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 center of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECA RO) was established in Istanbul, Turkey in early 2014. It provides support and oversight to Country Offices in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Ukraine. In addition, the Regional Office directly supports programme and project presence in Kosovo (under UN Security Council Resolution 1244), Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Tajikistan and Turkey.

In 2019-2021 UN Women ECA RO intends to pay a special emphasis on implementation of UN Women’s normative mandate in the region, particularly given the context of Beijing +25, the 20th anniversary of UNSCR 1325, the relevance of the Istanbul Convention to the countries of the region, active engagement in UPR processes and engagement in SDG-related regional fora.  Its main focus is on normative support to inter-governmental processes in terms of strengthening monitoring and accountability mechanisms for global and regional normative frameworks for gender equality and women’s empowerment, including the SDGs, CEDAW and other relevant UN Treaty Bodies agreements, BPfA, WPS UNSCRs in the ECA region. This work has to be supported and complemented by ECA RO Regional Flagship Programme “Making Every Woman and Girl Count  (MEWGC)" to ensure the necessary data are available and accessible for policy debates and participatory dialogues. MEWGC  was started in 2018 with the aim of strengthening, and application gender statistics generation and analysis to better contribute to evidence-based policy-making, implementation and monitoring in the context of SDGs. The programme aims to effect a radical shift in the production, availability, accessibility and use of quality data and statistics to measure a progress on SDGs implementation from perspectives of gender equality and women’s empowerment. Importantly, the programme will allow UN Women to build strategic partnerships with key actors, such as United Nations Economic Commission for Europe, The European Institute of Gender Equality, Eurostat, UNFPA, UNICEF, United Nations Statistical Commission, United Nations Statistics Division, WHO and The World Bank, Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21), EU among others. Adequate coordination at all levels, in close consultation with other relevant actors, including civil society, will limit any duplication of effort and ensure gender data gaps are addressed efficiently and systematically in all areas.

It is aimed to start a preparatory work for implementation 2019 activities in regard of intergovernmental and normative work to ensure partners in ECA region participate meaningfully and contribute to policy discussions aimed to bring changes to lives of women and girls by 2030. A number of MEWGC’s activities have to be started to provide a good ground for forthcoming intergovernmental events’ preparations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Programme Specialist of Europe and Central Asia Regional Office, the Programme Support Consultant will be required to provide programme support in the following areas:

• Development of background documents for implementation of activities aimed to use data for evidence-based policy dialogues, including preparations for analytical work and regional overview of social protection in a scope to be covered at CSW63 session. 
• Preparations for B+25 regional review by compiling necessary information, data for planned side-event/s;
• Support development of ECA regional summary for UN Women Progress of the World's Women report 'Families in a Changing World';
• Support engagement of civil society and gender expert community by initiating capacity development actions aimed to ensure their further meaningful contribution into intergovernmental processes and events. process.
• Support ECA RO in the creation of a new platform for CSOs for the period of its new SN 2019-2021.

She/he will work in close collaboration with UN Women programme and operations staff, UN staff and UN agencies, HQ technical advisors, experts, and civil society.

Scope of Work and Responsibilities

a.    Expected tasks and responsibilities:

• Provide programme support in the preparation of MEWGCs’ delivery/procurement plans, budgets, and proposals on programme implementation arrangements;
• Provide a support to prepare required background documents (by using statistical data,  analytical materials for ECA countries) to use for consultations with partners to prepare for the events, including possible side events;
• Assist with drafting and consolidating of inputs for concept notes and programmes for the events and in communication with partners;
• Prepare necessary documents for and participate in relevant working groups and preparatory meetings with UN Women EAC RO participation;

• Assemble briefing materials which are required for the project’s activities implementation;

• Participate in relevant working meetings.

More specifically – for development of ECA regional summary for UN Women Progress of the World’s Women report ‘Families in a Changing World’:

• Prepare necessary documentation to initiate development of the regional specific brief;
• Support communication with offices and partners to ensure the necessary contributions and discussions;
• Review draft materials developed and provide the necessary feedback for their finalization.

And for the creation of a platform for CSOs for ECA RO:

• Support the preparatory work, incl. drafting an action plan, directions for a joint work on MEWGC’s priority actions (advocacy on SDGs; data application for policy making, etc.), etc.

1. Expected deliverables

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: , http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Good knowledge of technical area;
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced degree (or equivalent) in Political or Social Science, Economics, International Development Studies, Gender/Women's Studies is required.

Working Experience:

• At least 3 years of experience at the national or international level in programme development and implementation in GEWE's areas;
• Experience in the United Nations systems and/or international organizations is and asset.

Knowledge of languages:

• Fluency in written and oral English is required.  Knowledge of Russian is an asset.

Other:

• Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communications, command of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and ATLAS is required.

1.  Application Process 

The application should include:

• Personal History Form (P-11 form) - including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted;
• Financial Proposal:  Specify a total lump sum amount for the tasks specified in this Terms of Reference. The financial proposal shall include daily fee; 
• Candidates should have the ability to quickly produce degree certificates and medical certification (of good health) should they be short-listed in consideration of the consultancy post.

1. Payment Schedule

The consultant will be paid upon submission of the deliverables, certification of payment and timesheet for actual number of working days applied.

1. Evaluation process

Consultants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of qualifications and financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
2. Having received the highest score out of below defined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would the for financial evaluation.