National Consultant to develop Armenia’s UN1325 3rd National Action Plan (two consultants – Local Post for Armenia)

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.

Over the decades, UN Women has played a crucial role in supporting the development and implementation of WPS National Action Plans (WPS NAPs) as the main tool by which these global WPS frameworks are translated into concrete strategies, actions, and outcomes at national levels. UN Women is committed to support women and women’s human rights defenders  to actively participate and contribute to conflict prevention and resolution as well as in peace building in line with norms and approaches underlined by United Nations Security Council Resolutions on WPS to ensure gender perspectives are integrated in peace processes, women’s role in decision making is strengthened and effective mechanisms for ensuring the protection and participation of women and girls at all stages of peace processes are in place.

In Armenia, UN Women supports state and non-state partners towards the achievement of substantive gender equality in line with national and international commitments. UN Women works on the levels of policies and legislation, institutions, and grassroots, in order to achieve transformative results for increased gender equality and greater protection of the rights of women and girls.

Armenia is among 107 countries adopted the NAP on WPS. Armenia adopted its first National Action Plan (NAP) on UN1325 in 2019 for the period 2019-2021 developed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). The second NAP was developed for the period of 2022-2024 which includes localization of WPS agenda in the cross-borders, and ensuring gender perspective on recovery and integration, enhancing security, post-war recovery, and confidence-building, including improved border management, countering violent extremism, conflict transformation etc.

MFA Armenia intends to initiate a process of development of its next National Action Plan on WPS and focus it on nexus between humanitarian/refugee response, recovery and peace building and requested UN Women to support the NAP development.  Therefore, UN Women is looking for two WPS national consultants to support the development on the NAP in an inclusive participatory manner considering new priorities and lessons learnt from the previous NAPs implementation. The National Consultants will work under the overall supervision of the UN Women Representative/Liaison for the South Caucasus and a direct engagement and contacts with UN Women Programme Specialist.

Duties and Responsibilities

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

1. Develop a roadmap for WSP NAP elaboration:

• Draft a roadmap for NAP development and agree with the MFA WPS Focal Point on key milestones, timeline, resources and results.
• Present the suggested roadmap to the respective stakeholders (Intersectoral Task Force, CSOs, etc.) to discuss and agree on roles, responsibilities, modalities for engagement of partners and their contribution for the NAP development
• Support MFA WPS Focal Point to organize the regular meetings of the intersectoral task force consultation and representatives of civil society in line with the WPS NAP development process, agree on forms of engagement of partners, joint actions and deadlines.
• Set-up the drafting group with clear ToRs.
• Agree on external and internal communication approaches to support the NAP development.
• Design and conduct WPS NAP prioritization workshop with all relevant stakeholders to discuss lessons  learnt from previous NAPs and agree on key priorities for the next NAP.
• Support the launch of WPS NAP development process.

2. Support to develop capacity of stakeholders to design and implement WPS NAP

• Undertaken a quick capacity needs assessment of key partners engaged into WPS policy development and implementation
• Update the existing training materials/package to use for the capacity development workshop (including the necessary guide, PPTs, resource materials).
• Facilitate the capacity development workshop for the task force and NAP drafting group.
• Support partners to better understand approaches for NAP M&E, costing and budgeting.
• To organize to have several zoom meetings to learn from the NAP experience of other countries.

3. Facilitate WPS NAP development

• Facilitate consultations with relevant state and no-state partners on a progress of the implementation of NAP for 2022-2024.
• Develop consultation report by summarizing the inputs made by participants and indicating key conclusions, next stesp and recommendations.
• Undertaken necessary desk review of available materials/reports/assessments to use their findings and data to design a simple questionnaire for state entities to report on their efforts/progress on NAP 2022-2024 implementation, challenges and lessons leant.
• Draft an outline for the NAP, its result based logical framework with key actions addressing the agreed priorities, suggested SMART indicators, targets, baseline, responsible institutions.
• Facilitate consultations for the NAP costing and budgeting, Draft NAP M&E framework and budget.
• Share the draft NAP with key stakeholders for feedback/comments.
• Conduct regular briefing for the MFA and the intersectoral task force on NAP development process, challenges and suggest solutions (on a monthly basis)
• Support national and local consultations with CSOs in an inclusive and intergenerational format to foster their meaningful contribution to the NAP development.

Deliverables.

Deliverable	Expected completion time (due day)	Payment Schedule (optional)
A roadmap for WSP NAP development and consultation	by 15 May, 2024 (3 working days)	07/2024 (35%)
Summary of monthly meetings with the intersectoral task force consultation and representatives of CSOs	by 30th of each month withing the duration of the contract (13 working days)
A set of preparatory documentation developed and agreed ToRs for group members to draft NAP, external and internal communication approach/actions, plan for monthly meetings	by 1 June, 2024 (3 working days)
Report on capacity needs assessment and capacity development for NAP drafting group	by 31 July, 2024  (6 working days)	12/2024 (65%)
Summary of findings of the situational analysis on a progress of NAP 2022-2024 implementation	by 31 July, 2024 (5 working days)
Draft NAP with Logical framework, M&E and budget	by 31 October, 2024 (20 working days)
Final version of NAP WPS for 2025-2027 Final report on the assignment’s results	by 30 November, 2024 (10 working days)

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

As part of this assignment, no travel will be necessary.  

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

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

 

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 

• Technical credibility in policy research
• Technical credibility in gender analysis
• Partnerships building
• Negotiation
• Planning

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in law, international relations, international development studies, human rights, gender/ women’s studies equality, WPS; alternatively, the first level degree (bachelor’s) in combination with 4 years of working experience will be accepted.

Experience: 

• At least two years (in combination with masters’ degree) of programmatic and/or analytical work experience in the field of women, peace and security (WPS)
• At least two years (in combination with masters’ degree) of demonstrated knowledge of Armenia’s international commitments in the field of GEWE
• At least two years (in combination with masters’ degree) of experience on GEWE related policy development, collect, analyze data and organize meetings, events.
• Experience in design and delivery of trainings/capacity development on GEWE priorities, based on capacity needs assessment
• Experience in writing analytical reports;
• Excellent Armenian and English communication and writing skills; (Samples of previous work will be required.)

Language:

Fluency in Armenian and English.

How to Apply:

• Personal CV or P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: )
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)

How to Submit the Application: Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11) – Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11), CV and Motivation Letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded; Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement); Click ‘Apply Now’ button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click ‘Submit Application’; Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above); You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system. Notes: UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process. 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.).