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. 

A key area of concern for UN Women is women’s economic empowerment (WEE) as expressed in UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 vision that: Women have income security, decent work, and economic autonomy 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.    

Women’s Economic Empowerment at UN Women in Asia and the Pacific

Women represent two thirds of the poor in Asia. Economic insecurity is part of a cycle of disadvantage for women, often caused by discrimination in employment and education. Poverty magnifies this disadvantage by leading to poor health outcomes, limited decision-making power and few opportunities for women to pull themselves out of poverty. Women in many countries do not control key assets such as the family home, property, and decision-making rights on the use of income, further limiting opportunities to break the poverty cycle. As the global economic crisis continues UN Women is looking closely at the ripple effects on women’s lives. In many parts of Asia, women work in backbreaking and unsustainable agriculture for little reward. Moreover, the overseas employment of Asian women in the informal sector, particularly as domestic workers, is an increasing area of concern. Despite their economic and social contribution to both the source and destination countries, women migrant workers are subject to discriminatory practices, human and labour rights violations at every stage of the migration cycle. UN Women is working with governments and communities to address these and other issues of women’s poverty in East and Southeast Asia.

UN Women in the Asia Pacific is driven by work at the regional level through the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific and country level through offices across the region. It focuses on the following approaches for women’s economic empowerment, including but not limited to: seeking policy reform, supporting economic security and rights and enhancing economic opportunities. At the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, the Women’s Economic Empowerment & Migration unit focuses on the key strategic priorities aligned with the SN ROAP Women’s Economic Empowerment & Migration for 2023-2025:

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 (i.e. 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).

Advancing Women’s Entrepreneurship and WEPs in Asia Pacific

Across ROAP and Country Offices, advancing women’s entrepreneurship is a core priority ranging from supporting micro (including home based workers) small, and medium enterprises. Women’s entrepreneurship is a key driver for increased livelihoods and income generation in the region. UN Women’s work focuses on addressing women’s limited access to markets, finance, digital capacities and networks, paired with the disproportionate unpaid care responsibilities remain the key barriers for equitable business opportunities for women.  

At the same time, the Women’s Empowerment Principles are an important framework for governments and a key vehicle for private sector delivery on advancing women’s economic empowerment and gender equality. Launched in 2020 by UN Women and the UN Global Compact, the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) are a set of 7 principles that provide companies a roadmap to become more gender-responsive throughout their value chain. The WEPs is the only framework that encompasses gender equality at all organizational levels, beginning with leadership and providing guidance for the workplace, marketplace and community, underpinned by a strong emphasis on accountability and transparent reporting of progress.

There is a strong need to demonstrate the results achieved across the region and represent the diverse supported to women entrepreneurs and WEPs implementation by UN Women in ROAP as well as the Country Offices as a whole.

To strengthen reporting of results on advancing women’s entrepreneurship and WEPs implementation in the region, the Regional Office for Asia and Pacific is looking for an International Consultant to develop a common approach to reporting regional WEE results aligned with the Integrated Results and Resources Framework in the SP 2022-2025.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and Responsibilities

The Consultant will focus on developing a framework for drawing out key results for WEE in the region particularly in the area of UN Women's support to women's entrepreneurship and WEPs in Asia Pacific. Under the supervision and guidance of the Regional Lead, WEE & Migration, the Consultant will undertake the following tasks:

1. Supporting the WEE Migration unit at ROAP working closely with the WEE Migration M&E Lead to develop an impact reporting methodology and data collection:

• Developing a workplan for WEE Asia Pacific impact reporting
• Aligning on a set of standard terms of the different ways the different WEE teams in Asia Pacific are reaching women in the economy as i.e. home-based workers, workers, micro entrepreneurs, SMEs, employees etc. and impact of private sector engagement
• Working closely with the country offices to map out the different indicators APAC countries are reporting on that relate to entrepreneurship 
• Collect data for demonstrating impact to measure entrepreneurship and WEPs efforts across the region and design appropriate tools

(2) Data consolidation and analysis

• Building out the key results and in alignment with indicators in the SP IRRF and the Gender Equality Accelerators, specifically the Accelerator "Women in the World of Work" and to align with HQ on approaches to report on regional and global figures.
• Support in the development and rollout of WEPs impact surveys for private sector
• Supporting with results analysis of surveys rolled out to measure WEPs implementation in Asia Pacific

(3) Results reporting

• Develop a standard for WEE team how to collect and analyze disaggregated data for RMS six-monthly and annual reporting
• Support the WEE ROAP M&E Officer in regional narrative building based on the analyzed data

Expected Deliverables

Competencies

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:

• Strong understanding and knowledge of monitoring and evaluation, data collection and analysis, results-based management and reporting
• Strong analytical and results-based drafting skills
• Ability to write clearly in excellent written English according to the UN editing guidelines
• Strong self-management, organizational and time management skills
• Strong attention to detail and ability to organize data into meaningful information

CONTRACT PERIOD AND WORK LOCATION

The period of this consultancy is for approximately 3.5 months; the consultant is home based with mission travel as required.

Required Skills and Experience

REQUIREMENTS AND QUALIFICATIONS

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree in Monitoring and Evaluation, Political or Social Science, Economics, International Development Studies, Gender/ Women’s Studies 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 5 years of experience at national or international level in monitoring and evaluation of development projects/ programmes
• Experience in entrepreneurship and/or Women’s Economic Empowerment is required
• Previous experience with UN Women and/or other UN agencies is required
• Demonstrable experience in results reporting for development projects/programmes
• Experience working in the Asia Pacific region is an advantage

Language Requirements:

• Proficiency in English. Other UN languages an asset
• Excellent writing skills. Experience in writing analytic papers and donor reports (to be assessed through writing sample)

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., donor reports, annual reports, drafted SN, concept notes, research analysis), 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 n.thawesaengskulthai@unwomen.org and dollaporn.intrroong@unwomen.org in copy, no later than 1 December 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.