UN WOMEN Jobs - 60998- Development of Baseline Survey Consultancy Assignm

Development of Baseline Survey Consultancy Assignment

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

West Bank, Home Based (with Frequent Visits to UN Women’s Premises, as well as the Relevant Partners)., PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

16-Nov-2015

Application Deadline :

28-Oct-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Approximately 30 working days over a period of 3 months

Languages Required :

Arabic English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Approximately 30 working days over a period of 3 months

UNDP 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. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

The UN Women (UNW), 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. Placing women’s rights at the center 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.

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997. UN Women Palestine focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In support of this goal and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the Palestinian context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions toward the realization of following strategic goals: Engendering governance, peace and security; Supporting women's economic security and rights; and Promoting women’s rights and protection against violence.

In December 2006, UNDP and the Government of Spain signed a far-reaching agreement to establish a new fund to accelerate efforts to reach the Millennium Development Goals, and to support UN reform efforts at the country level. In 2007, the Millennium Development Goals Achievement Fund (MDG-F) was established by an agreement between the Government of Spain and the UNDP on behalf of the United Nations system. This was the largest development cooperation mechanisms designed to actively promote MDG achievement and inter-agency cooperation. In continuing their support of inter-agency cooperation aimed at MDG achievement, and based on the experience gained with the MDG-F, the Government of Spain and the UNDP have established a new Fund: the “Sustainable Development Goals Fund” (SDG-F). The SDG-F will intervene in a number of thematic areas and one of the thematic windows under the SDG-F is inclusive economic growth.

In the State of Palestine, UN Women has led the development of the joint programme (JP) “Creating a One-Stop-Shop for Sustainable Businesses” (OSS) in partnership with FAO and ITC, which is designed to contribute to fostering institutional and sustainable economic development through supporting women owned or run Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME’s) working in culture and agriculture industries. It aims at contributing to the achievement of MDG 1 (eradicating extreme poverty), MDG 3 (promoting gender equality and empowering women) and MDG 7 (ensuring environmental sustainability).

UN Women will work jointly with FAO and ITC in Palestine in collaboration with governmental institutions, local authorities, private sector, community based organizations and civil society at large. The programme relies on a participatory bottom-up approach to a) establish policies and practices for promoting and supporting MSME’s, b) creation of a one-stop-shop and two business shops to support cultural and agricultural MSME’s in developing and sustaining their businesses.

Consequently it is expected that at the end of the project cycle the JP will have achieved the following outcomes:

Public and private sectors have enhanced policies and practices for inclusive socio-economic development of women owned/run MSME’s and cooperatives;
Increased access and competiveness of women run MSME’s and cooperatives’ products in local, regional and international markets.

Within the programme framework, and to ensure a results-based management approach, UN Women and its partners established a monitoring and evaluation framework to assist in continuous results-monitoring of the programme and to ensure that the programme activities and inputs are producing the desired outputs. Moreover, the M&E Framework is intended to inform the programme team on how the programme contributes to the economic empowerment of women in the State of Palestine. A set of SMART performance measuring indicators were selected to facilitate the monitoring of the progress towards the programme desired results (outputs and outcomes). This assignment will establish baseline data for the PMI’s in addition to setting baseline data for proposed indicators linked to national priorities related to economic empowerment of women. Moreover, the Baseline Survey will generate analysis and recommendations related to impact of the programme on the MSME’s sector and will provide forecast analysis for future up-scaling of the programme.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of UN Women Special Representative in Palestine and the direct supervision of the OSS Programme Manager, and working in close cooperation and coordination with the Programme M&E Officer, the Baseline Survey Consultant will undertake the following duties and responsibilities

Meet with UN Women Programme Manager and team to fully understand the scope of the assignment and to become familiarized with the all aspects of the Programme including, but not limited to, its strategic interventions, stakeholders, and desired results;
Meet with all Implementing Partners and Responsible Parties to become familiar with their understanding of all aspects of the Programme;
Review all Programme documents and become familiar with the project strategies, main activities, and the results chain.
Review Secondary data and information to become familiarized with alignment of the Programme to national priorities and the SDG’s;
Review Programme proposed Monitoring and Evaluation framework, including the proposed Indicators at the Output and Outcome Level;
Propose SMART Indicators at the Impact level, linking the programme results with national goals related to economic empowerment of women and the SDG’s;
Propose new/amended PMI’s at the Output and Outcome level to improve the existing Programme M&E Framework.
Develop data collection tools for quantitative and qualitative data;
Develop an Inception Report detailing the methodology for the baseline survey and the proposed data collection tools (such as questionnaires) and methods (such as sampling). The Inception Report should also have a detailed workplan outlining the timeframe of all phases of the survey;
Recruit and train of additional field data collectors, if needed;
Take full responsibility of the field quantitative and qualitative data collection;
Analyze the data collected;
Prepare Draft Baseline Survey Report;
Prepare Final Baseline Survey Report.

