Gender and Digital Transformation Specialist, BPPS/Gender/UNDP
Location : Home based
Application Deadline : 20-Aug-20 (Midnight New York, USA)
Additional Category : Gender Equality
Type of Contract : Individual Contract
Post Level : International Consultant
Languages Required : English
Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 10-Sep-2020
Duration of Initial Contract : 100 Working days
Expected Duration of Assignment : 100 Working days
Background
The COVID-19 outbreak is clearly putting at stake the advancements already achieved towards the Sustainable Development Goals and is increasing socio-economic inequalities. Gender-based inequalities are particularly in danger to broaden during this crisis, and advances towards women’s economic empowerment may be stopped or even reversed.
With the acceleration of the digital transformation with the COVID-19 pandemic, the gender digital divide is likely to widen if no proactive measures are taken. Those companies and individuals that have better access to digital technologies are adapting to the ongoing crisis more successfully. Challenges in businesses and in employment can be better coped by digitally agile companies and individuals. As such, closing the digital divide is a key element for women’s economic recovery and empowerment.
Worldwide roughly 327 million fewer women than men have a smartphone and can access mobile Internet. Women are on average 26% less likely than men to have a smartphone. In South Asia and Africa these proportions stand at 70% and 34%, respectively (OECD, 2018).
With the digitalization of markets, logistics, banking services and work, this digital divide also is contributing to women’s financial exclusion and women’s exclusion of value chains and employment. As such, it is critical to push for gender-responsive investments towards digital transformation.
In 2019, UNDP released its first-ever Digital Strategy which sets out the vision for our digital evolution through 2021. Responding to the ever-changing digital landscape, we aim to use advancements in technologies to deliver better results for our partners and communities in which we work. Read more about our digital strategy here.
UNDP’s COVID-19 Beyond Recovery: Towards 2030 offer also emphasizes the role of digital technologies in the post-Covid development work. , The focus areas include:
- Helping governments and institutions to keep their doors ‘open’ by operating remotely through digital platforms while planning broader digital transformation strategies;
- Delivering critical governments services, including healthcare, remotely;
- Supporting data integration and insights for better decision-making;
- Establishing digital payment platforms and e-commerce systems, with a focus on women-run small and medium enterprises and closing the digital divide for women and for marginalized populations;
- Enhancing digital financing options, including for improved remittance flows, working with the UN Capital Development Fund, the World Bank, International Organization on Migration and other partners.
As such, UNDP is looking for a gender and digital transformation expert to work towards closing the digital divide for more resilient, sustainable and inclusive economic recovery.
Duties and Responsibilities
The gender and digital transformation expert will work with the gender team and the digital transformation team, and will conduct the following duties:
- Building from already existing UNDP innovative practices, contribute to the strengthening and growth of UNDP’s portfolio on addressing the digital gender divide for women’s economic empowerment, both through technical support and project development.
- Provide on-demand technical advice and support to country offices, regional teams and HQ teams;
- Support the development of partnerships on closing the gender digital divide with UN agencies, IFIs and other partners.
- Support the development of indicators and data collection for UNDP Dashboards.
- Support the implementation of gender mainstreaming across UNDP’s digital transformation strategy (both internal transformation and programmatic support).
- Support digital innovations projects during ideation and product design, esp. on key decisions regarding product features and technology options.
- Contribute to knowledge sharing and generation of evidence through publications, research, policy briefs, webinars, preparation of talking points, etc.
Expected outputs and deliverables: Deliverables
No working days
Payment (% of total contract amount)
Deliverable 1
On-demand technical advice and support to COs, regional offices and HQ provided.
30 days
30%
Deliverable 2
The gender mainstreaming of UNDP’s digital transformation strategy implemented.
20 days
20%
Deliverable 3
Developed at least one concept note for a global program on closing the digital divide for women’s economic empowerment.
15 days
15%
Deliverable 4
Indicators and support in data collection provided for UNDP Dashboards.
10 days
10%
Deliverable 5
Contributed to knowledge sharing and generation of evidence through publications, research, policy briefs, webinars, preparation of talking points, etc.
25 days
25%
Total
100%
Competencies
- Demonstrated capacity on systems thinking and capacity to translate strategies to actions;
- Proven capacity to conduct gender digital divide analyses, policy briefs and publications;
- Proven capacity to implement or support the implementation of interventions to reduce the gender digital divide in the field, both at the policy and at the community level;
- Experience in mainstreaming gender in digital strategies an asset;
- Demonstrated ability to work with different sets of stakeholders, understand their concerns, needs and priorities, and bring their interests together for a common goal;
- Ability to support development of digital initiatives to support business objectives.
- Experience in working with multicultural and remote teams.
Required Skills and Experience
Academic qualifications:
- Advanced university degree in a STEM area, business management, finance, gender equality or related; Required
- Studies on gender issues, feminist economics, digitalization or related is an asset;
Experience:
- Minimum 5 years of experience in closing the gender digital divide with a focus on women’s economic empowerment (digitalization in access to markets, finance, value chains, administration, etc.) Required
- Experience in conducting research and/or analysis for policy advice and advocacy an asset.
