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.

The mandate and functions of UN Women call for the promotion of organizational and UN system accountability on gender equality through evaluation, strengthening evaluation capacities and learning from evaluation, and developing systems to measure the results and impact of UN Women with its enhanced role at country, regional and global levels. The purpose and role of evaluation in UN Women is to enhance accountability, inform decision-making and contribute to learning on the best ways to achieve women’s empowerment and gender equality through operational and normative work.

The Independent Evaluation and Audit Services (IEAS) provides independent evaluation and internal audit assurance, as well as advisory services, to management on UN Women’s programmes, controls, business systems, and processes to identify good practices, provide recommendations for improvement, and contribute to learning. The Charter governs the mandate, responsibilities, and activities of the IEAS.

IEAS is supported by two services; the Independent Evaluation Service (IES) and the Internal Audit Service (IAS).

·         Independent evaluation at UN Women is defined as a systematic and impartial assessment that provides credible and reliable evidence-based information for understanding the extent to which an intervention has achieved or made progress (or lack thereof) towards intended and unintended results on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

·         Internal audit is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization’s operations.

Under the supervision of the Chief of Evaluation, the Evaluation Specialist will lead and support IES-led corporate, institutional and thematic evaluations, promote the use of evaluations findings, collaborate with UN and other evaluation partners, as well as provide evaluation technical support and capacity development.

Duties and Responsibilities

Conduct and/or support impartial and independent evaluations meeting the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) professional standards:

• Lead and support evaluations, promoting stakeholder ownership and learning, alignment with country evaluation systems and partners participation;
• Ensure high professional standards in line with UN Women Evaluation Policy and UN Evaluation Norms & Standards are applied;
• Apply evaluation quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis tools, including impact evaluation and contribution analysis techniques and approaches;
• Ensure effective use of resources allocated to relevant evaluation activities.

Ensure that the findings and recommendations of evaluations are followed up:

• Prepare reports and briefing materials that can be shared with stakeholders on findings and recommendations of evaluations;
• Organize meetings, workshops and other discussion fora to contribute to knowledge management;
• Hold meetings with project / programme managers to ensure that evaluation results are taken into account in project design, implementation and appraisal;
• Liaise with project / programme managers on recommendations and monitor follow up on evaluations.

Provide evaluation technical assistance and capacity development support:

• Provide training and coaching on evaluation, self-evaluation, monitoring and results-based management to other organizational units;
• Provide advice/information/guidance to project/ programme managers on evaluations;
• Contribute to the development of methodologies for gender-responsive evaluations, and to the review of guidelines, systems, procedures and tools related to evaluation.

Promote UN coordination on evaluation that is gender responsive:

• Collaborate with other UN evaluation units on joint evaluation initiatives;
• Participate in United Nations Evaluation Group taskforces and contribute to the inclusion of gender equality dimensions in system-wide evaluation activities;
• Collaborate with professional evaluation bodies in the area of gender responsive evaluation.

Provide technical support to knowledge management:

• Keep abreast of developments in the area of evaluation, exploring innovative approaches in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Share information and experience in the Evaluation Community of Practice.

Perform other related duties and assignments as requested by the supervisor.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Evaluations are impartial, independent, credible, meet UNEG professional standards and are implemented in a timely manner and of high quality;
• Timely and quality advice provided to UN Women stakeholders;
• Timely provision of quality capacity development opportunities leading towards improved capacity amongst UN Women’s staff and partners;
• Evaluation recommendations are informing programme design, implementation and appraisals;
• Quality gender inputs provided into evaluation;
• Quality and timely collaboration with other UN agencies.

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 technical knowledge of the different components of evaluation, including evaluation design, data collection and analysis and reporting;
• Substantive knowledge of gender-responsive evaluation, respective methodological approaches, including impact and contribution analysis, and demonstrated knowledge of human rights-based approach;
• Ability to conduct institutional and thematic evaluations;
• Ability to synthesize evaluative information and to write clear, concise and logical evaluation reports;
• Broad and in-depth knowledge in social development issues particularly those pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues and women’s rights;
• Ability to plan and manage tasks and participate in the supervision of evaluation teams;
• Good knowledge of Results-Based Management principles and approaches;
• Excellent oral skills and written communication skills. 

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Advanced university degree in evaluation, social science or related field is required.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years professional experience in evaluation, preferably in the normative, development, and/or humanitarian context;
• Proven hands-on experience in leading or conducting evaluations;
• Experience in gender equality analytical work and programming, and current development issues;
• Experience working in an international organization, or similar complex organization, is an asset;
• Field experience is an asset.

Language Requirements:

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

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/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc. 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.

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.

Diversity and inclusion:

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.)