Republic of Moldova

National Consultant to work with the private sector companies on promoting Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP)/UNWomen

Vacancy Number: Pr16/01324

Location:	Chisinau, Moldova
Application Deadline:	16 Jun 2016, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Application Extended deadline:	24 Jun 2016, 23:59 (GMT+2:00)
Type of Contract:	Individual Contract
Starting date:	01 Jul 2016
Reference to the project:	UN Women
Expected Duration of Assignment:	July - December 2016, up to 115 working days within a 6 calendar month period
Submission Instructions:
Supporting Documents: Terms of Reference Procurement Notice Personal History Form (P11) UN Women UN Women Conditions of Service Consultants

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.

Economic empowerment is one of the priority areas of UN Women. UN Women works with Governments and multilateral partners (UN, World Bank, International Finance Corporation, regional development banks) to promote women’s economic empowerment and increase their access to economic opportunities, especially for those who are most excluded. Empowering women to participate fully in economic life across all sectors is essential to build stronger economies, achieve internationally agreed goals for development and sustainability, and improve the quality of life for women, men, families and communities.      

In May 2015 UN Women has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Organization for SME development (ODIMM) with key objectives to build a strong partnership in promoting the adoption and implementation of Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEP) by the private sector companies and integrate WEP into the relevant policies and plans at central and local level. The principles were elaborated based on Calvert Women’s Principle which was launched in 2004 in partnership with UNIFEM (now UN Women), which was first Global Code of Corporate Conduct that is primarily addressed the issue of empowering women worldwide. Today, the WEPs are the guidance for businesses and private sectors, to help them and women to meet at beneficial level. (UN Global Compact, 2011) These principles were initiated in collaboration between UN Women and the United Nations Global Compact. This is especially designed for companies to review their policies on empowerment of women, to acknowledge and to start making changes. In the international community these are recognized principles for women’s equality participation. They represent the global standard that has been accepted all around the world and provide seven principles that all companies can subscribe to.

Key areas of interventions within the partnership with ODIMM are:

• Ensure the notion of WEP, Gender Equality (GE) and Women’s Human Rights (WHR) is integrated into relevant policies and plans at central and local level
• Institutionalize Women’s Empowerment Principles in the Republic of Moldova
• Raise Public awareness about companies actively promoting WEP as well promote actively women leaders in different sector, including in business

This will be achieved by having both, a policy dialogue, but also support networking of women from rural area to advocate for greater gender equality. Hence, a National Women Platform from Moldova (PNFM) was created by ODIMM in 2013, and supported by UN Women.

A number of advocacy initiatives to promote WEP were undertaken in 2015, including a mini survey among the private sector players on their readiness to adopt Women’s Economic Empowerment Principles. The results of the survey have demonstrated that there are existing positive practices of the private sector in Moldova which needs to be further communicated and promoted within the WEP.  Therefore, UN Women, in collaboration with ODIMM, decided to continue promoting WEP through the network of the private companies supported by ODIMM and other, and raise Public awareness about companies actively promoting WEP. For that, UN Women is planning to hire a local consultant to work with the companies around WEP and support WEP promotion.

Scope of work

Under the direct supervision of the UN Women National Programme Officer and in close coordination with the Director of the Organization for Small and Medium Sector Development from Moldova the Consultant will be responsible for promoting WEP through the network of private companies supported by ODIMM and other by identifying positive practices of companies that signed to WEP.

More specifically, the selected consultant will be responsible for the following tasks:

1. Identify existing good practices of WEP application within the private sector companies, including by using ODIMM platforms (National Platform of Women from Moldova, PARE 1+1, Youth businesses, etc.), using questionnaire and interviews (face to face as well as using web platforms and social media) to collect information
   At least 50 companies with successful practices identified.
2. Organize discussion, round tables among companies with successful an positive practices (positive champions) and other companies to learn about their positive practices and from each other
   At least 10 meetings organized.
3. Develop the concept and guidance for the WEP context to be rolled during 2016 and provide support with its implementation
   Concept developed.
4. Identify new companies that are adhering to WEP and facilitate their signing to it
   At least 50 new companies signed WEP
5. Support the conceptualization and organization of a launching event in cooperation with UN Women and ODIMM;
6. Collect information about the success stories based on the positive practices identified within the private sector companies to be used for awareness raising materials

Requirements for experience

 Education:

• University degree in social or economic science related and relevant for this assignment;
• Other formal education relevant for the assignment.

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years of proven experience working the private sector, with a focus on their corporate social responsivity;
• Minimum 2 years’ experience of coordinating development related activities.

Language and other skills:

• Excellent verbal and written Romanian and working knowledge of English. Competence in one or more of the other minority languages relevant for Moldova, including Gagauz, Ukrainian, Bulgarian or other languages is an asset.

Documents to be included

 Interested candidates must submit via online submission system the following documents/ information to demonstrate their qualification:

• Letter of Intent with justification of being the most suitable for the work, vision and working approach, specifically indicating experience of carrying out consultative research and in producing out analytical reports, etc.)
• Duly filled Personal History Form (P11) and/or CV, including records on past experience in similar projects/assignments and specific outputs obtained;
• Financial proposal (in MDL) - specifying an all-inclusive daily fee, and the lump sum for the envisaged number of working days. The financial offer should include all costs related to completion of the task under the current Terms of Reference.

Financial proposal

The financial proposal shall be structured around the specific tasks and key deliverables described in the Terms of Reference. Interested individual consultants must specify a daily fee. Payments are made to the Individual Consultant based on the number of days worked.

 

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