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.

Of the 128.6 million people currently in need of humanitarian assistance, over three-quarters are women and children. Conflict and displacement affect women and girls differently from men and boys. Disruption to livelihoods, social protection, health, education and shelter caused by a crisis, worsen the situation for women and children in their care, leaving them food insecure and at risk of exploitation and abuse.

One particularly impact of crisis is the loss of opportunity for young women to gain an education.  Conversely, offering solutions to provide a second chance to secure an education, particularly where that education is appropriate, accessible and reflective of local labour market demand, can be among the most effective interventions to provide income, build resilience and support the transition to development. 

UN Women is further expanding and strengthening its humanitarian action and crisis response through its newly established Office for Humanitarian Action, Crisis Prevention Response in Geneva that consolidates and supports crisis and humanitarian work, including education and disaster risk reduction, preparedness, risk prevention and mitigation, at the global, regional and national levels.

Aligned with the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, UN Women’s Second Chance Education and Vocational Learning (SCE) Programme is a solution for those marginalized young girls and women who have missed out on education, offering pathways either back into formal education or to employment or entrepreneurship, through second chance education and vocational training.

The SCE Programme brings together public and private sector partners to: i) promote supportive multi-sectoral policy and financing frameworks to create an enabling environment to pilot and scale up successful SCE solutions; ii) address harmful and discriminatory social norms that keep girls and young women out of education; iii) provide high quality content; iv) tailor educational opportunities directly to the local labour market to increase the value of education and create a pipeline of educated your women ready to transition to employment.

Under the direct supervision of the Chief of Crisis Prevention, Preparedness and Response, the Consultant will be responsible to finalize SCE programme, support the implementation of the inception phase of the SCE programme and provide support in humanitarian programming.

Lead the set up of the Second Chance Education Programme (SCE)  

• Support the development of global and country level programme work plan
• Manage the establishment of the SCE web platform, overseeing the identification of content and gaps in content as well as its integration to SCE web portal
• Manage the creation of relevant learning and career pathways for different target populations
• Oversee literature review for Second Chance Education for marginalized and displaced young women and girls
• Establish and formalize partnerships with private sector, e-learning platforms, research and education institutions on external content
• Identify online and off line solutions for using the SCE web platform in medium and low connectivity locations
• Prepare and present work-plans, periodic narrative progress reports and expenditures status reports as necessary
• Establish systems for project planning, implementation and monitoring in collaboration with partners
• Record and maintain documents on relevant programme activities, issues, and risks

Provide technical support on Humanitarian Action:

• Support the Office work on extending programmatic and operational support to crisis countries to design and operationalize the LEAP in Crisis Response and provide implementation support for Crisis Preparedness, Prevention and Response
• Provide technical expertise and develop capacity and tools on gender analysis and humanitarian action to inform multi-sectoral humanitarian/crisis response planning and programming
• Liaise and establish partnerships with key stakeholders and provide technical advice and support to strengthen National, UN & aid coordination mechanisms

Manage the coordination with country offices, partners and other stakeholders

• Development of methodologies for SCE needs assessments
• Manage and facilitate country needs assessments and consultations that will inform the finalization of the programme document
• Manage relationships with implementing partners to support implementation of the SCE Programme, raise potential problems and provide solutions
• Provide substantial guidance on establishment of performance indicators, and monitoring achievement of results
• Provide support to country offices in preparation and roll out of the programme

Key Performance Indicators:

The key results have a major impact on the overall prototyping and piloting of UN Women Virtual Skills School and Second Chance Education Programme.

• Finalization of the SCE programme document and related country level programme plans
• SCE web platform roadmap developed
• UN Women and partner learning content integrated in the SCE web portal  
• Needs assessment methodology developed and rolled out at country level
• SCE capacity development package for partners developed

• Quality and timely reporting
• Excellent relations with partners and stakeholders
• Regular and timely monitoring of activities 
• Enhanced best practices and lessons learned documented and circulated

Core values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

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: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent technical knowledge of humanitarian action and education and learning methodologies
• Strong understanding and experience with gender equality programming
• Excellent programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Strong communication skills
• Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities
• Capable of handling large volumes of work under time constraint
• Ability to establish, build and sustain effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective; anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly
• Ability to lead the development of detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them for development results
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports in order to inform management and strategic decision-making