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 actions and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) will lead and coordinate 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 national priorities and efforts, building effective partnership with government, civil society and other relevant actors.

Established by General Assembly resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence, with a mandate to assist Member States and the United Nations system to progress more effectively and efficiently towards the goal of achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment, and upholding women’s rights, UN Women’s global programmatic priorities for the period 2014-2017 are: (a) women lead and participate in decision making at all levels; (b) women, especially the poorest and most excluded, are economically empowered and benefit from development; (c) women and girls live a life free from violence; (d) peace and security and humanitarian action are shaped by women’s leadership and participation; (e) governance and national planning fully reflect accountability for gender equality commitments and priorities; and (f) a comprehensive and dynamic set of global norms, policies and standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment is in place and is applied through action by Governments and other stakeholders at all levels.

In Nepal, UN Women focuses on strengthening women’s voice, agency and leadership across sectors to advance women’s rights, provide space for women’s meaningful participation and to demonstrate tangible differences in their lives. The agency’s programme adopts a holistic and integrated approach across UN Women’s five thematic priorities. It is guided by Nepal’s stated priorities (including those from the Three-Year Plan 2016-2019) and its commitments to relevant normative frameworks, the country’s United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2013-2017, the CEDAW Concluding Observations (2011) and UN Women’s Corporate Strategic Plan 2014-2017. The programme promotes national ownership, capacity development and institutionalization, inclusiveness, coordination and partnerships, and knowledge generation and management, and seeks to prioritize engagement with and support to key duty bearers who are responsible for advancing women’s human rights and with rights holders so they can exercise voice and agency. UN Women is in process of developing UN Women’s Corporate Strategic Plan 2018-2021.

UN Women is mandated to lead, coordinate and promote accountability for the implementation of gender equality commitments across the UN System. In Nepal, the UN Women Country Office provides technical assistance on gender within the UN Country Team (UNCT), leads efforts to implement the UNCT Gender Scorecard, leads coordination as co-chair of the UNCT Gender Theme Group (GTG), and continues to play a key role in the Peace Support Working Group (PSWG). It is the lead coordinating UN agency for two of the ten outcomes of the country's UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2013-17 and is partner to several joint UN programmes with others in the pipeline. UN Women envisages the establishment of a macro-level gender coordination body led by the government, co-convened by the UN Resident Coordinator and with UN Women as its Secretariat. This will be an important effort towards strengthened accountability for results for gender equality and women's empowerment, enhanced efficiencies, improved coherence, joint action and reduced transaction costs through better coordination between the government and development partners. UN Women will advocate for a separate gender equality goal in Nepal's next UNDAF, as well as for gender to be mainstreamed through all its goals and targets.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant is expected to work in the Nepal Country Office (NCO), Kathmandu and is responsible in the programme support, coordination, strategic planning and resource mobilization efforts of the NCO. Under the direct supervision of the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer in collaboration with thematic programme lead, the Consultant will be responsible for the following:

  • Manage strategic coordination of Nepal's priorities and commitments for gender equality and women's empowerment (GEWE);
  • Contribute to the institutional capacity development and to the strategic planning needs of the UN Women Nepal office;
  • Identify potential joint programming opportunities to deliver on the UNDAF's GEWE commitments in order to contribute to the resource mobilization efforts of the NCO;
  • Contribute to strengthening resource mobilization and coordination for GEWE within the UN System and with external partners, including government and development partners in collaboration with the supervisor;
  • Document and advocate best practices and lessons learnt for UN System-wide coordination;
  • Contribute to support the monitoring of UN Women Annual Work Plan (AWP) and Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Plans (MERP) in collaboration with the supervisor;
  • Liaise with UN Women regional and HQ offices on developments related to UN Women's coordination mandate;
  • Lead drafting of concept notes/documents for resource mobilization and strategic partnership;
  • Participate in the planning, implementation and monitoring of the UNCT Gender Scorecard;
  • Lead the implementation of the strategy of the UNCT Gender Theme Group to support UNCT's commitments to GEWE in the country's UNDAF;
  • Contribute to joint UN advocacy efforts for GEWE.

EXPECTED DELIVERABLES:

  • Develop and strengthen partnerships across a broad range of partners, including UN agencies, development partners, and government;
  • Prepare at least five coordination bulletin on International Development Partner Group (IDPG) / GTG initiative in Nepal;
  • Quality knowledge products including briefs, concept notes/proposals and talking points;
  • Quality reports on the results achieved through coordination initiatives;
  • Concept notes/documents for resource mobilization;
  • A handover notes to UN Women stating the status of the work and follow ups including best practices and lessons learnt for UN System-wide coordination.

SCHEDULE OF PAYMENT:

  • Payment will be based on the unit rate as per the standard guideline of UN Women payment rates for short-term consultant and made based on the quantity called off and upon certification of satisfactory performance by the Monitoring and Evaluation Officer.

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

Functional Competencies:

  • Good interagency coordination, resource mobilization and donor reporting skills
  • Good knowledge of Results Based Management
  • Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings and recommendations
  • Good analytical skills
  • Good knowledge of technical area
  • Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
  • Good Organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail
  • Strong analytical and communication skills
  • Strong knowledge of gender equality and women’s rights issues

 

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master degree in Gender and Development Studies, Economics, Public Policy or any other related field of studies.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 6 months of work experience with development agencies in programme support, coordination, strategic partnership and/or resource mobilization;
  • Knowledge about gender equality and the empowerment of women;
  • Strong research and writing skills, with strong analytical skills;
  • Experience in and/or with the government and the UN system preferably on UN interagency coordination is an asset.

Language:

  • Proficient knowledge of English language; 
  • Knowledge of additional UN language is an asset.

 

HOW TO APPLY?

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

  • Expression of interest explaining why you are interested to this position and what professional skills and experiences you must support your interest is strong.
  • UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded: http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment  

Note: Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Please upload as one attachment of the documents as mentioned above online through this website.

EVALUATION CRITERIA:

Criteria for selection will be based on the following assessment followed by the interview and satisfactory reference check of the candidate:

  • Required degree and qualification (10 points);
  • Skilled with programme support, coordination, strategic partnership and/or resource mobilization efforts in development agencies (20 points);
  • Working knowledge and experience in the area of gender equality and the empowerment of women (20 points);
  • Experience in and/or with the government and the UN system preferably on UN interagency coordination (20 points).

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation will be considered for next round of evaluation and/or interview. 

 

Note: 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.