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.

In September 2015, governments united behind the ambitious 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which features 17 new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and 169 targets that aim to end poverty, combat inequalities and promote prosperity by 2030 while protecting the environment. The 2030 Agenda sets out a historic and unprecedented level of ambition to “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls by 2030” (SDG 5) as well as including 37 gender-related targets in 10 other SDGs. It commits to addressing core issues of gender equality such as eliminating all forms of violence against women and girls, eradicating discriminatory laws and constraints on sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recognizing and valuing unpaid care and domestic work and increasing women’s participation in decision-making.[1]

To successfully track the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, a robust and equally ambitious monitoring framework is needed. Significant investments in gender statistics are necessary to ensure that evidence-based policies are devised, the impacts of these policies are assessed and the accountability of policymakers and governments to deliver on these commitments is promoted. Robust indicators and quality data are of critical importance and will determine whether policy efforts are marshalled and whether the goals and targets are achieved or missed.

To support member states in implementing the 2030 Agenda, UN Women’s Flagship Programme Initiative, “Making Every Woman and Girl Count (MEWGC)” aims to affect a radical shift in the availability, accessibility and use of data and statistics on key aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The regional and national components of the MEWGC Programme include a multi-year scope of work with particular focus on implementing and supporting regional and country activities in Asia and the Pacific. This includes enhancing the linkages between normative and technical work on gender statistics at the regional (through UN Women’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific based in Bangkok) and national levels in Bangladesh and Nepal in the three inter-related key areas of work:

• Building a supportive policy and institutional environment for the localization and effective monitoring of the SDGs;
• Increasing the quality, comparability and regularity of gender statistics to address national data gaps and meet reporting commitments under the SDGs; and
• Ensuring that gender statistics are accessible to users in governments, civil society, academia and the private sector, to strengthen adequate demand for their production.

At the regional level, UN Women ROAP will use its coordination mandate and take advantage of its presence in 10 countries in the region and its wide network of partners, including governments, multilateral agencies and civil society, to bring actors together to ensure effective implementation of this initiative. UN Women is seeking the services of a highly qualified consultant to support the inception phase of the roll out of the programme at regional level and in Bangladesh and Nepal. At regional level, this will involve defining substantive priorities, including concrete plans to support Pacific Island countries in collaboration with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community and ESCAP’s Statistics Division and a plan towards developing, coordinating and implementing gender relevant statistical training among training providers in the Asia-Pacific region.  The consultant will also liaise with the ESCAP Statistics Division to outline a process of engagement with members states to inform and ensure specific agreements are made on gender statistics at the ESCAP Committee on Statistics in December 2018.

In Bangladesh, the need for gender statistics has been increasingly recognized as essential to monitor the progress of National Development Plan (7th Five Year Plan) and SDG targets. The National Women Development Policy (NWDP) 2011 and the 7th Five Year Plan prioritized the need of high quality of disaggregated data in a timely fashion through strengthening the capacity and scope of Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS). The country has produced its National Strategy for the Development of Statistics (NSDS) which needs to be implemented with greater effort by 2021. Currently, in light of SDGs, BBS is revising the NSDS. There are gaps in financing for the data collection; and capacity constrains to generate gender statistics at the National Statistical Office, much of the available gender statistics are descriptive in nature and requires a systematic approach in place. As is the key to have analytical capacity at Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and General Economic Division (GED) to do the impact monitoring of national development plan. Given financial as well as technical constraints, the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics has taken initiatives to strengthen the institutional mechanism and established a gender cell at Statistical and Informatics Division. In order to address these needs, UN WOMEN BCO planned to conduct a national need assessment and chalk out potential areas of collaboration with Government in particular with BBS.

In Nepal, there is an explicit need for producing gender statistics in monitoring the progress of the SDGs, including mapping data gaps that move beyond national averages, measuring multiple or intersectional discrimination or inequality. While a significant amount of data and statistics are being generated by different actors, most are difficult to access and use, and are not in open format.  No central database with statistics from different sectors and on different development indicators (e.g. health, education, economic opportunities, political participation and human security) exists.  Gaps in gender statistics in Nepal contribute to a weak policy space and legal environment, financial and technical constraints in the production of gender statistics, and limited capacity of decision makers to analyze and use data to inform policies.  Furthermore, data gaps exist in many areas by sex, caste, diversity, ethnicity, geography, minority groups, including baselines for SDG indicators in Nepal.  There are few institutions and individuals well versed in the collection, analysis and use of data—particularly in relation to data on sensitive issues such as violence, discrimination and social exclusion, for which specialized research techniques are required.  There is a need to reduce existing gender gaps in civil registration and vital statistics (CRVS) and increase access to adult identity documentation, to improve data on gender gaps at both national and subnational levels.  To address these needs, UN Women is collaborating with UNFPA in Nepal to support a joint assessment on the status of gender statistics to identify specific gaps and challenges in different sectors including ending violence against women and girls and harmful traditional practices.

