UN WOMEN Jobs - 112795- Consultant to conduct Midterm Review of UN Women E

Consultant to conduct Midterm Review of UN Women East and Southern Africa Regional Office's Strategic Note (2022-2025)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Home Based

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

15-Jun-23 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides support to Member States’ efforts and priorities in meeting their gender equality goals and for building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) was established by the General Assembly resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence, with the mandate to assist countries and the United Nations system itself in progressing more effectively and efficiently towards the goal of achieving gender equality, women's empowerment, and upholding women's rights.

UN Women's East and Southern Africa Regional Office's Strategic Note 2022-2025 articulates the entity's strategic direction and theory of change, objectives, and approaches to support efforts to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls in the region for their full enjoyment of their human rights. It provides further direction on how UN Women COs and MCO in the region should be positioned to advance gender equality and women empowerment. It is anchored on UN-Women's normative support functions, UN system coordination mandate, and operational activities to deliver transformative results. The Strategic Note also contributes to implementing the 2030 Agenda and Regional/continental level commitments to gender equality and women's empowerment, such as the AU 2063 Agenda, the Maputo Protocol, and through its Integrated Results and Resources Framework (IRRF). The Strategic Note was approved by the office of the Executive Director of UN Women in 2021.

Since the approval of the strategic note, both the internal and external contexts have changed considerably.

Internally, the region has implemented a leadership rotation at the country level, enacted a new strategy to engage the African Union with a dedicated business unit, entered the operational phase of the Generation Equality Campaign, started preparations for the pivoting to the field" vision initiated by HQ to allocate more decision authority, staffing, and resources to regions.
Externally, the operational environment has also changed significantly, including the severe impact of the prolonged war in Ukraine, the rise of conservatism in several countries leading to increased intolerance and discrimination, and the shrinking of donor's portfolio, possibly as the result of the above.

Overall objective:

UN Women's ESA Regional Office intends to conduct a mid-term review (MTR) of the Strategic Note 2022-2025 to provide an opportunity to assess progress towards achieving the desired results and overall performance, key achievements, and results and adjust the strategic direction informed by the context, new developments, and any shifts of priorities in the region and inform implementation, as well as feed into the development of the subsequent Strategic Note.

The MTR will enable ESARO to further adapt its strategic direction, programming, and business processes considering an analysis of performance to date; the repositioning of UN Women in ESAR; lessons learned from implementing the Strategic Note.

By assessing the Strategic Note's implementation progress and identifying key lessons learned, the MTR allows UN Women to recalibrate its Strategic Note as needed, including its Integrated Results and Resources Framework (IRRF).

More Specific Objectives:

The following are the specific objectives/scope work of this MTR:

To interrogate the Strategic Note's Theory of Change;
To Assess the relevance and effectiveness of regional-level interventions and programmes;
To Assess the effectiveness of Regional Office functions and services, including oversight mechanisms, as outlined in the ESARO support services menu;
To assess the quality of partnerships with both implementing and strategic partners;
Assess how and in what areas UN Women ESARO's programmatic focus needs to be further improved to make a greater impact and to contribute to SDGs in those areas where UN Women has comparative organizational strengths;
Analyse how UN Women needs to generate greater impact more efficiently and effectively with the available resources through leveraging the partnerships approach and the UN coordination mandate and look at opportunities for UN-Women to leverage its collaborative advantage further to boost its contribution to the implementation of Agenda 2030;
Analyse and refine results measurement to articulate better the changes UN Women generates, including its efforts to Leave No One Behind, and propose adjustments to targets and indicators of IRRF;
Contribute to lessons learned about normative, operational and coordination work by providing information about what is working well, what is not and the missed opportunities, if any.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will work under the overall guidance of the Deputy Regional Director and the Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist for all day-to-day matters, including:

Conduct a Desk Review of key documents relevant to the work of the Regional Office, such as the 2022-2025 Strategic Note and biannual work plan 2022-2023; 2022 Annual Report; select recent studies related to Gender Equality and Women's' Empowerment in the region; UN Women Strategic Plan 2022-2025, and the related theories of Change for the different thematic areas, SDGs, etc;
Craft and Finalise discussion papers that will guide the Mid-term Review meeting. These will include a compiled Mid-Term review paper;
In collaboration with the Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist, the Consultant will analyse and present the results of staff and partners' surveys at the midterm review meeting and incorporate partners' and staff feedback in the discussion papers;
Facilitation of the strategic note midterm review meetings;
Produce a final report on the strategic note mid-term review with key recommendations and an action plan.

Key Deliverables:

Develop an Inception Report: Outlining the design criteria, scope, methodology, data collection method and tools, and time frame, including a Draft Report Template. It must also reflect methodological development, as well as key normative UN system coordination and programmatic developments;
The MTR Draft Report: The report should address the contents specified in the Objectives Section and use a format that will be provided during the inception phase. It should be logically structured, contain evidence-based findings backed with credible data, conclusions, lessons, and recommendations, and be free of information irrelevant to the overall analysis. The report should respond in detail to the critical focus areas described above. It should include a set of specific recommendations formulated for the Strategic Note and identify the necessary actions required to be undertaken, who should undertake those, and possible timelines (if any);
Validation Meeting: The Consultant will facilitate meetings with key stakeholders to interactively present and discuss the draft final report. Stakeholders will provide comments on the Draft Report, and the Consultant will finalize the report in view of these comments;
Submission of reports: The consultant will submit a Final Report to UN Women with recommendations and with detail action plan. The final report will be in Word version together with a PowerPoint presentation.

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;

Functional Competencies:

Demonstrated ability and excellent communication skills to facilitate group discussions.
Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality evaluation reports, including recommendations for future work of the funding organization/donor.
Facilitation skills and the ability to deal with multi-stakeholder groups.
Excellent analytical and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master's degree or equivalent in Social Sciences, International Development studies, Law, Human rights, Politics, Gender, Women studies, or related 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.

Experience:

At least 10 years of planning, programming, reviews and/or evaluation experience, seven years of which in planning/reviews in development programs related to human rights, gender, and results-based management;

Experience working on women's human rights and gender equality; familiarity with the relevant context in East and Southern Africa in all its diversity is an added advantage.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in oral and written English. French is an added advantage.

Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded fromhttps://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc

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.