Background

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.

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 women who have missed out on education. This project aims to develop context specific, affordable and scalable learning, entrepreneurship and employment pathways for empowering the most disadvantaged women and young women. It offers women and young women, their families, local communities and societies the benefits of access to educational services which are tailored not only to their needs as learners, but also to their future as earners. The SCE Programme achieves this by leveraging the opportunities of innovative teaching approaches, digital technologies and social networks.  Piloted in six countries (Cameroon, Jordan, India, Mexico, Chile and Australia) with main objective being to ensure that marginalized women and young women who are at risk of being left behind have access to, participate in and achieve quality learning, entrepreneurship, and employment outcomes through second chance education and vocational training.

The SCE Programme is delivered through two modalities: Face-to-face training in the MINPROFF’s Women Empowerment Centres and an online SCE learning portal through blended and independent learning opportunities. In its first phase, the Programme was piloted in three regions (Far North, East, Adamawa) specifically in five project sites (Mora, Mokolo, Minawao, Bertoua, and Ngam) and later extended to four more Regions (Northwest, Southwest, Littoral and Center). Launched in Cameroon since 2019 the program has built strong strategic partnerships which has greatly contributed to the realization of the expected results and reaching the target of 12,000 beneficiaries.

The program targets women and girls who are refugees, IDPs and vulnerable women from host communities who are school dropouts and located in the conflict affected areas. The needs assessment conducted before the start of project guided the selection of sites, beneficiaries as well as activities which are con textualized based on each project site. Following the programs three pathways which are: Re-entry into formal education; Vocational education that provides them with a pathway to employment; Entrepreneurship training and skills that support them to start their own business, beneficiaries have thus been able to pass through these pathways which enabled them access quality/competitive learning materials and linked them with meaningful employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. Following beneficiaries’ choices, both short term and long-term trainings have been offered, and since the program is delivered in contexts that have limited employment opportunities, upon completion of training beneficiaries are provided with start-up kits which enable them to become autonomous and start their own businesses. A total of number of 23,276 followed Self-employment/ entrepreneurship pathway (3,888), Employment/Vocational Skills pathway (3,888) and Life Skills/Basic skills (including digital skills) pathway (15,500). Activities include among others animal husbandry, petty trade, ITC, tailoring and crop farming.

The SCE Program started globally in 2019 and as pilot phase in six countries and it’s now in its fifth and final year. This pilot phase of the Program is coming to an end by the 31st of December 2023 and the demand for this program continue to remain high as the ongoing socio-political crisis in the country continue to increase the school dropout rate for women and girls while exposing them to more vulnerable situations. Moreover, both the SCE mid-term review and a test of the SCE program design against current research on innovation and scale up models confirm that SCE are a clear example of an innovation for scale done right. It is against this backdrop thus that a resource mobilization expert is required to mobilize additional resources to support Phase 2 (scale-up) of the SCE Program for the period 2024 – 2027 to couple the global fund raising efforts

Objectives

Main objective:

The objective of this consultancy is to mobilize resources for the implementation of the 2nd phase of the SCE Program.

Specific objectives:

• Undertake donor mapping by researching, identifying, and exploring funding opportunities from European and other international government donors, philanthropic foundations, and other global/multilateral agencies.
• Draft the Resource Mobilization and Partnership Strategy 2024-2027 for SCE Program following the review of key relevant documents, and discussions with programme staff.

• Production of action plans for Proposals development to donors.
• Develop targeted products and initiatives to mobilize programmatic resources and attract additional fundings.
• Establish concrete partnerships.

Methodology

• Desk Review of relevant project documents
• Field visits to project sites
• Virtual and face to face interviews project stakeholders

Key Deliverables

Duties and Responsibilities

• Map and provide regular updates on donor profiles, databases (e.g. contacts management) and donor intelligence;
• Identify opportunities and  secure additional non-core resources for SCE project.
• Conduct a comprehensive analysis of potential donors worldwide based on geographic and donors' strategic areas of interest and explore opportunities for partnerships from emerging donors.
• Develop country-level Resource Mobilisation (RM) strategy for SCE project.
• Develop strategic partnerships strategies.
• Draft master fundraising proposal(s) aligned with the SCE Pathways

Competencies

A.Core Values

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

B.Core Competencies

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

C.Functional Competencies

• Excellent written communications skills in English
• Proven networking skills, and ability to mobilize support on behalf of UN Women.
• Good negotiating skills.
• Knowledge and understanding of UN system and familiarity with inter-governmental processes.
• Strong IT skills, including databases, extranet and office software packages.
• Strong analytical and interpersonal skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification

• Master's Degree or equivalent in economics, business management, social sciences, public administration, international relations, communications, women's studies, or a related field is required.

Experiences

• At least 10 years of experience at a national or international level in resource mobilization, communications/ advocacy, and/or business development.
• Experience in gender equality and women's empowerment considered an asset.
• Experience working with civil society organizations, international institutions and donors considered an asset.
• Experience working in the UN system is an asset.
• At least ten years of experience, demonstrating significant results in the field of resource mobilization, including development of strategies and action plans.
• Proven experience and results related to mobilizing resources from both traditional UN sources and non-traditional sources such as the private sector.
• Knowledge of current terrain of financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment in developing and fragile context in particular in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Significant experience in communicating with donors.
• Experience with UN system operations and management of donor relations.
• Knowledge of UN Women Vision, Mission, and Strategic goals.

Language Requirements     

• Fluency in English.
• Working knowledge in French is an asset:
• This consultancy will be based in Yaoundé with travel to project execution sites.

Schedule of Payments

• The consultant will be paid upon submission and the acceptance of the deliverables on a monthly basis in accordance with the UN monthly Rate.

Recommended Application

The following documents should be submitted:

1. Personal CV and P11 (UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment)
2. Technical offer with Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment, and a methodology on how they will approach and complete the assignment.

IMPORTANT

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Evaluation process

Candidates will be evaluated taking into consideration the combination of qualifications and technical proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultant whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

1. Responsive/compliant/acceptable, and
2. Having received the highest score out of below defined technical criteria.