Social Innovations and Advocacy Consultant

Background

UN Women in Kyrgyzstan is a strong advocate for improving the lives of women and girls in the country. Building on the vision of equality enshrined in the UN Charter, and in the framework of the UN Women Strategic Note for Kyrgyzstan 2023-2028, the Country Office implements a comprehensive programme with a focus to enhance women’s leadership; eliminate violence against women; promote women participation in women, peace and security agenda, all aspects of decision making; financing for gender equality, women economic empowerment, gender mainstreaming in humanitarian action, disaster risk management and climate change adaptation.

In line with an integrated approach, the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) portfolio of UN Women Kyrgyzstan Country Office is being implemented in linkages with the interventions on promoting women’s rights in political and social-economic areas, social cohesion and peace building and gender transformative climate change adaptation. This work is being led through the ongoing projects: “Capacitated Women’s Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) for Peace in Kyrgyzstan” funded by the UN Peacebuilding Fund (PBF). The overall approach is to create an enabling environment for women’s and women led organizations’ participation in decision-making at the strategic level as a basis for peace in Kyrgyzstan. The CO’ programme work offers unique and innovative approaches and concepts that have been tested in the Kyrgyzstan context and proved its effectiveness for accelerating the processes of promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) for peace.   

UN Women is seeking to hire an ‘Social Innovations and Advocacy Consultant” who will be responsible for promoting social innovations strategy for accelerating social cohesion, peace and development, as part of implementation of SDG Agenda in Kyrgyzstan.

Under direct supervision of the UN Women Osh sub office head (primary supervisor) and guidance of Monitoring and Evaluation Officer (secondary supervisor), the consultant will provide support the Programme Team in developing the social innovations and advocacy plan to promote Gender/Climate, Peace and Security agenda. UN Women’s interventions will be highlighted, and best practices will be shared among key stakeholders and the general public, while ensuring media coverage on achievements. In addition, all communication efforts will ensure and raise the visibility of the project and the contribution of PBF, its partnership with development partners

Duties and Responsibilities

Within the assignment, the Consultant will be responsible for implementing the following scope of work as described below:

1.Assessment and enhancement of Women led initiatives at the local level:

• Conduct an assessment of the sustainability and climate-friendliness of solutions proposed by women’s CSOs.

• Conduct assessment of good practices on implementation of outreach and advocacy activities for promoting climate, peace and security nexus.
• Provide feedback and recommendations to women’s CSOs on how to enhance sustainability through advocacy activities including behavioral change.
• Provide recommendations on enhancing advocacy and communications activities of the grantees.
• Document lessons learned and shared best practices with other stakeholders.
• Identity success stories and document them.
• Contribute to and actively participate in the organization of the hackathon on creation of solutions to address gender/climate/security nexus.

2.Development and implementation of Communication and advocacy strategy and plan of the project:

• Develop a comprehensive Communication and advocacy strategy and plan to implement it with a primary objective to raise awareness of general public and key stakeholders on the Climate, Peace and Security nexus.

• Identify formats and media platforms for communicating results and knowledge emerging from the CO/ projects to diverse audiences, such as video, infographics, postcards, briefs, etc.
• Depending on the format, organize/produce at least 18 stories of inspiring work of WCSOs or women in the project.
• Develop/promote at least 50 communication products (interviews, web-stories, articles, social media posts, videos, TV/ radio reportages, infographics etc.) focusing on GPI project results, using behavior change techniques where applicable, aligned with the joint communication and advocacy plan.
• Utilize social media analytics to track the reach and impact of social media campaigns.
• Involve social media influencers and leverage their social media platforms for wider reach.
• Provide communication support on Yntymak week, 16 Days Campaign and other key dialogue forums, with the focus on gender, climate and peace and its impact on overall development, peace and growth.
• Support organization and facilitation of the high-level advocacy meetings.
• Produce monthly/quarter CO and Programme newsletters

3.Capacity building activities on social innovations:

• In coordination with UN Women staff and key development actors develop joint communication and advocacy plan within the PBF project to strengthen gender, climate security and peace nexus.
• Support the implementation of joint communication and advocacy plans to promote peace, climate and gender nexus.
• Conduct at least 4 training sessions on social innovations for programme team, women’s CSOs and government representatives, encouraging active learning and knowledge exchange.
• Develop and deliver training materials tailored to the specific needs of the target audience.
• Facilitate partnerships between women’s CSOs and media partners (Batken media, regional multimedia resource centers, other possible partners) to implement joint initiatives.
• Support the implementation of capacity building activities of WSCOs and programme team, including digital skills for videoblogging and other,  throughout the implementation of communication and advocacy activities.

