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.

 

UN Women’s global gender data programme, “Making Every Woman and Girl Count” (Women Count), delivered significant results in scaling up work on gender statistics availability, accessibility, and use during Phase I of its implementation.  With the ongoing implementation of Women Count Phase II, and as gender data is elevated as one of the strategic outcomes of UN Women’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, Women Count is steadfastly supporting Member States and leading efforts on mainstreaming gender perspectives in three key interventions:

  • Enabling environment for the production and use of gender statistics: Put in place supportive policy, legal and financial environment to ensure gender-responsive national adaptation and effective monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Increasing the production of gender statistics: Increase availability of quality, comparable and regular gender statistics to address national data gaps and meet policy and reporting commitments under the SDGs, Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and Beijing Declaration
  • Increasing data accessibility and use: Ensure that gender statistics are accessible to all users (including governments, civil society, academia and private sector) and can be analysed, communicated, and used to inform research, advocacy, policies and programmes, and promote accountability

To ensure a gender-responsive and evidence-based recovery post-pandemic, UN Women will continue to lead efforts to collect, analyze and disseminate timely data on the gendered impacts of COVID-19. Building on the outcomes of the more than 70 rapid gender assessments conducted in 2020-2021 (RGAs 2020-2021) on the socioeconomic and violence against women (VAW RGAs) impacts of the pandemic, the consultant will support efforts on continuing methodological research to ensure ethical and safety protocols in conducting RGAs. 

 

To achieve the planned Phase II outcomes, there is a need to, among others: 1) produce evidence, data and knowledge on the gendered impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic in partnership with national statistics offices, national women’s machineries, or other national stakeholders; 2) analyse and produce new gender data using non-traditional sources of data (e.g., big data) that will improve statistical production, bring about innovation in technology and methodology, and encourage the greater use of data produced in gender data ecosystems; and 3) conduct targeted advocacy towards use of the various statistical outputs produced.

 

Duties and Responsibilities

Based in the Women Count Team in the Research and Data (R&D) Section of UN Women HQ, the Statistics Consultant will work under the supervision of the Statistics Specialist/Inter-Regional Advisor to provide statistical support and technical assistance in the delivery of activities and outputs of other Women Count global projects. Specifically,

The tasks will include, among others:

1. Rapid gender assessments on the impact of COVID-19

  • Support the development of a methodological note, including conduct of statistical analysis, on list randomization used in VAW RGAs
  • Undertake food insecurity (FIES) analysis vis-à-vis denial of basic goods (one of the VAW forms), drawing from the data produced in VAW RGAs
  • Support other statistical activities needed to ensure the effective and efficient monitoring on the use of the VAW RGAs results
  • Provide support in the development of a guidance as well as survey tools on the conduct of the RGAs 2022, based on the learnings of the RGAs 2020-2021 and VAW RGAs
  • Assist in providing technical support to select regions/countries undertaking RGAs

2. Provide technical support in implementing the Women Count Phase II global project and participation in interagency meetings

  • In the development of the State of Gender Data, in partnership with PARIS21:
    • Provide support on the desk review/research or data collection
    • Provide technical support and inputs in the development of the annotated outline as well as coordination of the review mechanism
  • Provide support on the finalization of a technical resource on statistical computing towards generating disaggregated gender statistics Counted and Visible Toolkit
  • In the advocacy and use of the Counted and Visible Toolkit,
    • Coordinate targeted advocacy on the use of the Toolkit
    • Coordinate and support the training on small area estimation in select countries
  • Provide technical support in relation with UN Women’s interagency participation thru the TWG on Gender and Environment Statistics (with UN Women as co-Chair)
  • Produce gender data stories/web articles using non-traditional data sources (such as big data)
  • Assist the Data and Statistics Team of Women Count in the implementation of statistical activities and delivery of statistical outputs (e.g., UN Women partnership with FAO, webinars)

3. Provide support in other Women Count projects and statistical capacity development activities

  • Provide technical assistance related to the data and statistics work of the Women Count programme, particularly in reviewing statistical outputs and activities of other Women Count regional and country projects
  • Provide technical support in the development of a concept note on the production of training resources for capacitating UN Women colleagues on gender statistics
  • Perform other related duties as required

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

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree with additional years of relevant work experience in statistics, demography, gender, economics, or other related development or social science fields

Experience:

  • Three years of experience with background in gender statistics, demography, economics, or development studies with a focus on gender equality,
  • Experience in documentation and production knowledge products on gender statistics,
  • Experience in rapid gender assessments in times of crisis, preferably in the context of COVID-19
  • Experience in conducting or contributing to the planning, design, and implementation of household surveys
  • Experience in co-ordination and assisting/ managing data projects
  • Experience with STATA/ R
  • Knowledge of handling big data
  • Excellent attention to detail
  • Willingness to work as part of a team, to meet tight deadlines and produce high quality work

Language:

Fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is desirable.