Background

Background:

UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, it was established to accelerate progress in meeting their needs worldwide.

The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES) evaluates the work of UN Women to enhance organizational accountability, provide evidence-based information for decision-making, and contribute to learning on gender equality and the empowerment of women. Based in the UN Women Arab States Regional Office (ASRO), the Regional Evaluation Specialist (ASRO RES) is an IES team member and has a reporting line to the Chief of Evaluation in UN Women.

The UN Women IES conducts evaluations directly with the leadership of evaluation specialists and thematic consultants. Evaluation Specialists from IES are supported, where needed and where relevant, by thematic and methodological consultants as well as research assistants that adhere to UN Women’s Evaluation Policy and UNEG Norms, Standards, and Ethical and other relevant guidelines.

Quality assurance of outputs and deliverables are measured against the UN Women’s Evaluation Policy and UNEG Norms, Standards, and Ethical guidelines as well as guided by the UN Women Global Evaluation Reports Assessment and Analysis System (GERAAS) available at https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/accountability/evaluation/decentralized-evaluations.

Objective of the Assignment:

Reporting to the ASRO RES, the Research and evaluation assistant will be expected to support ASRO RES in the overall implementation of planned evaluation processes for 2023. During the assignment it is expected that the consultant will support the Syria programme evaluation, the formative evaluation of ROAS work on humanitarian, development, and peace nexus (HDP) and other additional evaluation processes to be determined.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope and design evaluations by supporting document collection, management, and review.  This includes:

• Support collection of documents by scanning relevant UN Women internal databases and accessing UN, academic, and other INGOs or Think Tanks relevant documents relative to the evaluation;
• Support summaries of evaluations, donor reports, or programmatic work to inform desk reviews;
• Support the systematization and analysis of Annual Work Plans (AWPs) and Strategic Notes (SN) across countries and thematic/programmatic areas;
• Support the extraction of data per evaluation intervention strategy, budget allocation, and expenditure for thematic areas and/or countries, and by year;
• Support stakeholder mapping assessments for evaluations with identification of right holders and duty bearers in order to inform the HR and GE stakeholder mapping of an evaluation.

Development and implementation of data collection instruments

• Support the development and implementation of instrumentation including interview guidelines, and online surveys tailored to different stakeholder groups, and contribute to the refinement of other data collection tools;
• Support logistics for data collection;
• Participate in implementing the methodology in selected virtual/site visits and support the conduct of remote data collection;
• Follow data management procedures established, including ensuring transcription of all interviews, focus group discussions, and other data collected is shared in the NVivo project in a timely manner;
• Maintain UNEG's ethical code of conduct throughout the data collection stage and alert the Team Leader to any potential risks.

Data analysis, coding, and synthesis of data

• Support the use of NviVo, or other programmes, for coding data from qualitative interviews and other materials;
• Support survey data analysis;
• Support synthesis of findings from data coding and analysis for input into evaluations;
• Identify and address relevant data gaps emerging;
• Contribute to the analysis of collected data and development of preliminary findings paper/PPT to be presented to stakeholders that meets IES quality standards.

Evaluation Report and Brief

• Contribute to the development and finalization of a draft and final Evaluation Report, Brief, and all necessary Annexes;
• Support in drafting and editing sections of the draft report and revision based on comments received from the Team Leader;
• Conduct any additional research and analysis required to address relevant comments received or gaps identified;
• Support the development of graphs/visuals and PPTs on the draft and final version of the report;
• Lead the compilation of specific Annexes and the audit of comments;
• Communications with stakeholders, meeting organizations and drafting communication products. Support communications with stakeholders, meeting organizations, and communication products such as articles for IES magazine “Transform”.

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.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Strong analytical and report-writing skills;
• Strong research skills;
• Teamwork skills;
• Excellent communication and coordination skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences or another relevant field is required;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

•  At least 2-year Experience conducting research using tools for systematizing and analyzing large amounts of qualitative and quantitative data is required. Graduate projects will be considered relevant experience;
• Experience in evaluation approaches and methods including some knowledge of gender equality and human rights responsive evaluation is an asset (e.g. participatory and inclusive approaches);
• Firsthand experience in using NVivo or other similar data analysis software is required;
• Experience in working with the United Nations or a similar international organization context is a plus is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset;
• Working Knowledge of Arabic is an asset.

Evaluation Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

• Criteria 1:  At least 2-year Experience conducting research using tools for systematizing and analyzing large amounts of qualitative and quantitative data. Graduate projects will be considered as relevant experience (30)

• Criteria 2:  Firsthand experience in using NVivo or other similar data analysis software. (30)
• Criteria 3:  Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences or another relevant field. A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree. (10)

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application:

All interested applicants should submit the following requirements. The following 4 documents should be merged in one standalone file, including all four documents since the online application submission only permits uploading one file per application. Incomplete submissions can be a ground for disqualification. 

• Brief expression of interest: a brief narrative on why you think you are qualified to undertake the consultancy.
• The UN Women Personal History Form (P11) is required when applying – to download the form please go to http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment.
• Attach a sample of relevant work
• Financial proposal: Daily rate 

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all of them since the online application submission does only permit uploading one file per application. Incomplete submissions can be a ground for disqualification.

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.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits employ, 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.)