Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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.

The Uganda Country Office (UCO) has a number of reporting obligations to its headquarters and multiple donors. The reporting deadlines are spread over the year and include regular progress updates and final donor reporting. Timely submission of results- focused reports is essential for maintaining good relations with the donors. The submission process involves internal quality assurance processes which require at least one month.

In 2017 the UCO is expecting a number of competing deadlines and processes with equal priority and urgency in the coming months. In order to ensure timeliness and quality of reports the services of an international consultant with strong background on gender equality and women’s human rights, with good skills and understanding of Results Based Reporting is needed. The consultant will support the UN Women Uganda Country office on a retainer basis during the peak reporting periods during the course of the year.

The overall objective of the consultancy is to support the UCO in preparing high quality, analytical and results- oriented reports for donors in a timely manner. Reports are either Progress reports or Final Narrative reports. The consultant is not expected to contribute to financial reporting.

Narrative reports in UN Women follow a fixed template and annual reports are usually a max of 20 pages including cover page, acronyms, and table of contents. A final report may be a little longer. Templates for the report will be shared by the UCO. Raw materials and information will also be shared by the UCO.

Duties and Responsibilities

Generate, Review and revise the reports to ensure:

  • Correctness of language- grammatically correct language, spellings, politically correct language among others;
  • Results based reporting: where activities are reported, they are accompanied by strong results statements. Reporting follows the logic model and results are reported at the correct level in terms of RBM- outputs are reported at output level and outcomes are reported at outcome level;
  • Reporting includes results reporting as well as indicator reporting;
  • Reporting includes consistent and careful use of high quality pictures to help tell the stories
  • As may be requested by the UCO, the consultant undertakes field consultations with stakeholders and beneficiaries of the programme in order to supplement his/her understanding of the results, and capture relevant human interest and impact stories to substantiate the results. 
  • Completeness of documents, including complete information included in all sections of the narrative report and annexes are in place;
  • Ensure consistency with previous reports submitted under the programme to the same donor. The UCO will provide the previous reports to the consultant. The consultant is expected to request the office for the previous reports;
  • Include context and deepen analysis where needed in consultation with relevant staff to make the report analytical;
  • Revise the document when comments are received;
  • It is expected that the consultant will be proactive and work closely with the UCO identified staff on the report.

Deliverables:

Final Progress reports or Final Donor Reports, briefs from donor reports and any other documents specifically requested by donors, that has been assigned that meets the following criteria:

  • Strong RBM language;
  • Comprehensive and concise;
  • Researched (A folder of documents substantiating the information mentioned in the report should be prepared);
  • Revised final version of the progress or final reports, briefs from donors, other documents (as the case might be) incorporating comments/queries during Quality Assurance process of the Regional Office and Headquarters;
  • Reflection meetings with staff, where key lessons for quality reporting shall be elaborated.

Competencies

  • Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain good working relationships and communicate constructively with different levels of management and staff;
  • Ability to work remotely in an effective and constructive manner with UN Women Uganda Country Office (UCO) staff;
  • Being proactive in seeking clarifications, resourceful, solution-oriented;
  • Ability to communicate clearly both orally and in writing; flexibility in accepting work additional related assignments.
  • Availability especially between January – June, and September – December 2017.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Advanced University degree in Gender Studies, Women’s Rights, Public Administration, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Sciences, Development Studies or related field.

Experience:

  • Minimum of 5 years of progressive relevant professional work experience on gender, women’s rights, project management (project implementation), monitoring and evaluation, and resource mobilization;
  • Strong background and understanding of RBM based reporting;
  • Prior relevant work experience with UN Women or any other UN agency is a plus;
  • Knowledge and understanding of the social, cultural and political context of Uganda or similar context, and women’s rights situation and work in the country will be an asset.

Language:

  • Excellent command of English, including analytical writing skills and presentation skills;

How to Apply:

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit the following, no later than 26th January 2017:

  • An updated UN Women 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.
  • Letter of interest (using the template provided by UNDP (Annex II); http://www.ug.undp.org/content/uganda/en/home/operations/procurement.html) containing the statement on candidate’s experience in the field of recruitment, a sample of the report written by the consultant- ideally a donor/results based reporting sample;
  • Financial proposal. The financial proposal shall specify a daily professional fee.

Cumulative analysis:

The award of the contract shall 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 specific to the solicitation;
  • Technical Criteria: 70 points;
  • Financial Criteria: 30 points.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points (70% of the total technical points) will be considered for the Financial Evaluation.

Technical Criteria – Maximum 70 points:

  • Criteria A: Relevance of Education – 10 points;
  • Criteria B: Special skill (excellent communications, professionalism, language, etc.). - 10 Points;
  • Criteria C: Relevance of experience in conducting similar assignment – 30 points;
  • Criteria D: Quality of samples of reports provided- 20 points.

Financial proposal: