Consultant - State Technical Coordinator- Gender Budgeting (GB)

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.

All human development and human rights issues involve gender dimensions. UN Women globally focuses on key priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. UN Women’s priority areas include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, engaging in all aspects of women peace and security processes, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting through Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

UN Women’s work on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) or Gender Budgeting (GB) involves ensuring that national planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes incorporate a gender perspective. UN Women’s GB programmes at the regional and country level have made significant contribution towards this by building political support, developing technical resources and capacities, generating good practices for improving women's access to services and increasing accountability for Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment (GEWE). At the forefront of global, regional and local advocacy for application of GB, UN Women has built partnerships with diverse government, inter-governmental and non-governmental partners to further efforts and demonstrate GB’s relevance to sustainable development, aid effectiveness, public sector reform and financing for development.

UN Women’s India Country Office, based in New Delhi is implementing a project with the objective of strengthening institutional mechanisms for GB resulting in an increase of gender perspective in budgets, improved availability of data, and tracking of progress on gender equality initiatives in select central ministries and states. It will aim to create a conducive policy environment and enhance institutional capacities on gender budgeting at the national and state level. Insights generated from this project will enable key stakeholders at the national and state level to accelerate their efforts to ensure that women’s priorities are adequately reflected in national and state budgeting processes, and to make concrete changes for adequate resource allocation towards women’s priorities. 

UN Women through this programme is working with nodal GB state departments and line departments in six states, namely, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Goa, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand to deepen anchoring of Gender Budgeting at the local level. This year onwards, the programme is expanding to two additional states - Bihar and Tamil Nadu to strengthen institutional mechanism and enhance capacities of government officials and other stakeholders to implement gender responsive planning and budgeting measures, and leverage technology to advance gender budgeting including through an e-governance tool.

Within this context, UN Women seeks the services of State Technical Coordinator-Gender Budgeting (GB) who will be placed within the nodal Gender Budgeting Department in Tamil Nadu and will be responsible for implementing programme activities on gender budgeting in the assigned State. 

Under the overall programmatic guidance of the Programme Lead – GRB and Policy Specialist - Gender Tamil Nadu (State Lead), the State Technical Coordinator - GB will provide technical support to the state government to advance gender budgeting. The incumbent will work with the project team to ensure that the project produces the results in the State to the required standards of quality and within the given time and cost specifications. 

The State Technical Coordinator-GB will work closely with the nodal department and have the following tasks:

Strengthening coordination and mechanisms for gender budgeting in the state-

• Assist in establishing/strengthening effective coordination mechanisms within and among Social Welfare & Women Empowerment, Planning, Finance, SDG Coordination Centre and other line departments to institutionalize and promote GB in the state.
• Provide technical expertise and support to nodal department to set up/review and monitor institutional mechanisms and processes to adopt/advance GB in the state including Gender Budget Statement, Gender Budget Cells, Inter-departmental monitoring processes etc.
• Provide technical support for issuing advisory and necessary guidelines for line departments at the state level to create/strengthen gender budget cells, and implement GB.
• Coordinate with relevant non-government actors including civil society organisations, academia, and women’s networks on GB and women’s budgets.
• Advocate for organising pre-budget consultation with CSO, women’s groups, academia and other stakeholders in collaboration with Social Welfare & Women Empowerment, Planning, Finance and other line departments.

Research and documentation-

• Undertake mapping and documentation of the planning, budgeting and auditing processes at the state level.
• Support the state government in developing state action plan on GB. 
• Provide support in undertaking sectoral/policy analysis for select sectors on GB and develop state specific sectoral policy briefs.
• Document and disseminate resources and knowledge products on GB, such as case studies and good practices at the state level.
• Support IT specialist and UN Women project team in roll out and implementation of e-governance tool on GB.
• Support Policy Specialist- Gender to generate good practices on utilisation of Nirbhaya Fund from other states.

Facilitating training and capacity development of relevant constituents on GRB

• Support to compile/develop training tools, manual, and other resource material on GB for the state.
• Coordinate with the state nodal department and training institutions to conduct state specific training needs assessment as per level of officials, develop capacity building strategy and training calendar for GB.
• Support in facilitating training programmes for state level officials, relevant stakeholders and create a pool of local GB experts.
• Monitor the outcomes of the trainings by undertaking pre and post assessment and developing quality training reports.

Implementation of project at state level-

• Coordinate with project team for timely completion of project deliverables including periodic reporting. 
• Preparation of monthly progress reports.
• Any other duties as assigned by supervisor.

Expected Deliverables:

• Input and technical expertise provided to state nodal and line departments on GB.
• Evidence based State Action Plan developed with the state nodal department on GB with monitorable targets and timelines.
• Institutional mechanisms and processes including functional gender budget cells, gender budget statement, inter departmental monitoring committees and gender responsive program appraisal developed and implemented.
• Training and capacity development of state officials, relevant stakeholders strengthened based on assessments and training calendar on GB developed.
• Timely compilation and submission of reports. 
• Any other duties, as required by Supervisor.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

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 Values and Competencies Framework: 

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.
• Sound understanding of development issues and gender;
• Adheres to deadlines and follows up on time-bound issues;
• Maintains diplomacy, tact and strict confidentiality with internal and external partners and clients.

Education:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in Social Sciences/Economics/Social Work /Gender Studies/Public Administration/Policy or related fields.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of experience at the national/state level working with development projects including hands-on experience of design, implementation and monitoring/evaluation of projects, preferably on Gender Responsive Governance, Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment;
• Some experience of working with national/ state governments on gender issues, preferably on violence against women, gender budgeting. Region specific experience will be preferable.
• Experience of undertaking budgetary/ policy analysis and capacity building of government officials on gender issues.
• Proficiency in the use of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.).

Language:

• Proficiency in English; good command over Hindi and Tamil is desirable. 

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 writing on Gender Issues (5 points).

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

• Written Test (20 points)
• Interview (80 points)

Please Note:

• For an assignment requiring travel, consultants of 65 years or more require full medical examination. 
• Consultants are required to submit doctor's certificate to state fitness to work and travel for this assignment.
• Due to large number of potential applicants, only competitively selected candidates will be contacted for remaining steps of the service procurement process.
• The consultant is expected to use their own computer equipment. The office will not provide any computer equipment for this assignment.
• This is a full-time assignment. The consultant is expected to disclose any outside activity and shall not be permitted to take up any outside work during this assignment.

Statements :

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.

Diversity and inclusion:

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.)