National Consultants on Empowerment Through Self-Defense (ESD) (1 team leader and 1 supporting ESD instructor)

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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women Albania is implementing its (SN) 2022-2026, which aims to ensure that “All Women and girls enjoy and exercise their human rights in a gender equal society and meaningfully contribute to Albania’s sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development and EU integration”. To achieve such a result, UN Women will focus on three outcomes, which mirror verbatim the areas of focus of the United Nations Albania:

1. Increased and more equitable investment in people to remove barriers and create opportunities for those at risk of exclusion.

2. Innovative and integrated policy solutions that accelerate sustainable, productive and inclusive development.

3. Gender-responsive governance that strengthens equality and non-discrimination.

 

In Albania, the tourism sector is a major and continuously growing contributor to the country’s economic development. In the first nine months of 2023 over 8 million tourists visited Albania, more than double the number in 2022. While no in-depth studies were conducted on women in tourism, in line with international trends women are widely employed in the sector, (including in agrotourism), many informally or as family workers. Women are also more impacted by security and safety both as employees as well as tourists. With the country aiming to become the next international tourist destination, there is no better time to strengthen gender mainstreaming in tourism. Global evidence shows that a high percentage of women workers in tourism does not necessarily translate in safe and decent jobs, adequate career opportunities, and equal wages. Promoting gender responsive tourism is therefore vital for achieving the country’s declared vision of “sustainable tourism” as part of its National Strategy on EU Integration and Sustainable Development 2022-2030 and in line with the  National Strategy on Gender Equality (2021-2230) and its specific objective targeted at tourism (i.e. Increased access of women, young women, and girls in all their diversity to financial services and products and productive resources). Additionally, fostering safety and security of women tourist workers and tourists will contribute to the NSGE’s Strategic Priority III to reduce all forms of harmful practices, gender-based violence and domestic violence, a key area of engagement for UN Women Albania.

In this context, the CO is piloting the initiative “Engender the consumption and offer of tourism services in Albania”.

The initiative will support the achievement of the SN outcome 2 ‘By 2026, all persons benefit from, and contribute to, innovative and integrated policy solutions that accelerate sustainable, productive and inclusive development, enhanced climate change adaptation and mitigation and transition to a green and blue economy’, Output 1.2.3: Women and young people have improved access to productive and financial resources, information and skill development opportunities to increase participation to the labour market and will focus on the following interventions:

• Prepare a country assessment of women in the tourism sector and review of related policy framework;

• Support women-led business development, growth and gender championing, enlisting tour operators to pilot a gendered approach to tourism. This will include rolling out UN Women flagship Empowerment through Self-Defense program, ensuring that up to 400 women employees and tourism students acquire safety skills; engage tourist businesses to develop/revise policies to attract, retain and promote more women in their organizations; support for the implementation of ILO Convention 190 on the elimination of harassment in the workplace and; support for registration and growth of women-led tourist businesses.

• Organize incubator of ideas for a feminist approach to tourism. Leveraging both the Women Empowerment Principles (WEPs) platform and the Women in Entrepreneurship (EXPO) national network, the initiative will support various innovative ideas and applications to promote women-led entrepreneurship; feminist tourist communication; travel vloggers/bloggers offering a women perspective to tourism in Albania, and more.

The intervention will further provide sector specific gender mainstreaming guidance and technical assistance using previous UN Women interventions and tools related to gender mainstreaming in an EU accession context and contribute to better interface between institutions and businesses in the sector.

Through this intervention, UN Women Albania CO aims to will apply innovative approaches to ‘engendering’ the tourism sector in Albania, amongst others, by rolling out Empowerment through Self Defense (ESD) to private sector and introducing such approach to professional schools and VET in the tourism sector. UN Women has successfully piloted ESD in the education sector, with the Ministry of Education and Sports formalizing it as an extracurricular activity in all schools. The CO will expand ESD to the tourism sector to address one of the most common questions women have to ask while travelling or working in tourism: “is it safe”?. Engagement with the private sector will include close collaboration with the existing and new WEPs signatory companies in the tourism sector. Currently 63 companies have signed WEPs in Albania, amongst them companies working in the tourism sector.

In this context,  UN Women Albania is seeking to recruit 2 (two) National Consultants on Empowerment through Self-Defense (ESD) with a track record of expertise and experience in empowerment through self-defense approach. The consultants will be expected to support UN Women in implementing a set of activities, aiming at piloting a unique empowerment approach that targets women employees (including future employees/VET students in the tourism sector) in the tourism sector overall Albania, to acquire personal safety and self-defense skills and address discrimination and harassment in the workplace. This intervention will support the implementation of ILO Convention 190 on the elimination of harassment in the workplace.

