Technical Consultant (Gender) – Department of Tourism, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, India (Open to Indian Nationals Only) – UNDP India

Application Deadline 16-Dec-22 (Midnight New York, USA)

UNDP has worked in India since 1951 in almost all areas of human development, from democratic governance to poverty eradication, to sustainable energy and environmental management. UNDP’s programmes are aligned with national priorities and are reviewed and adjusted annually.

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.

Additional Category : Gender Equality
Type of Contract :Individual Contract
Post Level : National Consultant
Languages Required :English
Starting Date : (date when the selected candidate is expected to start) 02-Jan-2023
Duration of Initial Contract : One Year (20 Working Days Per Month)
Expected Duration of Assignment : One Year (20 Working Days Per Month)

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 and the third gender as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

UN Women works on several fronts towards ending violence against women and girls. This includes tackling its main root: gender inequality. Efforts are multiplied through advocacy campaigns and partnerships with governments, civil society and the UN system. Initiatives range from working to establish legal frameworks and specific national actions, to supporting prevention at the grassroots level, including in conflict and post-conflict situations. UN Women has also supported data collection on violence against women, facilitating new learning on the issue.

UN Women has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Department of Tourism, Government of Madhya Pradesh to enhance gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) in the Tourism Sector. Towards realizing a gender responsive tourism, the Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board (MPTB) within the Department of Tourism works to ensure dignity, respect, equality and justice for women tourists; promote social, economic and educational empowerment of local women at tourist sites; and enhance autonomy and decision-making ability of all women related to tourism in MP.

UN Women is collaboraing with the Department of Tourism to strengthen the department’s ongoing efforts to make tourist sites safe and equal for women and girls, eliminate violence and discrimination against women; and promote access to gender responsive services, resources and opportunities to tourist sites for their social and economic empowerment. UN Women’s partnership with the Department specifically focuses on Engendering safe tourism in Madhya Pradesh; designing training modules and building capacities of relevant stakeholders; providing technical advisory support to conduct baseline research, develop reports, material and publications; strengthening implementation of safe tourism destinations for women by building synergies with other flagship programmes of the GoMP to strengthen the multisectoral and multidimensional response to VAWG; and supporting interventions to promote respectful relationships at tourist sites and change prevalent discriminatory social norms, attitudes and behaviours to create safer public spaces around tourism.

Within the above context, UN Women seeks the services of a Gender Technical Consultant to support the MPTB, GoMP in the design, strategy and implementation and monitoring of gender responsive interventions towards meeting the above goals. Specifically, under the Board’s project ‘Safe Tourism Destination for Women in Madhya Pradesh’ to be implemented in a phased manner at 50 tourist destinations in the state in three years, the technical consultant along with UN Women will support key project interventions to build women-friendly tourism destinations through community participation, public awareness, ensuring enabling environment and generation of livelihoods through upskilling women and girls at tourist places. This will also entail capacity building of various stakeholders; generation of information, education and communication resources, self-defence training and safety audit of tourist destinations. The consultant will assist in the planning, coordination, implementation, capacity development, research and documentation, and knowledge building and sharing of good practices under the project.

Under the guidance and supervision of the Director, Madhya Pradesh Tourism Board (MPTB) and UN Women Team Leader and Project Coordinator, the technical consultant will undertake the following key tasks and other responsibilities as may be assigned.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

• Provide programmatic support to the Safe Tourism Destination for Women and Girls (STDWG) Project.
• Strengthening coordination and implementation of MPTB initiatives to promote safety of women and girls at tourist destinations.
• Capacity development.
• Research, Documentation and Knowledge Building.
• Any other duties assigned by the supervisor from time to time.

Support to the Safe Tourism Destination for Women and Girls Project:

• Support in identifying the core elements of STDW project.
• Provide technical inputs from a gender perspective on tourism policies, programmes, and legislations.
• Support the project activities as outlined in the Project Design document, including facilitating interactions between the key stakeholders in the Madhya Pradesh Government and project partners.
• Document ongoing project activities, periodic progress under the project, maintain files and records relevant to the project.
• Compile and prepare briefing, presentation materials, background information and documentation for meetings for the MPTB.
• Draft routine correspondence, interoffice circulars, general briefing notes, documents, reports, and minutes of meetings when requested, translations when required.

Strengthening Coordination and Implementation of MPTB Initiatives to Promote Safe Tourism:

• Lead and coordinate the development, updates, and implementation of the Gender Action Plan under the project.
• Identify and promote good practices and lessons learned related to gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Provide substantive inputs and innovative approaches to enhance implementation of the project.
• Facilitate and strengthen coordination with other departments, project implementation partners and civil society organisations.
• Facilitate sharing of information between UN Women and the Department of Tourism.
• Schedule regular meetings between UN Women, MPTB and other core groups on Women Safety.

Capacity Development:

• Facilitate and support the organization of seminars, workshops, consultations, advocacy, training and capacity building programmes and awareness programmes under the project.
• Prepare reports to capture key issues, achievements, and challenges of capacity development initiatives under the project.

Research Documentation and Knowledge Building:

• Analyse and interpret gender situation/issues and data through conducting research and prepare reports.
• Provide coordination and support in development of IEC and training modules for training and capacity building.
• Coordinate and manage evidence generation and dissemination of knowledge resources.
• Work closely with MPTB, UN Women and civil society partners of the project in knowledge management and documentation, as per project requirements.
• Any other duties assigned by Supervisor from time to time.

Expected Deliverables:

• Work plan with specific timeline and methodology.
• Support implementation and monitoring of the Safe Tourism Destination for Women and Girls project.
• Documentation of coordination, planning, implementation and support to partners.
• Organise quarterly meetings with Nodal Departments and partners.
• Successfully implement the project as per the Project Design and Document.
• Submit Quarterly progress reports of STDWG project to the MPTB and UN Women.

Competencies

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 in Social Sciences/ Social Work /Gender Studies/ Public Administration/Policy or related fields.

Experience:

• 8-10 years of professional experience, preferably with the government or civil society sector.
• Experience of working in women related projects would be desirable.
• Experience of government functioning.
• Excellent communication and documentation skills.
• Experience of Database Management System.
• Ability to organise training sessions on gender mainstreaming of development processes.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) required and advance knowledge of spread sheet and database packages desirable.

Language:

Fluency in both oral and written English and good command over Hindi as medium of communication.

Application:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

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 from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• 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 (5 points);
• Experience in gender development, project implementation, documentation , capacity building , basics of computer skills and quantitative and qualitative research is required (5 points);
• Experience of working with national/ state governments; particularly on GEWE (5 points).
• The evaluation process for selection of the candidate will be based on the following assessment:

Interviews – 70 Points
Writing Samples Evaluation – 30 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.
• Contract will be issued initially for one year. It will be extended subject to availability of funds.
• 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 the course of this assignment.

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.