Background

UN Women was established by GA resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence, with a mandate to assist Member States and the UN system to progress more effectively and efficiently towards the goal of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women. Since 2001 UN Women (previously as UNIFEM) in Kyrgyzstan has implemented catalytic initiatives on promoting women’s economic, political and social rights. In 2012, a full UN Women Country Office (CO) was established.

The 2030 Agenda has set historic objectives to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, and to leave no one behind. Adequate and timely gender statistics are indispensable to support implementation efforts. However, with less than one-third of the data required to monitor gender-specific Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) indicators available, it is clear that more efforts are needed to achieve these objectives. Harnessing the current momentum and support for effective monitoring of the SDGs and for gender statistics more broadly, UN Women’s Making Every Woman and Girl Count gender statistics programme (MEWGC) aims to stimulate a radical shift in the way quality data and statistics on key aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment are produced and used.

Starting in July 2018, the Kyrgyz Republic has joined the MEWGC programme, thus reiterating the country’s strong commitment to improve the production, accessibility and use of gender statistics for the benefit of a wide range of users. MEWGC programme has been supported the National Statistical Committee to conduct the Gender Assessment of the National Statistical System and the Government in the preparation of the first Voluntary National Review (VNR). VNR is a good instrument for both tracking progress at the national level and for reporting it at the global level. The availability of quality data and robust indicator framework is essential for the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

Gender statistics is an important tool for assessing progress towards achieving gender equality to fulfill a country's international and national commitments. In 2020 the assessment of the national statistical system in the Kyrgyz Republic was carried out by PARIS21 in close partnership with UN Women and National Statistical Committee. The assessment was a part of UN Women regional initiative “Making every woman and girl count” with aim to improve the policy environment for gender statistics, promote gender data availability and use, and improve the production of gender statistics in line with national priorities and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The assessment findings were used to set strategic objectives and priorities on creating a more gender-responsive statistics system and actions to be taken for fulfilling data gaps to monitor the implementation of SDGs and advance GEWE Agenda for the “National Strategy for Development of Statistics (NSSD) for period 2022-2026” and first draft of the National Strategy of Gender Statistics. Understanding a pivotal role in leading and oversee the development of the Gender Statistics Roadmap and Indicator Framework, Inter-Agency Working Group on Gender Data (IAWG-GD), the national mechanism for cooperation and coordination on gender statistics was established by National Statistical Committee in October 2020.
In this regard, UN Women on behalf of UN system in Kyrgyzstan is seeking for the expertise of a National Consultant to support the National Statistical Committee and the Ministry of Labor, Social Security and Migration/ NWM to develop National Gender Statistics Roadmap and National Priority Gender Equality Framework (NPGEI) to identify key gaps and strategic areas of improvement within gender data production, use and dissemination, as well as outline key actions needed for increasing data availability for measuring progress on advancing GEWE agenda and data-driven policymaking.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the Regional Gender Data Specialist based at UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO), SDG Data and Partnership Coordinator at UN Women Country Office and National Statistical Committee (NSC) and in close cooperation with the Ministry of Labor, Social Security and Migration (MLSSM), , the International Consultant will support the National Statistical Committee to develop National Gender Statistics Roadmap and National Priority Gender Equality Framework to identify key gaps and strategic areas of improvement within gender data coordination, production, use and dissemination, as well as outline key actions needed for increasing data available for measuring gender-related progress on advancing GEWE agenda and data driven policymaking and interventions.

Duties and Responsibilities

The proposed assignment will be carried out for approximately 40 days spread over 25 September 2023 to 20 January 2024. Within the assignment, the national consultant will be responsible for the following activities:

