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 undertaking its mandate to support existing coordination mechanisms to generate a more effective United Nations system-wide humanitarian response to respond to the specific needs of women and girls, UN Women seeks to complement and enhance the capacity of other UN entities to serve their respective mandates and deliver on gender equality and women’s empowerment. 

The Humanitarian Unit as part of the Peace, Security and Humanitarian Section, develops and implements the programme of work on capacity development, coordination, and advocacy efforts for a coherent approach on gender mainstreaming in humanitarian action, and on programmatic interventions using the LEAP (Leadership, Empowerment, Access and Protection) framework to support the protection, recovery and resilience of women impacted by crisis. A key component to improve the attention that is placed on gender equality in humanitarian action is developing programming models and frameworks to scale up actions for the empowerment of women and girls in crisis contexts, increase protection, including on accountable ways to engage men and boys to further gender equality. 

UN Women is therefore, looking to expand its understanding around the engagement of men and boys in humanitarian action within a women’s rights and gender justice framework through the completion of a literature review and an internal guidance document on the topic. This initiative is clearly aligned with corporate priorities integrated in UN Women’s new Strategic Plan 2022-2025, with focus on Systemic Outcome 3 focusing on positive social norms including by engaging men and boys. Under Systemic Outcome 3, UN-Women will adopt an integrated approach to transform the unequal power relations and discriminatory social norms, behaviors, and practices that are at the heart of gender inequality and promote those that advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Senior Consultant will report to the Humanitarian Specialist under the overall guidance of the Head, Humanitarian Normative and Coordination Action, who provides the strategic leadership, guidance and oversight of the Humanitarian Unit and the formulation and execution of its programmes and operations.

Justification

Currently, there is a gap in evidence regarding the engagement of men and boys in humanitarian action in a manner that is framed on accountability to women’s rights and gender justice.  In light of the knowledge products that are being produced by UN Women, the completion of a literature review and an internal guidance note on this subject would strengthen UN Women’s work on the topic.

Duties and Responsibilities

Purpose and Objective

The objective of this consultancy is to develop and finalize a literature review and an internal guidance note on the engagement of men and boys in humanitarian action; and advancing social norm change in protracted crises. Therefore, the key purpose of this consultancy is to substantially contribute to the strengthening of the evidence-based knowledge on the topic and practical approaches for integrating this evidence in programming in humanitarian settings. 

C.    Scope of Work

The scope of work for this consultancy covers the following tasks:

1. Develop a detailed Workplan, to be approved by UN Women.
2. Conduct internal and external consultations to inform the development of the products. 
3. Develop an initial Outline for the Literature Review on engaging men and boys in humanitarian action, to be approved by UN Women.
4. Complete a draft Literature Review on engaging men and boys in humanitarian action and in crisis affected communities, to be submitted to UN Women for comments and feedback.
5. Finalize a Literature Review on engaging men and boys in humanitarian action and in crisis settings that is ready for publication and incorporates UN Women’s comments and feedbacks.
6. Develop an initial Outline for the internal Guidance note on engaging men and boys to be submitted to UN Women for comments and feedback, including a Theory of Change, a results framework, and a monitoring tool to guide UN Women programmatic interventions’ design, implementation, and monitoring at country and regional level. 
7. Complete a draft Guidance Note on engaging men and boys in humanitarian action, to be submitted to UN Women for comments and feedback
8. Finalize a Guidance Note on engaging men and boys in humanitarian action that is ready for publication and incorporates UN Women’s comments and feedbacks.
9. Participate in  webinar training(s) for UN Women staff to introduce the products. 

To complete the deliverables, the Senior Researcher will be required to identify and review existing materials on the issue as well as undertake remote key informant interviews. The Literature Review should cover all relevant materials from academic and grey literature including evaluations of humanitarian projects and programmes on the topic including but not limited to UN Women’s. The literature review should make recommendations to shape UN Women’s humanitarian policy on this topic. The guidance note should provide practical guidance to standardize UN Women’s approach to engage men and boys in humanitarian settings based on the evidence.  

D.    Expected Outputs and Deliverables 

The following deliverables are expected to be completed: 

E.     Institutional Arrangement

The Senior Researcher will work under the direct supervision of the Humanitarian Specialist and under the overall guidance of the Head, Humanitarian Normative and Coordination Action. The Senior Researcher is expected to give regular progress updates on each of the deliverables and be available for discussion. After the submission of each draft version of the deliverables, the Senior Researcher is expected to incorporate the comments and feedback received by UN Women into the final versions. The consultancy will be home-based with no office space provided by UN Women. 

Payment will be scheduled on lumpsum basis and as per the following deliverable completion

1. One Final literature Review (by 31 December 2021)  -  50%
2. One Guidance note and webinar training (by 31 January 2021)-  50% 

F.     Duration of the Work

The expected duration of work is from the signing of contract, upto 31st December 2021. Additionally, UN Women will require an estimated lead time of 10 working days to review outputs.

Competencies

Core Values

• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Respect for Diversity

Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience

• PhD Degree and/or Master’s Degree in Feminism, Women/Gender Studies, Humanitarian Action or relevant Social Sciences
• Minimum 10 years of experience conducting research related to gender in humanitarian action/peace and security/development 
• Demonstrated experience collecting, classifying, and analyzing both primary and secondary data in an efficient and effective way, and presenting the findings in a clear and coherent manner
• Familiarity with the humanitarian system and its processes
• In-depth expertise on researching men, boys and masculinities as well as gender-based violence (GBV)
• Track record of academic publications and research reports on gender-related aspects of humanitarian action/peace and security/development

  Language Requirements

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required
• Knowledge of other UN official language is an asset

• Computer Skills

  High level of proficiency in computer systems, internet navigation and various applications including research databases and data analysis software such as SPSS, NVivo, Atlas-Ti MAXQDA or similar systems.
   

  Recommended Presentation of Offer

  As part of the submission of applications, the following documentation is required:

• Personal CV or P11, indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;