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’s Country Office, based in New Delhi, India, works to accelerate the advancement of gender equality and the empowerment of women through the strengthening of strategic partnerships, technical and policy advisory services and advocacy with governmental, inter-governmental and civil society partners. In addition, UN Women CO is charged with leading and coordinating the UN system’s work on gender equality, including through ensuring accountability for results.

Aligned with the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN Women is currently implementing a programme called Women Empowerment in STEM (WeSTEM) to motivate and support young women to pursue education and careers in STEM. The programme is aimed at empowerment of the most marginalized women and girls from the tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh, already enrolled in STEM courses in higher/technical/vocational education.

The programme is being implemented with Higher Education Institutes (HEI), Vocational Education Institutes and Technical Education Institutes in three districts of Madhya Pradesh to upskill young women and enable them to participate in the economy gainfully, or make informed choices to take up higher education in STEM.

The programme undertakes a holistic approach to empowerment offering pathways and support to access higher education, internships, apprenticeships, and employment opportunities for women. The programme offers a comprehensive solution by adopting a holistic approach, leveraging partnerships at all levels, using innovative pedagogies and finance to achieve its objective.

In this context, the Consultant – Counsellor (Psychologist) will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the Programme Analyst and overall supervision of Country Programme Manager (WEE), to support in the management of programme activities and coordinate with relevant team members, including the operations team, implementing partner organisations and government officials, to ensure successful implementation of Programmes.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Work within a multidisciplinary team in the designated areas of MP, and connect with the students on a one to one basis in gauging interest amongst  young women in STEM;
• Identify job opportunities for women passing out of ITIs and Polytechnics from the program districts and cascade the information to the beneficiaries and support them make up there mind and pursue;
• Provide career guidance and counselling to the beneficiaries enrolled in the program;
• Conduct screening and assessment of beneficiaries and develop individualized strategy to motivate them towards career in STEM;
• Provide psycho-education to beneficiaries and their families, to nudge them towards career in science and its potential advantages in the long run;
• Provide psychological support and counseling services to beneficiaries and their families,who are experiencing social,emotional and psychonlogical issues;
• Provide family support when needed;
• Facilitate group discussions and support group sessions in coordination with the multidisciplinary team;
• Conduct home visits to provide further psycho-social support when needed;
• Organize community, group discussions and awareness activities for beneficiaries and their families in coordination with the multidisciplinary team in pursuing career in STEM;
• Raising awareness on the economic benefits of STEM career in schools and colleges;
• Attend and contribute to the weekly supervision meetings;
• Ensure the complete and updated filing of beneficiary information, including follow-up visits and referrals;
• Provide support to our programme team in the implementation of activities under their work plan;
• Develop course material and provide technical expertise to the implementating partner, Head Held High Foundation, if requried;
• Deliver trainings and supervision on STEM to various partners and providers;
• Assist in performing other tasks as requested by the Programme Analyst- WEE, UN Women India, MCO;
• Prepare briefing notes and updates on the status of women in STEM Madhya Pradesh, particularly on issues of skilling and employment, there interest, appetite and challenges;
• Any other duties assigned by Supervisors from time to time.

Expected Deliverables:

• Draft implementation plan for providing counselling support in STEM program – March 2024
• Developed a counselling curriculum/ material for girls, parents community etc. – March 2024
• Conducted 120 number of counselling sessions with girls, parents, community and other relevant stakeholders – 20 sessions each month
• Conducted capacity building trainings to increase the internal capacity of ITIs and Polytechnics to incorporate and undertake counselling at local Institute level – 1 Each Month
• Preapare the report on review of progress of psychological counselling, including findings of reflection session on psychological counselling;  presentation results of psychological counselling to stakeholders; documented material of whole process of psychological support – June 2024
• Submitted final report including: a) a summary of the findings on the process of psychological support; b) analysis of the identified capacities, needs and solutions of participants for psychological support; c) recommendations of opportunities to further strengthen the capacities of partner institutes/CSOs to provide psychological support – September 2024

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
• Emotional Intelligence

Functional Competencies

• Good in community interaction, pursuation, uplifting self confidence and motivation.
• Ability to create, edit and present information in clear and presentable formats;
• Ability to manage data, documents, correspondence and reports information and workflow;
• Good knowledge of psychological strands and counselling techniques.
• Ability to identify and analyze trends and opportunities.
• Over all knowledge on STEM to help communicate better with the beneficiaries.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Minimum masters degree in Psychology /Social Sciences/ Development Studies;
• 5 years of exprience would be considered in lieu of Master’s degree.

Experience:

• At least 3 years of experience in counselling , community coordination and interaction, capacity building.
• Experience of working in the UN System is an asset.
• Experience in the thematic area of women’s economic empowerment will be an advantage.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in Hindi and working knowledge of English is required.
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org.

Application:

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

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs.
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
• Applications received after the close date will not be accepted.
• Only short-listed candidates will be contacted.

Evaluation and Selection Criteria:

Criteria for shortlisting of CVs will be based on the following assessment:

• Required Degree and Qualification (5 points).
• Minimum Experience relevant to the assignment (10 points).
• Working knowledge and experience of working with Community/Programme Partner/ State Government  (5 points).

The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

• Interview
• Writing Samples

Please Note:

• Consultants are required to submit doctor’s certificate to state of fitness to work and travel for this assignment.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.
• The consultant is expected to use their own computer equipment. The office will not provide any computer equipment for this assignment.
• This is a full-time assignment. The consultant is expected to disclose any outside activity and shall not be permitted to take up any outside work during the course of this assignment.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality, and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.