UN WOMEN Jobs - 64521- Consultant/Facilitator for Mid-term Review of ROAS

Consultant/Facilitator for Mid-term Review of ROAS

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Cairo, EGYPT

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

20-Mar-2016

Application Deadline :

11-Mar-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Three weeks

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Three weeks

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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.

In July 2010, the United nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

The UN Women Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) located in Cairo, supports programmes broadening the scope of women’s citizenship, leadership, political participation and participation in peacebuilding processes. Additionally and as part of broader momentum for reform across the Arab states, and towards institutionalizing gender in governance, ROAS assists efforts to make national plans and budgets fully supportive of gender equality commitments. Economic empowerment is another critical concern, therefore, ROAS engages with regional partners and civil society to advance policies and programmes that bolster women’s opportunities in this arena. Ending violence against women is another critical component that UN Women ROAS supports through advocating for the adoption of national policy frameworks, reforming laws discriminating against women, establishing comprehensive prevention and protection services, and raising awareness of strategies to combat violence. Finally, as part of its three core functions – normative support, UN system-wide coordination and operational activities – UN Women plays a leading role in supporting improvements in global norms and standards that accelerate the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women engages with regional bodies and Member States through awareness-raising and advocacy, and facilitates alliance-building and partnerships.

UN-Women Regional Office’s (RO) Strategic Note (SN) 2015-17 was approved by the Deputy Executive Director of UN Women in December 2014. The ROAS SN is a forward-looking programmatic document that translates the UN-Women Strategic Plan 2014-2017 to the regional level and adapts it to the regional context and priorities. The SN outlines the overall strategy and plan of action for the UN-Women RO as well as its four country presences (Yemen, Libya, Syria, Lebanon) for the years 2015-17 and includes a Development Results Framework (DRF) for work carried out at the regional level and an Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency Framework (OEEF) with expected results and targets/ indicators/ baselines also at the regional level, as well as 4 DRFs for the country presences.

Under UN-Women’s policies and procedures in relation to programme management, a mid-term review (MTR) is mandatory for programmes of at least three years duration. In the case of UN-Women ROAS this requires the office to hold a MTR of its programme during 2016.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives

Under the direct supervision of the Strategic Planning and Coordination Specialist, the consultant will support the preparation of the mid-term review meeting, and in consultation with key staff, produce 5 discussion papers that will guide and inform the discussions at the meeting. The consultant will also support the revision of the DRF and OEEF for the ROAS and its country presences to incorporate the changes required based on the new UN Women programming architecture as well as key changes required based on the discussions from the MTR.

The objectives of the UN-Women ROAS MTR are as follows:

Analysis and reflection on the progress of the programme and the validity of UN-Women’s strategy in the Arab States;
Re-examination of the office’s theories of change for each of the relevant impact areas (WPS, WEE, WPP, etc.);
Recognition and response to changes in the programming context (including normative developments);
Incorporation of flagship initiatives and taking stock of the regional office’s role in regional/multi country programming;
Incorporation of changes into new programme architecture in the DRF as well as goals identified for internal office management improvement and operations in the OEEF.

Key tasks:

Conduct a desk review of the existing strategic documents, new guidance for the 2017 planning cycle, corporate evaluation results, and other key documents identified by ROAS.

Prepare 5 one-page discussion papers based on discussions with key staff and documents reviewed on the following topics:

Positioning;
Programmatic performance;
Partnerships;
Normative;
Coordination.
Prepare an agenda for the MTR meeting;
Facilitate MTR meeting. Each paper and its findings will be presented by staff in the RO, but the consultant will provide the papers for the staff members to do a presentation and the consultant will use the findings to guide the proceedings of the retreat;
Incorporate changes required in the SN narrative, OEEF, and DRF for the RO and programme presences;
Prepare a report with the main findings of the MTR.

Deliverables and timetable:

Review key documents by March 18-20;
Interview key staff in the office (approx. 10) by March 20-April 1;
Finalization of agenda for MTR meeting by April 1;
Develop position papers by March 20-April 5;
Share position papers for review and inputs by April 5;
Review and finalize position papers based on inputs from ROAS staff by April 12;
Facilitate MTR meeting by April 19;
Incorporation of required changes into SN, DRF, and OEEF by April 20- May 10;
Finalization and sharing of MTR report, reviewed SN, DRF, OEEF for comments by May 11;
Incorporate comments received by May 15;
Finalize all documents and submit for final approval by May 17.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
Develops and/or participates in the development of mechanisms, including identifying new approaches to promote individual and organizational learning and knowledge sharing using formal and informal methodologies.

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:

Understands advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;
Continues to seeks new and improved methods and systems for accomplishing the work;
Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
Demonstrates comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments.

Client Orientation:

Anticipates client needs;
Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective.

Core Competencies:

Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
Self-development, initiative-taking;
Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
Creating synergies through self-control;
Managing conflict;
Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others;
Informed and transparent decision making.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced university degree in management related disciplines, public policy or other social science fields.

Education:

Minimum of 7 years of progressively relevant professional working experience, with experience in change management, human resources, facilitating retreats, developing strategies, etc.;
Strong facilitation experience;
Experience from work with personnel of varied nationalities and backgrounds and proven ability to build synergy and team spirit.

Language:

Excellent written and oral communication skills, especially in professional English.

Evaluation:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodologies:

Cumulative analysis

Award of the contract will be made to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

Responsive/compliant/acceptable;
Having received the highest score out of a pre-determined set of weighted technical and financial criteria;
Technical Criteria - [70 points];
Financial Criteria - [30 points].

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 70% of the total rating will be considered for the financial evaluation.

Evaluation Method and Criteria:

Break down of Technical Criteria 70 points.

Technical Proposal (30 marks):

Technical Approach & Methodology (20 marks) – This explain the understanding of the objectives of the assignment, approach to the services, methodology for carrying out the activities and obtaining the expected output, and the degree of detail of such output. The Applicant should also explain the methodologies proposed to adopt and highlight the compatibility of those methodologies with the proposed approach;
Work Plan (10 marks) – The Applicant should propose the main activities of the assignment, their content and duration, milestones (including interim approvals by the Client), and delivery dates. The proposed plan should be consistent with the technical approach and methodology, showing understanding of the TOR and ability to translate them into a feasible working plan.

Qualification and Experience (40 marks) [evaluation of CV]:

General Qualification (10 marks);
Experience relevant to the assignment (25 marks);
Previous work Experience with UN (5 marks);
Documents to be included when submitting the proposals.

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications in one single PDF document:

Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar assignments, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment;
A methodology, on how they will approach and complete the assignment;
Financial proposal/offer to complete the assignment is also to be included.