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.

UN Women is committed to the achievement of equality between women, men, boys and girls as partners and beneficiaries of humanitarian action. UN Women is leading and coordinating the United Nations System to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It is providing strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women has established an Innovation Facility that strengthens UN Women’s internal innovation capacity; supports UN Women design, implement and assess technology prototypes; and develops sustainability plans. UN Women also has a Humanitarian Action & Crises Response Unit to consolidate its normative and coordination work, crises management function and rapid response as well as crises preparedness and resilience.  

The past 10 years has seen several important normative developments relating to humanitarian action and the transition from response, to recovery, resilience and preparedness. The consolidated commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment formulated in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the SDGs and Security Council Resolution 2242 on Women’s Peace and Security are particularly significant.  Furthermore, five World Humanitarian Summit’s core commitments aims to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment into the humanitarian agenda.

UN Women is working to improve the tools to promote and protect the human rights of women, girls, boys and men in humanitarian action. UN Women has partnered with Innovation Norway to explore the potential benefits of blockchain technology for humanitarian response. Blockchain is a distributed database of immutable digital records that can be accessed from anywhere and that can store anything securely. Blockchain technology allows for an unprecedented level of information sharing between humanitarian agencies by providing a common link between various databases. In addition, the distributed ledger system will also foster greater transparency and accountability while reducing potential duplication of efforts. If the challenge of tracking financial aid flows for a mobile and transitory beneficiary can be solved it may open the door for the possibility of delivering cash aid securely via cryptocurrency mechanisms. Blockchain also offers users the ability to build and maintain immutable and secure personal records and to directly transfer digital assets without the need for intermediaries and associated costs. Leveraging these qualities would enable women to build an economic identity as well as a safe record of their interaction with a range of humanitarian actors across borders. In line with international commitments to improve the effectiveness and cost efficiency of aid programs, blockchain offers the potential to vertically integrate the various elements of humanitarian assistance provided to women and girls, thereby improving its coherence, effectiveness and efficiency. 

UN Women will arrange a Blockchain Live Test and Simulation event for testing mature blockchain technologies. Within this context, UN Women will recruit a project management consultant with previous experience in managing level events and experience workshop in development context, preferably around crises countries.  

Duties and Responsibilities

Purpose and Objective of the Consultancy

The purpose of this consultancy is to undertake the management, coordination and oversight role of the whole workshop event, from planning to executing.

The selected consultant will work under the overall guidance of the Chief of the Humanitarian Unit and in close coordination with the UN Women Innovation Unit and the Blockchain Consultant, and other UN Women staff, key stakeholders and partners.

Scope of Work and Responsibilities

The scope of work is to:

  1. Prepare and coordinate on a management work plan that ensure all key project activities (procurement, partnership, operation, communication, venue setting etc.) are done among different units, on timely manner;
  2. Develop project briefings, knowledge materials and other reports as necessary;
  3. Support the preparatory work for all project relevant activities; monitor and manage the budget; focal point for logistics and operations;
  4. Maintain general project relations through liaising with individuals, UNW units and institutions including UN agencies, International organizations, media, vendors and other private/public sectors.
  5. Identify and mitigate risks during the project execution process;
  6. Provide assessment and evaluation after the project is done;
  7. Undertake other project related duties per needed.

3-day Event schedule (Tentative, subject to change)

Day 1 – Mock testing, scenarios may include:

  • Event registration
  • Cross border
  • Enter a wide range of identity documents into systems
  • Be assigned a ‘living’ area
  • Receive cash disbursements
  • Assign/apply for work for cash opportunities
  • Make purchases at store (buy swag)
  • Purchase a meal (e.g. your lunch)
  • Record services received
  • Payment of services received (e.g. tuition, medical check, utility, haircut etc)
  • Go to a bank / ATM
  • Send money among peers and abroad
  • Enter mock property & civic documents into systems

Day 2 - Discussion

  • Restitution for all applicants, the UN and other participants, where the UN can provide feedback to selected applicants and discussions can take place to see how existing solutions could be modified/changed/improved to meet the needs of women.
  • Scoring group - confirms short list of solutions who will remain in the lab and be invited to submit full proposals.

Day 3 - Discussion

  • Discuss what would it take for selected solutions to be jointly piloted in practice with winning solutions. Includes system architects and administrators.
  • UN ONLY: Discussion on guidelines for product development and risk management during implication.

Competencies

Functional Competencies

  • Proven ability to design and implement relevant and targeted initiatives
  • Ability to develop and maintain strong partnerships with a variety of stakeholders and develop inter-institutional coordination and communication mechanisms.
  • Proven organisational and project management skills;

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.

Core Values and Ethics

  • Demonstrate cultural sensitivity and able to work in a multi-national environment
  • Support the Organization’s corporate goal
  • Comply with UN WOMEN rules, regulations and code of conduct
  • integrity

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.
  • Build effective client relationships and partnerships
  • Interact with all levels of staff in the organization
  • Excellent interpersonal skills
  • Build and share knowledge
  • Make valuable practice contributions

Communicating and Information Sharing:

  • Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.
  • Excellent oral and written skills
  • Listen actively and respond effectively

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence

  • Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behaviour towards others.

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience of Consultant

  • At least University Degree on management, international relations or relevant fields.
  • At least 7 years of experience in project management and coordination at international level;
  • Good analytical skills;
  • Excellent verbal communication and negotiating skills;
  • Good written communication skills for completing paperwork and compiling reports;
  • The ability to establish and maintain good working relationships with staff at all levels;
  • Able to meet performance targets and deliver projects on time and on budget;
  • Excellent observational and detailing skills;
  • Demonstrated ability to work independently with a minimum of guidance while seeing consensus, and ability to deliver on target and on time;
  • Interest, knowledge and experience on blockchain technologies will be an asset.

Language Requirements:

  • Fluency in the English language required, with strong, confident command of both written and oral English.