Background

UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. 

The Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) covers 17 countries in the Arab States region with a focus on advancing women rights and empowerment in the economic, political, peace, and security spheres, including by addressing all forms of discrimination and violence against women, with a strong emphasis on advancing accountabilities, data, evidence, and knowledge to support partners in accelerating results defined in globally agreed standards, including the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

The ROAS is guided by its Strategic Note, which is currently being finalized for 2022-25, with a concrete regional strategy covering the above focus areas. A significant element of the new Strategic Note is an enhanced approach to data through analysis and monitoring of trends, results, and the identification as well as management of solution levers.

Objective of the Assignment:

It is in this regard that UN Women is looking to hire an independent consultant to support the establishment of a regional online dashboard including through the development of a regional data and results management approach for the region, to galvanize regional trend analysis and the identification of solution levers that can lead to positive changes and greater results for women and girls in the Arab States, with a focus on UN Women’s areas of focus, particularly, but not limited to Women’s Economic Empowerment.

The consultant will report to the Deputy Regional Director and work in close consultation with programme and policy leads in the regional offices, as well as relevant actors in UN Women country offices and headquarters. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Support the establishment of a regional online dashboard to allow for the identification of regional trends, and solution levers that can lead to changes in results for women and girls in the Arab States, through delivering the following products:

• Define a concrete plan to monitor regional indicators (trends and organizational results) and solution levers as part of data collection and results management, including the identification of key sources of data to be used to populate and update the dashboard;
• Conduct a review of existing knowledge-sharing platforms for the region to better define linkages, gaps/ needs to capture in the regional dashboard;
• Design a regional dashboard/knowledge hub in close collaboration with IT;
• Develop a costed data and results management action plan to position UN Women RO as a regional knowledge hub in support of regional strategic outcomes, for the period of the ROAS Strategic Note 2022-25, with a concrete initiation phase to be taken forward by the consultant in Q1 and concrete approaches to identify, coordinate and manage good practices to inform country-level results;
• Liaise with policy and programme staff and relevant actors in UN Women country offices and headquarters to understand data and results management needs;
• Review data and results management needs based on consultations and demand from external partners;
• Support implementation of activities in the initiation phase, as per timelines expected under deliverables below.

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

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent strategic planning, goal-setting, and prioritization skills;
• Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision;
• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Strong data analysis and visualization skills including advanced skills in the use of IT tools;
• Strong interpersonal  skills;
• Strong writing and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Masters degree in social sciences, international development, or another relevant field;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• A minimum of 10 years work experience carrying out research and/or driving data and statistics, and examining analysis in a development policy and/or research context;
• Experience in statistics and indicators, as well as administrative data and data systems;
• Proven track record of conducting a comprehensive and systematic analysis of data, including data trends, outliers, and patterns;
• Experience in developing data/knowledge products, preferably online is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language an asset.

Evaluation Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application:

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work and link to the portfolio of work;
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily rate.

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all of them since the online application submission does only permit uploading one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

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.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits employ, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity, and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)