[1] WEPs (Women’s Empowerment Principles) are a set of Principles for business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Launched in 2010 by UN Women and UN Global Compact, the WEPs are informed by international labour and human rights standards and constitute a primary vehicle for companies to deliver on the gender equality dimensions of the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of the Project Manager and in collaboration with the National Consultant on Tourism and the National Consultant on Private Sector, the consultants will be required to undertake the following tasks:

• Support the development of a detailed workplan for the proposed components of the intervention;
• Support the identification of target regions where the assignment will be implemented;
• Support the design and preparation of a stakeholder mapping to identify potential private sector stakeholders and professional schools and VET in tourism sector that will be approached for implementing ESD;
• Meet with each of the identified stakeholders and agree on the methodology and capacity building steps for their staff;
• Development of a tailor-made ESD training module and training agenda that targets girls and women working in the tourism sector, ensuring ownership and sustainability of the training module and ensuring the training results are measured adequately;
• Conduct at least 25 half-day trainings with 15-17 participants each as per workplan and calendar (use pre and post training questionnaire to measure results);
• Prepare regular progress bi-monthly reports on the engagement as part of the consultancy and results of the interventions, including lessons learned through this pilot initiative. 

Deliverables	Tentative schedule
Development of a detailed workplan and identify target regions where the ESD intervention will be implemented (English):	First week of November 2024 (2 day) Responsible: Team leader
Stakeholder mapping, identifying potential private sector stakeholders in tourism and professional schools and VET in tourism sector that will be approached by the project;	First week of November 2024 (3 days)   Responsible: Team leader
Meetings with all the identified stakeholders in the tourism sector and agree on the methodology and capacity building steps for their staff.	By end of November 2024 (10 days)   Responsible: Team leader
Development of a tailor-made ESD training module, including pre and post training questionnaire to measure results, and training agenda that targets girls and women working in the tourism sector;	By 22 November, 2024 (8 days) Responsible: Team leader
Conduct 25 half-day trainings with 15-17 participants each as per workplan and calendar;	By end of September 2025 (25 days each) Responsible: Team leader and supporting ESD instructor   1st installment – December 20, 2024 2nd installment – April 30, 2025
Bi-monthly progress reports on the engagement as part of the consultancy and results of the interventions, including lessons learned through this pilot initiative submitted.	Ongoing 2024-2025 (2 days each) Responsible: Team leader with the support of the ESD instructor
Final consultancy report (in English) describing the consultants completed deliverables, problems encountered while carrying out the consultancy and recommendations for future similar interventions.	By 15 October 2025 (2 days for team leader, 1 day for the ESD instructor) Responsible: Team leader with the support of the ESD instructor   Last installment – 15 October, 2025

 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy, and the incumbents will be expected to liaise closely with UN Women Albania project team, including regular face-to face and online meetings with the projects’ team.

As part of this assignment, there will be an estimated number of 20 (twenty) trips to the identified target areas of the project.

Competencies

Core Values: 

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies: 

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• 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:   

 

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 

• Ability to interact effectively with stakeholders in the tourism and gender equality sector;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Ability to organize work efficiently and deal with multiple tasks;
• Flexibility to travel within Albania, as per project needs based on work plan;

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Bachelor’ Degree in Education, Sociology, Social Psycology or other related social sciences.
• Certification as an ESD Instructor (Level IV for team leader and at least level II for supporting ESD Instructor)

Experience:

Team leader/ ESD consultant

• At least 5 years of experience in coordinating, facilitating and engaging in consultations with different stakeholders, including private businesses and schools.
• Proven experience in designing and preparing training modules on ESD, targeting girls and women;
• Previous experience in designing and planning ESD capacity building interventions, and delivering ESD trainings to girls and women from different backgrounds and age-groups;
• Prior experience in working on issues related to gender and social inclusion in tourism or any other sector will be an added advantage;
• Previous experience with the UN system or other international organizations would be an advantage.

Supporting ESD instructor

• At least 3 (three) years of experience in organizing and delivering ESD trainings with girls and women from different backgrounds and age-groups;
• Prior experience in supporting the preparation of training modules on ESD, targeting girls and women;
• Previous experience in organizing and delivering ESD trainings with girls and women from different backgrounds and age-groups;

Languages:

Fluency in spoken and written English and Albanian is required.

 

How to Apply

Qualified and interested candidates are required to apply online and submit the following documents:

• Completed Personal History From – P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: )
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)

How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11).
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11) and Cover Letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded.
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement).
• Click ‘Apply Now’ button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click ‘Submit Application;’
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above).
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Notes:

• UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications, we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.
• The individual consultants should take the mandatory learning security course prior to commencement of assignment– details will follow before the issuance of contract.

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.  

 If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.   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.)