EXPRESSION OF INTEREST (EOI) - SEEKING CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS TO PARTNER WITH UN WOMEN FIJI MCO FROM 2020 - 2022.
Seeking CSO Expressions of Interest (EOI) for Partnerships with UN Women Fiji MCO.
Advertised on behalf of : UN Women Fiji MCO
Location:
Suva, Fiji – all Pacific countries covered under the Fiji Multi-Country Office: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Palau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Samoa, Tokelau, Niue, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu
Application Deadline:
29 September 2019 (5pm Fiji time)
Additional Category:
Gender Equality
Expressions of Interest
EOI
Languages Required:
English
Starting Date:
(date when the selected organisation is expected to start)
01 January 2020
Expected Duration of Assignment:
Varied.
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 is the global champion for gender equality, working to develop and uphold standards and create an environment in which every woman and girl can exercise her human rights and live up to her full potential. The UN Women Multi-Country Office (MCO) based in Fiji covers 14 Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs): Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu. Currently, UN Women’s programmatic countries are: Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu with programming to commence in 2020 in the Republic of the Marshall Islands.
The UN Women Fiji MCO works to progress gender equality and women’s empowerment in the Pacific through five key programmatic areas:
- Women’s Economic Empowerment;
- Ending Violence Against Women and Girls;
- Women’s Political Empowerment and Leadership;
- Gender and Protection in Humanitarian Action and resilience/climate change/DRR; and
- Normative work – Reporting and monitoring Gender equality through CEDAW, Beijing +25 etc.
General Background Information on the Context of this Call for Expressions of Interest / EOI (Justification):
UN Women works with government and civil society partners in all five programmatic areas of its work. This call for Expressions of Interest from (CSO) civil society organisation partners seeks to pre-select partners for the 2020-2022 programming period from all Pacific countries listed above. Any registered CSO (national, regional or international), working in the Pacific in UN Women Fiji MCO’s focus areas of work described below, or any other related gender equality work including but not limited to: gender mainstreaming, advocacy, gender financing, private sector engagement or other, who wishes to either work in partnership with, or receive grants / other support from UN Women Fiji MCO is encouraged to register their Expression of Interest.
Please note that registering a CSO Expression of Interest in no way commits UN Women, or the CSO to a partnership. The Expression of Interest format is to register potential interest in partnering.
UN Women Fiji MCOs programmatic areas currently include:
Women’s Economic Empowerment: UN Women’s Markets for Change (M4C) Project is a multi-year initiative promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment that focuses on marketplaces in rural and urban areas in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. The project’s goal is to ensure that marketplaces in rural and urban areas are safe, inclusive and non-discriminatory, promoting the gender, social and economic empowerment of market vendors, with specific attention to the needs and aspirations of women market vendors.
Women’s Political Empowerment and Leadership: To address the chronic under-representation of women in politics in the Pacific and to strengthen the voice of women leaders in governance issues, the Fiji MCO ensures transformative programming in the areas of women’s political empowerment and leadership through two projects, Consolidating Peace, Stability and Social Cohesion in Solomon Islands and Women in Leadership Samoa (WILS).
Ending Violence Against Women and Girls: To address the high levels of violence against women and girls in the Pacific, the Fiji MCO has modelled its EVAW programme on the best global evidence on prevention of VAW to transform the social norms that perpetuate gender inequality and violence against women and girls, leading to a reduction in violence in intervention sites, and strengthening services for survivors of violence. The Pacific Partnership to End Violence Against Women and Girls Programme is a partnership with the Pacific Community and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretriat and brings together governments, civil society organizations (CSOs), and communities, among other partners, to promote gender equality, prevent violence against women and girls (VAWG) and to increase access to quality VAWG response services for survivors.
Gender and Protection in Humanitarian Action, climate change and disaster risk reduction: UN Women’s Humanitarian and resilience programme focuses on two streams of work: ensuring that humanitarian planning, response frameworks and programming are gender and protection inclusive; and supporting Pacific women and women’s CSOs to lead preparedness for and response to natural disasters including increasing women’s role in leading resilience work across the Pacific.
Normative – Advancing Gender Equality – UN Women supports PICTS to engage regionally and globally in reporting and monitoring gender equality and women’s empowerment including through CEDAW and the Commission on the Status of Women, with the support of the UN, the Pacific Community (SPC) and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS).
Eligibility Requirements for CSOs
Organizational expertise in at least one of UN Women’s programmatic areas:
Evidence that the organization has previous experience and expertise of successfully managing projects of same nature
Technical Capacity:
- Proven track record of 5 – 7 years in the gender equality/programmatic area
- Proven record of ensuring gender equality work “does no harm”
- A proven commitment to results (able to provide reports/evaluations of successful projects)
- Proven credibility in the country or region, especially credibility in terms of working towards gender equality, women’s rights and economic empowerment
Governance and Management Structure:
- Be legally registered as a non-profit organisation, (noting which PICTs you are able to legally operate in if regional/multi-country)
- Functioning board/steering committee
- Record and evidence of organizational culture of accountability, such as a written code of conduct, measures on anti-corruption, child protection and sexual harassment policy
Financial and Administrative Management:
- A functioning internal control framework and process to deliver quality and timely project results.
- Documented ability to provide financial and narrative reports
- Documented track record of financial accountability – annual audits
Partnerships/reach:
- Evidence of the organization having grassroots presence and or affiliation/networks with other similar strong qualified organizations in the country
- Evidence of strong working relationships with relevant stakeholders in country including national/sub-national government, other CSOs including faith-based organisations, donors and/or private sector.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN EOI:
Interested organizations will need to submit the following to UN Women:
- Statement of partnership interest – letter of (1-2 pages) which highlights the CSO’s background information on the organisation and activities carried out in recent years and areas of mutual interest with UN Women Fiji MCO.
- Completed EOI checklist (below):
- Proof of Legal Registration – to be attached
- Organisational chart – staffing chart
- List of board/steering committee members and board/steering committee minutes
- Sample of an annual report / equivalent
- Sample of a recent donor / partner report
- Links to recent publications / examples of recent gender related publications
- Links to recent communications / social media
Expressions of Interest to be submitted by Sunday 29th September 2019 either electronically to fiji.tenders@unwomen.org or addressed under confidential cover to:
EOI – UN Women (Indicate Title and Reference No.),
The Representative
Private Mail Bag
Suva, Fiji
Any questions can be directed to fiji.procurement@unwomen.org
Please note that only applications in the specified format will be eligible.
The process of identifying partners will take place in two stages – the submission of Expressions of Interest is stage one. EOIs will be assessed against UN Women’s Fiji MCO programmatic areas and countries. CSOs that demonstrate capacity in these areas will be invited to participate in stage two which will be a more in-depth capacity assessment based on UN Women’s global capacity assessment guidelines. Organizations taking part in stage two of the assessment may be asked by UN Women to provide documentation which supports the information provided by the organization in the course of the assessment. The capacity assessment process will take place between October – November 2019.
This exercise does not preclude CSO organisations from partnering with UN Women through other means.