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.  One of its strategic priorities is to ensure that ‘Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action. UN Women is committed to assist member states in meeting their commitments of the Sustainable Development Goals and this project will support the Regional Office in contributing to SDG 5; SDG 16; SDG 1; SDG 4; and SDG 8. Furthermore, UN Women’s approach in reaching out to the most marginalized and vulnerable refugees is in line with the leave-no one behind commitment of the SDGs.

UN Women Europe and Central Asia regional office continues to elevate its normative, coordination, women, peace and security agenda and by strengthening gender responsiveness of humanitarian action, prevention, recovery and resilience in the region. Through SPFII, UN Women ECA RO will provide policy advice and technical assistance to the UN system and other key partners to respond to conflict, post-conflict, and crisis situation from protracted crisis with gender responsive approach. Through SPF funding UN women will also be providing support related to gender equality, empowerment and resilience of women and girls in resilience and recovery efforts and emergency settings, establish gender responsive mechanism to enhance accountability for affected populations, countering and preventing violent extremism, including initiatives to prevent and respond to sexual exploitation and abuse and sexual harassment through our or partners implementation/effort and to establish partnership and challenging of funding to local organizations and in particular, women-led, women’s rights organization and gender inclusive organizations. 

Within this context and under the supervision of the Regional Migration & Humanitarian Specialist (P4), the Consultant will contribute to the development of programme design and support UN Women offices in the ECA region, contribute to strengthening gender responsiveness of interagency coordination and develop relevant knowledge products. The consultant is expected to support resource mobilization for regional and/or multi-country programmes focusing on strengthening economic empowerment, resilience and recovery efforts through the holistic approach of protection, eliminating and preventing gender-based violence.

Goal and objectives:

The main objective of this consultancy is to produce, edit and review reports and briefs as a means to strengthen timely and quality reporting.

Duties and Responsibilities

The international consultant will be responsible for meeting milestones and deadlines on time.

In order to achieve the objectives, the tasks of the consultant will include but will not be necessarily limited to the following:

• Facilitate the development of regional or multi-country programmes under the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, humanitarian action and gender responsive recovery and resilience efforts and support the resource mobilization for new programmatic work;
• Provide technical and capacity building support to Country Office/ /Programme Presence teams and partners under the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Gender Responsive Humanitarian Action, Prevention, Recovery and Resilience in the region;
• Collect, identify and document promising practices under the Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Gender Responsive Humanitarian Action, Prevention, Recovery and Resilience in the region as a part of ECA RO Knowledge Management system;
• Participate and contribute on behalf of UN Women in the relevant inter-agency coordination and coordinate specific efforts in mainstreaming gender and protection in disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts and relevant working groups;
• Conduct and/or facilitate trainings and workshops on Gender Responsive Approach and Gender in Humanitarian Action;
• Advocate for and contribute to strengthening the engagement and participation of women led and women rights focused local organizations and civil society networks;
• Provide inputs to policy recommendations and guidance to strategic planning and positioning on Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Gender Responsive Humanitarian Action, Prevention, Recovery and Resilience;
•  Develop analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, correspondence, and knowledge products on Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Gender Responsive Humanitarian Action, Prevention, Recovery and Resilience;
• Contribute and provide inputs to donor reports, updates and briefs on regional/country development situation to be used by stakeholders, CO and HQ Women, Peace and Security Agenda and Gender Responsive Humanitarian Action, Prevention, Recovery and Resilience.

Deliverables

The consultant will be required to support and produce the following indicative key deliverables within a period of 11 months:

Competencies

Core values/guiding principles

• 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 valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core competencies

• Ethics and Values: Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity
• Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment
• Development and Innovation: Take charge of self-development and take initiative
• Work in teams: Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multiethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds
• Communicating and Information Sharing: Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication
• Self-management and Emotional Intelligence: Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others
• Conflict Management: Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
• Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge

Functional Competencies

• Strong knowledge and experience related to current policies and practices in the fields of gender equality, protection and humanitarian action and coordination; 
• Strong knowledge of the region;
• Strong networking skills;
• Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• Strong qualitative and quantitative analytical skills;
• Ability to write policy papers, reports, speeches, briefings, etc.;

Required Skills and Experience

Academic Qualifications

• An advanced university degree (Masters) in an area relevant to the requirements of the TOR.

Experience

• Minimum 5 years of experience in peace and security, humanitarian action and/or prevention, recovery or resilience efforts or similar work with a focus on gender responsive approach;
• Minimum 3 years of professional experience in writing, reviewing, editing knowledge products, research papers and/or briefing notes.
• Experience in inter-agency coordination in crisis or disaster setting is an asset;
• Knowledge of the role of UN Women and its programming, coordination and normative roles at the regional and/or country level is an asset;
• Experience in working on gender-based violence and/or PSEA related issues is an asset;

Language and other skills:

• Fluency in written and spoken English required.
• Proficiency in another UN language is an asset.
• Good computer skills in Windows, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications (Power Point, Word, Excel).

Application procedure

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

• Cover letter to include a brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
• P11 (and CV) including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted with the application.

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.

Payment schedule

Work plan will be set at beginning of the contract with clear scheduled monthly milestones/deliverables. This work plan will be agreed between the consultant and the ECARO supervisor.

Monthly payments will be made based on the supervisor reviewing and confirming/signing off that the consultant has met the required deliverables set in this work plan. This will also be accompanied by a time sheet submitted by the consultant to the supervisor.

Evaluation of applicants

The Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

a)  Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and

b)  Having received the highest score out of below criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered..