International Consultant to Support a Study Tour to Sweden (Home-Based)

International Consultant to Support a Study Tour to Sweden to Facilitate the Exchange of Experiences and Learnings for the Government of Georgia on Mainstreaming Gender in Public Service Employment Systems

Organization: UN Women

Location : Home-based, Georgia

Application Deadline : 17-Aug-23 (Midnight New York, USA)

Job Category : Gender Equality

Type of Contract : Individual Contract

Post Level : International Consultant

Languages Required : English  

Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 21-Aug-2023

Duration of Initial Contract : 22 working days

Expected Duration of Assignment : 21 August 2023 – 15 November 2023

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. UN Women in Georgia supports state and non-state partners towards the achievement of substantive gender equality in Georgia. In line with national and international commitments, UN Women works on the levels of policy and legislation, institutions and grassroots, in order to achieve transformative results for increased gender equality and greater protection of the rights of women and girls.

Women’s participation in decision-making is a fundamental prerequisite for gender equality and good governance. Yet women continue to be underrepresented in political and decision-making processes globally. The underrepresentation of women in decision-making is a major impediment to progress across all critical areas of concern of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA). The prioritization of gender equality and women’s rights is further mainstreamed throughout the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with SDG 5 dedicated to “achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls”, with 14 proposed indicators to measure its progress. In addition to measuring the proportion of seats held by women in national parliaments and local governments (SDG indicator 5.5.1), SDG Target 5.5 also measures the proportion of women in managerial positions (SDG indicator 5.5.2), which includes, inter alia, the share of women in the public service.

In Georgia, women’s rights to engage in politics on an equal footing with men have a legal basis in the Constitution of Georgia and Georgia’s Law on Gender Equality and are reinforced through a number of the country’s international commitments (The Constitution is the supreme law of Georgia and recognizes the supremacy of international treaties over domestic laws, unless a treaty contradicts the Constitution.).Yet attaining gender equality in political life and in decision-making more broadly remains a key development challenge in the country and women are underrepresented as decision makers in leading positions of power, whether in elected office or the civil service at both the national and local levels (UN Women, “Women in Decision-Making”, issue brief (2021). Available at https://georgia.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2021/04/women-in-decision-making.). Women are underrepresented in the legislative and executive branches of the Government, in both central and local governments, as well as in the managerial positions in the judicial system. As of today, out of 140 MPs, only 27 were women (19.3 per cent - Parliament of Georgia, “Members of the Parliament”. Available at https://parliament.ge/en/parliament-members/.).The President of Georgia is a woman; however, women remain underrepresented in public office, holding 2 of the 13 ministerial posts (including the Prime Minister), i.e. 15.4 per cent. Georgian public service also has a significant gender imbalance, with women comprising 31 per cent of the total public service workforce, and only 35 per cent within the rank I managerial positions. The gender gap widens even further when considering the gender balance in top managerial positions– across public service entities only 13 per cent of heads and deputy heads are women.

Since 2020 UN Women has been working with the Civil Service Bureau (CSB) – key government agency in charge of coordinating public employment policies in Georgia – in strengthening gender equality and promoting women’s leadership in public service. As a result of these efforts, CSB adopted its first ever internal Gender Equality Strategy and Action Plan, set up internal mechanisms on the prevention and response on sexual harassment and carried out Gender Impact Assessment of the Law of Georgia on Public Service. These initiatives were conducted within the framework of the  “Good Governance for Gender Equality in Georgia” (GG4GEG) project generously funded by the Government of Norway in 2020-2023.

In April 2023 UN Women, with the generous support of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) launched a four-year project “Women’s Increased Leadership for Democracy in Georgia” (WILD). The impact-level goal of the project is to ensure that women and girls in all their diversity fully and equally participate in decision-making and benefit from gender-responsive governance in Georgia. In order to contribute to the achievement of this impact-level goal, the project sets forth two interlinked outcomes, which are as follows - outcome 1: Women and their organizations in all their diversity are engaged in and influence political life and decision-making at all levels in Georgia; and outcome 2: Gender equality and women’s meaningful participation and leadership at all levels is promoted through adoption and implementation of gender-responsive legislative and policy frameworks and practices.

Within the framework of the WILD project, UN Women plans to further support the government of Georgia in strengthening gender equality in public service. In line with these efforts and to ensure that the Georgian public service benefits from the internationally established standards, methodologies, and best practices in advancing gender equality in public service, UN Women Georgia is planning to organize a study tour in Sweden for the government of Georgia.

The study tour will offer a platform to the participants to get acquainted with the Swedish public sector counterparts and learn and discuss about successful policies and practices on promoting gender responsive and inclusive public employment, which has one of the strongest public employment systems in OECD countries. Sweden reports one of the highest levels of general government employment among OECD countries, reaching close to 30% of total employment. A multi-generational public service workforce presents opportunities to combine the experience of long-serving staff with younger employees in development, for example through intergenerational work teams and mentoring programmes. Sweden has almost equal percentage of central government employees aged 55 years or older and employees aged 18-34, which equals 24 and 23 per cent respectively. A gender-balanced cabinet is a strong indicator of a government’s commitment to gender equality. Sweden has the highest representation of female MPs (47%) as well ministerial position (57,7%) among OECD Countries (Government at a Glance, 2021, OECD. Available at: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/docserver/1c258f55-en.pdf?expires=1689168166&id=id&accname=guest&checksum=A7F014AA5B6339E61B05483F05CF1E23). At the same time, Sweden has one of the strongest national and regional gender machinery. The governmental position with the highest responsibility for gender equality in Sweden is the Minister for Gender Equality and Labour. The Division for Gender Equality is one of two governmental bodies responsible for the promotion of gender equality. It is located within the Ministry of Labour which is headed by both the Minister for Labour and Gender Equality and Minister of Housing and Deputy Minister of Labour. Independent equality body - the Equality Ombudsman in Sweden - is an independent government agency that works on behalf of the Swedish parliament and government to promote equal rights and opportunities and combat discrimination. Parliamentary body responsible for gender equality is the Labour Market Committee. The country has one of the most advanced regional structures: the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SALAR) represents the government’s, professionals’, and employers’ interests vis-à-vis Sweden's 20 county councils/regions and 290 municipalities, which inter alia, provides support to increase the number of women in the highest political positions; promotes gender equality in working life, including working conditions and wages; and mainstreams gender into municipal and regional decision-making and services ( Available at: https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/countries/sweden#toc-structures). Sweden is the member state of the European Union while Georgia aspires to join the EU and the country is in the process of implementation of the reform agenda driven by the 12 key recommendations set forth for Georgia by the European Union as a precondition for the country’s EU candidacy status. Therefore, it is of strategic importance for UN Women to support public employees to receive relevant knowledge and experience from the EU member state. Based on the above information, Sweden proves to have one of the most progressive and sophisticated experiences in developing progressive policies on public service, hence study tour in Sweden will provide an opportunity for Georgian public sector representatives to benefit from Sweden’s experience and lessons learned. Representatives of women’s national machinery, CSB and human resources managers from line ministries/state agencies will take part in the study tour.

The study tour will take place on 23-27 October (tentative dates) in Stockholm, Sweden.

The working language will be English.

The detailed objectives of the study tour are:

-             to facilitate the development of new connections, networks, and knowledge-sharing partnerships between Georgian and Swedish counterparts to advance gender equality in public employment policies and practices in Georgia

-             to increase the capacity of the government of Georgia on mainstreaming gender in public service through identifying and sharing best practices from Swedish public sector related to women’s empowerment in the workplace.

-             to familiarize participants with the tools and instruments on advancing gender equality and women’s leadership in public service in Sweden at the national, regional and local levels.

-             to learn from the Swedish experience about strengthening family-friendly employment policies and promoting work-life balance in public service.

-             to learn from the Swedish experience about combating discrimination in the workplace, including about anti-discrimination and anti-sexual harassment mechanisms in Swedish public sector.

-        to learn from the Swedish experience about how gender equality is integrated in the capacity development interventions for public servants.

-             to learn from the Swedish experience what special measures are set up in public service for promoting women’s leadership, including in decision making positions.

-          to learn from the Swedish experience about existing methodologies and practices on creating evidence and collecting data on gender equality in public service.

-             to facilitate the learning on institutional arrangements and organizational accountability on gender equality issues in public service

The study tour should represent a balanced informational and educational programme with some interactive elements to be included into the agenda. The agenda should include meetings with the representatives of the Government of Sweden and government agencies, who are engaged and lead in advancing gender equality agenda in public service.

To the extent possible the study agenda should be designed to include country-specific examples and practical aspects, tailored to the needs and expectations of the study tour participants. The target audience includes high-level government officials (Heads of Offices, Heads of Departments) from public sector. The participants will be accompanied by UN Women team.

