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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments to 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.

The imperative to address GESI (Gender Equality and Social Inclusion) in climate action arises from the recognition that women and disadvantaged groups are disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change. As a risk multiplier, climate change exacerbates existing inequalities in society, amplifying vulnerabilities and exacerbating hardships faced by these marginalized communities. Despite being among the most affected, women and disadvantaged groups are often excluded from decision-making processes in climate action, limiting their ability to influence policies and interventions that directly shape their lives and livelihoods.

In line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2023-2027), and the UN Women Nepal’s current Strategic Note (SN) 2023-2027, UN Women Nepal has identified “Environmental Sustainability, Climate and Disaster Resilience” as one its key priorities highlighted in Outcome 1.3 that “By 2027, more people, especially women, youth, children, and the most marginalized and poor, increasingly benefit from and contribute to building an inclusive, sustainable, climate-resilient, and green society and reduced impacts of disasters at federal, provincial, and local levels”.

Moreover, UN Women is a subsidiary organ of the United Nations mandated to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women’s work on women, peace, and security is guided by 10 UN Security Council resolutions—1325(2000), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), 2467 (2019) and 2493 (2019) and is bolstered by a number of related normative frameworks, which make up the broader women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda which also includes issues related to climate justice and security. In this regard, NCO, therefore, plans to link its climate action work to WPS efforts as there is a clear need for gender-responsive and/or gender-transformative natural resource governance, climate mitigation/adaptation measures as well as dispute resolution and enhancing community resilience and social harmony for greater and more inclusive participation and leadership of women and people from vulnerable groups in climate related decisions. Similarly, NCO plans to strengthen understanding of the WPS and gender-responsive and/or gender-transformative human security approaches to climate change across all tiers of government and the leading civil society partners.

Piloting a gender-responsive and inclusive climate-smart village in Nepal is crucial addressing the intertwined challenges of climate change and social inequality, ensuring that marginalized communities, particularly women, are empowered and making decisions with context-specific tools to build resilience and foster sustainable development. NCO’s initiative to establish climate-smart, gender-responsive and inclusive villages recognizes the interplay of climate change and social dynamics, emphasizing an intersectional approach that considers gender, age, caste, socioeconomic status, disability and ethnicity. This strategy addresses the differential needs, priorities and gaps faced by vulnerable communities. The strategy will be informed by mapping existing climate-smart initiatives in Nepal, this initiative ensures context-specific, community-driven solutions for equitable and resilient development, empowerment, and climate justice reflecting the commitment to inclusivity and sustainability. . The initiative will promote gender friendly efficient and cost-effective technologies, and renewable energy options with the focus on reducing women’s drudgery on the farm and off the farm. Women and vulnerable groups will lead actions together with the local government on gender-responsive priorities. Livelihood, tourism and entrepreneurship development (where possible), skill building and training, capacity building in non-traditional areas are other areas that the smart village will implement and more over intergenerational dialogue and policy dialogues on gender, inclusion and climate issues will be supported. The village will also made efforts to collaboratively work to address some of the harmful social norms and discriminatory existing practices.

In this context, UN Women is seeking for a national Co-Lead Consultant who will support NCO in mapping, developing a framework and a concept note for piloting of a gender-responsive and inclusive climate-smart village.

Duties and Responsibilities

In line with the Government of Nepal’s commitment to develop climate-smart villages, UN Women will pilot gender-responsive and inclusive climate-smart villages in collaboration with local governments, as an innovative model, building on lessons learned from past programming.

Similarly, UN Women will work to strengthen its partnership with the Ministry of Forest and Environment and the Alternative Energy Promotion Center, to ensure women and excluded groups have access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable and modern energy targeting.

UN Women is seeking a Co-Lead Consultant to co-design under leadership of the Lead Consultant a comprehensive framework for a climate-smart village pilot together with a concept note (maximum 16 pages, in line with UN Women template), to be implemented in collaboration with the Government of Nepal and local level women-led CSOs. This framework aims to encompass vital facets such as review in plans and policies, empowerment, sustainable livelihoods, climate resilience, inclusivity enhancement, technology integration, and the empowerment of women and vulnerable groups, capacity building and social norm change, within the context of climate action. The Co-Lead Consultant will work in a team including a Lead Consultant and a national UNV Expert.

The Co-Lead Consultant's responsibility includes support in elucidating the mechanisms through which women will be empowered as active agents of change, describing the support mechanisms for local NGOs operating within the villages, and substantiating these aspects through thorough analysis and justification. Moreover, the framework should present a diverse gender-responsive and inclusive toolkit and approaches that UN Women can employ to ensure successful implementation.