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:

• Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with people from diverse cultures and professional backgrounds,
• demonstrating excellent interpersonal communication skills;
• Results-based management skills;
• Strong teamwork spirit, leadership, and facilitation skills;
• Able to multi-task and juggle competing demands.

Technical competencies:

• Experience working under minimum supervision and tight deadlines;
• Computer literate (being able to use MS Windows, MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point), Internet search and communication;
• Proven track record and experience in gender-related work.

 

Deliverables	Period/month	Target Date
Develop individual workplan for the period; Submission and approval of the timesheet and interim report on implementation of the tasks as per the workplan approved	15 July – 15 August 2024	By 16 August 2024 (app 35 days)
Submission and approval of the timesheet and interim report on implementation of the tasks as per the workplan approved	15 August– 15 October 2024	By 16 October 2024 (25 days)
Submission and approval of the timesheet and final consolidated report on implementation of the tasks as per the workplan approved	15 October – 15 December 2024	By 25th December 2024 ( 30 days)

Inputs

• UN Women will provide access to UN Women Office during working hours to print relevant documents or whenever required to work on-site at any point during the assignment.
• Consultant to work remotely from home keeping in touch with primary and secondary supervisors through various electronic means.
• UN Women will provide logistical support to organize interviews/focus group discussions with project beneficiaries, tickets, travel when and if required.

 

Performance evaluation

The contractor’s performance will be evaluated against criteria such as timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of products delivered. The evaluation will be carried out and cleared by the hiring manager and it will also serve as the basis for payment on a delivery by delivery basis to the consultant.

 

Duration of Assignment:

The expected duration of the consultancy is to be 6 months starting from 15 July 2024 and continuing through 30 December 2024.

 

The payments will be made in KGS in ten instalments based on submitted and approved timesheet, and after all the deliverables are submitted, accepted and approved:

Required Skills and Experience

Education:	Master’s degree in communications, journalism, social sciences or other relevant field.
Experience and knowledge:	Minimum 5 years of proven experience in media relations, strategic communications, journalism, and editing. Demonstrated experience in the area gender equality and the empowerment of women, particularly through media products produced by the candidate or with her/his engagement. Experience with the United Nations and international organizations is an advantage. Excellent written and oral communication skills in Kyrgyz and Russian.
Language Requirements:	Fluency in Kyrgyz and Russian.

 

How to Apply 

Applications should include:

Personal History Form (P-11 form) – including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded by following link:  a signed [scanned] copy should be submitted.

A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)

Copies (or links in the P-11 form) of three publications/reports on GEWE as author or co-author

A Statement of Good Health, endorsed by a certified Medical Practitioner

*Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment.

Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

Evaluation of applicants

The evaluation starts with shortlisting of potential candidates and received applications against the mandatory requirements. Only full applications will be considered. Shortlisted candidates will be then evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ technical qualifications and experience. The contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

 

• Technically responsive/compliant/acceptable to the requirements of the ToR; and
• Receiving the highest technical score in the combination of qualifications

 

Prior to detailed evaluation, all applications will be thoroughly screened against eligibility criteria (minimum qualification requirements) as set in the present ToR in order to determine whether they are compliant/ non-compliant.

 

	Evaluation Criteria	Max points
TECHNICAL EVALUATION	REQUIRED
Education:	Master’s degree in communications, journalism, social sciences or other relevant field.	10
Experience and knowledge:	Minimum 5 years of proven experience in media relations, strategic communications, journalism, and editing. Demonstrated experience in the area gender equality and the empowerment of women, particularly through media products produced by the candidate or with her/his engagement. Experience with the United Nations and international organizations is an advantage. Excellent written and oral communication skills in Kyrgyz and Russian.	15   10   5 10
Language Requirements:	Fluency in Kyrgyz and Russian.

 

The candidate achieving the highest score on Technical evaluations will be recommended by the Evaluation Committee for contracting.

The Consultant shall promote a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations and commits to high standards of quality, productivity and timeliness in the delivery of tasks. The Consultant will meet and apply the highest standards of integrity and impartiality.

 

The Consultant must be fully dedicated to the mandate and the values of UN Women, particularly to promoting Gender Equality as a strategy to reduce conflict, improve livelihoods and ensure fairness and justice; to Women Empowerment underpinning Gender Equality promotion efforts; to inter-ethnic tolerance and concord; and to respect for diversity.

 

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.

 

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.)

Applications without the completed P-11 form are incomplete and will NOT be considered for further assessment!