National Consultant on CEDAW National Periodic Report

TERM OF REFERENCE

TOR Ref.	TOR-VNM-2019–094 Please refer to this number on the email subject when you apply for this consultancy post
Title	National Consultant to support government in special report on gender- based violence contributing to the CEDAW National periodic report 9th in 2020
Location	Hanoi and Home-based
Contract Type	SSA
Contract duration	10 November – 15 January 2020
Report to	UN Women Programme Analyst – Governance and EVAW

BACKGROUND

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) works for the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and girls; the empowerment of women; and the achievement of equality between women and men as parts and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action, and peace and security. The fundamental objective of UN Women is to enhance national capacity and ownership to enable national partners to formulate gender responsive laws, policies and upscale successful strategies to deliver on national commitments to gender equality. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is the authoritative legal instrument on women’s human rights and a binding source of international law for those States that have ratified it, while its implementation is monitored by the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Viet Nam has ratified CEDAW in 1982 and has been demonstrating strong commitment to fulfil international standards on women’s rights and gender equality. To implement its obligation to CEDAW, Viet Nam regularly submitted its periodic reports and received constructive Concluding Observations from the CEDAW Committee. In 2015, one the key recommendations of the CEDAW Committee to Viet Nam was to enhance legislation and take appropriate measure to address gender- based violence and enhance legal aid for women victims and their access to justice. UN Women played active role to support MOLISA to prepare for government delegations to participate the 61th Session of the Committee in Geneva in 2015 through drafting update report and mock up session. In 2015, UN Women supported MOLISA to develop National Plan of Action from 2017- 2020, which was approved by Prime Minister in May 2017. 2020 will be a pivotal year for the accelerating gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. As the global community marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action of 19951, and five years of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development2 and its Sustainable Development Goals, the moment is right to achieve irreversible and measurable progress towards these universal commitments to all women and girls, everywhere. In Viet Nam, 2020 will be the final year of the implementation of its first National Strategy on Gender Equality and preparation for a new strategy for the period 2021-2030. Viet Nam report on Beijing +25 is comprehensive covering all topics of the Beijing Platform for action, in which gender-based violence was mentioned among 12 critical areas of concerns from the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) but mostly mentioned what Viet Nam achieved according to the format of the report. Gender-based violence and its implications on women, girls and other marginalized groups have been a pressing area across UN Women’s work. In the past couple of years, UN Women managed a number of researches on domestic violence, sexual violence and perception of victims as well as duty bearers in addressing violence and accessing to justice. The research reports limited scope but revealed significant findings on the situation violence against women as well as barriers preventing women from access to justice. 2020 will be an important year for Viet Nam to submit the 9th CEDAW periodic report to response to the Committee’s recommendations to Viet Nam, in which addressing violence against women is a pivotal issue. At this moment MOLISA are now intensively working on the draft of the 9th CEDAW periodic report. In consultation with Legal Department of MOLISA, UN Women will provide support for development of the special report on GBV issues in Viet Nam. In this regard, UN Women is seeking for national consultant to support Legal Department in development of a special report on GBV based on the information provided in the Viet Nam Beijing +25 report, among other sources, contributing to the 9th Government CEDAW periodic report in 2020.

OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE Objective

The national work will contribute to the development of the comprehensive 9th government CEDAW periodic report, which will be submitted by the government to the CEDAW Committee in March 2020.

Scope of the consultancy

- Focus on GBV with gender and human rights perspective that the Legal Department of MOLISA can use and update for the National CEDAW periodic report.
- Provide evidence to inform and recommend the government to take actions to address GBV aligning to CEDAW principles and its Committee’s recommendations to Viet Nam
- Serve as a policy advocacy paper to change public perception towards GBV and urge for action to stop GBV

1 Report of the Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 4–15 September 1995, chap. I, resolution 1, annexes I and II. 2 General Assembly resolution 70/1.

SPECIFIC TASKS:

- Desk review and gather data on GBV situation in Viet Nam as a ground for the special report
- Identify the gaps in the CEDAW implementation in Viet Nam, refereeing the law alignment CEDAW, Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) in addressing GBV
- Analyse the gaps between the law and law implementation in addressing GBV
- In consultation with Legal Department, prepare a comprehensive report referring CEDAW, other international instruments on GBV with recommendations for policy change, with the length no longer than 25 pages, in Vietnamese.