• Conduct a desk review of the available national, regional, and global reports, analyses, assessments, particularly on monitoring and implementing the international and national GEWE framework in Kyrgyzstan (e.g. VNR, Gender Equality strategy and it’s NAP, National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) 2022-2026, CEDAW concluding observation 2018, Beijing +25 national review report, NAP 1325 etc.).
• Conduct mapping of the key stakeholders involved in the gender data ecosystem such as government, women’s rights organizations, civil society organizations, academia, private sector, and international development partners etc.
• In close cooperation with the National Statistics Committee and relevant sectoral line ministries, carry out assessment of gender equality policy and programmes to identify needs and priorities for gender data and statistics, as well as to conduct a comprehensive mapping of the data sources that provide/have the potential to provide data.
• Support the NSC and MLSSM/NWM to update the membership of the IAWG- GD, as well as to co-facilitate the group meetings to oversee the process of development of the Roadmap and NPGEI Framework.
• Jointly with the Design Thinking facilitator conceptualize and conduct at least 1 three-day strategic planning workshop for the IAWG-GD members and others if relevant to identify key strategic priorities, objectives, and targeted actions to improve gender data production, use and dissemination.
• Develop the National Gender Statistics Roadmap, which shall identify key gaps and areas of improvement within gender statistics, outline targeted actions for increasing data availability and submit the initial draft of the National Priority Gender Equality Indicator (NPGEI).
• Design and conduct at least 3 consultations with relevant stakeholders among the government, civil society organizations, and research community on how gender data could be improved and leveraged to advance gender equality to validate strategic priorities and actions in the Roadmap.
• Jointly with the Design Thinking Facilitator, conceptualize and conduct 1 two-day technical-level workshop to develop a realistic, costed, and measurable Action Plan to achieve the objectives of the Roadmap.
• Co-facilitate a national-level validation workshop to present and validate the draft Roadmap, Action Plan and NPGEI Framework to the key stakeholders.
• Submit a final version of the National Gender Statistics Roadmap and its Action Plan.

The duration of the consultancy is through 20 January 2024 for approximately 40 fee days:

The payments will be made as per reported number of fee days based on submitted and approved timesheet, and after all the deliverables are submitted, accepted and approved:

Reporting requirements:

Consultancy report should be provided in both in printed and electronic versions in English with detailed description of the fulfilled tasks, according to the present Term of Reference, and the contribution of the expert. Analytical documents, reports and other materials developed by expert should be attached to the report as annexes, which will serve as a justification for payment.

Competencies

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Respect for Diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff.
• Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Competencies:

• Demonstrate and integrity and fairness by modeling UN values and ethical standards.
• Knowledge of the social, cultural, and political context of Kyrgyzstan and local issues of gender, public policy and governance
• Strong written/oral communication and training skills
• Strong interpersonal skills
• Competencies in coordination, planning and team work
• A commitment to quality product and deadlines

Required Skills and Experience

Application procedure:

Applicatins should include:

• Offeror's letter to UN Women confirming interest and availability for the assignment.
• Financial proposal, indicating a total lump sum to include all costs relating to the delivery of activities as per above description.
• P-11 form including experience in similar assignments. This form can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment.
• Previous Work - The candidate should provide at least 3 examples of previous reports and/or related gender analysis using official statistics and other data sources.

Financial proposal format:

Please note that the financial proposal is all-inclusive and shall take into account various expenses incurred by the consultant during the contract period. The consultancy may require travel to the fields. In this case UN Women will cover travel costs. The financial proposal should be provided in USD. If the proposal is provided in any other currency, it would be converted as per UN exchange rate on the date of post closure.

Evaluation of applicants

The candidates will be then evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants' technical qualifications and experience, and financial proposal. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR; and
• Having received the highest cumulative (technical & financial) score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

The selection of candidates will be done in 2 stages:

1st stage: Technical Evaluation/ Desk review.

The candidates will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

2nd stage: Financial evaluation will be conducted according to the method described below:

The maximum number of points assigned to the financial proposal is allocated to the lowest price proposal. All other price proposals receive points in inverse proportion.

A suggested formula is as follows: p=30 (µ/z)

Where:

p - points for the financial proposal being evaluated;

µ - price of the lowest priced proposal;

z - price of the proposal being evaluated

The candidate achieving the highest cumulative score for both Technical and Financial evaluations will be recommended by the Evaluation Committee for contracting.

The Consultant shall promote a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations and commits to high standards of quality, productivity and timeliness in the delivery of tasks. The Consultant will meet and apply the highest standards of integrity and impartiality.

The Consultant must be fully dedicated to the mandate and the values of UN Women, particularly to promoting Gender Equality as a strategy to reduce conflict, improve livelihoods and ensure fairness and justice; to Women Empowerment underpinning Gender Equality promotion efforts; to inter-ethnic tolerance and concord; and to respect for diversity