International Expert (Data Collection and Reporting

Location :	UNDP/GEP, Kabul, AFGHANISTAN
Application Deadline :	05-Sep-15
Additional Category	Management
Type of Contract :	Individual Contract
Post Level :	International Consultant
Languages Required :	English
Duration of Initial Contract :	Three months (maximum 68 working days)

Background

Gender mainstreaming is identified in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) as a cross cutting issue.  The adoption of the National Action Plan for Women in Afghanistan (NAPWA), (2008- 2018) forms the policy and institutional basis for “promotion of women's advancement is a shared obligation within government and it is a collective responsibility of all sectors, institutions, and individuals to include women or/and gender concerns in all aspects of government work.” NAPWA seeks to achieve outcomes in three main areas: (i) Gender equality in employment, promotion, policy making, and budget allocations; (ii) Measurable improvements in women’s status, in line with MDG 3; and (iii) Greater social acceptance of gender equality as evidenced by increased participation by women in public affairs and policy discussions. Afghanistan has also committed itself to gender equality in other documents such as the Afghanistan Constitution, the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Afghanistan Millennium Development Goal and the Afghanistan Compact and National Action Plan for Women of Afghanistan. Gender Equality Project Phase II is now in the third and final year of its implementation which is a critical juncture for the project to ensure that it not only achieves the commitments, in line with project document but also to establish strong foundations for the next phase project formulation. Building on the structure and existing mechanisms of MoWA M&E Unit, UNDP through the GEP-II places important attention to further support the improvement of monitoring functions of MOWA, strengthening M&E coordination mechanism between other line ministries and Central Statistical Office (CSO), regular capacity development for the officials of MoWA and other line ministries on the collection of data/information relating to the implementation of  National Action Plan for Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA), establishment of a Central Data Base on the data/information, collaboration with the ANDS Secretariat of the Ministry of Finance on facilitating the review of NPPs of other Clusters from a gender perspective, integration of gender issues in the NPPs of other Clusters and present briefs in appropriate platforms for ensuring their effective integration, preparation of reports on MoWA NPP. Following the mandate of MOWA on policy making, coordination and oversight of the implementation of the National Afghanistan commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment, the MoWA Monitoring and Evaluation Department, with the support from UNDP GEP-II, has initiated the establishment of a NAPWA indicators online Management Information System.  One of the focused areas of work for UNDP/GEP has been supporting the MOWA M&E department to establish a systematic data collection and reporting mechanism of NAPWA. Reporting on NAPWA progress of indicators has been difficult in the absence of baseline data.   To harmonize the NAPWA indicator with those of line ministries, UNDP/GEP engaged a consultant in 2014 to provide technical support to MOWA.  The support resulted in the development of harmonized and refined NAPWA indicators, a NAPWA conceptual framework, data collection tools (qualitative and quantitative), matrix, and reference sheet. GEP II is supporting MOWA to engage three research institutions to collect primary and secondary 2015 baseline data for the NAPWA indicators.  The institutions will work closely with various stakeholders that include Gender Units, MOWA Monitoring Unit and Central Statistics Office (CSO).  This data will be uploaded into an online web- based database which has been developed by MOWA with support from GEP II UNDP and UN Women. A technical coordination mechanism comprising of UN Women, UNFPA, UNHCR, CSO, Asia Foundation, and the Ministry of Public Health has been established to provide strategic inputs on the development of the online web based system and collection of the data. A lot of preliminary work will be required to review existing secondary data to identify available data and gaps.  Some of the NAPWA indicators are at policy level, and will be collected mainly by the MOWA Monitoring Unit and line ministry Gender Units. The services of an international expert is required to provide technical support and coordinate, guide and provide technical support to the Three Local Research Institutions and  key stakeholders for timely development and or refining of data collection tools, collection of the data, tabulating, designing and packing the data for producing comprehensive and analytical reports from NAPWA indicators. I addition technical support has to be provided to upload data into the web-based online management system.  Analytical reports for the 2015 baseline study on the NAPWA indicators will be produced clearly providing information on the national status of NAPWA indicators in 2015 (issues, quantitative and qualitative data, milestones, gaps, challenges, lessons, best practices and recommendations) to enable government, civil society and other stakeholders to produce evidence based data to inform policy making, monitoring and budgeting. The consultant is expected to focus on principles of ownership, result and evidence based approaches; accountability, and culturally and conflict sensitive approaches in undertaking this assignment.  The consultant is supposed to build the capacity of MOWA to led and implement the processes.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work The international expert will be responsible for the below tasks: To support three local research institutions to collect both primary and secondary 2015 baseline data on the NAPWA indicators.  