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 on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action worldwide. It provides strong and coherent leadership supporting Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022 –2025 guides UN Women for the next four years, with an eye toward the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As a framing vision, the Strategic Plan aims to achieve gender equality, empower all women and girls, and fully enjoy their human rights. UN Women’s triple mandate, along with its global network and deep policy and programming expertise, continues to endow the Entity with a unique capacity to: (i) support Member States to strengthen global norms and standards for gender equality and women’s empowerment and mainstream gender perspectives in other thematic areas; (ii) promote coordination and coherence across the UN system to enhance accountability and results for gender equality and women’s empowerment; and (iii) undertake operational activities to support Member States in translating global norms and standards into legislation, policies and strategies at the regional and country level. UN Women has partnered with the World Food Programme to support gender mainstreaming into the National Poverty Targeting Program (NPTP).

Established in 2011, the NPTP is Lebanon’s first poverty-targeted social assistance programme for the poorest and most vulnerable Lebanese families. The NPTP is implemented by the Ministry of Social Affairs (MoSA) and the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. Since 2014, WFP has been supporting the food assistance component of the NPTP through e-cards, redeemable at various access points. However, following the crises, WFP significantly scaled up its support to the NPTP, expanding its assistance to reach 75,000 of the most vulnerable Lebanese families by 2023. The NPTP contributes to cushioning the gendered impacts resulting from the current economic crisis in Lebanon for the poorest Lebanese. As of October 2022, 51% of NPTP beneficiaries are women, equivalent to around 15% of women-headed households.

To augment the gendered impact of the NPTP, in 2022, WFP partnered with UN Women to mainstream gender and promote women’s empowerment within the programme. The partnership resulted in conducting a comprehensive study on gender and social inclusion in the context of the NPTP, as well as training on gender sensitization for MoSA staff and frontline social workers.
In June 2023, WFP and UN Women renewed their partnership to continue mainstreaming gender and social inclusion in the NPTP. Building on the 2022’s training sessions provided to MoSA staff and social workers, and given the importance of continuous strengthening the MoSA’s capacities to mainstream gender and social inclusion in social safety nets, WFP and UN Women will organize training sessions for MoSA social workers specifically focused on Gender and GBV attitudes and Perceptions and Protection from Sexual Violence and Abuse (PSEA).

Under the supervision of the UN Women Women`s Economic Empowerment Program Manager, UN Women is seeking to recruit two consultants as Gender, GBV and PSEA Trainers to conduct a series of 27 training sessions for MoSA social workers across the country. The consultants will work in close collaboration with the GESI Technical Advisor and Field Officer to implement the activities throughout the duration of the project (until March 2024).

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultants will provide MoSA social workers- working on the NPTP- with training on Gender and GBV Perceptions and Attitudes and PSEA. Training sessions are to be conducted in Arabic. The consultants are expected to conduct a one-day training series that is repeated for different groups of social workers. The consultant will:

• Finalize UN Women’s existing training material on Gender and GBV attitudes and Perceptions and PSEA. This includes revising and updating existing training curricula, agenda, presentations, handouts, and exercises, to effectively convey the required knowledge and skills while ensuring the training content aligns with the specific needs and objectives of MoSA’s NPTP program.
• Develop training evaluation forms for the purpose of the training.
• Coordinate with WFP and MoSA on the training content and logistics- All details pertaining to the training sessions should be approved by MoSA.
• Administer 19 days of training workshops to social workers. The total number of training days is approximately 27; the two consultants are expected to carry out the training workshops jointly at first and then independently- Training sessions are scheduled to start in January until End of February.
• Develop and submit a consolidated summary report on the training.

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.

Functional Competencies

• Substantial knowledge and understanding of gender equality, women’s rights, feminism, GBV and PSEA;
• Technical skills to bring issues of gender and social inclusion and PSEA into practice.
• Demonstrated leadership ability and technical ability to communicate complex ideas verbally and in writing;
• Ability to work flexibly and collaborative on own initiative and as part of a team;
• A positive problem-solving approach and supportive management approach;
• Demonstrated leadership ability and technical ability to communicate complex ideas verbally and in writing;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to effectively convey complex concepts to diverse audiences.
• Familiarity with adult learning principles and participatory training methodologies.

Please visit the link below for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in human rights, gender and women’s studies, international relations, sociology, anthropology, international development, international law or other social science fields 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:

• Minimum 5 years of experience working specifically on gender and social inclusion, GBV, and PSEA issues in humanitarian or development settings.
• Familiarity with the specific context of Lebanon in relation to GBV, PSEA and social inclusion.
• Demonstrated experience in conducting training sessions and capacity building initiatives on Gender, GBV and PSEA.
• Proficiency in computer skills, including the use of MS Office applications for document preparation, data analysis, and presentation.

Language requirements:

• Proficiency in oral and written English and Arabic is a must.

Evaluation criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation. Consultants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of qualifications and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
• Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Technical Evaluation (70%) split such as:

• Criteria 1: Education- 20%
• Criteria 2: Minimum 5 years of experience working specifically on gender and social inclusion, GBV, and PSEA issues in humanitarian or development settings- 20%
• Criteria 3:  Demonstrated experience in conducting training sessions and capacity building initiatives on Gender, GBV and PSEA – 30%

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• ‘Lowest Bid Offered’ refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application:

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process;
• Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed lumpsum.

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all them, since the online application submission does only permit to upload one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)