National consultants to extend expert, training and mentoring services on gender responsive budgeting (GRB) and socio-economic empowerment of women

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; the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development; human rights; as well as humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women's rights at the center 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. It 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 Office in the Republic of North Macedonia in line with its priorities set in the UN Women strategic plan and in the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, supports the country on the normative commitments and is working in three thematic areas – governance and national planning, ending violence against women, and women’s economic empowerment. In fulfilling its mandate, UN Women is cooperating with UN, the government, CSOs and the private sector to advocate for women’s empowerment and advancement of gender equality. 

UN Women Office in the country is implementing the project “Promoting Gender Responsive Policies and Budgets: Towards Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in Republic of North of Macedonia – phase 2” funded by Switzerland and the programme “Promoting Gender Responsive Governance in North Macedonia” funded by Sweden. Both initiatives are aimed towards more accountable, transparent and inclusive governance, which would improve the lives of women and girls and advance gender equality in North Macedonia.     

Programme/project interventions focus on strengthening the role of the National Gender Mechanisms in establishing an effective institutional capacity development on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and systematic integration of gender perspective in Public Finance Management.  At the local level, capacity development and mentoring support on gender responsive policy making and budgeting are provided to forty-one (41) Local Self-Government Units (LSGUs), which include local administration and elected officials from partner municipalities. Ten of these LSGUs are newly selected and supporting them includes, but is not limited to, provision of a comprehensive training and mentoring programme. Additionally, extensive support is provided to strengthen oversight and accountability mechanisms in the country, through increased capacities and engagement of key oversight institutions. Finally, part of the interventions focuses on strengthening the capacities of women to voice their needs and advocate for increased accountability and financing for gender equality, while CSOs are supported to promote women’s leadership and participation in decision making and budgeting processes. 

At the local level, an increasing demand was demonstrated in the process of planning, development and implementation of measures for economic empowerment of women and vulnerable groups of citizens and gender responsive social services, as approaches for closing the persisting gender gaps on the labor market. Supporting local self-governments to budget and implement initiatives for economic empowerment of women, is critical in reducing the inequalities, and redressing gender gaps on the labour market. Ensuing opportunities for economic empowerment of women, especially the most vulnerable, directly impacts lives of women and is expected to have positive long run effects in the society. UN Women provided support to 12 municipalities for realization and expansion of their economic empowerment measures as part of the local economic development strategies/programmes, with focus on vulnerable women, which at the same time strengthens local level capacities for upscaling the proven approaches in future planning and budgeting processes. 

To support LSGUs in evidence-based policy making and programming of measures for the socio-economic empowerment of women based on evidence produced by CSOs and on strengthened collaboration with CSOs in addressing the needs of women, .  , UN Women is seeking to recruit one consultant to work as part of a team of experts and jointly coordinate and deliver the training and mentoring programme at the local level. 

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work

The objective of the assignment is to provide expert, training and mentoring support on gender responsive programme planning and budgeting to LSGUs. More specifically, the aim is to build capacities and skills of the local administration and councilors to mainstream gender in policies and programmes, and to program measures for socio-economic empowerment of women. The support will be provided through assisting the local administration to analyze specific local programmes and budgets and develop gender specific measures and indicators, delivering GRB related trainings, as well as by mentoring the local councilors to review local policies from a gender perspective. 

With this ToR, UN Women is seeking to hire one (1) Local Consultant to provide expert, training and mentoring services on gender responsive budgeting to 8 municipalities. 

The team of experts will work under guidance of the UN Women Programme team that coordinates the overall training and mentoring process in the municipalities and ensure the work between the experts is synchronized and well-coordinated.

Based on the above-described objectives of the assignment, under the supervision of the Programme Analyst and guidance of the GRB programme team at UN Women, the local consultant is expected to undertake the following tasks and responsibilities: 

Under the overall supervision of the Programme Analyst and guidance of the GRB programme team at UN Women Office in North Macedonia, the Local Consultant will develop and deliver the above listed deliverables, along with a timesheet, report, and other relevant materials.

All deliverables of an acceptable standard and quality should be submitted to UN Women and in languages as specified above.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. The assignment requires intermittent presence on UN Women premises for coordinative purposes. 

As part of this assignment, there are expected in country travels outside Skopje, North Macedonia. UN Women will cover the transportation and DSA

Competencies :

Core Values:

Core Competencies:

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in public administration, public policy, finance, gender studies, or a related field is required.

• 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:

Languages:

Knowledge of Albanian is an asset.

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

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.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.