Technical Consultant – Enterprise Development – Carbon Offsetting Rice Emission (CORE) (Local Post for Indian Nationals and Applicants with a Valid Work Permit)

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 also 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 implementing GIZ’s Fund to Promote Innovation in Agriculture (i4Ag) to economically empower women farmers in the rice value-chain in the context of climate change.  This fund promotes innovations in the agriculture and food sector, focusing on six key areas of mechanization, digitalization, renewable energy, research and extension, cooperation with the private sector and agricultural policy. This project will promote methodologies for reducing carbon emissions in rice cultivation and to show scaling potential in aggregating smallholder farmers. It involves multiple implementing partners who will train and support farmers on approved emissions-reducing rice farming methods as well as those non-approved methods of mitigation with the aim of enabling project beneficiary farmers to see improved resiliency from carbon credit generation, along with a higher proportion of trained female farmers in the community. The project implementing partners include OLAM Agri and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). UN Women’s component will entail reviewing existing training content on agriculture/climate resilient to integrate gender and organizing gender trainings to promote women’s economic empowerment focusing on women’s increasing leadership, voice, choice and agency.

The Credit Offsetting Rice Project (CORE) – A gender transformative approach  Project will contribute to the following outcomes: i) More women farmers in the rice value chain have increased access to climate resilient technologies, methodologies, and skills; ii) Women’s voice, agency and capacities are strengthened to transform climate sensitive agricultural practices into enhanced livelihoods (diversified economic opportunities, increased incomes, and resilience); iii) Strengthened availability of sex-disaggregated data to inform gender responsive climate sensitive agricultural practices.

The purpose of this consultancy is to support the activities of the GIZ funded CORE project. The consultant will support development of an enterprise strategy in the rice value chain. Develop a process of identifying the enterprises, analysing opportunities based on farmers’ resources and markets and share a feasibility report on the enterprises which can be developed.  Map the resources women farmers have, opportunities locally available to identify suitable enterprise/livelihood activity in the rice value chain, building knowledge and skills of the women and providing handholding support to take up the enterprise/livelihood. Develop a business plan for each enterprise. Review the existing training modules of UN Women and provide meaningful recommendations and integrate rice value chain aspects in the module content and for delivery of training. Develop a manual, training module and organise training for the key stakeholders in the states of MP and Haryana. The consultant will work under the overall supervision of the Program Analyst, WEE-CORE in delivering the assigned tasks.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Develop an enterprise strategy in the rice value chain.
• Conduct feasibility study of enterprises in the rice value chain most in Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh.
• Conduct a mapping exercise of relevant training and financial schemes.
• Review the existing training modules of UN Women on enterprise and integrate rice value chain aspects in the module.
• Undertake enterprise training of key stakeholders.
• Provide hand-holding support to set up enterprises by women entrepreneurs.
• Provide market-linkages for the sustainability of the enterprises.

Deliverables:

1. Enterprise strategy developed for the rice value chain. – (August 2024) – Payment 10% of consultancy fee.
2. Viable enterprises in the rice value chain identified and mapped to relevant training and financial schemes for Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh – (August 2024) – Payment 10% of consultancy fee.
3. Key stakeholders required to operationalise these enterprises identified and technical support provided to operationalization of these enterprises – (September 2024) – Payment 10% of consultancy fee.
4. Train the trainers manual on enterprise in rice value chain developed – (September 2024) – Payment 10% of consultancy fee.
5. 6 enterprise training for women entrepreneurs conducted – (September 2024) – Payment 20% of consultancy fee.
6. Market-linkages to at least 24 enterprises provided by connecting them to commercial/institutional buyer and contracts signed – (October to November 2024) – Payment 20% of consultancy fee. 
7. Hand-holding support provided to at least 12 women led SHGs/FPOs – (November to December 2024) – Payment 20% of consultancy fee.

Competencies

Core Values / Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff
• Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge

Functional Competencies:

• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Enterprise, Marketing and Development Studies, or any Social Sciences or a related field.
• 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:

• At least 8 years of progressively responsible experience in enterprise development and women’s empowerment concepts and approaches in rural development/agriculture projects;
• Extensive expertise in developing enterprises in agriculture and specifically the rice value chain;
• Good communication skills and the ability to explain technical terms in a non-technical language;
• Experience of working in the similar assignments is preferable;
• Experience of working with UN agencies, international organization is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Strong written skills in English and good command over Hindi and Telugu.

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 .
• 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 Government on gender issues (5 points).

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

• Interview (80 points)
• Writing Samples (20 points)

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination and statement of fitness to work to engage in the consultancy.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.

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.