UN Women is seeking the services of a highly qualified consultant to support the inception phase of the roll out of the programme at regional level and in Bangladesh and Nepal.

[1] Based on UN Women’s count of targets in goals other than SDG 5 that explicitly or implicitly include references to women and girls.

Duties and Responsibilities

The overall objective of the consultancy is to support inception activities for the Asia and the Pacific regional component of the FPI “Making Every Woman and Girl Count (MEWGC)”, as per as per the regional programme document for the programme, and support initial assessments, consultations and scoping of needs in Nepal and Bangladesh.

SPECIFIC SCOPE OF WORK:

At regional level, the support will include:

• ­Initiate discussions with SPC, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and DFAT to propose concrete plans to support Pacific Island countries, in collaboration with SPC and ESCAP’s Statistics Division.
• Work with the “Network for the Coordination of Statistical Training in Asia and the Pacific” to define priorities and a plan towards developing, coordinating and implementing gender relevant statistical training among training providers in the Asia-Pacific region.
• Work with ESCAP Statistics Division to outline a process of engagement with members states to inform and ensure specific agreements are made on gender statistics at the ESCAP Committee on Statistics in December 2018
• For the regional work, we foresee that the consultant will need to be in Bangkok to meet with ESCAP for a period of about a week. The rest of the work can be done remotely, covering a period of a total of approximately 25 working days.

In Bangladesh, the consultant will closely work with one national consultant. The scope of work will include:

• Carry out an initial in-depth desk review of the institutional framework of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), including Statistical and Informatics Division (SID); and General Economic Division of Ministry of Planning; and other line ministries that are involved with data production and use) and the extent to which it facilitates or hinders the regular production of gender statistics. The review document will primarily focus on the followings:
  • The review should document the key institutional mechanisms or constraints that prevent (or facilitate) more regular production of gender statistics at the national level and propose solutions to strengthen them or steps that can be taken to address these constraints.
  • The review should also document broader country level initiatives i.e. M&E framework of SDGs and the extent to which gender equality is integrated into this M&E framework.
• Consultation, with support from national consultant, with BBS and other key government agencies and line ministries to assess the technical capacity gaps in gender statistics among producers and users of data, particularly within BBS.
• Consultations, with support from national consultant, with other key stakeholders, including the Planning Commission (NPC), UNCT, national women machineries, civil society organization groups, universities, research institutions and development partners (UK AID, World bank etc.) to have deeper understanding on the needs, constraints and potential solutions to facilitate increased collaboration between users and producers and identify concrete and actionable solutions to strengthen the capacity of civil society organizations (CSO), government and UN Country teams to analyse and use gender statistics to inform decision-making.
• With support from the national consultant, facilitate a validation workshop and incorporate all inputs to finalize the project document and annual workplan
• Support UN Women BCO to develop a project document and associated work plan for MEWGC
• For Bangladesh level work, the international consultant will need to be in country for two weeks for need assessment, and one week for programme design; and rest of the tasks can be done remotely, covering a period of approximately 6 weeks.

In Nepal, the international consultant will closely work with one national consultant. The scope of work will include:

• Carry out an in-depth desk review on the following topics:
  • Legal frameworks, policies and practices governing the production of gender statistics;
  • The extent to which gender is mainstreamed into the national/sectoral development agenda and statistical plan;
  • Financial and human resources of the government, including technical capacity, available at the national level for gender statistics;
  • National protocols for publishing statistical data;
  • Inventory of available data;
  • Existing data sources and gaps in gender data production vis-à-vis the national/sectoral policy framework;
  • Assessment of the utilization of existing data in gender programme;
  • Costing of integrating gender perspective in data collection;
  • Percentage of national government resources devoted to improving gender statistics (as a per cent of total resources devoted to statistics)
  • Other relevant documents related to gender statistics.

