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 for women 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, the 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 will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the region in the world most vulnerable to climate change. Rising temperatures, rising sea levels, and rainfall anomalies are increasing the frequency and intensity of natural disasters and are markedly transforming the region’s geography. Consequently, climate change has also emerged as a major threat on food security, agriculture, and livelihood of millions of people in SSA. Climate change is expected to make agricultural development in Africa more challenging due to reasons such as: most farmers depend on rain-fed agriculture, weather patterns becoming less favorable in many instances, increasing the volatility of crop and livestock yields among other issues. This will in turn have an impact on the economy of the region as agriculture remains one of the key economic activities of the region. There are intrinsic links between COVID-19 and climate change as climate change can indirectly affect responses to the pandemic, by undermining the environmental determinants of health and placing extra stress on health systems.

The adverse effects of climate change continue to overly burden the poorest and the most vulnerable, especially poor women. This is primarily because women are more dependent for their livelihood on natural resources that are threatened by climate change. Furthermore, women represent more than half of the agricultural workforce in Africa and thus face social, economic, and political barriers that limit their coping capacities. In many developing economies, women are charged with the responsibility to secure water, food, and fuel for cooking due to societal structures and gender roles that confine women and thus, they consequently face the greatest challenges when unfavorable weather conditions strike. When coupled with unequal access to resources and to decision-making processes, limited mobility in rural areas, this limits women to a position where they are disproportionately affected by climate change. Therefore, the discourse on gender and climate change is very relevant cognizant of the intersectionality that exist.

To continue building knowledge in this area, in 2021-22, UN Women ESARO and the UNDP-UNEP Poverty Environment Action (PEA) are continuing with the rollout of the studies on The Cost of the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa. This analysis notes that gender-based inequalities in access to and control of productive and financial resources hold back agricultural productivity and undermine resilience and sustainability efforts. Therefore, interventions in the agriculture sector to mitigate climate change, increase food production, reduce poverty in rural areas cannot be successful without due attention in supporting women in the agricultural sector. This is more so not only for the contribution of women in the sector but closing the gender gap in agriculture could be beneficial for women’s economic empowerment, meeting societal food needs, improving rural economies, adaptation and resilience to climate change and overall increasing economic growth of countries.

UN Women has been able to successfully mobilize several million donors in several countries for its Climate Smart Agriculture Flagship Programme which is implemented in 11 countries in the East and Southern Africa Region. It is on this backdrop that UN Women ESARO would like to document successes and lessons learned in implementation throughout the region and to develop a proposal document building on the cost of gender gap in agricultural productivity findings and linking this to the strategic direction of UN Women that is focusing on to link women’s livelihoods to climate action and equal access to natural resources.

Objectives of the assignment:

UN Women is seeking to recruit a consultant to develop a results report for the CSA initiatives in the ESA Region implemented by UN Women with a perspective of highlighting the climate and economic empowerment nexus  based on the UN Women Flagship Programme Women’s Economic Empowerment through Climate Smart Agriculture and to develop a project document to support women's and girls' resilience through gender-responsive green economies, including climate-resilient agriculture and utilization of time saving technologies in rural areas. The aim of the pro-doc is to expand on the climate-resilient agriculture work carried out by UN Women at regional and country levels and to strengthen the components on climate resilience and green economy and will build upon the ongoing initiatives at the country level identified through the results report.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities:

Results Report

• Identify and document the results (and project ongoing) achieved contributing to the TOC of the UN Women Flagship Programme Women’s Economic Empowerment through Climate Smart Agriculture in 11 countries in ESA Region through desk reviews of relevant documents and through key informant interviews at country level (conducted remotely) capturing both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Results should be reported in a comprehensive narrative from a regional perspective drawing together the combined achievements of country offices and compiling any knowledge products and communications materials developed during the course of the implementation between 2018-2022). The result report will be no longer than 20 pages of text (not including preliminary pages or annexes).
• Elaborate key best practices for regional replication and scale-up.

Proposal Development

• Draft a multi-country regional project document in line with UN Women guidelines targeting with interventions at regional, national, and sub-national level in collaboration with country office and regional office teams. The project document will include a theory of change and project interventions across all countries in ESA that are implementing CSA programming.
• The project document will be based on an analysis and assessment of interventions (summaries based on the regional results report, UN Women studies and in discussion with regional and country focal points) that will close the gender gaps in agriculture productivity in an environmentally sustainable manner and assess the prospects for women increased agricultural productivity, and climate resilient agriculture adaptation.
• The project document will build on identified synergies between the ongoing country programme initiatives of UN Women to expand women’s role in the agricultural sector
• Coordinate the process of validation, revision, and finalization of the draft documents.

Deliverables:

1. Climate Smart Agriculture results report for the East and Southern Africa Region in English. The result report will be no longer than 20 pages of text (not including preliminary pages or annexes).
2. Project Document package with an accompanying detailed budget and results framework prepared, validated with UN Women country office focal points and submitted to UN Women

Work Schedule:

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:

1. Ability to be flexible and respond to changes to the documents as part of the review and feedback process.
2. Demonstrated ability to meet deadlines, maintain a high-quality of deliverables and work under pressure.
3. Strong interpersonal skills, able to communicate and work with diverse people at regional and country office level.
4. Ability to work independently with limited supervision and as part of a team.
5. Strong understanding on issues related to gender, agriculture, and climate change.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• A post graduate degree, in a relevant social sciences field such as social policy, development studies, gender studies, economics, agriculture, or another related field.

Experience:

• A minimum of five (5) years of experience in designing and managing implementation of climate change, agriculture and gender development projects in women’s economic empowerment with at least three years in resource mobilization.
• At least three years of work experience in East and Southern Africa.
• Experience in preparing logical, coherent, and consistent technical documents including log frames and budgets.
• Prior demonstrated experience in developing and writing proposals for institutional donors.
• Ability to integrate different experiences, methodologies, and approaches from a diverse range of stakeholders, organizations, and technical experts.
• Prior demonstrated experience in documenting results.

Language Requirements:

• Proficiency in written and spoken English.

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.).