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, the 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. 

Established in December 2012, the UN Women Country Office for Jordan works in close collaboration with the Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the UN Country Team and the Civil Society to advance the women’s national agenda, promote women’s empowerment and gender equality.

As part of a corporate requirement, the UN Women Jordan Country Office is embarking on the process of developing its new Strategic Note for the period of 2018-2021, defining key development results and management/operational results for the next four years.  The Strategic Note will be based on the global UN Women Strategic Plan which focuses on the following thematic priorities: (1) to expand women’s leadership and participation; (2) to end violence against women; (3) to strengthen the implementation of the women, peace and security agenda; (4) to enhance women’s economic empowerment; (5) to make gender equality priorities central to national planning and budgeting at all levels; and (6) to ensure that inter-governmental decision making of the United Nations contributes to strengthening the normative and policy framework for gender equality at country level.

To this end, the UN Women Jordan Country Office would like to contract a short-term consultant to support and facilitate the Jordan Country Office’s efforts in the development of the Strategic Note 2018-2021.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work and deliverables:

The consultant will work under the guidance of the UN Women Representative and will be responsible for the following specific tasks:

1. Review the current context and support the drafting of the context and situation analysis: This would include providing support to identify data sources for new SN situation analysis, review data and evidence for situation analysis, assess data quality and gaps, develop draft conclusions from data and evidence, comparative advantage and partnership analysis, compilation and analysis of previous lessons learned, identify risks based on contextual analysis and looking at feasibility and sustainability indicators for the office.
2. Facilitate discussion on prioritization: This would include identifying key issues on gender for prioritization, prioritization of issues, facilitating internal consultations on prioritization and problem analysis for each priority area.
3. Support the development of issue related Theory of Change (TOC): This would include support developing issue related TOCs as per priority areas and lead conducting a stakeholder mapping.
4. Support the development of office TOC: This would include support developing UN Women related TOC, leading the consultation and validation of TOC with partners (UN, CSOs, etc), support the development of risks and assumptions for the proposed programme and facilitate the analysis of enablers to achieve TOC.
5. Provide a preliminary outline for the SN 2018-2021.
6. Support the development of the Results Framework: This would include support drafting results and indicators and looking at the resource mobilization strategy.
7. Support the drafting of the Narrative of the SN 2018-2021.
8. Revise the draft on the basis of feedback from the Country Office Representative.
9. Revise the draft on the basis of feedback received from the Peer Review committee.

The process should be participatory involving facilitating discussions with key partners to reflect their readings of UN Women’s work in Jordan and the existing challenges and gaps. 

Key Deliverables and Payment schedule:

The consultancy will be remunerated based on an “all inclusive” lump-sum payments as per the below schedule (week-ends and public holidays are not included). The successful candidate will receive his/her payment based on satisfactory deliverable and a time sheet duly approved by the UN Women Country Representative.

Competencies

Core Values:

Integrity - Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism - Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and respect for diversity - Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Additionally, the individual should have an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Communication - Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.
• Planning & Organizing – Develops clear goals in line with agreed strategies, identifies priorities, foresees risks and makes allowances accordingly.
• Organizational Awareness - Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Teamwork - Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, cost and quality standards.

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent facilitation and coordination skills;
• In-depth knowledge of gender equality and women's rights issues;
• Ability to communicate sensitively across different focal points;
• Demonstrates excellent oral and written communication skills;
• Knowledge and understanding of UN system and familiarity with inter-governmental processes.

Required Skills and Experience

Education - Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, gender studies, public administration, international relations, international law, public policy, or a related field.

Experience

• At least 5 years of relevant professional experience in high level strategic planning, at an international level in facilitating strategic planning processes and drafting strategic/business plans for complex institutions;
• Knowledge of the UN system is highly desirable;
• Demonstrated experience in supporting similar kind of strategic planning exercises with proven experience on providing technical support with a facilitation role;.
• Knowledge of the relevant international frameworks pertaining to gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as gender mainstreaming and gender analysis;
• Experience in humanitarian and development programming/planning is an asset;
• Institutional knowledge of the UN and UN Women.

Language

• Fluency in English (written and oral) is required, knowledge of Arabic is considered an asset.