• Conduct a mapping to anticipates future system for generating, maintaining and updating gender statistics under the federal structure
• Carry out in depth interviews with key stakeholders such as the National Planning Commission (NPC), the Centre for Bureau of Statistics (CBS), national women’s machinery, civil society organisations, universities, research institutions and development partners (UK AID, World Bank etc.)
• Conduct a validation workshop to finalize the draft desk review reports
• Conduct training for UN and International Development Partner Group (IDPG) personnel, including members of UN Gender Theme Group (GTG) and IDPG Gender and Social Inclusion (GESI) Working Group on generation and utilization of gender statistics
• Support the NCO to convert the gender statistic concept note into project document with an associated workplan.

EXPECTED DELIVERABLES:

1. Key deliverables for Nepal:

• Inception report including, methodology, tools and detailed workplan including a selection of national consultant post review of applications;
• Final report of the desk review on gender statistics in different sectors including ending violence against women and girls and harmful traditional practices;
• Final report on the anticipated future system for generating, maintaining and updating gender statistics under the federal structure;
• Draft project document with a results framework for Nepal;
• Final report of all consultations with the relevant stakeholders and validation workshop.

Time frame: The consultant should complete all above mentioned deliverables by end of January 2018 for Nepal.

2. Key deliverables for Bangladesh:

• Inception report based on the initial desk review;
• Need assessment document focusing on institutional framework and constraints, key data gaps for monitoring of SDGs and other national gender equality priorities, steps to integrate gender indicators including steps that need to be taken to close these data gaps; and to what extent existing gender statistics are used in policy making through whole of society approach;
• First Draft Project Proposal, based on the findings of the national need assessment, focusing on key intervention areas that to support BBS on gender statistics and strengthen national-level SDGs monitoring and reporting in a gender responsive manner; and strengthen UNCT and UN data group collaboration with key partners to help promote and support national plans to localize and monitor the SDGs;
• Final Draft of Project Proposal after incorporating feedback and comments UN Women and stakeholders. 

Time frame: The consultant should complete all above mentioned deliverables by end of March 2018 for Bangladesh.

3. Key deliverables for Regional Level:

• An inception report for the regional and national levels component of work, including timelines, expected consultations and outline of process;
• Two finalized concept notes, developed in consultation with stakeholders as follows:
  • Document outlining key steps and substantive priorities towards developing, coordinating and implementing gender relevant statistical training among training providers in the Asia-Pacific region;
  • Process of programme and stakeholder engagement towards the ESCAP Committee on Statistics in 2018.

Time frame: The consultant should complete all above mentioned deliverables by end of January 2018 for Regional Level.

DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT AND DUTY STATION:

The assignment is home-based, with expected travel to Bangkok, Kathmandu and Dhaka. The contract duration is tentatively from 13 November 2017 to 31 March 2018.  

UN Women will bear the travel and accommodations costs beyond commuting distance from the consultant’s usual place of residence for UN Women authorized travel as per the UN Women standard guidelines.

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

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, gender, economics, statistics, development or other social science fields.

Experience:

• A minimum of 15 years of experience in the field of gender and statistics at the national and/or international level with a strong focus on the Asia-Pacific region;
• Experience in statistical training and related statistical activities in developing countries is required;
• Strong technical expertise in the drafting of statistics-based research and related reports, and in providing training on statistical and data management issues, preferably in the context of gender statistics;
• Experience in data processing, data quality assessment and data analysis. Familiarity with the development and application of household-based survey tools, establishment surveys and administrative records for generating information on progress towards gender equality and empowerment of women (SDG 5 and other gender-related SDG indicators);
• Familiarity with UN Women’s mandate and related work in the Asia-Pacific region.

Language

• Excellent command of written and oral English.

APPLICATION PROCESS:

Interested individual consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• Expression of interest explaining why you are interested to this position and what professional skills and experiences you must support your interest is strong;
• Dully filled P11 form that can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment;
• A separate page of financial proposal with break-down of proposed amount in USD for each deliverable. 

Note: The system will only allow one attachment, please combine all your documents into one single PDF document. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form and the written sample will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

EVALUATION AND SELECTION CRITERIA:

Criteria for selection will be based on the following assessment followed by the satisfactory reference check of the candidate:

• Master degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, gender, economics, statistics, development or other social science fields (10 points);
• A minimum of 15 years of experience in the field of gender and statistics at the national and/or international level with a strong focus on the Asia-Pacific region (25 points);
• Experience in statistical training and related statistical activities in developing countries (30 points);
• Strong technical expertise in the drafting of statistics-based research and related reports, and in providing training on statistical and data management issues, preferably in the context of gender statistic (30 points);
• Familiarity with UN Women’s mandate and related work in the Asia-Pacific region (5 points).

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women’s empowerment.