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, 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.

Based on UN legislative mandates and the UNW Strategic Plan, the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) is tasked with providing strategic programme development, policy/ technical advisory services and quality assurance support to Multi-Country Offices (MCOs) and Country Offices (COs). It undertakes or coordinates regional research and data analysis; advises on norms, policies and strategies for achieving the internationally and regionally agreed goals related to gender equality and women’s empowerment issues. It acts as a knowledge hub at the regional level, collecting evidence on progress and emerging issues and sharing knowledge on innovative approaches and lessons learned in implementation.

UN Women’s work in humanitarian action is guided by global norms and standards. Building on findings of the inter-agency Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) review based on the Accountability Framework of the IASC’s Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Humanitarian Action Policy. The UN Economic and Social Council adopted resolutions E/RES/2012/3,1 E/RES/2013/62 and E/RES/2014/23 in 2012, 2013 and 2014, which recognize that humanitarian action can be strengthened by mainstreaming a gender perspective into all aspects of the humanitarian response. Similarly, the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in 2016 emphasized the centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) to humanitarian action.  Asia and the Pacific continue to be one of the regions most prone to the impacts of disasters, with 8 of 10 deadliest disasters worldwide in 2018. As the impact of climate and conflict continues in the region, there is an increasing recognition among UN Women country offices that the development and humanitarian challenges arising from the crisis must be met with accelerated action and enhanced capacity with the support of the regional office.

Women, girls, men and boys, in all their diversity, are disproportionately impacted by humanitarian emergencies, climate-related disasters, and fragile conditions. Gender inequality heightens exposure to risks, increases vulnerability, and restrains the capacity to anticipate, adapt and recover from crises and contribute meaningfully to resilience building. Taking the realities of gender and identity of all persons affected by a crisis into account in humanitarian action is essential to providing an effective response. An emergency context can provide new entry points to promote gender and social equality. Promoting GEWE in humanitarian action facilitates the right to participation, affords protection, increases access to assistance and enables transformative change for persons of all genders and ages.

UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) is seeking technical support from an international Consultant under a retainer contract to contribute to programme development, knowledge management, and coordination functions for the Humanitarian Action & Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Portfolio and targeted activities. The consultant will be integral in advancing UN Women’s deployable response capacity and serve as gender capacity to support UN’s coordinated responses in the region. The consultant will be able to support the expansion of the gender-responsive peace, development and humanitarian nexus programming portfolio through substantive engagement with a wide range of stakeholders in the triple nexus space. Further, advancing UN Women’s programmatic response in relation to addressing gender-based violence in emergencies and along the peace, development and humanitarian nexus will be another thematic focus area.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision and guidance of the Regional Advisor for Humanitarian Action, Disaster Risk Reduction, Climate Change, and/or humanitarian focal points in Country Offices as assigned, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

• Contribute technically to the development of programme strategies in the area of humanitarian action, peace, development and humanitarian nexus.
• Support the development of UN Women programming relating to preparedness and response for humanitarian emergencies, and climate-induced in the Asia-Pacific region, including providing dedicated research support, drafting of concept notes, project proposals and briefs.
• Provide substantive technical support to the implementation and management of humanitarian action at the regional and country level.
• Provide technical assistance and capacity development to project/programme partners for UN Women ROAP/MCOs/COs/PPOs to improve coordination on gender in humanitarian action, develop technical knowledge products, and identify further opportunities for capacity building of partners.
• Provide support to knowledge management, monitoring, and reporting. This includes preparation of briefs and talking points; preparation and finalization of knowledge resources, collection and analysis of data, and providing inputs to quarterly reporting.
• Provide technical support to inter-agency coordination on humanitarian action and DRR to achieve coherence and alignment of UN Women programmes with other partners.
• Provide substantive inputs to advocacy, knowledge building and communication efforts

Expected Deliverables

In consultation with the Regional Advisor for Humanitarian Action, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Climate Change, and/or humanitarian focal points in Country Offices, the consultant will produce on a retainer basis:

• Ad hoc technical advisory and capacity strengthening support, technical assistance, mentoring, training, cross-partner learning, and/or capacity development initiatives,
• Strategic input to the development, finalization, and presentation of key knowledge products such as analytical reports including collection and analysis of data, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, and correspondence on Humanitarian Action (as needed),
• Strategic input to workshops with stakeholders, including governments, civil society partners, UN agencies, and donors to document outcomes and lessons learned, and facilitation of workshops/meetings,
• Coordination of briefs capturing lessons learned, good practices, and challenges related to gender-responsive Humanitarian Action.
• Technical inputs to ROAP, along with MCOs/COs/PPOs, in the mobilization of resources for the implementation and continuation of gender and Humanitarian programmes.
• Support the analysis of gender equality and Humanitarian partnership landscape to ensure optimal strategic alliances for UN Women.

*Payment will be made upon submission of deliverables and approval of the Regional Advisor, Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction/humanitarian focal point from relevant M/Cos.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity (gender, religion, race, nationality, age sensitivity and adaptability)
• 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/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree in gender studies, human rights, international affairs, humanitarian action, disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, social science, public policy, and/or any relevant field directly related to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (a first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advance university degree).
• Minimum five years of progressively responsible, relevant work experience at the national or international level in the design, planning, implementation and/or monitoring of development and/or humanitarian action projects relating to gender equality.
• Technical experience in gender-responsive humanitarian action, with demonstrated experience coordinating with governments and civil society.
• Experience writing project proposals, donor reports, and policy briefs.
• Experience in humanitarian coordination is strongly desirable and working experience with UN Women or other United Nations agency an asset.
• Working experience in Asia-Pacific is strongly desirable.
• Knowledge of online communications platforms an advantage.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of other languages spoken in the Asia-Pacific region an asset.

1. Contract Period and Work Location

The consultant will be home-based, with the ability to maintain working hours compatible with Asia and the Pacific, and with potential travel to target countries as requested.

Reimbursement for travel, including DSA, will be provided in line with UN Women guidelines. The contract period is 12 months from December 2022 to November 2023.

Submission of application

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit an electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org  with salila.klongboonjit@unwomen.org in copy, not later than 25 November 2022, 23:59 hrs. Bangkok time. 

Submission package includes:

• Letter of Motivation 
• Personal History Form (P11) which can be downloaded from UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc (live.com)
• 2x writing samples, preferably in areas relating to gender, humanitarian action, or disaster risk reduction.
• Financial proposal: the financial proposal shall specify the daily professional fee in USD

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11).

If applying through the system, Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. So please consolidate your (all) required documents into 1 file prior to attachment.

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. Please merge all documents into one document to attach.

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.

UN Women does not warrant that the maximum number of working days will be purchased during the term of the Agreement.  The consultant can only be engaged through the issuance of ATLAS Purchase Order, based on the agreed Contract every time the UN Women wishes to procure the service.

UN Women Statement

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, 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.)