Most of the data is available in public and private institutions including Central Statistical Office. Reviewing secondary data is therefore key in order to identify the existing gaps to inform primary data collection; To provide technical support to three local institutions on data collection, data cleaning, tabulation, packaging for logical entry into the online web based management information system already developed by MOWA; To support MoWA and three local institutions in pre-testing the questionnaire and make the necessary adjustments prior to the data collection; To ensure that the three institutions produce a high level quality analytical synthesized report of the primary and secondary data collected on 2015 baseline NAPWA indicators in collaboration with MOWA, Gender Units and CSO which include (gender issues, quantitative and qualitative data baseline data, milestones, gaps, challenges, lessons, best practices and recommendations); To provide technical assistance to three local institutions through MoWA’s M&E Unit to develop and implement the research design for collecting data for NAPWA indicators; To liaise with key stakeholders to ensure timely collection of the NAPWA indicators data by CSO, MOWA and Gender Units. To support MoWA in designing long term mechanism for NAPWA database operation and maintenance; To provide training on data collection, storage, analysis and reporting to relevant staff of MoWA, particularly the M&E Unit and Gender Units; To provide technical support to MOWA and key stakeholders to develop and or refine data collection tools, guidelines, protocols, methodologies and frameworks for the NAPWA indicators; To liaise with MoWA and three local institutions for completion and approval of a comprehensive and analytical NAPWA baseline report; Provide technical support to MOWA to develop a three year action plan that will ensure functional of the online management information system at national, sector and provincial levels. Participate in all NAPWA related meetings to facilitate coordination and prepare all the necessary reports, tools and documents. Expected Outputs and Deliverables: Working under the supervision of the GEP Project Manager the consultant coordinate stakeholders to achieve the following outputs timely; Expected results: Enhanced capacity of MoWA to led data collection, tabulation, analysis, storage, reporting and dissemination of the NAPWA indicators; Data collection tools, guidelines, protocols, methodologies and frameworks for three local institutions are refined and other relevant materials developed  in collaboration with MoWA; Analytical synthesized report of the primary and secondary data collected by three institutions using NAPWA indicators in collaboration with MOWA, Gender Units and CSO; Report approved by MOWA and UNDP/GEP II; Collected data cleaned, tabulated packaged for logical entry into the online web based database already developed by MOWA. Work Arrangment: Institutional Arrangement Liaise with three institutions, UNDP GEP II, MoWA M&E Unit, and database advisory committee for all data collection process and online NAPWA database system; Liaise with UNDP/ GEP II, Gender Units, Central Statistics Office and all relevant stakeholders; Any other tasks that may be given by UNDP/GEP II Project Manager. Duration of the Work This is a full time assignment for a duration of the assignment is three months. Duty Station The consultant will be based in UNDP/GEP II, Ministry of Women Affairs-Kabul. Price Proposal and Schedule of Payment The contractor shall submit a price proposal as below: Daily Fee – The contractor shall propose a daily fee, which should be inclusive of his professional fee, local communication cost and insurance (inclusive of medical health insurance and evacuation). The number of working days for which the daily fee shall be payable under the contract is 68 wroking days; The contractor shall propose a Living allowance at the Kabul applicable rate of USD 181 per night for his/her stay at the duty station. The number of nights for which the Living allowance shall be payable under the contract is 90 nights. The contractor is NOT allowed to stay in a place of his choice other than the UNDSS approved places. UNDP will provide MORSS compliant accommodation in Green Village (GV) to the contractor. The payment of GV accommodation shall be made directly to GV by the contractor; Travel & Visa – The contractor shall propose an estimated lump-sum for home-kabul-home travel (economy most direct route) and Afghanistan visa expenses; The contractor shall be entitled for R&R - 7 calendar days (USD 2,606) for every six weeks during the course of the assignment. After the last R&R, the contract should mandatorily stay in country for minimum of 30 calendar days. The total professional fee, shall be converted into a lump-sum contract and payments under the contract shall be made on submission and acceptance of deliverables under the contract in accordance with the schedule of payment linked with deliverables. Deliverables, Timeframe and payment sechedule: Data collection tools, guidelines, protocols, methodologies and frameworks for three local institutions are refined and other relevant materials developed  in collaboration with MoWA and key stakeholders; September 2015; (30%); Analytical synthesized report of the primary and secondary data collected by three institutions using NAPWA indicators in collaboration with MOWA, Gender Units and CSO; October 2015; (30%); NAPWA indicators baseline data packaged for entry into the online web based management information system; November 2015; (20%); A three year action plan that will ensure a functional online management information system at national, sector and provincial levels; Novembr 2015; (20%) after review and acceptance by UNDP Management. Evaluation Method and Criteria: Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Cumulative analysis The award of the contract shall be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as: 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. Technical Criteria: weight 70% Financial Criteria weight 30% Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) would be considered for the Financial Evaluation Technical Criteria – Maximum 70 points: Criteria A: Methodology and approach to fulfilling the outlined deliverables (Max 60 points). Criteria B: Experience: Max 5 points. Education - Max 5 Points (Total:10 points).

