Antecedentes

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) was established by General Assembly Resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence with the mandate to assist Member States and the United Nations system to progress more effectively and efficiently toward the goal of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women. The 2018-2021 Strategic Plan, sets out the organization’s vision, mission and priorities in supporting Member States and the United Nations system. 

To ensure the implementation of its new 2018- 2021 Strategic Plan UN Women has committed to strengthening its capacity in donor reporting and building a culture of effective and efficient programme management. The UN Women Strategic Plan commits the organization to institutionalizing a strong culture of results-based management, reporting, knowledge management and evaluation, under the auspices of the United Nations Development Group programming principles of results-based management.

For all cost-sharing agreements, timely submission of quality donor reports is one of the main accountabilities UN Women has with respect to maintaining good relations with its donors based on transparency and efficiency. Donor confidence in UN Women’s ability to implement and report on projects not only affects future funding but is crucial in maintaining good relations with donors and building an internal knowledge base on UN Women project performance and best practices.

In 2016, UN Women decentralized the function of quality assurance of donor reports from Headquarters to the field offices. Since then, UN Women country representatives have primary accountability for quality and timely reporting to donors. In accordance to the organization’s guidance on donor reporting, donor reports must comply with several requirements including timely submission, results-based reporting, use of data and evidence, analysis of challenges and lessons-learned; clarity of language and financial reporting where required. Following the decentralization, the assessment of the quality of donor reports produced by the country offices has been largely reliant on feedback from donors, however the feedback has not been consistent enough to inform on best practices and capacity needs of the field offices to produce timely and quality donor reports. Hence the need for an overall quality assessment of UN Women donor reports to guide capacity building efforts on results reporting and identification of best practices on donor reporting.

Deberes y responsabilidades

The consultant will undertake the quality analysis for an agreed to sample of donor reports from 2018 covering HQ and all regions (Asia Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern and Southern Africa, Western and Central Africa; Eastern and Central Asia and Arab States). Guided by existing UN Women donor reporting quality metrics and guidance and corporate RBM standards the consultant will:

  • Propose a methodology of how to select a representative sample of 2018 donor reports per region and tier.  
  • Propose a methodology to assess the quality of donor reports produced in 2018 based on UN Women corporate requirements for the donor reporting: using RBM approach/languages; data and evidence based; reporting against SMART indicators to assess progress against expected results and resources; coherence between the narrative and financial report, appropriate use of photos and graphics, quotes, and/or personal stories etc.
  • Review the selected sample of donor reports produced by tier in 2018
  • Present the data from the review in a predetermined format that will enable its presentation in an online format (UN Women SharePoint platform);

Based on findings and recommendations from the assessment work with the Donor Reporting Focal Points in HQ and regional offices to develop a training module on Donor reporting

Competencias

  • Very good understanding of gender quality and women’s empowerment issues.
  • Strong background in reporting to donors, results-based management and donor relations.
  • Knowledge of UN programme and project management approaches and tools
  • Communications
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, including the ability to set out a coherent argument in presentations and group interactions;
  • Task Management
  • Proven ability to work under pressure and produce outputs that are accurate, timely and of high quality.
  • Ability to manage conflicting priorities with a good sense of when to act independently versus when to seek advice.
  • Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor own work plan.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

  • Advanced University Degree in social development, economics, business, philosophy, gender and development or other related fields.

Experience:

  • Minimum 7 years professional experience in development work in monitoring, reporting or knowledge management is required.
  • Experience in RBM is required, e.g., results-based reporting and evaluation; strengthening RBM capacity in a decentralized organization.
  • Previous work experience with UN, including UN Women, or other development agencies an asset.
  • Fluency in English and either French/Spanish.