Consultancy for a Local Adviser on Women in Leadership IC/PNG/038-2021

Background

1. UNDP works in 170 countries and territories, helping to eradicate poverty, reduce inequalities and exclusion, and build resilience so countries can sustain progress. As the UN’s development agency, UNDP plays a critical role in helping countries achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
2. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), otherwise known as the Global Goals, are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. They were adopted by all United Nations Member States in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030. The 17 SDGs are integrated recognizing that action in one area will affect outcomes in others, and that development must balance social, economic and environmental sustainability.
3.  The UNDP Papua New Guinea Country Office has a growing Governance portfolio covering a wide range of work and services to its partners and clients in line with the key priorities of the PNG Government and UNDP Country Programme Document. These include policy and advisory support on democratic governance and development issues, finance management, parliamentary strengthening, political party reforms, peacebuilding and conflict prevention, electoral support, private sector engagement and promotion of human rights and gender equality.
4. In regard to women’s political representation and leadership roles in Papua New Guinea, women’s participation has remained consistently low. With female representation in parliamentary decision-making decreasing from 2.7% to zero in the 2017 elections, a women’s leadership vacuum now exists at the national level.
5. The Government of Papua New Guinea has agreed a range of national and international commitments to support women’s equal participation in public life and within political processes. For instance, the PNG Constitution, Vision 2050, the Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Policy, Goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The new Medium-Term Development Plan 2018 – 2022 notes the barriers women face in achieving Political equality. Key Result Area three calls for more women in decision making positions, including Parliament.  
6. To support these efforts, UNDP is partnering with UN Women to implement the Women Make the Change Project (The Project). The Project follows the Global Framework on Women’s Political Participation. It focuses on two out of four critical outputs within the Framework. These are: (i) Legal frameworks strengthened to promote gender balance throughout the electoral cycle; (ii) A cadre of interested, diverse and capable women political leaders supported at national and sub-national level; (iii) Women are perceived as equally legitimate and effective political leaders as men; (iv) Women are promoted as leaders in gender sensitive political institutions.
7. UNDP seeks an experience consultant as its Local Adviser on Women in Leadership (Local WIL Adviser) to under tasks to support implementation of the key outcomes and outputs of the Project.

Objectives:

1. To support UNDP’s investments in Papua New Guinea on gender equality by successfully deliver results to support women’s leadership roles and political participation under the Women Make the Change project.

Supervision and Reporting:

1. Under the overall guidance and supervision of the UNDP Assistant Resident Representative (ARR), the Consultant will work closely on a day-to-day basis with the Project Specialist to provide key support to advance women’s political participation through the project.

Duties and Responsibilities:

1. The Local WIL Adviser will among other tasks, be responsible for the following as a minimum:
2. Coordination and communication

1. Support coordination of the UNDP Women Make the Change project with UN Women and key partners such as the Integrity of Political Parties, Parliament, PNG Electoral Commission, Department of Community Development and others.
2. Provide inputs on Women Making the Change project reporting and other project-related information.
3. Produce press releases on PNG women in politics/leadership issues, as required
4. Provide inputs to Pacific Women in Politics website on PNG women
5. Drafting of reports and briefs for UNDP Senior Management based on requests.

1. Research and support WIL activities
   1. Support to DfCDR to progress the TSM agenda
   2. Produce knowledge products as required, including an Action Research to document women candidates experience over time.
   3. Support organization of WIP workshops, seminars, webinars, etc.
   4. Support work with Independent Political Parties and Candidates Commission, as required.
   5. Support rollout of Practice Parliament for Women in late 2021/early 2022 – intended to be a national event for awareness on WIL and profiling of women candidates.
   6. Support a national diagnostic workshop to review the experience of women, political parties and media after the 2022 national elections.
   7. Other relates tasks as required.
2. Reporting

1. Monthly reports to the Project Specialist and ARR on progress of tasks and key activities.
2. Presentation to UNDP and partners as required.
3. Prepare a detailed final report on issues and next steps for the Project at the end of the consultancy.

*Please refer to the Reporting Schedule on the Terms of Reference*

Resources Provided

The Consultant shall provide his/her own working equipment (hardware and software). UNDP will assist with a desk space.

• High level planning, organizational and time management skills, including flexibility, attention to detail and the ability to work under pressure to meet challenging deadlines.
• Analytical and problem-solving skills of a high order, including the ability to formulate recommendations and advice senior management on tackling difficult scenarios.
• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN values and ethical standards.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Sound judgement and strategic analysis.

Education and experience

• Advanced University degree (Master’s degree or equivalent) in gender, social sciences, development studies, international relationship or a related field.
• Minimum of seven (7) years of progressively responsible professional experience in gender, social sciences, development studies, international relationship or a related field.
• At least seven (7) years of experience working on gender equality programming with particular focus on women in leadership and initiatives to empower women in to decision making roles.

Evaluation

Cumulative analysis

The proposals will be evaluated using the cumulative analysis method with a split 70% technical and

30% financial scoring.  The proposal with the highest cumulative scoring will be awarded the contract. Applications will be evaluated technically, and points are attributed based on how well the proposal meets the requirements of the Terms of Reference using the guidelines detailed in the table below:

 When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract may be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated 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.

* Technical Criteria weighting; 70%

* Financial Criteria weighting; 30%

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the Technical Evaluation would be considered for the Financial Evaluation. Interviews may be conducted as part of technical assessment for shortlisted proposals.

*Please refer to Evaluation Criteria Table in the Terms of Reference*

Documents to be included when submitting Consultancy Proposals

The following documents may be requested:

1. Duly executed Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP.
2. Signed P11, indicating all experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references.
3. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology, if applicable, on how they will approach and complete the assignment. A methodology is recommended for intellectual services but may be omitted for support services.
4. Financial Proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided.   If an Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must stipulate that arrangement at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.  The financial proposal must be submitted separately from other documents. The P11 form and Template for confirming availability and interest are available under the procurement section of UNDP PNG website (www.pg.undp.org ).

Lump-sum contracts

The financial proposal shall specify a total lump-sum amount, and payment terms around specific and measurable (qualitative and quantitative) deliverables (i.e., whether payments fall in instalments or upon completion of the entire contract). Payments are based upon output, i.e., upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR.  To assist the requesting unit in the comparison of financial proposals, the financial proposal will include a breakdown of this lump-sum amount (including travel, living expenses, and number of anticipated working days).

Travel

All envisaged travel costs must be included in the financial proposal. This includes all travel to join duty station/repatriation travel. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket; should the IC wish to travel on a higher class, they should do so using their own resources.

In the case of unforeseeable travel, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging, and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between the respective business unit and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed.

Submission Instructions

Completed proposals should be submitted to [email protected] with mandatory email subject:  Consultancy Local Adviser on Women in Leadership no later than Friday 24th  September 2021. For any clarification regarding this assignment please write to  [email protected]

Please be guided by the instructions provided in this document above while preparing your submission. Incomplete proposals and failure to comply with proposal submission instruction will not be considered or will result in disqualification of proposal. UNDP looks forward to receiving your Proposal and thank you in advance for your interest in UNDP procurement opportunities.