Background

UN Women Zimbabwe, the African Union and the Embassy of Ireland in South Africa have been supporting the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) Zimbabwe Chapter since its launch in February 2020. AWLN is an “action-oriented initiative that seeks to enhance the leadership of African women in bringing transformative changes focusing on peace, security and development in the continent.” The aim of the National Chapter of the AWLN in Zimbabwe is to create a network of a diverse group of women who can work together to hold leaders accountable to commitments for gender equality and support each other in their work on women, peace and security and women in governance. The first phase of the project will end in May 2021.   

 

Following its launch under the theme ‘Peace and Social Cohesion for Zimbabwe’s Sustainable Development’ and inception, the AWLN Zimbabwe Chapter carried out a number of key activities, linked to its mandate, on women’ leadership, the building of peace and the increased involvement of women within key processes linked to national development. Regional and international engagements involving members of the Chapter’s Senior Steering and National Youth Caucus Steering committees saw the Network tapping into broader processes aimed at advancing frameworks on women’s rights such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for action.  Commemorative events, such as those carried out for the 20th Anniversary of the UN Resolution on Women Peace and Security, UNSCR1325, also had some notable outcomes for the Chapter.  At the end of 2020, the Chapter participated in a continental intergenerational retreat, as one of five countries selected to share national experiences.

 

It is vital that the activities, progress, and achievements of the AWLN Zimbabwe Chapter are tracked, monitored as well as evaluated for the Network to effectively plan and carry out its mandate going forward.  To this end the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) seeks to engage a consultant with expertise in monitoring and evaluation and good knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, to support the Country Office to conduct a Mid Term - Project Assessment of the implementation of the African Women Leaders Network Initiative from 2020 – 2021 through tracking of results and indicators and to produce a quality report to be shared with stakeholders.

Duties and Responsibilities

Working under the guidance of UN Women AWLN Technical team and Monitoring and Evaluation staff, the national consultant will be expected to conduct an assessment of the work undertaken by the African Women Leaders Network Initiative in 2020-21. The purpose is to evaluate progress made and develop an understanding of the extent to which the Chapter has effectively achieved planned outcomes within its mandate, and mitigated negative externalities. The process will serve as key in assessment of results based on articulated indicators. The end-result will be the development of a quality mid-term evaluation report to be shared with stakeholders supporting the initiative.

 

Specific tasks:

  • Conduct desk review of documents and reports developed on the AWLN Initiative in Zimbabwe.
  • Drafting and presentation of mid-term evaluation report and development of data collection tools and instruments
  • Data collection including presentation and validation of evaluation findings to stakeholders.
  • Analysis of findings, preparation of the draft report to share with UN Women and stakeholders
  • Incorporation of feedback and comments from UN Women and stakeholders
  • Document success stories and lessons learned from implementing the African Women Leaders Network Initiative in Zimbabwe
  • Finalize the report and present the findings
  • Identify actionable solutions/recommendations to improve implementation by the African Women Leaders Network

 

Deliverables:

The consultant is expected to deliver the following;

  • Deliverable 1: Present and discuss an inception report which responds to the scope of work with a methodology, data collection instruments, and detailed work plan.
  • Deliverable 2: First draft report to UN Women. The Draft report (25 pages max excluding annexes) which should be delivered within the agreed timeframe in the work plan to allow discussion of the findings and formulation of recommendations.
  • Deliverable 3: Submission of second draft report incorporating feedback from UN Women and other stakeholders who participated in the project
  • Deliverable 4: Production of final report incorporating comments from stakeholders. Final report (25 pages max excluding annexes)

 Time frame: The consultant should complete all above-mentioned deliverables except the inception report, 3 weeks after the commencement of the consultancy).

 

DURATION OF ASSIGNMENT AND DUTY STATION:

The assignment is home-based. The contract duration is tentatively from 12 April to 31 May 2021.

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

 

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Masters degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, gender, Governance and peace building, development or other social science fields.

 

Experience:

  • A minimum of 8-10 years of experience in the field of Monitoring, Evaluation, Gender and Reporting at the national and/or international level.
  • Experience in statistical training and related M&E activities in developing countries is required;
  • Strong technical expertise in the drafting of research based reports
  • Experience in data processing, data quality assessment and data analysis.
  • Familiarity with UN Women’s mandate and related work in the Africa 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 have to support your interest;

Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment.

 

UNWOMEN is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence

 

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment and candidates are advised to upload all requested documentation as one attachment.