- Experience in developing countries, and/or project implementation an asset.
- Strong understanding of traditional and emerging technologies
Language:
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Tags
- Fluency in written and spoken English is required;
- Working knowledge of Arabic or French an asset
Application Procedure
The application package containing the following (to be uploaded as one file):
- A cover letter with a brief description of why the Offer considers her/himself the most suitable for the assignment;
- Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects and specifying the relevant assignment period (from/to), as well as the email and telephone contacts of at least three (3) professional references; and
Note: The above documents need to be scanned in one file and uploaded to the online application as one document.
Shortlisted candidates (ONLY) will be requested to submit a Financial Proposal.
- The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount, and payment terms around the specific and measurable deliverables of the TOR. Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified in the TOR, and deliverables accepted and certified by the technical manager.
- The financial proposal must be all-inclusive and take into account various expenses that will be incurred during the contract, including: the daily professional fee; (excluding mission travel); living allowances at the duty station; communications, utilities and consumables; life, health and any other insurance; risks and inconveniences related to work under hardship and hazardous conditions (e.g., personal security needs, etc.), when applicable; and any other relevant expenses related to the performance of services under the contract.
- This consultancy is a home-based assignment, therefore, there is no envisaged travel cost to join duty station/repatriation travel.
- In the case of unforeseeable travel requested by UNDP, payment of travel costs including tickets, lodging and terminal expenses should be agreed upon, between UNDP and Individual Consultant, prior to travel and will be reimbursed. In general, UNDP should not accept travel costs exceeding those of an economy class ticket. Should the IC wish to travel on a higher class he/she should do so using their own resources.
- If the Offeror is employed by an organization/company/institution, and he/she expects his/her employer to charge a management fee in the process of releasing him/her to UNDP under a Reimbursable Loan Agreement (RLA), the Offeror must indicate at this point, and ensure that all such costs are duly incorporated in the financial proposal submitted to UNDP.
The Financial Proposal is to be emailed as per the instruction in the separate email that will be sent to shortlisted candidates.
Evaluation process
Applicants are reviewed based on Required Skills and Experience stated above and based on the technical evaluation criteria outlined below. Applicants will be evaluated based on cumulative scoring. When using this weighted scoring method, the award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:
- Being responsive/compliant/acceptable; and
- Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria specific to the solicitation where technical criteria weighs 70% and Financial criteria/ Proposal weighs 30%.
Technical evaluation – Total 70% (70 points): Desk review
- Criteria
- Relevance of education and studies (Candidates with specialization in in a STEM area, business management, finance, gender equality or related and Studies on gender issues, feminist economics, digitalization or related will have an advantage. Weight = 5% Maximum Points: 5;
- Criteria
- Minimum 5 years of experience in closing the gender digital divide with a focus on women’s economic empowerment (digitalization in access to markets, finance, value chains, administration, etc.). 28 % Weight = Maximum Points: 28
- Criteria
- Experience in conducting research and/or analysis for policy advice and advocacy an asset. Weight = 5 %; Maximum Points: 5;
- Criteria
- Experience in developing countries, and/or project implementation. Weight = 5%; Maximum Points:5;
- Criteria
- Experience in application of traditional and digital technologies, in the development of digital products and/or in data visualization is an asset. Weight = 10%; Maximum Points: 10;
- Criteria
- Knowledge of Arabic and French Weight =2 %; Maximum Points:2;
Interview
- Criteria
- Interview: Weight = 15 %; Maximum Points: 15.
Having reviewed applications received, UNDP will invite the top three shortlisted candidates for interview. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
Candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% (49 points) of the maximum obtainable points for the technical criteria (70 points) shall be considered for the financial evaluation.
Financial evaluation – Total 30% (30 points)
The following formula will be used to evaluate financial proposal: p = y (µ/z), where
p = points for the financial proposal being evaluated
y = maximum number of points for the financial proposal
µ = price of the lowest priced proposal
z = price of the proposal being evaluated
Contract Award
Candidate obtaining the highest combined scores in the combined score of Technical and Financial evaluation will be considered technically qualified and will be offered to enter into contract with UNDP.
Institutional arrangement
The consultant will work under the guidance and direct supervision of the Senior Policy Advisor- Gender Team and will be responsible for the fulfilment of the deliverables as specified above.
The Consultant will be responsible for providing her/his own laptop.
Payment modality
- Payments are based upon output, i.e. upon delivery of the services specified above and deliverables accepted and upon certification of satisfactory completion by the manager.
- The work week will be based on 35 hours, i.e. on a 7-hour working day, with core hours being between 9h00 and 18h00 daily.
Annexes (click on the hyperlink to access the documents): Annex 1 – UNDP P-11 Form for ICs
Annex 2 – IC Contract Template
Annex 3 – IC General Terms and Conditions
Annex 4 – RLA Template
Any request for clarification must be sent by email to [email protected]
The UNDP Central Procurement Unit will respond by email and will send written copies of the response, including an explanation of the query without identifying the source of inquiry, to all applicants.
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.
More Information
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