Background

UN Women 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 centre 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 strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. 

Assignment Background:

Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most serious, life threatening and widespread violations of human rights worldwide. In Asia and the Pacific, the levels of intimate partner violence remain unacceptably high. Over 37 per cent of women in South Asia, 34 per cent of women in South East Asia and up to 48 per cent of women in the Pacific have experienced violence at the hands of their partners. Violence against women and girls occurs at home, in workplaces, in public spaces and online, and can culminate in femicide, the murder of women and girls.

Violence against women devastates lives, fractures families and communities. Diverse groups of women suffer from multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination and inequalities, making them especially vulnerable to violence. Those vulnerability factors include age, ethnicity, poverty, class, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, religion, indigeneity, nationality, immigration status and other factors. VAWG impedes human development and has serious negative consequences, ranging from multiple immediate to long-term physical, sexual and psychological impacts, which often prevent women and girls from fully participating in society. VAWG significantly undermines women’s educational and employment opportunities, income earning capability and advancement in the workplace, which greatly limits their economic development. It is a major impediment to women’s empowerment, gender equality and the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Violence against women is firmly rooted in gender inequality, discrimination and harmful cultural and social norms. It is firmly grounded in unequal power relations between women and men and is reinforced by discriminatory and gender-biased attitudes, norms and practices. Deeply ingrained patriarchal, cultural and religious norms in society and institutions place a lower value on women and girls and contribute to high levels of acceptance of violence by both men and women. The widespread cultural acceptance of violence allows it to continue, often unchallenged.

VAWG is exacerbated by pandemics, other emergencies, and periods of conflict. At a time when service providers are less available, violence worsens for many women and girls in the region.

To mitigate the devastating impact of violence, women who face violence and abuse need access to services that respond to their multiple needs: health care systems and justice, police protection and social support services. Critical gaps remain in service provision for survivors of violence in terms of availability, quality and coordination. Most women who experienced violence do not receive the full range of services and many do not receive any services at all. When services are available, they are often underfunded, understaffed, and mostly available in capitals or larger cities. When quality, coordinated and safe services are available to survivors, it is more likely that survivors will disclose violence and seek help to stop it. Coordinated quality services are affordable and essential to mitigate the devastating impacts of violence and to prevent it from reoccurring. 

To effectively respond to VAWG, it is critical to ensure the quality, integrated and survivor-centered multi-sectoral essential services to be provided by the health, social services, police and justice sectors. The Essential Services Package for Women and Girls Subject to Violence was developed by UN Women, in partnership with UNFPA, WHO, UNDP and UNODC to provide greater access to a coordinated set of essential and quality multi-sectoral services for all women and girls who have experienced VAWG. The Programme identifies the essential services to be provided by the health, social services, police and justice sectors as well as guidelines for the coordination of essential services, the governance of coordination processes and mechanisms and guidance on estimating resource needed. Service delivery guidelines for the core elements of each essential service have been identified to ensure the delivery of high-quality services, particularly for low- and middle-income countries, for women and girls experiencing violence. Taken together, these elements comprise the “Essential services package” (ESP).

The purpose of this assignment is to support the implementation of UN Women’s Regional EVAW programming and technical support to country offices in the region through providing support on programme coordination, monitoring, reporting and evaluation. The focus of this assignment is various elements linked with responding to violence against women.   

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of work

Project planning and implementation  

• Support VAWG response efforts in the region, sharing resources and guidance, coordination, planning, and support to countries.  
• Support the implementation of EVAW programming, and implementing the ROAP EVAW Work Plan, with attention to ESP initiatives in Asia and the Pacific, including organisation of meetings and events, support to country offices and coordination with UN Women partners.
• Assist in preparation of knowledge resources, communications, and background material for internal and external use, including monitoring UN Women Country Offices’ focus areas and technical assistance requests in the Asia and the Pacific region.
• Support requests from UN Women offices and key partners, and coordination among UN Women teams, as needed

 Monitoring and Reporting

• Support monitoring, reporting and evaluation of EVAW programming (regional and direct country programming in select countries), including the mid-term reporting, for corporate and donor reporting purposes.
• Ensure adequate documentation and communication of results, lessons learned and promising practices from the programme, including in coordination with relevant units.
• Use of project-level monitoring tools to track progress and inform unit reporting throughout the year.
• Draft a donor mid-term report on EVAW ROAP prevention and response initiatives.   

Supervision

The consultant will be supervised by the EVAW Programme Specialist of the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

Contract period and work location

The consultant will be engaged over the period of April –July 2024. Deliverables from the consultant will be reviewed and approved by UN Women before they are considered final.  

Competencies

Core Values:

1. Respect for Diversity
2. Integrity
3. Professionalism

Core Competencies:

1. Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
2. Accountability
3. Creative Problem Solving
4. Effective Communication
5. Inclusive Collaboration
6. Stakeholder Engagement

Functional Competencies:

1. Good analytical skills
2. Good knowledge of violence against women

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

Required Skills and Experience

Eligibility criteria

Education

• Master’s degree in the field of international development, international law, gender studies, social science, public policy, or other related area.
• 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 and skills

• At least 2 years of relevant experience in project/programme planning and implementation, coordination, monitoring, reporting and evaluation at the international level.

• Experience in the field of ending violence against women in the ASEAN region is an advantage.

• Experience with the United Nations or/and other international organizations and the government is an advantage.

• Demonstrated interest and/or experience in violence against women/gender-based violence in the development and/or humanitarian setting is an advantage.

Language skills

• Proficiency in English is required.  

• Evaluation

  Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis:

• Technical qualification (100 points)

• 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 the following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

  Technical Evaluation Criteria	Obtainable Score
  A) Education Master’s degree in the field of international development, international law, gender studies, social science, public policy, or other related area; A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;	20%
  B) Experience and skills At least 2 years of relevant experience in project/programme planning, implementation, coordination, monitoring, reporting and evaluation at the international level; Experience in the field of ending violence against women in the ASEAN region is an advantage; Experience with the United Nations or/and other international organizations and the government is an advantage; Demonstrated interest and/or experience in violence against women/gender-based violence in the development and/or humanitarian setting is an advantage.	70%
  C) Language skills Proficiency in English is required.	10%
  Total Obtainable Score	100%

  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

• Interested candidates are encouraged to submit an electronic application, no later than 21 March 2024.

  The submission package includes:

• Completed UN Women Personal History form (P11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc
• Cover letter outlining relevant work experience
• 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.)

• ** Please note, you can only submit 1 file in the UNDP application system. If you submit your application through the UNDP application system, please create one file with all the required documents. Applicants with incomplete submission will not be considered. **