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 for women 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, 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.

The outbreak of the new coronavirus (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019. Since then a global pandemic has been declared, with countries across the globe mobilizing to respond to the health crisis and manage the significant socio-economic impacts. This unprecedented crisis unfolds against many existing challenges: Asia-Pacific region is the most disaster-prone region in the world, and it is facing the ever-pressing threats of climate change, many large protracted crises and conflict, and issues around mobility and migration. It is also unfolding amid persistent gender inequalities in the region; owing to structural inequalities and discriminatory gender norms, women’s employment is concentrated in the informal labour sector with limited protection, and women experience unacceptably high levels of intimate partner violence (IPV).

Building on a previous report released by the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in April, The First 100 Days of the COVID-19 Outbreak in Asia and the Pacific: A Gender Lens, which presented a snapshot of the gender dimensions of the socio-economic impacts of the pandemic with key examples of UN Women’s response, UN Women is seeking a consultant to develop an external report on the organization’s response to the pandemic from January – August 2020. The report, which will be published in English, will be used to communicate programmatic results and human interest stories to engage key stakeholders across the region (general public, media, private sector, non-profit partners, governments, donors etc). The report will be distributed electronically and in hard copy to an extensive network in the region and at the global level. Furthermore, component of the report will be showcased via social media and other online platforms.

The consultant shall work in close collaboration with the Regional COVID-19 Coordinator and the Regional Communications team to research, write and edit a report on UN Women’s COVID-19 response in the Asia-Pacific region –  aimed at a maximum of 30 pages. She or he will work with the UN Women team to creatively convey key messages/data into an attractive, user-friendly and engaging report. The consultant will also proof-read the texts as they are laid out by a designer.

Duties and Responsibilities

In close collaboration with the Regional COVID-19 Coordinator, the consultant will:

• Develop an outline for the report on UN Women’s COVID-19 response in Asia and the Pacific, to be approved by the Regional COVID-19 Coordinator;
• Conduct as desk review of relevant internal quarterly reports, meeting minutes, publications, quarterly newsletters and human-interest articles from UN Women’s field offices; regional office and project offices, as well as other available sources of information;
• Manage the drafting process and ensure sufficient consultations and follow-ups with UN Women staff to collect necessary information (at least two drafts);
• Submit the final text as a Word document aligned, styled with UN Women’s established standards and formats, and in compliance with the RO’s clearance and routing process, including table of contents, photo captions and credit information; and
• Provide feedback and proofreading of design layouts to ensure text and graphics are error-free.

Expected Outputs/Deliverables:

No documents, researches, raw data collection or analyses (or parts thereof) or comments from UN Women staff will be shared outside the UN Women Office and all documents provided to the consultant will be treated as confidential.

Competencies

N/A

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in one or more of the following disciplines: Journalism, social sciences, international development, communications and/or related field with at least 10 years of relevant work experience including in journalism, communications, public relations and /or writing and editing reports and other strategic documents for international organization OR Bachelor’s degree in the above field with 12 years’ relevant work experience;

• Demonstrated experience writing annual reports, donor reports, or other reports capturing programmatic results;
• Knowledge/understanding of the types of engagement that UN Women has in the Asia Pacific Region preferred;
• Previous work experience with international organizations is advantageous;
• Demonstrated capacity to communicate and facilitate information exchange with professionals in a multi-cultural context;
• Excellent communication and writing skills in English;
• Experience in producing corporate products is advantageous;
• Must be capable of effectively using MS Word and Excel.  

Working arrangements:

The consultancy is home-based, with communication through Zoom and e-mail interaction with UN Women Regional Office.

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Submission of application

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org  with -cc to salila.klongboonjit@unwomen.org , not later than 4 September 2020, 23:59 Bangkok time.

Submission package includes:

• Letter of Motivation
• Personal History Form(P11)
• Writing sample
• Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify the lump sum for each deliverable

Payments

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.