Management of the Assignment

The consultant will report directly to the UN Women Programme Manager. A reference group will be established to ensure the quality of the work produced and to provide technical assistance to the assignment. The Reference Group will be comprised of Programme Implementing Partners and Responsible Parties and will review and validate the Inception Report (including the methodology for the survey) and the Baseline Survey Report. All deliverables will be considered final upon the approval of UN Women Programme Manager.

The Consultant will be responsible to facilitate all field work related to the assignment

Timeframe:

Three months;
The assignment is expected to start in Nov 2015 and to be finalized by January 2016.

Key Delivrables:

An Inception Report detailing proposed new/amended PMI’s at the output and outcome level and PMI’s at the goal/impact level; The Inception Report will detail the methodology including data collection tools (such as questionnaires) and methods and will provide a detailed workplan;
A PowerPoint Presentation of the Inception Report;
Delivering a presentation of the Inception Report to the Reference Group;
A Final Inception Report based on comments received by the Reference Group.

Final Baseline Survey Report:

A PowerPoint Presentation of the Draft Baseline Survey Report;
Delivering a presentation of the Baseline Survey Report for the Reference Group.

Final Report for the assignment incorporating comments from the Reference Group.

The Report shall include at a minimum:

Executive Summary;
Background Information summarizing the Programme, with details on its alignment with national priorities and the SDG’s
The methodology of the baseline survey;
Findings of the Baseline Survey (narrative and tabulated if applicable);
Analysis of the Findings; the analysis shall include forecast data related to future up-scaling of the programme and its effect on the MSME’s sector;
Recommendations;
Annexes – including all row data, developed tools, list of consulted stakeholders, etc.The Annexes will include an updated M&E Framework using UN Women Template highlighting PMI’s at the Impact/goal level, Outcome level and Output level.For each Indicator, the baseline will be highlighted together with data collection method and tool, source of data, frequency of data collection and responsible party for the data collection.

All deliverables must be submitted in English (except for the Questionnaires which should be in both Arabic and English) as Microsoft copies (word document, excel sheets, SPSS …etc.)

Competencies

Core Value/Guiding Principles:

Integrity:

Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity:

Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competetncies:

Ethics and Values:

Demonstrating / safeguarding ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring.

Initiative-taking; coaching and mentoring ability.

Working in Teams:

Acting as a team player and facilitating team work.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively.

Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:

Managing conflict.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

Learning and sharing knowledge and encouraging the learning of others.

Functional Competencies:

Sound knowledge of international standards on women economic security and rights and related instruments;
Ability to liaise with a variety of stakeholders and partners, including government and international organizations;
Strong analytical, dialogue, consultation and communication skills;
Maturity, ability to take decisions under pressure and ability to deal with matters that are politically and culturally sensitive.
Ability to work as a member of a team;
Demonstrated experience in timely delivering of quality products, including knowledge products, and in contributing to complex processes within the women’s protection area of work;
Demonstrated coordination, facilitation and presentation skills;
Results oriented, flexible and problem solving skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Advanced degree in Economics, Statistics, or other related development fields.

Experience:

Significant relevant experience of a minimum of 5 years in conducting surveys;
Working with information management, data collection, and analysis or similar;
Significant relevant experience in designing data collection and analysis tools; minimum 2 cases;
Significant relevant experience in gender-disaggregated data collection and analysis; minimum 1 case;
Extensive knowledge and understanding of the Palestinian socio-economic and political context is an asset;
Previous professional experience within the UN system or related field of work will be an asset.

Language:

Fluency (both oral and written) in English and Arabic.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted to provide a methodology of work, a workplan and a financial offer.

Applications should clearly show how do they meet the above mentioned criteria.