National consultant on EU Integration (multiple positions) – Local post for Residents of the Republic of Moldova

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, the UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. 

As the Government of the Republic of Moldova prepares to align with the EU acquis in various sectors, following the response to the European Council’s decision to grant Moldova candidate status for EU membership. This significant step has spurred Moldova’s commitment to enact reforms necessary for integration. Subsequently, the European Council’s decision to open accession negotiations further underscores the importance of Moldova’s alignment with EU standards.

The process of opening the first clusters of EU Chapters requires enhanced adherence to EU requirements, including the approximation of EU gender equality laws and policies and the consistent application of gender mainstreaming across all sectors, policy areas, and levels of government. The EU explicitly expects candidate and potential candidate countries “to progressively align with [the] EU gender equality acquis and establish an institutional framework to enforce it”. Accession negotiations are complex, requiring technical administrative expertise and resources to absorb the EU Gender Equality acquis. This necessitates the development of capacities, processes, and procedures for consistent gender mainstreaming across sectors and levels of governance, which poses a challenge for Moldova.

UN Women is uniquely placed to support this specific initiative focused on supporting the capacity building of the relevant government institutions of Moldova authorities to ensure the adoption of EU GE acquis to be systematically captured and mainstreamed in government reforms, strategies and plans in different sectors.

UN Women is ‘The United Nations Agency mandated to lead on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women”. UN Women has three aspects to its mandate: 1) to support the adoption of global Norms and Standards on GE, 2) to promote coordination on GE across the UN and support coordination across government, and 3) to implement operations on GE. Supporting the adoption of international norms and standards includes promoting the adoption of the Gender Equality elements of the EU acquis. Operating in over 90 countries globally no other specialised GE institution can draw on such a range of high level GE expertise in mainstreaming GE within government and institutional processes.

Additionally, the UN Women has a global track record of successful implementation of similar actions, in this region very similar work is underway in Albania and Serbia, where UN Women supports the Gender Equality Institutional Mechanism GIM and EUD in supporting the adoption of EU Gender Equality acquis through EU IPA investments

Additionally, based on the European Commission Implementing Decision on the Annual Action Plan in favour of the Republic of Moldova for 2022 , UN Women Moldova CO is implementing a four-year project (November 2023 – October 2027) under the name “Ending Violence, Expanding Livelihood Opportunities for Women and Accelerating Gender Governance in Moldova” (hereinafter EVOLVE4GE). The project is implemented in line with and in contribution to the of European Commission ” Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment in External Action 2021–2025″, adopted in November 2020, and its which aim to accelerate progress on empowering women and girls, and safeguard gains made on gender equality during the 25 years since the adoption of . It will also support the Government to advance implementation of the gender equality commitments aligned with the EU candidacy status granted to the Republic of Moldova in June 2022.

The project builds on UN Women’s advocacy and past work in strengthening capacities for gender responsive governance, on the Country office best practices around women’s economic empowerment through business development and increased participation of women in sectors with high economic potential and high gender gap, as well as on lessons learned collected through the support provided to the Government in the development of integrated – survivor oriented – provision of assistance and establishment of specialist services for survivors of violence against women and girls.

The interventions will contribute directly to the implementation of the national priorities set the Government Programme on Gender Equality (2023-2027), The RoadMap for Economic Empowerment of Women, the National Programme on Ending Violence against Women (2023-2027), as well as to the gender responsive provisions of the  (2023-2030) and Public Administration (2023-2030).

In this framework, UN Women Moldova within the EVOLVE4GE project seeks to contract a consultant (here and after “The Consultant”) to support the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection (MLSP) in advancing the gender dimension in the EU integration processes.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of this consultancy is to provide detailed insights into the gender knowledge and capacity needs in the specific context of EU Integration, as well as propose recommendations for effective operationalization of the gender equality mechanism and its role and engagement in EU accession processes.

More specifically, the consultant will be responsible for the following tasks, including but not limited to:

• Retrieve and review relevant background literature, including reports, reviews, analyses, and assessments relating to or transposition of the EU Gender Equality acquis and EU integration structures in Moldova.
• Provide inputs for the processes that are currently underway and/or planned in the short to mid-term by MLSP, in terms of absorbing the EU provisions on gender equality and implementing and monitoring gender equality policies. In doing so, special attention should be paid to the harmonization processes as well as relevant strategies and policies and concrete gender mainstreaming efforts;
• Provide technical support in aligning the MLSP policies, practices, and legislation with EU standards and best practices while upholding the principles of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Support MLSP in preparing upcoming bilateral screening meetings with the European Union.
• Take minutes of bilateral screening meeting with the EU, and inputs to presentation of Chapter 19, and other relevant Chapters of EU negotiations cluster.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a office -based consultancy within partner institution. 

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;

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Shares knowledge and experience;
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies;
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported;
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems;
• Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource.

Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
• Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate;
• Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree in Law, public administration, social studies, gender studies and/or international relations, or any other degree relevant to the requirements of the TOR;
• A first-level university degree (bachelor) in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 2 (two) years of relevant professional experience in mainstreaming gender in policies/strategies or decision making process at the central level is required;
• Experience undertaking gender analyses and developing reports is required; 
• At least 2 (two) years’ experience in designing and delivering training and/or mentoring programmes on gender equality and gender mainstreaming in policy/ decision making is required;
• At least 2 (two) years of proven collaboration with public authorities in the elaboration and/or review of relevant legal, policy initiatives is required;
• Proven knowledge and understanding of the national legal and policy frameworks regarding gender equality, especially in regard to the EU acquis is considered an advantage
• Previous experience working with international organizations is considered an advantage;
• Excellent Romanian and good English communication and writing skills.

Languages:

• Fluency in Romanian and English is required;
• Knowledge of Russian language is an advantage.

APPLICATION PROCESS AND SUBMISSION PACKAGE 

Interested candidates are invited to submit their online applications with the following documents:

• Duly completed and signed P11 (P11 can be downloaded from:  ) Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. 
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position
• Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns, or other materials. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment.

Please note that only short-listed applicants will be contacted.

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.

The United Nations in Moldova is committed to workforce diversity. Women, persons with disabilities, Roma and other ethnic or religious minorities, persons living with HIV, as well as refugees and other non-citizens legally entitled to work in the Republic of Moldova, are particularly encouraged to apply.