1. Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women (GEWE). A global champion for women and girls, it was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide[1].

The UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) addresses gender equality and women’s empowerment challenges in the Asia-Pacific region, including deeply embedded discriminatory social norms and practices that perpetuate inequalities based on gender and other intersectional identities (e.g. ethnicity, class, region, age, disability, migratory status, and sexual orientation and gender identity, among others). The Regional Office works across the following areas: Governance and Inter-governmental support (including on Gender Statistics); Women’s Economic Empowerment (including Migration, Ending Violence Against Women; Women, Peace and Security; Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction and Humanitarian Action. Covering 42 countries within Asia and the Pacific, it exercises its triple mandate and functions i.e. Normative, Coordination and high-quality programming at a regional level and in support of UN Women’s offices and UN Country Teams in 24 countries across the region. The UN Women Asia Pacific Regional Office also oversees and manages programming in programme presences.

In 2020 the Secretary-General warned that the COVID-19 pandemic is deepening already existing inequalities and is having devastating social and economic consequences for women and girls, threatening to reverse the limited but important progress made on gender equality and women’s rights. In a follow-up to the adoption of SDGs, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) and the UN Economic and Social Commission (ECOSOC) have made explicit the requirement of the UN system to a) invest more in GEWE within the  Development and  Humanitarian spheres through both stand-alone programming as well as mainstreaming of gender equality; and b) monitoring a transparent, harmonized and systemic manner the quality and scope of investment on GEWE, and the impact this has on the lives of the women and men, girls and boys. In 2018, the Secretary-General established a high-level task force on financing for gender equality to review and track UN budgets and expenditures across the system and a year later made the recommendation to continue mandatory monitoring of financial allocations to gender equality through the implementation of gender markers. Shortly after, the UNCT Gender Equality Marker (GEM) was introduced as a mandatory component of the UNCT Joint Work Plan.

As the global champion for GEWE, and given its mandate within the UNDS, which is to lead and coordinate the UN system’s work and promote accountability on gender equality, the UNCT GEM provides an opportunity for UN Women to support system-wide efforts by the UNDS towards advancing this agenda. Both the UNCT Joint Work Plan and UNCT GEM provide an opportunity to promote gender mainstreaming across UNSDCF implementation, monitoring, and reporting. The UNCT GEM also contributes to focused action on the promotion of GEWE by enabling increased understandings of financing trends and identification of needs and gaps.

For this to take place, it is critical to build the capacities of Resident Coordinator Offices, members of UNCT Results Groups, the M&E Group and the Gender Theme Group to provide strategic guidance and leadership in the development of the Joint Work Plan results chain and implementation of the UNCT GEM. Secondly, it is important that UNCTs understand the opportunities and strategies for mainstreaming GEWE issues, needs and priorities at different stages of the UNSDCF development, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation processes. This includes understanding how to apply existing UNCT accountability frameworks and tools such as the UNCT System-wide Action Plan (UNCT-SWAP) for Gender Equality Scorecard and the UNCT Gender Equality Marker (GEM) tools.

Objectives of the assignment:

The trainings will be covering the following components:

• Mainstreaming gender equality into the UNCT Joint Work Plan results chain.
• Development of gender-sensitive indicators to track UNCT progress towards gender equality results in the Joint Work Plan.
• Guidance on how to apply the four-point UNCT GEM coding scale and address common quality assurance issues.
• Opportunities for strengthening accountability using insights from UNCT GEM data in UN INFO.

2. Scope of Work:

The training content will combine both technical knowledge and skills required to effectively support UNCTs with the development and implementation of their UNCT Joint Work Plans and application of the mandatory UNCT GEM. The content will be informed by the broader on-going UN Reform agenda.

UN Women ROAP would therefore like to hire an international consultant on a retainer contract in the capacity of a trainer to train members of the UNCT from all 42 countries in Asia and the Pacific, UN Women country offices and other partners.

[1] UN Women website: http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us

3. Duties and responsibilities

Under the supervision and guidance of the Strategic Planning and Coordination Specialist, the consultant will undertake the following tasks:

1. Train participants based on the relevant UNCT GEM global helpdesk training manual/tools ensuring maximum participation of participants and the achievement of the objectives and expected results.
2. Work with the rapporteurs (if available)[1] and workshop organizing team to produce key summaries of sessions that will feed into daily recaps.
3. Produce the overall workshop/consultation report.
4. Propose changes in methodology and agenda during the consultation, if necessary, to ensure workshop objectives are met.
5. Convene daily meetings for planning the next day and discussing the lessons learned with the organizing committee.

4. Deliverables

1. Design pre-meeting survey for participants to give feedback with prior to the meeting in order for it to serve as a baseline.
2. Develop workshop content, interactive group/plenary exercises, and facilitation materials based on global training tools.
3. Deliver training and support effective moderation by facilitation team.

Produce summary report of the key issues and main points of action from the workshop for UN Women ROAP and UNCT GEM global helpdesk.

[1] In the event rapporteurs are not available the consultant will produce key summaries of the sessions that he or she is not moderating

5. 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

Functional Competencies

1. In-depth knowledge of gender equality and women's rights issues.
2. Demonstrated ability to produce clear reports and guidance with in-depth analysis and strategic recommendations in English in the relevant field.
3. Good communication and interpersonal skills, ability to foster networks and partnerships.
4. Ability to complete complex assignments in a timely manner and delivery quality results.

6. Required skills and experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in the field of Social Sciences, Gender Equality, Human Rights, Law or a closely related field.
• Relevant first level degree with over 12 years of relevant experience can be accepted in lieu of Master’s degree.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience in the development sector preferably in Women’s Rights and Gender Equality with solid training, facilitating and moderating abilities.
• Experience working at national and/or regional level on gender equality and women’s rights in the context of UNSDCF processes is an added advantage.
• Good knowledge and understanding of the UN System and the concept and application of Gender Equality Markers is required, experience in working with Gender Responsive Budgeting is an asset.
• Demonstrated experience in developing quality written training communication materials.

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in English is required.

7. Payments

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of the deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed.

8. Evaluation Criteria

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis:

1)            Technical qualification (100 points); weight: (70%)

2)            Financial proposal (100 points): weight (30%)

A two-stage procedure is utilized in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Only the candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% of total points will be considered as technically qualified candidates who will be further evaluation for financial assessment and may be contacted for validation interview.

Only shortlisted candidates will be requested to submit a copy of passport and a copy of the highest education certificate in English.

Applicants without the completed UN Women P-11 form as per the format to the link mentioned above will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

10. 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.)