, facilitate the TOTs and help build capacity of trainers to deliver the UN Women curriculum.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of this consultancy is to promote and advance women’s leadership, inspire new leaders, and more specifically develop the campaign and leadership skills of aspiring women leaders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.

The immediate objective of this consultancy is to provide expert support in preparation and implementation of UN Women’s Training of Trainers Programme, lead and facilitate two TOTs, and prepare TOT reports and capture lessons learned.

The Consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

Task 1: Support preparation and implementation of UN Women’s Training of Trainers Programme

• Read and learn UN Women’s curriculum.
• Provide inputs to the TOT agendas that corresponds to the TOT objectives and suggest relevant adaptations, based on the UN Women’s political leadership and training curriculum and methodology and given the contextual considerations of working in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.
• Using agreed methodology and in close collaboration with UN Women review all training materials and provide feedback.

Task 2: Act as a Lead Trainer

• Lead and facilitate two 5-days TOTs (one in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and one in Serbia) and provide technical guidance as needed.
• Provide guidance to participants and help evaluate their performance.

Task 3: Prepare TOT report and capture lessons learned

• After each TOT, draft and submit a brief memo reporting on the TOT, as well as on challenges encountered during each TOT, lessons learned and recommendations to support UN Women’s knowledge management.

To facilitate delivery of the above outputs, UN Women will provide the consultant the following: 

• UN Women’s political leadership and training curriculum and methodology
• Sample presentations prepared in line with the curriculum and methodology
• Other documents and contacts as necessary 

DELIVERABLES AND TIMEFRAME 

The consultant will be expected to submit the following deliverables within the indicative timeframe: 

No.	Deliverables	Indicative  Working Days	Due date
1	Conclusions of the introductory consultative meeting with UN Women CO BiH, UN Women Serbia and UN Women RO ECA on the approach to TOT delivery, to include adapted TOT agendas, submitted and approved by UN Women	1	25 SEP 2022
2	TOT agenda and content for one training in BiH and one training in Serbia, adapted from UN Women’s curriculum, developed and approved by UN Women	2	1 OCT 2023
3	5-day TOT implemented in Bosnia and Herzegovina, based on the adapted agenda and content	5	15 NOV 2023
4	5-day TOT implemented in Serbia, based on the adapted agenda and content	5	15 NOV 2023
5	Final consultancy report separately addressing the two TOTs in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia, outlining lessons learned and recommendations, prepared and approved by UN Women	1	20 NOV 2023
Total		14	4 SEP 2023 – 30 NOV 2023

The consultancy will last up to 14 consultancy days, in the period from 4 September 2023 – 30 November 2023. The assignment will not require presence on UN Women premises. 

All deliverables should be submitted to the UN Women Governance and Leadership Coordinator in English unless agreed otherwise in the workplan. The final consultancy report should separately address the TOTs in the two countries, be delivered by 20 November 2023 and should not exceed 20 pages. Approval time required to review the deliverables before authorizing payments is 7 days.   

Competencies

Core Values/guiding principles:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling UN Women values and ethical standards.
• Demonstrates a commitment to UN Women’s mission and vision.
• Able to work effectively within a team.
• Displays cultural and gender sensitivity and adaptability.
• Able to multi-task and juggle competing demands.
• Can assess and prioritize work needs quickly.
• Able to relate to external partners, including other international organizations and agencies, NGOs, grassroots community groups, etc.

Core Competencies:

• Sound expertise in gender equality and women’s empowerment, including on women’s political participation.
• Advanced expertise in training curriculum design and development.
• Training facilitation experience in different countries.
• Broad knowledge of training techniques and tools.
• Good communication skills.
• Fluent in Microsoft word, excel, e-mail, web-based applications and databases.
• Demonstrated leadership and personal examples of promoting knowledge management and a professional learning environment.
• Outstanding networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills.
• Capacity to work with diverse partners including governments, donors and civil society.
• Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with people from varied cultures and professional backgrounds.
• Ability to produce well-written documents demonstrating excellent interpersonal communication skills.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:  Application and recruitment process | About us: Careers at UN Women | UN Women – Headquarters

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications: 

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Gender Studies, Education-related fields, Political Science, Sociology, International Relations, or relevant field and/or equivalent practical experience.

Work Experience: 

• A minimum of 8 years of relevant work experience in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as in training facilitation and curriculum design/development.
• A minimum of 5 years of experience and substantive knowledge in women’s political participation, elections and campaign planning, local government, and women’s leadership generally.
• Experience in training, working and communicating in a multicultural environment and in different electoral systems, with at least 2 similar training programs conducted.
• Demonstrated capacity to draft and produce well-written, clear training manuals and training materials for effective understanding, adaptation and delivery, with at least 2 similar trainings supported.
• Experience with UN organizations and programmes or intergovernmental processes, including those related to women’s empowerment, gender mainstreaming and gender equality is an asset.
• Experience working with multi-stakeholder organizations is essential: governments, CSOs, and the UN/multilateral/bilateral institutions.

Language:

• Fluency in oral and written English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian is required.

EVALUATION OF APPLICANTS 
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 at technical evaluation will be considered for validation interview.  

Criteria: 

Technical Evaluation (70%) – 70 points

• Advanced university degree (Master's degree or equivalent) in Gender Studies, Education-related fields, Political Science, Sociology, International Relations, or relevant field and/or equivalent practical experience. – SATISFACTORY/UNSATISFACTORY
• A minimum of 8 years of relevant work experience in the field of gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as in training facilitation and curriculum design/development. – 15 points
• A minimum of 5 years of experience and substantive knowledge in women’s political participation, elections and campaign planning, local government, and women’s leadership generally. – 15 points
• Experience in training, working and communicating in a multicultural environment and in different electoral systems, with at least 2 similar training programs conducted. - 15 points
• Demonstrated capacity to draft and produce well-written, clear training manuals and training materials for effective understanding, adaptation and delivery, with at least 2 similar trainings supported. – 10 points
• Experience with UN organizations and programmes or intergovernmental processes, including those related to women’s empowerment, gender mainstreaming and gender equality is an asset. – 5 points
• Experience working with multi-stakeholder organizations is essential: governments, CSOs, and the UN/multilateral/bilateral institutions. – 10 points
• Fluency in oral and written English and Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian 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. 

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents: 

1. Expression of interest and confirmation of immediate availability (cover letter)
2. Detailed financial proposal in USD inclusive of all costs except travel (UN Women will directly cover all travel related costs)  
3. Completed UN Women Personal History (P11) form, that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment 

Please note that incomplete applications will not be considered (all documents indicated above need to be uploaded). 

For any additional information, please contact unwomen.bih@unwomen.org 

How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below: 

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment 
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), the Financial Proposal, and Expression of Interest into a single file; The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement)
• Click 'Apply Now' button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click 'Submit Application' 
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above)
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system
   

Qualified women and men and members of minorities are encouraged to apply. UN Women applies fair and transparent selection process that would take into account the competencies/skills of the applicants as well as their financial proposals.  

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.)

Due to large number of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.