Chad made visionary commitments concerning achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment at the national level. Regarding UN support to national priorities, the joint programming plan (UNDAF) 2017-2020 is currently in its formulation phase. The majority of UN organizations have policies and/or strategies to enhance their contributions to and support of gender equality and women’s empowerment. In the context of UN reform, enhancing overall performance of the UNCT on gender equality and women’s empowerment is vital. However, systems and tools to measure progress against stated goals, and accountability functions, need to be strengthened.

Gender Score Card

At the 59th Session of the UN General Assembly, Member States, in adopting the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review (TCPR) of Operational Activities for Development of the UN System called on all UN organizations tomainstream gender and to pursue gender equality in their country programmes, planning instruments and sector-wide programmes and to articulate specific country-level goals and targets in this field in accordance with the national development strategies.

Further, ECOSOC Resolution 2004/4 - Review of Economic and Social Council agreed conclusions 1997/2 on mainstreaming the gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system requested: ‘the Secretary-General to ensure that all United Nations entities develop action plans with time lines for implementing the agreed conclusions 1997/2, which address the gap between policy and practice identified in the Secretary-General’s report, with a view to strengthening commitment and accountability at the highest levels within the United Nations system as well as to establishing mechanisms to ensure accountability, systematic monitoring and reporting on progress in implementation.’

As a direct follow-up to the TCPR, and to ensure a comprehensive response to many of its recommendations, the UN Development Group (UNDG) created a Task Team on Gender Equality as a sub-group of the UNDG Programme Group. The goals of the Task Team are: to support more consistent and coherent action among UNDG member agencies to mainstream gender equality and promote women’s empowerment at the country level; and to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment are mainstreamed into the wide range of tools and processes that emerge from the UNDG for use by UN Country Teams (UNCTs). 

In 2006 the UNDG Task Team on Gender Equality commissioned a background paper on accountability mechanisms in UNDG agencies. This paper  reviewed accountability for programming in support of gender equality in ILO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WFP and found that a common understanding of how to apply gender mainstreaming in UN operational activities is needed. This is because if there is no agreement on what constitutes a minimum level of actions to support gender equality, how will it be possible to hold agencies and UN Country Teams accountable for this? Reaching agreement across agencies on what constitutes a minimally acceptable performance to support gender equality, through an agreed set of indicators, would contribute to stronger guidance and accountability.

Subsequently, this background paper was endorsed at the UNDG Principals’ meeting in July 2006, where agreement was reached on development of a UNCT-level ‘Accounting for Gender Equality’ Scorecard that sets minimum standards for UNCTs to assess their performance, and to identify gaps and progress across the system.

The Scorecard is intended to assist UNCTs in filling this gap.

The Scorecard is one of three system-wide accountability mechanisms being introduced in the UN. The two others are (i) the UN System Wide Action Plan (UN SWAP), (ii) an accountability framework for development results (currently being developed).

The Scorecard is focused on the performance of the UNCT, rather than the performance of any one UN organization. It intends to provide an assessment of what the UN as a whole contributes to gender mainstreaming and consequently to the promotion of gender equality. It is intended to complement existing accountability frameworks. The main focus of the Scorecard is on strategies and processes – that is gender mainstreaming - rather than development results. Achievement of development results on gender equality and women’s empowerment must be led by national partners, with support from the UNCT.

Since Chad is roll out country for 2015 to prepare UNDAF, this year is the perfect moment to undertake a gender score card to identify gap and opportunity in terms of gender mainstreaming for the common programming of UN system to support Chad development plan.

Under the direct supervision of the head of RCO and the programme management team, in close collaboration with gender and human rights group, the consultant will undertake the Gender Score card and produce an analytic report on the results, including the Gender scoring and recommendations.

• Assist UNCT in identifying areas in which they are meeting or not meeting minimum standards.
• Stimulate a constructive dialogue within the UNCT about the current status of support for gender equality and women’s empowerment and how it can be improved.
• Identify where technical assistance can support the achievement of minimum standards.

The consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables:

1. Outline of conceptual framework explaining the methodology
2. Draft report with a power point presentation to be presented to the UNCT
3. Gender Score card Narrative report outline :

Length of the report should be about 800 words. It should include a title page noting the country covered, the name and contact details of the consultant, and the date of the report.

1. Methodology (100 words). Outline the methods used, and any constraints faced (e.g. lack of time, lack of access to documents or staff).

2. Findings (500 words)

This section should be organized into two parts, one on strengths and one on weaknesses.  It should be based on both the scoring in the Scorecard and interviews. For example, a UNCT may be strong on planning, but weak on budgeting. The driving forces to good quality gender mainstreaming (e.g. good leadership, government and agency commitment), as well as the constraints to improved practice (e.g. lack of gender theme group, government opposition to gender mainstreaming) should be noted here. The average score for each Dimension should be included in this section, using the following Table:

Any good practice in gender mainstreaming should also be highlighted here, including the factors which led to this good practice.

3. Follow-up (200 words)

The completed follow-up matrix should be included

Annex

Note the documents reviewed, and the names and institutional positions of those interviewed.

1. A presentation/debrief to UNCT members at end of consultancy.

The consultant is expected to possess demonstrated experience and qualifications in the following areas:

• At least 10 years of relevant work experience, including with the UN system or other multi-lateral organizations, on Gender mainstreaming.
• Five years of work on results Based management
• Relevant educational background with an advanced university degree in international law and/or human rights and/or social-political science and/or related field;
• Ability to complete the Scorecard, narrative report and follow-up matrix in
• Ability to both conceptual and practical thinking;
• Strong analytical and drafting skills in french; ability to consolidate and synthesize substantive comments from multiple sources in a balanced and concise manner;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to empathize with the various organizational mandates and cultures of the UN system;
• Fluency in French and a good working knowledge of English

1. Technical proposal including methodology

2. P11 or CV

Contract based on daily rate fees

The financial offer must specify the daily rate, the cost of travel and per-diem that must be separately indicated. Payments will be made accordingly to the number of real working days and overnight spent in Chad.

Travel

All the costs of travel must be included in the financial offer. They include the travel DR. Generally, UNDP does not accept an air ticket beyond the economy class. If the consultant wishes to travel in a superior class, he will have to pay for additional costs.

Financial proposal presentation

Consultants must be evaluated as follow :

The technically valid offer and the lowest bidder

The consultation will be attributed to the consultant:

1.             Which offer is considered valid (answers to the TDR) and

2.             Who proposes the lowest cost

Only the candidates who obtained at least 70 % of points at the end of the technical evaluation will be taken into account for the financial evaluation