Two national consultants to extend expert, training and mentoring services on gender responsive budgeting (GRB)

Background/Context

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 Programme 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 two thematic areas – governance and national planning and ending violence against women. In fulfilling its mandate, UN Women is cooperating with UN, the government and the CSOs to advocate for women’s empowerment and advancement of gender equality. 

UN Women North Macedonia 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 not limited to, processes through comprehensive training and mentoring programme. Additionally, extensive support is extended 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.

To further support the efforts of the LSGUs to mainstream gender and implement GRB in local programming and budgeting UN women is seeking to hire two consultants to support the strengthening of the capacity of all 41 LSGUs to mainstream gender in budgeting and policy-making processes. The consultants will contribute to the design and delivery of a creative and effective training and mentoring program with a focus on mentoring municipal officials and councilors in applying gender-responsive budgeting principles. Moreover, the assignment will include adjusting the existing modules to a self-paced online course to build long-term capacity building and introducing innovative approaches to encourage gender-sensitive local programming and budgeting.

Under the overall supervision of the Programme Analyst and guidance from the GRB programme team at UN Women Skopje Office, the Local consultants will develop and deliver the bellow listed deliverables in accordance with the indicative timeframe, along with a timesheet, report, and other relevant materials. This activity will be under overall guidance and coordination with the HoO.

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

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work

Based on the above-described objectives of the assignment, under the supervision of the GRB programme team at UN Women, the local consultants are expected to undertake the following tasks and responsibilities: 

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 travels outside Skopje, North Macedonia. If such engagements are expected, UN Women will cover the transportation and DSA.  

III. 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/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values 

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 
•     Knowledge Management and Learning
•     Leadership and Self-Management
•     Judgement/Decision-making
•     Analytical Thinking
•     Change Management

IV. Required Qualifications

Education and Certification:
• Master’s degree or equivalent in gender studies, public administration, public policy, finance, 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:
•     A minimum of 3 years of demonstrated professional experience in the area of gender equality with focus on gender responsive budgeting and/or public policy and budget monitoring;
•     Previous experience in designing and delivering training and/or mentoring programmes on gender equality and gender mainstreaming in policy making and budgeting; 
•     Experience and knowledge on decentralization, local policy, programming and budget development processes in the Republic of North Macedonia; 
•     Knowledge on results-based management and strategic planning is a strong asset; 
•     Previous experience working with international organizations would be considered as an asset;

Languages:
•     Fluency in Macedonian and English is required.
•     Knowledge of Albanian is an asset.