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.

UN Women’s goal in Timor-Leste is to promote women’s human rights and gender equality as the country works towards sustaining and furthering achievements in stability and development. In this regard, its programming in the country is connected to two corporate priority areas: enhancing women’s economic empowerment (WEE), and engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes (WPS), supported by integrated efforts to ensure gender-sensitive plans and budgets and women’s right to live free of violence. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s joint work in advancing gender equality.

To address the global challenges of VAWG, the UN Family (through UN Women, UNDP, UNFPA and IOM) are collaborating with KOICA and the Government of Timor-Leste to support efforts to end violence against women and girls. Through the Joint UN Project Together for Equality: Preventing and Responding to Gender-Based Violence in Timor-Leste (2020-2024), the United Nations has a goal for women and girls in Timor-Leste to be empowered to enjoy their right to live free of sexual harassment and other forms of violence in public and private spaces and to access quality essential services, in line with the SDGs. As part of its efforts to prevent violence before it begins, interventions addressing WEE and EVAWG will be an important part of the programme.

Within this scope, UN Women Timor-Leste, as a Convening Agency of the Joint Programme wishes to hire a National consultant as an Advocacy and Communication Consultant within the context of the Together for Equality (T4E) Programme.

Duties and Responsibilities

The consultant’s primary responsibility is to strengthen coordination and communication efforts among a diverse range of stakeholders, including Participating United Nations Agencies (PUNOs), KOICA, government bodies, civil society organizations, media partners, and other key actors. Through proactive communication strategies and impactful advocacy, this consultancy is dedicated to enhancing the Programme’s visibility, influencing policy decisions, and challenging harmful gender stereotypes and practices. The consultant will play an important role in ensuring the dissemination of empowering messages, addressing public misconceptions, and effectively conveying the impact of the T4E Programme. This, in turn, will foster lasting change in societal attitudes, norms, and behaviors that perpetuate gender-based violence (GBV).

1. Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance and supervision of Programme Specialist EVAWG and WEE (T4E), the national Consultant will perform the following tasks:

Advocacy:

• Evidence-Based Advocacy: Develop and implement strategies to engage government at the national and municipal levels to influence policy decisions and allocate resources for gender equality and GBV prevention and response efforts. With the emphasis on utilizing data and evidence generated by the T4E Programme to support advocacy initiatives, ensuring that recommendations and policy proposals are firmly grounded in research and analysis.

• Public Advocacy: Design, support the T4E’s programme partners and execute public advocacy campaigns aimed at raising awareness, challenging harmful gender stereotypes, and promoting positive behaviors related to gender equality and GBV prevention. Leverage evidence and success stories from the program to drive these advocacy efforts.

Communication and Coordination:

• Coordinate and Communicate: Ensure better coordination and communication among Participating United Nations Agencies (PUNOs) on related communications work, activities, and events.

• Branding Alignment: Ensure the alignment of branding guidelines (T4E’s Communication Strategy) for all project materials and communications to maintain a consistent project identity.

• Promote Success Stories: Develop and promote human-interest stories, programs, and events that highlight the project’s success and position the project and its partners as credible and visible actors in ending GBV.

• Social Media Growth: Increase social media audiences on PUNOs’ channels and boost engagement with the project’s content on these platforms.

• Partner Engagement: Engage, acknowledge, and credit involved partners and donors in project communications.

• Media Relations: Build engagement with external media partners to expand the project’s outreach and impact.

1. Deliverables

The National Consultant is expected to submit a report on the following deliverables:

*Payment will be made upon submission of deliverables with All acceptance and Certified by the Supervisor.

All the documents, including reports, questionnaires, presentations and reports should be submitted in English language, or if in Tetum, include an English summary.

Upon receipt of the deliverables and prior to the payment of the instalment all submitted reports and documents will be reviewed and approved by UN Women.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement

Leading by Example Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Strong commitment to gender equality and the empowerment of women, with demonstrated experience of researching or working on gender issues;
• Strong research and writing skills, with strong analytical skills and creative thinking;
• Ability to think and work logically and work precisely with attention to detail;
• Initiative, sound judgment and demonstrated ability to work harmoniously with staff members of different national and cultural backgrounds;
• Previous experience (also volunteer experience) from the non-profit sector is an advantage.
• Ability to multi-task and address competing priorities
• Ability to produce quality deliverables in a timely manner
• Strong computer skills, including Word, Excel, and Power Point

Required Skills and Experience

1. Competences and Qualifications

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree: A degree in a relevant field such as Communication, Public Relations, Gender Studies, International Relations, or a related discipline. A master’s degree with at least 2 years of relevant experience or a bachelor’s degree with at least 4 years’ experience.

Experience and skills:

• Advocacy and Communication: A proven track record in designing and implementing advocacy and communication strategies, especially in the context of gender equality, GBV prevention, or related social issues.
• Government Engagement: Experience in engaging government at the national and municipal levels, influencing policy decisions, and advocating for resource allocation, with a clear understanding of the policy-making process.
• Public Advocacy: Demonstrated experience in planning and executing public advocacy campaigns, including awareness-raising, challenging stereotypes, and promoting positive behaviors. Experience in using evidence and success stories to drive advocacy efforts.
• Evidence-Based Advocacy: Proficiency in utilizing data and research findings to support advocacy initiatives. Strong analytical skills to develop evidence-based policy recommendations.
• Project Management: Experience in managing projects, including monitoring progress, reporting, and adapting strategies based on outcomes and feedback.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Proven ability to engage and collaborate with a diverse range of stakeholders, including UN agencies, civil society organizations, media partners, and government officials.
• Demonstrated ability to produce documentation in English and Tetum
• Demonstrated ability to work with organizations to identify, plan, and implement advocacy strategies
• Commitment to transformative change for gender equality

Language and other skills:

• Proficiency in oral and written English and Tetum; and
• Communication Skills: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to create persuasive and impactful messaging; and
• Media Relations: Understanding of media relations and experience in building relationships with external media partners for outreach and amplification of messaging; and
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.); and
• Adaptability: Willingness to adapt to changing circumstances and respond to emerging opportunities and challenges.

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.

1. Inputs

• UN Women will provide logistics and transportation support when traveling out of Dili
• UN Women will provide Daily Subsistence Allowance (DSA) to cover expenses outside of the Duty Station when applicable and upon approval of a Travel Plan/ Process. If unforeseen travel outside the duty station not required by the Terms of Reference is requested by UN Women, and upon prior agreement/approval, such travel shall be UN Women expenses and the individual contractor/SSA shall receive a per-diem not to exceed United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in such other location(s).

1. Submission package

• Cover letter
• Updated P11 Form provides information on education qualification and working experience (available from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment)
• A copy of the latest academic certificate
• Financial proposal which shall specify lumpsum for each deliverable provided

All applications must include (as an attachment in one file) P11 and the financial proposal.

1. Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the Cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [70%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight; [30%]

A three-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the proposals. Candidates who are fulfilling all the required skills and expertise will go to the technical evaluation process. The evaluation of the technical proposal is being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

1. Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically-qualified candidates.

1. Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have all the required skills and expertise and have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technically qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

1. Payments

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.

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.

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.)