UN WOMEN Jobs - 67489- National Consultant to Provide Technical Assistanc

National Consultant to Provide Technical Assistance in the Institutionalization of Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) in the Government of Kenya

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Nairobi, KENYA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Aug-2016

Application Deadline :

23-Jul-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

120 days

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

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and was established in 2011 to accelerate the attainment of the rights of women globally. UN Women stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life and is mandated to support UN Member States to apply global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and the civil society to design and develop laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards. UN Women is further expected to provide leadership in enhancing and coordinating the accountability of the United Nations system in its work on gender equality and women empowerment. It is in this spirit that UN Women, and the Rome-based UN agencies (FAO, IFAD and WFP) are mandated to spearhead a comprehensive UN system approach and response through joint actions to support rural women’s economic empowerment in the region, and indeed globally. The priority areas of focus for UN Women include: enhancing women’s leadership and participation; ending violence against women; and to champion women’s economic empowerment.

UN Women has been leading efforts to increase financing for gender equality through building partnerships, providing tailored technical assistance and guidance and building institutional capacity and knowledge. These strategies have supported government and donor efforts to integrate gender into their public financial management systems to ensure that policies, plans and budgets are gender-responsive. We have made progress in achieving increased and improved quality of financing for women through building political support and transforming institutional practices. However a lot still needs to be done to achieve GEWE fully.

In a period of 8 months, since November 2015 to June 2016, UN Women has been undertaking preliminary initiatives to integrate and mainstream gender in the public financial management reform process in Kenya. This support was mainly provision of technical assistance to mainstream gender in key PFM related policy frameworks and tools. The process began with establishing a baseline that would provide insights on how to deepen GRB work in Kenya, followed by a series on interventions that positioned GRB indicators in key policy frameworks such as; the Public Financial Management strategy 2013-2018 through the PFM reforms secretariat (National Treasury), key senior management and strategic leadership curricula through the Kenya School of Government and capacity building of PFM institutions/actors in Kenya through a bench marking tour of senior government officials to Morocco.

The initiatives also provided an opportunity to establish and strengthen partnerships with key PFM related institutions such as the Office of the Controller of Budget, the PFM reform secretariat (Within National Treasury) and other UN, bilateral and multilateral agencies such as UNICEF and the World Bank.

These initial activities were meant generate evidence that there was good opportunity to institutionalize GRB through a comprehensive Programme that would be long term, technically solid and well positioned within State actors; as recommended by the scoping analysis. The assignment was undertaken by an international consultant and this provides an opportunity to enjoin the international consultancy with a national consultant that can sustain the engagement at the National level through their enhanced capacity.

The aforementioned efforts now require scaled up interventions that would provide opportunity to anchor GRB as a core value and principle in PFM reforms in Kenya. The scaling up would be seen as the 2nd phase of the process and it would also take into consideration the challenges faced during the undertakings.

Duties and Responsibilities

In this context, UN Women Kenya is seeking the services of a National consultant to provide technical assistance in the institutionalization of gender responsive budgeting (GRB) in the Government of Kenya. The consultant will work closely with a technical team and designated technical staff from UN Women, the National Treasury including PFM reforms secretariat, Office of the Controller of budget, National Gender and Equality Commission, Council of Governors and Kenya School of Government in carrying out the assignment. This will entail:

Duties and Responsibilities:

To provide technical assistance in the Kenyan planning and budgeting process FY 2017/18 and facilitate the budget department within National Treasury to specifically; mainstream gender in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework through harmonization of GRB guidelines and undertake GRB sensitization for budget sector working groups and budget implementation committees ( CPPMUs, Finance officers and technical departments) on the guidelines;
To provide technical assistance in the Kenyan planning and budgeting process FY 2017/18 and facilitate the Office of the Controller of Budget to mainstream gender in the statutory reporting on budget implementation;
To provide technical assistance to Kenya school of Government in partnership with the National Treasury (budget department) to integrate GRB into the; Public finance management modules with specific focus on integration of Gender Economic Policy Management Initiative (GEPMI) modules;

To provide technical assistance to Kenya school of Government in partnership with the National Treasury (budget department) and Council of Governors to undertake GEPMI capacity building workshops for:

National Government budget sector working groups and budget implementation committees ( CPPMUs, Finance officers and technical departments) on the GRB guidelines within the context of Gender Economic Policy Management Initiative (GEPMI);
County government (targeted) CEC’S, Chief officers and Directors (including fiscal analysts & economists) in charge of planning and budgeting on the GRB guidelines within the context of Gender Economic Policy Management Initiative (GEPMI);
Technical assistance during the benchmarking visit of Government of Kenya Officials to Rwanda Specifically; convening teams to concretize action points for Kenya;
Development of a full 5-6 years programme document on engendering the PFM system in Kenya (including facilitation of consultative meetings with select partners within the PFM donor group).

Deliverables:

Brief on the methods of work at inception to the technical committee as per stipulated work plan;
Reports on the substantive engagements undertaken in the process of mainstreaming gender in the Medium Term Expenditure Framework through harmonization of GRB guidelines;
Harmonized gender responsive budgeting guideline;

The consultants shall share the training sessions methodology, presentations, agenda and reports for approval to the technical team during preparation for:

National Government budget sector working groups and budget implementation committees ( CPPMUs, Finance officers and technical departments) on the GRB guidelines within the context of Gender Economic Policy Management Initiative (GEPMI);
County government (targeted) CEC’S, Chief officers and Directors (including fiscal analysts & economists) in charge of planning and budgeting on the GRB guidelines within the context of Gender Economic Policy Management Initiative (GEPMI);
Reports on the substantive engagements undertaken in the process of mainstreaming gender in Public finance management modules with specific focus on Gender Economic Policy Management Initiative (GEPMI) modules;
Reports on the substantive engagements undertaken and outputs in the process of facilitating the Office of the Controller of Budget to mainstream gender in the statutory reporting on budget implementation;
Mission report on the benchmarking visit of Government of Kenya Officials to Rwanda;
Programme document on institutionalization of GRB in Kenya 2017 to 2021. (including minutes and reports of consultative meetings with select partners within the PFM donor group).

Methodology:

The assignment will be conducted through:

Facilitating Government counterparts to achieve the specific objectives outlined above;
Align delivery of sensitization and training sessions as per the briefing by the technical team;
Facilitating and moderating the specified sessions during the meeting. The consultant shall consult with the focal point UN Women and focal points for the Government counterparts and seek approval on how to guide the sessions;
Support the rapporteuring team in the compilation of the stakeholders input while ensuring the highest quality of substantive content is captured in all final reports;
Presenting the methodology brief and content of presentations in soft copy as per stipulated deadlines to UN Women before briefing sessions;
Presenting reports of substantive inputs provided to the manuals, policies and strategies in soft copy as per stipulated deadlines to UN Women.

Competencies

Core Values/Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Development and Innovation:

Take charge of self-development and take initiative.

Work in teams:

Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others.

Conflict Management:

Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

Mature judgment and initiative;
Ability to think out-of-the-box;
Ability to present complex issues in simple and clear manner;
Cultural, gender, religion and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Ability to work under pressure and deliver high quality results on time;
Initiative and independence.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in the field of economics, mathematics, with specialisation in a relevant social science (Gender, Human rights, law).

Experience:

The consultant will be a National and must have demonstrable experience of not less than 7 years especially in National discourse on Public Finance Management reforms discourse with a bias in gender aware economics;
Be familiar with Government as well as United Nations undertakings on gender equality work;
Sound knowledge of Gender issues and sustainable development discourse;
Demonstrate their understanding of the TOR;
Excellent writing skills and demonstrable capacity to work with diverse stakeholders-including Government officials;
Computer literacy is critical.

Language:

Fluency in English is required.