Consultant – Policy and Knowledge Management (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

Location : New Delhi, INDIA

Application Deadline : 24-Oct-23 (Midnight New York, USA)

Additional Category : Gender Equality

Type of Contract : Individual Contract

Post Level : National Consultant

Languages Required : English

Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start)

20-Nov-2023

Duration of Initial Contract : One Year (20 Working Days Per Month) (Renewable subject to availability of funds)

Expected Duration of Assignment : One Year (20 Working Days Per Month) (Renewable subject to availability of funds)

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.

One of the goals of UN Women is to ensure that marginalized women and young women have access to, participate in and achieve quality learning, entrepreneurial and employment outcomes, by underlying the structural barriers that women and young women face to equally access quality education, learning and decent work opportunities.

UN Women’s Women’s Economic Empowerment Unit focuses on holistic approaches to provide comprehensive solutions for marginalized young women and women to return to education, upskill themselves and establish enterprises. Through its various projects/interventions in the areas of education, employment and entrepreneurship, including focus on climate and climate technologies, WEE offers women, their families, local communities with benefits tailored to their needs as learners and earners.

Under the direct supervision of the Country Programme Manager, SCE, the consultant will provide technical support on gender to the National Institute of Open Schooling and other relevant ministries for implementation of policies, provide support to the Manager in preparing proposals for Women’s Economic Empowerment Programmes, provide technical support in mainstreaming gender in various training curriculums developed under WEE including gender and climate, livelihoods, environment, skilling, etc. and support in imparting gender trainings, undertake knowledge management, and documentation of project outcomes for programmes under WEE.

Duties and Responsibilities

Policy Analysis and Implementation:

•  Provide technical support to the National Institute of Open Schooling for engendering their policies and programmes, particularly implementation of the Gender Policy Action Plan.
•  Develop resources to build capacities of relevant stakeholders on addressing challenges that act as barriers to women’s employment and entrepreneurship.
•  Develop analysis and research of information, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation & identification of new opportunities with Government Departments associated with WEE (MSDE (Sankalp), SDEEID (GoMH), OSDA, NIOS, in consultation with technical consultants based in the Government Departments.

Research and Documentation:

•  Develop analysis of documents/references from different UN Women programmes of WEE from a gender perspective.
•  Prepare briefing notes and updates on projects under WEE.
•  Identify and synthesize best practices and lessons learned that are directly linked to the implementation of the WEE programmes and contribute to their dissemination.
•  Provide inputs to the skill training modules developed under the programmes.

Training and Capacity Building:

•  Assess training needs of all programs being implemented under WEE portfolio.
•  Lead process of curriculum development/revision/review as per requirement of program/s ensuring gender, workforce participation and upskilling, climate and access to technology perspective across the curriculum.
•  Prepare training calendar of WEE unit.
•  Ensure training delivery on time and ensure quality of content delivery.
•  Develop resource pool on various subjects including gender, climate change, access to technology and upskilling and work participation, etc.

Knowledge Management:

•  Support the development of knowledge products for a high-level event under WEE to disseminate information on the impact of the programmes and collation of case studies, best practices.
•  Support in resource mobilisation efforts through proposal development.
•  Contribute to the exchange of information and knowledge products internally and externally of the programme;
•  Preparation of monthly performance reports.
•  Any other duties assigned by the Country Programme Manager, SCE in UN Women.

Deliverables:

•  Monthly progress report with details of trainings, meetings and briefings with NIOS and projects under WEE
•  Gender trainings conducted for government partners and project participants.
•  Training modules for WEE reviewed from a gender lens.
•  Proposals for expanding programmes under WEE developed in consultation with teams.
•  Technical inputs to WEE policy work at MSDE, OSDA, SDEEID and the Gender Policy Implementation Plan at NIOS provided.
•  Knowledge products for the high-level event under WEE documenting learnings and case studies prepared.
•  Briefs of policies, schemes and programmes of the Government linked to WEE prepared with evidence from the project implementation.
•  Documents consolidating WEE programme learnings and best practices developed.
•  Any other business.

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

•  Ability to perform a broad range of specialized activities aimed at effective and efficient functioning of the Programme unit including logistical support;
•  Ability to create, edit and present information in clear and presentable formats;
•  Ability to manage data, documents, correspondence and reports information and workflow;
•  Good knowledge of technical area;
•  Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
•  Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints;
•  Ability to identify and analyze trends and opportunities;
•  Ability to establish, build and sustain effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective; anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

•  Master’s degree in social sciences, women’s rights, international studies, gender and development, law or any other related discipline.
•  Studies with atleast 3 years of progressive experience in the area of STEM and/or working with government agencies is an asset;
•  5 years of experience would be considered in lieu of Master’s degree.

Experience:

•  Minimum 5 years of relevant experience at the National or International level, on gender, livelihoods, with the government or civil society sector;
•  Experience of working in skills and entrepreneurship related projects and training is desirable;
•  Experience of working with the Government and/or the United Nations is desirable;
•  Demonstrated verbal and written communication skills.

Language Requirements:

•  Fluency in English and working knowledge of Hindi is required.
•  Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org.

Application: Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

•  All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
•  Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
•  Applications received after the close date will not be accepted.
•  Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria: Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

•  Required Degree and Qualification (5 points);
•  Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points);
•  Working knowledge and experience of working with National /State Government (5 points);

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

•  Interview
•  Writing Samples

Please Note:

•  For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
•  Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.
•  The consultant is expected to use their own computer equipment. The office will not provide any computer equipment for this assignment.
•  This is a full-time assignment. The consultant is expected to disclose any outside activity and shall not be permitted to take up any outside work during the course of this assignment.

Note: 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.