Background

UN Women grounded on 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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments to gender equality are translated into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts while building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women Kenya in its Strategic Note 2019-2022 and in line with the UNSDCF and Kenya’s vision 2030 is supporting national priorities on Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment among other normative frameworks, as well as the follow-up and implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It provides coherent support to Government, Parliament, Academia, women´s organizations, the justice system, and UN entities, by providing upstream policy and program advice, promoting a human rights-based approach to achieve sustainable development, improving national systems, sharing good practices and lessons learned and strengthening normative and operational linkages. In this mandate, the role of UN Women Kenya is key in ensuring that the above is achieved.

To support member states in implementing the 2030 Agenda, UN Women’s Global Flagship Programme Making Every Woman and Girl Count (MEWGC) aims to affect a radical shift in the production, availability, accessibility, and use of quality data and statistics on key aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The program has three objectives: (i) A supportive policy, legal and financial environment is in place and institutional capacities are strengthened to improve the production and use of gender statistics; (ii)Quality, comparable, and regular gender statistics are produced to address national data gaps and meet policy and reporting commitments under the 2030 Agenda and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; and (iii) Gender statistics are accessible to all users and can be analyzed, communicated and used to inform research, advocacy, policies, and programs, and promote accountability.

In Kenya, Making Every Woman and Girl Count (MEWGC) also known as the Women Count Programme is an initiative meant to strengthen the capacity of the Government and Non-State Actors to produce and use gender statistics in order to inform and monitor the implementation of Kenya’s gender-related commitments in the 2030 Agenda as well as other global, regional and national commitments.

The Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) called for the development of a “suitable statistical means to recognize and make visible the full extent of the work of women and all their contributions to the national economy including their contribution in the unremunerated and domestic sectors…”.  As part of the resolutions arrived at during the 1998 Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) on ‘African Women and Economic Development. ECA resolved that it is prudent for Governments to include a gender perspective in national accounting systems and other data particularly, by conducting time use surveys to produce information on time use across formal, informal, and unpaid productive sectors for women and men, girls, and boys in different contexts, mainly in areas of high poverty prevalence.

To this end, the Women Count Programme partnered with the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in undertaking the first-ever Time Use Survey (2021) in Kenya. Time-Use Statistics is necessary specifically for SDG Target 5.4: which recognizes the contribution of unpaid care and domestic work through the provision of public services, infrastructure and social protection policies, and the promotion of shared responsibility within the household and the family as nationally appropriate. One of the indicators relating to unpaid care work, to be measured is indicator 5.4.1 “Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic and care work, by sex, age, and location)”. 

Households’ activities (e.g., cooking, childcare, and cleaning) that are carried out by the household members are not considered to be economic activities. However, when such activities are carried out by a non-household member, for instance, domestic work for pay, then they are deemed to be economic activities. This means that the labor input in producing own-use production of services such as unpaid domestic and care work which are mostly performed by women and girls is currently not valued in the preparation of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Kenya. This undervalues the contribution of households to production as they are outside of traditional measures such as GDP.

Kenya’s investment in the social infrastructure has the potential to reduce the burden of unpaid care and domestic work as reported in its national report during the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women and Adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 1995 (BEIJING + 25) Progress on implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action. This could therefore reduce many barriers to women’s participation in the labor market and thus eventually rebalance the gender employment gap. This reveals Kenya’s potential to accelerate the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly those relating to ensuring healthy lives (Goal 3) achieving gender equality, and empowering all women and girls (Goal 5).

Unpaid Care and Domestic Work are pivotal to National Development. A coordinated and continuous effort is needed to lobby and advocate on the issue and make it a significant part of development, private sector, and human rights initiatives. This will help to move the agenda forward and ensure it becomes everybody’s responsibility. The collaboration between the State Department for Gender, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, UN Women, other MCDAs, and Civil Societies is therefore pivotal as it supports the Government in advancing its efforts to strengthen and enhance social infrastructure and physical infrastructure, thus contributing toward a more inclusive model of development for Kenya.

This term of reference is, therefore, developed to recruit an experienced and knowledgeable national consultant to provide technical support in the overall responsibility for planning, implementing, and managing UN Women interventions under the Social Economic Empowerment department within the State Department for Gender.  She/he works in close collaboration with the State Department for Gender to ensure successful program implementation under this portfolio. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Project management and implementation

• Provide Programme and administrative support in the preparation of project annual work plans, budgets, and proposals on project implementation arrangements.
• Work with State Department for Gender to ensure timely implementation of the work plan as per the set milestones and delivery of progress reports ensuring compliance to the organizational policies, processes, and procedures as well as UN Women’s narrative and financial and reporting guidelines;
• Ensure UN Women's strategic and technical support to State Department for Gender
• Act as the liaison between UN Women and State Department for Gender by providing regular feedback/updates on the progress of project implementation and strengthening the partnership between the two entities.
• She/he shall be reporting to the Secretary of Gender at the State Department for Gender and the Programme Specialist – Gender Statistics at the UN Women Kenya office.

Monitoring, Evaluation, and Reporting.

• Monitor progress of implementation of activities and finances using results-based management tools
• Support project appraisal and evaluation according to results-based management requirements
• Draft reports on monitoring missions, Programme results, outputs, and outcomes;
• Lead the coordination for submission of Narrative and Financial Reports including the verification of FACE forms to acquit funds provided to the State Department for Gender
• Provide substantive inputs to the preparation of donor and UN Women reports
• Support in the development of briefs, case studies, and other relevant documentation, including support resource mobilization efforts through the development of concept notes and proposals.

Advocacy, Knowledge, and communication.

• Develop background documents, briefs, and presentations related to the thematic areas under her/his responsibilities
• Support in the coordination and organization of advocacy campaigns, events, training, workshops, and knowledge products;
• Work with UN Women’s Communication staff to ensure results, success stories, and best practices from the Programme are captured and widely shared

Competencies

Core Values/guiding principles:

• Integrity - Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the National values and principles as enshrined in the Constitution and those of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
• Professionalism - Demonstrate professional competence and Consultant knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
• Cultural sensitivity and respect for diversity - Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff.

Core Competencies:

• Planning and Organizing – Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks, and mitigates accordingly.
• Organizational Awareness – Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Teamwork - Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different cultural backgrounds.
• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost, and quality standards.

Required Skills and Experience