Background

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 will lead and coordinate the 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.

A key area of concern for UN Women is women’s economic empowerment (WEE) as expressed in UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 as well as in the targets and indicators of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 for gender equality and women’s empowerment and of several other SDGs relating to inclusive growth, decent work, ending poverty, and reducing inequality, and revitalizing the global partnership for sustainable development.  Aligned with the global SP (2022-2025), the ROAP SN (2023-2025) will focus on six SP cross-thematic outcomes to drive results across the ROAP’s thematic areas i.e., Inclusive governance, Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG), Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE), Women Peace and Security (WPS), Climate Change, Humanitarian Action (HA) and DRR. It will also seek to enhance key areas of expertise in response to demand from country presences in the areas of economic planning, climate change and Knowledge Management (KM). Further, the ROAP’s thematic and functional activities will be geared towards effective and targeted support for country presences.

The work of UN Women is based on a triple mandate: A normative mandate to support the formulation of global and regional standards and norms for gender equality; an operational mandate to support UN member states in implementing these standards; and finally, a mandate to coordinate the UN system’s efforts to deliver on its gender equality commitment.

The Women’s Economic Empowerment & Migration at the Regional Office for the Asia Pacific operates with the key overarching objective: Women have income security, decent work, and economic autonomy as articulated in the SN ROAP Women’s Economic Empowerment & Migration: 2023-2025.  The WEE portfolio is expanding focusing on the four key strategic priorities: 

1. Advancing Gender-Responsive Business Conduct and Creating More Decent Work Opportunities (WEPs)
2. Transforming the Care Economy
3. Accelerating Gender-Responsive Entrepreneurship for (M)SMEs (e.g. Gender-Responsive Procurement, Women’s entrepreneurship etc.)
4. Progressing Safe Migration to Decent Employment

These thematic areas are not operating in isolation and are strongly inter-connected and under-pinned by cross-cutting principles, such as: sector-agnostic work (across the Green & Blue -, care, fintech and digital economy); embracing an intersectional and conscious social norms lens into programming, and nexus to thematic areas such as Climate Change,  Ending Violence Against Women, Humanitarian and Women Peace and Security (WPS).

Next to the Regional Office’s key responsibility to provide technical support and strengthen capacity at country office level in Asia and the Pacific, the RO also leads a range of multi-country programmes and initiatives,  such as for example but not exclusive to the ‘WE RISE Together’, a project for advancing gender-responsive procurement in the Mekong subregion; the ‘Gender-Inclusive Care Entrepreneurship Project (GICEEP)’ and the upcoming project on advancing Women Entrepreneurs in Climate Tech in ASEAN.

The increased importance of Women’s Economic Empowerment across the region and the numerous RO-led WEE initiatives has resulted in an increased demand for the Regional Office in Asia Pacific (ROAP) to expand and strengthen its work on its normative mandate, to ensure gender-responsive laws and policies for women’s economic empowerment in a manner that is closely aligned with WEE ROAP programmes and results frameworks. This includes a growing need for policy development and advisory, capacity building and peer learning to Country Offices; as well as for research, policy development and advisory, and knowledge production and management for the region. The Consultant will act as an important channel between country and regional offices, and global policy-related work in the areas of women’s economic empowerment. The Consultant will also contribute to the wider programmatic work of the WEE unit.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

To strengthen WEE’s work on the normative pillar of UN Women’s mandate in the region, the Regional Office for Asia and Pacific is looking for a Policy, Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning Consultant to develop Policy research and advice in key thematic areas and lead Monitoring and Evaluation, Research and Learning (MERL) efforts. Under the supervision and guidance of the Regional Lead, WEE & Migration, the Consultant will undertake the following tasks:

1)       Policy Research and Advice

• Develop a workplan and support strategy development for the policy related work of WEE ROAP aligned with the different on-going programmes;
• Design, execute and/or supervise regional policy studies that meet UN Women’s needs and standards of quality;
• Provide inputs to intergovernmental processes and other international fora to help shape the development of global and regional policies, norms and standards, and implementation strategies to advance women’s economic empowerment;

2)       Monitoring & tracking of programme results at regional and country levels

• Create and refine monitoring tools, surveys for regional and country levels for tracking of programme activities and results;
• Develop under the supervision of the Project Lead in the development of Strategic Note (SN) indicators, baselines and targets for the next SN cycle, preparation of biannual work plans, monitoring, evaluation and research plans (MERP) and annual implementation plans;
• Develop M&E frameworks for any new projects by being involved in the kick off phase;

3)       Internal UN Women reporting and external donor reporting

• Coordinate, consolidate and prepare results-based monitoring and reporting for the WEE & Migration Unit in compliance with UN Women’s result monitoring system (RMS); LEADs and GATE; and external donor reports

4)       Technical support on programmatic work and Learning and Knowledge Management

• Develop requisites and coordinate gender-responsive procurement work in WERISE Together programme;
• Coordinate and monitor progress of MOGEF Climate Tech Accelerator/ India component of GICEEP with consultants assigned to this area and/or other areas agreed upon with the WEE Unit Technical Advisor

• Lead knowledge management including capturing and synthesizing lessons and stimulating the uptake of best practices and knowledge, including the database of knowledge products across the WEE APAC community of practice

Expected Deliverables

Payment Plan and Modality

A monthly rate will be paid upon submission of deliverables with an approval of the Regional Lead.

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:

Contract period and work location

The consultant will work on a full-time basis (20 days per month). He/She/They will be based in Bangkok, Thailand and working at UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific as required. A monthly rate will be paid upon satisfactory completion of tasks and deliverables.

Required Skills and Experience

Required qualifications

Education

• Master's degree in business, Management, Statistics, Political or Social Science, Economics, International Development Studies, Gender/ Women’s Studies.
• PhD in Business, Management, Statistics, Political or Social Science, Economics, International Development Studies, Gender/ Women’s Studies is an advantage.

Experience

• 5 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation and conducting research and analysis, in the context of international development
• At least 3 years of knowledge in data collection methods is required
• At least 2 years of experience on issues relating to gender-responsive procurement, care economy and/or women’s entrepreneurship is required
• Strong experience in policy research and writing is required
• Experience with UN Women and other UN agencies is required
• Experience working with international donors is an asset
• Experience working in the Asia Pacific region is an asset
• Experience delivering teaching/training modules including for the private sector is an asset

Language and report writing skills

• Strong proficiency in English. Other UN languages are an asset.
• Excellent written communication and results-based drafting skills (including concept notes, analytical papers and donor reports).

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight; [100%]

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified candidates who may be contacted for validation interview.

Submission of application

Submission package includes:

• Cover letter outlining relevant work experience
• Personal History Form (P11) which can be downloaded: http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs;
• Portfolio and writing sample (max 3 pieces) related to the assignment (e.g., project proposals, concept notes, research/analytical papers, briefs), etc.
• Interested candidates are encouraged to submit an electronic application to the UNDP website: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm or to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org with dollaporn.intrroong@unwomen.org in copy, no later than 8 August 2023 COB

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.