Economic empowerment of women, which entails women’s active participation in all aspects of economic life holds key to building strong economies, establishing more stable and just societies, improving quality of life for women and their family members and their communities at large. In order to support women’s economic empowerment (WEE) UN Women (at that time UNIFEM) together with UN Global Compact (the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative with more than 7,000 business participants and other stakeholders in over 135 countries world-wide) led a multi-stakeholder consultative process that served the purpose of understanding real-life business practices and resulted in seven key principles that support private companies to tailor existing policies and practices and/or establishing new ones for economic empowerment of women. These seven principles also reflect the interests of government and civil society as women’s empowerment cannot be achieved without goodwill and joint work of multiple stakeholders. These seven principles are known as Women’s Empowerment Principles: Equality Means Business (more information about the Women’s Empowerment Principles: Equality Means Business could be found at http://unglobalcompact.org/Issues/human_rights/equality_means_business.html) and have been formulated as follows: - Leadership Promotes Gender Equality (provision of high-level support for gender equality and human rights; establishing company-wide goals and targets for gender equality, identifying factors that impact women and men differently and promote corporate culture that advances equality and inclusion, etc.);
- Equal Opportunity, Inclusion and Non-discrimination (paying equal salaries, including benefits, for work of equal value, ensure that workplace policies and practices are free from gender-based discrimination, implement gender-sensitive recruitment and retention practices, etc.);
- Health, Safety and Freedom from Violence (provision of safe working conditions, establishing zero tolerance policy towards all forms of violence at work, offering health insurance, respect workers’ right to time off for medical care, etc.);
- Education and Training (invest in workplace policies and programmers that support women’s advancement at all levels and across all business areas, provide equal opportunities for formal and informal networking and mentoring);
- Enterprise Development, Supply Chain and Marketing practices (expand business relationships with women-owned enterprises, support gender-sensitive solution to credit and lending barriers, respect dignity of women in all marketing and other company materials, etc.);
- Community Leadership and Engagement (lead by example and showcase company commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment, work with community stakeholders, officials and others to eliminate discrimination and exploitation and open opportunities for women and girls, use philanthropy and grants to support company commitment to inclusion, equality, and human rights, etc.);
- Transparency, Measuring and Reporting (make public the company policies and implementation plan for promoting gender equality, measure and report on progress using data disaggregated by sex, etc.).
These seven key principles are guiding for mainstreaming gender into private companies and enterprises and will be regarded by UN Women as the reference point once carrying out the study that is subject of this TOR; MFIs play decisive role in stimulation of local economies by providing finances to start-ups and small businesses. MFIs are important players in the economy of the low and middle income countries as they offer people who lack financial assets opportunities to gain economically and become small entrepreneurs and have a critical role in rebuilding areas that have been devastated by conflict or natural disasters. In Georgia there are registered about 60 MFIs but only about ten of them have demonstrated interest in development and poverty eradication, the others are purely commercial entities. Respectively, the interest of UN Women lies in the policies and services of those MFIs that have demonstrated interest and commitment to development and they shall constitute the sample for the study. The majority of the MFIs that have development agendas work extensively in those regions of Georgia where there is highest concentration of IDPs and conflict affected citizens (these regions are Samegrelo and Zemo Svaneti, Imereti, Shida Qartli and Adjara) and very few (only two) of these MFIs cover whole Georgia. In this regard, UN Women would be interested to learn about the work of all the development-oriented MFIs with more in-depth exploration of those MFIs that have services in the regions populated by IDP and conflict-affected citizens – Samegrelo, Imereti, Shida Qartli and Tbilisi. The objectives of the given study as seen by UN Women are as follows: - Understand the challenges and opportunities that IDP and conflict-affected women face in accessing and benefitting from the MFI services.
- Understand the specificity of work and priorities of development-oriented MFIs vis-à-vis the seven key WEE principles to strengthen gender sensitive solutions and aspects of their work;
- Develop draft recommendations to MFIs policies and operational guidelines on the one hand to promote WEE principles and approaches and on the other to increase accessibility of their services to IDP and conflict-affected women.