Competencies

Core Competencies: Ethics and Values: Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity. Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment; Development and Innovation: Take charge of self-development and take initiative. Team Work: 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. Functional Competencies: Knowledge and understanding of data collection and analyzing, preferably in conflict/post conflict situations; Knowledge in building organization coordination mechanism and team working in post-war countries; Capacity building, team building and teamwork; Ability to work under pressure and meeting tight multiple deadlines with minimum supervision; Familiarity with Afghanistan and its political, social and Islamic context; Familiarity with the gender equality and women’s empowerment concepts; Ability to develop creative solutions; Ability to work in culturally diverse environments and display diplomacy and tact.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Minimum the Master Degree on Statistics, Computer Science, Social Science or other relevant disciplines. Experience: A minimum of 5 years’ experience on organizational coordination practices and team working on gender and social development programs; Special skills/ experience on gender statistics, gender mainstreaming, gender responsive mainstreaming, and database methodologies; Special skills/ experience on gender related data, analysis of sectorial program, and gender mainstreaming programs; Expertise in gender responsive monitoring, gender disaggregated statistics analysis, database development; Proficiency in data management, including database development, data entry and cleaning procedures; Familiarity with Afghanistan and its political, social and Islamic context; Previous experience of working in UNDP or the UN system highly desirable; Good experience and skills for capacity building, team building and teamwork; Experience related to UNDP's mandate and activities an asset; Successful working experience in Afghanistan or other Islamic countries; Previous experience of working in UNDP or the UN system highly desirable. Language: Excellent written and oral English skills a necessary requirement; Competence in Dari and/or Pashtu desirable. Documents to included when submitting the proposals: Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document: Duly accomplished Letter of Confirmation of Interest and Availability using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II); Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references. Technical proposal: Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment; A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment; Financial proposal that indicates the all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown of costs, as per template provided (Annex II) Annexes (to be downloaded from UNDP Afghanistan Website,http://www.af.undp.org/content/afghanistan/en/home/operations/jobs.html) : Annex I - Individual Contractor (IC) Personal History Form, P11; Annex II – Financial proposal template for the Individual Contractor (IC) Assignment - International.

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.