A key element of the Co-Lead Consultant's role is also to provide support in outlining a comprehensive concept note, encapsulating the essence and methodology of the proposed framework, thus paving the way for a holistic and impactful climate-smart village pilot initiative.

Under the overall guidance of Head of Office and supervision of the Programme Specialist of UN Women Nepal, the Co-Lead Consultant is responsible for supporting NCO for the following deliverables.

1. Key deliverables, Timeline, and Schedule of Payment

The indicative timeframe for this assignment is from 1 October to 31 January 2023. The tasks are delivered in the guidance of the Lead Consultant and supported by the Co-Lead Consultant and a national UNV Expert. The working days for the Co-Lead Consultant will not exceed more than 70 days. The expected deliverable and payment schedule are as follows:

The payment will be made upon the submission of expected deliverables along with an invoice certified by the immediate supervisor.

1. Travel and Accommodation Expenses

Travel is not expected for this assignment. UN Women will cover the travel and accommodations costs beyond commuting distance from the consultant’s usual place of residence for UN Women authorized travel as per the UN Women standard guidelines.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

• 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; and
• 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.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues

• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement

• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of social and gender equality/inequalities, disparities and exclusions, women’s rights issues, and intersectionality.
• Good proposal writing skills
• Good coordination, resource mobilization and donor relation skills.

• Good knowledge of Results Based Management and Human Rights Based Approach.
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings and recommendations.
• Strong analytical and communication skills.
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail.
• Excellent writing and editing skills.

• Excellent interpersonal and networking skills, and ability to work in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environments.
• Ability to work under pressure on multiple projects whilst maintaining high-quality and timeliness.

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in Gender, Development Studies, Climate Change or Environmental studies, Political Science, Social Science, or any other related field of studies

Experience

• A minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience in framework development, research, data analysis and report writing, particularly in the areas of gender equality and women’s empowerment, GESI and climate action.
• Demonstrated expertise in conducting thorough and comprehensive climate vulnerability risk assessments, including experience in evaluating natural resources and existing adaptation and mitigation measures in Nepal's context.
• Extensive knowledge and experience in climate-smart interventions and adaptation strategies, with a specific focus on tailoring these approaches to address the unique requirements and vulnerabilities of the selected villages in Nepal.
• Previous experience in developing detailed implementation plans for similar climate-related projects, showcasing a capacity to design actionable and realistic strategies to achieve project objectives.
• Proven track record in collaborating effectively with UN Women or other UN agencies, government agencies, and local stakeholders to ensure seamless coordination and alignment of their priorities and needs.
• Substantial experience and a proven track record in establishing and nurturing networks with various agencies and government bodies to involved in piloting climate-smart villages in Nepal.

Language skills

• Excellent command of written and oral English.
• Proficiency in Nepali
• Knowledge of additional UN language is an asset.

7. Evaluation Selection Criteria

The following procedure is applied in evaluating the proposals.

1. The technical proposal is assessed first based on the qualifications listed above. Those proposals that meet a minimum threshold (scoring at least 40% on the technical assessment) will be considered further, including through assessment of the financial proposal.

Technical evaluation criteria (including minimum qualifications):

• Qualification: Master’s degree in Gender, Development Studies, Climate Change or Environmental studies, Political Science, Social Science, or any other related field of studies (10 points);
• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience and expertise in working on gender equality and women’s empowerment, specifically in relation to climate action (35 points);
• Working with the UN system (5 points);
• English and Nepali written skill based on the specific writing samples from unedited publications/documents of maximum 2-3 pages including but not limited to concept note, project brief, strategic paper, report (20 points).

1. Interview of the 2-3 top candidates (30%)
2. Financial proposal of candidates who meet the technical assessment threshold will be evaluated.

The financial assessment will count as 30% of the total points. In this methodology, 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 formula is as follows:

p = y (µ/z)

Where:

p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated

y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal

µ = price of the lowest priced proposal

z = price of the proposal being evaluated

HOW TO APPLY?

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

• Completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) of all the team members which can be downloaded: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment
• A separate page of the financial proposal

?Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form and the written sample will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Request for Disability-related Reasonable Accommodations:

It is important for UN Women to create an accessible and inclusive workplace for everyone. Reasonable accommodation will be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to be recruited and to perform essential job functions. Should you require reasonable accommodation in completing this application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the selection and recruitment process, please direct your request and inquiries to nepal.hr@unw.org. A member of the HR team responsible for reasonable accommodation will contact you to confidentially discuss your needs.