UN Women has consulted the Association of Development and Support of Microfinance Organizations of Georgia while developing this terms of reference and will be partnering with the Association during the study as well as once sharing and following up on its findings. In order to carry out the above mentioned study, UN Women Georgia office would like to recruit a National Expert / Researcher. |
- Understand the challenges and opportunities that IDP and conflict-affected women face in accessing and benefitting from the MFI services;
- Understand the specificity of work and priorities of development oriented MFIs vis-à-vis the seven key WEE principles;
- Develop draft recommendations to MFIs policies and operational guidelines on the one hand to promote WEE principles and approaches and on the other to increase accessibility of their services to IDP and conflict-affected women;
- Share the findings of the study and recommendations with all the key national stakeholders and come up with agreed vision on next steps.
To fulfill the expected task the National Expert/Researcher is expected: - Prepare a detailed work plan and a methodology and submit them to the UN Women Georgia for feedback and approval;
- Carry out desk review, in order to study in depth the WEE principles and works related to MFIs and women’s economic empowerment, any relevant study conducted in Georgia in relation to MFI sector and its development, including legislative and organizational framework relevant for the functioning of the MFIs;
- Carry out the study as per agreed methodology (interviews with relevant stakeholders, focus groups with women recipients of small loans, interviews with IDP and conflict affected women potential clients of the MFIs etc.);
- Prepare the report depicting all the key findings and conclusion as well as key recommendations towards MFIs and other stakeholders as appropriate in Georgian;
- Present and discuss results of the assignment with key stakeholders to collect their feedback to finalize the study and key recommendations.
Key Deliverables and Timeframe: - Detailed work plan and a methodology agreed with UN Women – June 22, 2012
- Draft report with key findings and recommendations submitted to UN Women – September 22, 2012
- Presentation to key stakeholders and collection of feedback for finalization – October 4, 2012
- Finalized study in Georgian with executive summery and a set of viable recommendations for relevant stakeholders in English– October 19, 2012.
The timeframe for the work of National Expert is tentatively planned through for 40 working days in the period of 3 June-19 October, 2012. Evaluation Procedure:
The candidates will be evaluated in two stages: technical evaluation and financial evaluation. Technical evaluation criteria: Nr. / Criteria / Maximum points - At least MA in economics, sociology or related field - 20;
- At least five years of experience in policy research or work in the field of human rights protection, women’s empowerment and gender equality or economic policy development - 50;
- Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the economic situation in Georgia and the specificity and scope of the work of Micro-Finance Institutions working in Georgia - 50;
- Understanding and proved knowledge of Women’s Empowerment Principles: Equality Means Business developed by UN Women and UN Global Compact - 30;
- Excellent writing skills with demonstrated ability to plan and undertake research, collect and analyze data - 50;
- Strong organizational and time management skills, ability to meet deadlines - 25;
- Proficiency in English and Georgian - 25;
- Interview - 100.
Maximum total technical scoring: 350 Only candidates who have passed over the mandatory criteria and have accumulated at least 245 points under technical evaluation will qualify to the next round of financial evaluation. Evaluation of financial proposal
Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 150
S – score received on financial evaluation;
Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;
F – financial offer under consideration.
Winning candidate
The winning candidate will be the candidate, who has accumulated the highest aggregated score (technical
scoring + financial scoring).
Submission package: - CV and P11 form;
- Proposal explaining why candidate considers her/himself the most suitable for the work and providing a brief methodology-vision on how she/he will approach and conduct the work;
- Financial proposal*– aggregated and with breakdown(total remuneration, travel expenses (per diems, tickets, lodging and terminal expenses)
*The applicants are required to submit an aggregated financial offer (“aggregated financial offer” is the total sum of all financial claims of the candidate for accomplishment of all tasks spelled out in this TOR).
Management Arrangements: The National Expert / Researcher will work under the direct supervision of UN Women Gender Adviser in Georgia and will benefit from technical and operational support of UN Women Country Office in Georgia and Sub-regional office in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Financial arrangements:
Payment will be disbursed upon submission and approval of deliverables and certification by UN Women Gender Adviser in Georgia that the services have been satisfactorily performed: - Detailed work plan and a methodology – 20%
- Draft report with key findings and recommendations – 30%
- Final report in Georgian with executive summery and set of viable recommendations in English – 50%
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| Education: - At least MA in economics, sociology or related field.
Experience: - Al least five years of experience in policy research or work in the field of human rights protection, women’s empowerment and gender equality or economic policy development.
Language: - Fluency in English and Georgian.
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. Application: - All online applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/P_11_form_UNwomen.doc.
- 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.
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