DELIVERABLES AND PAYMENT

Payment	Deliverables	Timeframe for payment
50% payment	Outline of the report according to CEDAW format report developed	No later than 11 November 2019.
50% payment	1st draft report with data analysis, indicating alignment of Viet Nam law and CEDAW and international instruments	No later than 11 November 2019.
50% payment	2nd draft report indicating the gaps between the law and law implementation in addressing VAWG; the draft shared with relevant stakeholders for comments PPT highlighting the key findings and recommendations	No later than 20 October 2019.
50% payment	Final draft with recommendations, incorporating all comments and inputs from relevant stakeholders and a presentation on the key findings	No later than 14 December 2019

LOCATION OF WORK

Home-based in Ha Noi.

DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT

The entire duration of the assignment will be from 10 November 2019 – 15 January 2020.

CONTRACT SUPERVISION

The consultant will work closely with one government staff from Legal Department of MOLISA to consult with them the outline and contents as well as format of the report aligning to the government the 9th periodic report to CEDAW Committee. The work of the national consultant will be supervised by UN Women Programme Analyst and will be ultimately responsible for the UN Women Viet Nam Head of Office.

QUALIFICATIONS

Education: Master’s degree in economics, sociology, development studies or relevant fields. Required experience and skills:

At least 10 years of professional experience in advancing gender equality, working experiences with CSOs and government agencies in advocating for gender mainstreaming
Good understanding on international commitment on gender equality, including CEDAW, and other international instruments
Experience in research, writing policy analysis and papers;
Familiar with CEDAW report process, procedures and contents of the report.
Have experiences working with UN agencies
Good command of both oral and written English.

APPLICATION EVALUATION CRITERIA

The applicant will be evaluated based on technical capacities (70%) and a financial proposal (30%). Technical evaluation will be based on the following criteria stated below:

1	Master’s degree in economics, sociology, development studies or relevant fields	15 points
2	At least 10 years of professional experience in advancing gender equality, working experiences with CSOs and government agencies in advocating for gender mainstreaming	25 points
5	Good understanding on international commitment on gender equality, including CEDAW, and other international instruments. Familiar with CEDAW report process, procedures and contents of the report.	25 points
6	Experience in writing policy analysis and papers.	20 points
8	Good command of both oral and written English.	15 points
	Total	100 points

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the submissions, with evaluation of the technical components being completed prior to any price proposals being opened and compared. The price proposal will be opened only for submissions that passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the evaluation of the technical component. The technical component is evaluated on the basis of its responsiveness to the Term of Reference (TOR). Technically qualified consultants may be selected for an interview before financial evaluation. Maximum 100 points will be given to the lowest offer and the other financial proposals will receive the points inversely proportional to their financial offers. i.e. Sf = 100 x FM / F, in which Sf is the financial score, FM is the lowest price and F the price of the submission under consideration. The weight of technical points is 70% and financial points is 30%. Individual consultants will be evaluated based on Cumulative analysis, the award of the contract will 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.

Application procedure and deadline

Interested applicants must submit the following document/information (in PDF format) to demonstrate their qualifications

Technical component:

- Letter of interest clearly stating relevant experience and qualifications against required qualifications as stated in Section 8 above
- Signed Curriculum Vitae with contact details of 3 clients for whom you have rendered a preferably similar service who can be contacted for reference.

Financial proposal (with your signature)

- The financial proposal shall specify a total lump sum amount in VND including consultancy fees and all associated costs, if applicable, i.e. airfares, travel cost, meals, accommodation, tax, insurance etc.
- The financial proposal MUST be submitted in separated document with technical proposal. It is required to be treated as confidential and NEED not to be indicated in any form rather than financial proposal
- Please note that the cost of preparing a proposal and of negotiating a contract, including any related travel, is not reimbursable as a direct cost of the assignment.
- If quoted in another currency, prices shall be converted to VND at UN Exchange Rate at the submission deadline.

Completed applications should be sent to procurement.vietnam@unwomen.org. Only applications including all items mentioned above will be considered. Deadline for Application: 23.59 on 3 November 2019 NOTE: Documents required before contract signing:

UN Personal History Form;
Full medical examination and Statement of Fitness, at their own cost, to work and travel for consultants with travel involved. (This is not a requirement for RLA contracts);
Security Certificate BSAFE: EN: https://agora.unicef.org/course/info.php?id=17891
Individual subscribers over 65 years of age are required to undergo a full medical examination including x-rays at their own cost and obtain medical clearance from the UN Medical Director prior to taking up their assignment;
Release letter in case the selected consultant is a government official.

Tags: UN Women Viet Nam