Historique
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 between women and men 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, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment translate into action worldwide. It provides strong and coherent leadership supporting Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
Underpinned by UN Women’s mandate mentioned above, UN Women has been at the forefront of Gender-responsive procurement (GRP). GRP is a methodology to promote gender equality and empower women through gender-responsive measures at all stages of procurement and supply chain. Historically, the focus of gender-responsive procurement has been driving sourcing from women’s enterprises, particularly those identified as Women-Owned Businesses (WOBs) as per standard UN definition. The strategy draws on the practice of supplier diversity. To support this work, UN Women produced the Corporate Guide to Gender-Responsive Procurement in 2017 to help globalise the concept with attention to gender. It details elements of the business case for gender-responsive procurement and concrete steps companies can take to make sourcing strategic to benefit women’s enterprises. The Guide supported global advocacy on gender and procurement policy.
About forty UN Women country offices are doing some form of programmatic work on GRP to encourage and support better practices in the private and public sector and women entrepreneurs. UN Women is undertaking activities to improve its own procurement system to be more gender-responsive at the global level as well as in the regions and countries where we operate.
A consultant is sought to support and develop practical tools to track and implement gender-responsive operational procurement policies and practices as well as coordinate inter-agency work in which UN Women is engaged, including with the High-Level Committee on Management – Procurement Network (HLCM-PN) Task Force on GRP, which UN Women Procurement chairs.
Devoirs et responsabilités
The objective of the consultancy is to provide support and coordinate the work of enhancing the practice of gender-responsive procurement within UN Women and among UN agencies:
- Coordinate and support the preparation of GRP meetings, activities and training sessions to advance the GRP agenda within UN Women and the UN system, particularly through the HLCM-PN task force on GRP.
- Compile available data, research and evidence on the normative aspects of GRP, collect examples of good practices and case studies and share lessons learned with other organisations.
- Support and lead the development of the theory of change, UN system-wide strategy, UN model policy and a set of common indicators on gender-responsive procurement in the UN System, as well as assist in establishing GRP baselines and targets.
- Support and lead the development and roll-out of UN Women’s internal procedure on GRP, including associated practical tools to assist UN Women buyers with GRP implementation.
- Support and lead the development of GRP capacity-building offerings for UN procurement practitioners.
- Backstop UN Women’s Community of Practice on GRP for colleagues in procurement and operations, including developing a knowledge management system and hosting regular webinars and conference calls.
- Support and lead the development and management of GRP-related practical tools, knowledge materials and guidelines for dissemination among UN Women and UN agencies, such as toolkits on the application of gender-responsive criteria in solicitation documents and through the procurement cycle, tracking tool prototypes and indicators to determine procurement spend on women-owned enterprises and women vendors, enhanced tools for identifying women-owned businesses.
- Develop awareness-raising tools and concise guidance notes for women-owned businesses to understand UN procurement processes better.
- Provide input into other external guidance and advocacy materials on increasing GRP in public and private sectors undertaken by UN Women’s flagship programme on stimulating equal opportunity for women entrepreneurs.
- Support and lead the coordination of GRP initiatives within UN Women to harmonise the practices across the regions and country offices.
- Monitor the UN Women’s procurement statistics related to WOBs and gender-responsive suppliers.
- Guide and support country offices that are falling behind the target to increase the share of WOBs in UN Women procurement spending.
Compétences
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
Specific competencies
- Substantive knowledge and experience related to gender, enterprise development, business, and management with preference to candidates who have substantive knowledge of procurement in the UN, public or private sector;
- Strong communications skills, with proven expertise in writing compelling and convincing guidance tools, briefs and creating visually impactful presentations;
- Strong and proven research and analytical skills;
- Capacity to plan, prioritise and deliver tasks on time;
- Openness to change and ability to receive/integrate feedback.
Qualifications et expériences requises
Required Qualifications, Experience and skills:
- Master’s degree in business, public policy, law, economics, international development, social sciences, and/or related field required and advanced degree desired
- Specific training, certificate (e.g. CIPS certification) or diploma in supply chain, procurement and/or logistics will be positively considered
- A minimum of 5 years of relevant experience in areas relevant to women’s empowerment, entrepreneurship, sustainability and procurement.
- Proven exposure to complex procurement operations in multilateral/international organisations, and experience with development of tender documents, management of procurement processes, bid evaluation and contract management is an asset.
- Experience in designing and delivering procurement-related policies and methodologies for multilateral/international organisations;
- Demonstrated understanding of the role of public procurement as an accelerator to achieve the SDGs at country, regional and global levels;
Language:
Fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is desirable.