In order to organize the study tour, UN Women intends to hire international consultant. The objective of the assignment is to support UN Women in organizing a study tour to Sweden to facilitate the exchange of experiences and learnings for the Government of Georgia on mainstreaming gender in public employment systems.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and responsibilities of the International Consultant are:

• Develop a detailed agenda for the study tour for a group consisted of estimated up to 17 representatives from Georgia (public servants and UN women) and establishing clear objectives and key activities, in close cooperation with the UN Women office in Georgia.
• Arrange all meetings in advance of the study tour and ensure the objectives of the meetings are clearly conveyed to the Swedish counterparts/representatives of various public institutions and any other relevant identified actors.
• Prepare and submit the electronic copy of the study tour information package for the participants (handouts, profiles, background information, relevant training materials, analytical materials, etc).
• Coordinate and ensure the successful implementation of the study tour by arranging interpretation (if needed), accommodation, meals, and local transportation in cooperation with the UN Women office in Georgia. The costs of the accommodation, local transportation and meals for the study tour participants will be covered by the UN Women office in Georgia.
• Serve as facilitator during the meetings as needed.
• Prepare a report of the study tour, which should include the assessment of participants’ knowledge gained from the study tour and agreed follow-up interventions/action points.

Deliverables:

Deliverable 1:  Detailed draft agenda in English for the study tour and logistical details developed and submitted to UN Women by 8 September 2023 (8 working days)

Deliverable 2:  Final agenda for the study tour including all logistical details, meetings confirmed and study tour package developed and submitted to UN Women by 22 September 2023 (6 working days)

Deliverable 3: The implementation of the study tour coordinated and led (including the facilitation of the meetings) during 23 October – 27 October 2023 (tentative dates) (5 working days)

Deliverable 4: The final report in English summarizing the activities of the study tour and the results/ follow-up interventions developed and submitted to UN Women by 10 November 2023 (3 working days).

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

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor’s Degree  in Public Policy, Social Science, or other related fields.

Experience: 

• At least two years of experience in organizing and implementing study visits and other capacity development programmes for people with different background, cultures, and languages.
• Previous experience in working with multi-stakeholders essential: governments, civil society, community-based organizations, international organizations and other.
• At least two years of experience in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment will be a strong asset.

Language:

• Fluency in Swedish and English.

Evaluation Procedure:

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria; technical and financial evaluation.

The candidates must possess the following minimum qualification criteria to be eligible for further technical evaluation:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy, Social Science or other related fields.
• At least two years of experience in organizing and implementing study visits and related programmes for people with different background, cultures and languages.
• Previous experience in working with multi-stakeholders, such as: governments, civil society, community-based organizations, international organizations and other.
• Fluency in Swedish and English.

The candidates will be evaluated in three stages: according to minimum qualification criteria followed by technical and financial evaluation.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

• Bachelor’s Degree in Public Policy, Social Science, or other related fields (max 50 points)
• At least two years of experience in organizing and implementing study visits and related programmes for people with different background, cultures and languages (max 100 points)
• Previous experience in working with multi-stakeholders essential: governments, civil society, community-based organizations, international organizations and other (max 80 points)
• At least two years of experience in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment will be a strong asset (max 70 points)
• Fluency in Swedish and English (max 50 points)

Maximum total technical score amounts to 350 points. Only candidates who have passed over the minimum qualification criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points out of maximum 350 under technical evaluation will qualify for the next stage i.e. evaluation of their financial proposals.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150

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 consideration.

The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical scoring + financial scoring).

Management arrangements:

The contractor will report to and work under direct supervision of UN Women Governance & Participation in Public Life (G&PPL) Programme Analyst and under the overall supervision of the UN Women Deputy Country Representative.

Financial arrangements:

Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by UN Women that the services have been satisfactorily performed as specified below:

• Deliverable 1 – 30%
• Deliverables 2, 3, 4 – 70%

Application submission package:

• Duly filled in Personal History Form PHF11 that can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process
• CV;
• Financial Proposal - lump sum proposal/offer* in USD (including breakdown of this lump sum amount, indicating all necessary costs to complete this assignment).

*The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer: “aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate, including travel costs (ticket, DSA etc.) for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this ToR.

How to Submit the Application:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11)- https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process 
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), CV and the Financial Proposal 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.

Notes:

• UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.
• Applications without the financial offer will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
• The individual consultants should take the mandatory learning security course prior to commencement of assignment– details will follow before the issuance of contract.

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.) 

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