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 6 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 Centers 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 4 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 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 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.

Since 2019 till date, there have been a lot of success stories as well as limitations and as the first phase has come to an end, capturing of the success stories and gaps in documentary form is very vital for the resource mobilization upscaling and effective implementation of the second phase. It is against this backdrop that a consultant is to be recruited to provide a complementary documentary capturing the results of execution of the first phase of SCE project.

1. Objectives

Main objective:

The objective of this consultancy is to develop/draft  a series of 9 individual impact stories that showcase the impact of the SCE programme in participants’ lives across 7 regions which will be accompanied by a summary report that briefly outlines the main identified trends across the participants’ stories as well as by a 10-minute video documentary.

Specific objectives:

• Travel to all 9 sites in 7 regions where the programme has been implemented.
• Collect the relevant field data (audio recordings and high-quality photos) through in-depth interviews with SCE participants that capture the impact that the programme has had in their lives.
• Film on video the highlights from the impact stories of 9 participants
• Produce 9 high-quality written impact stories, one per participant and two per region, following UN Women’s template for impact stories that clearly showcase the impact that the programme has had on individuals
• Analyze and summary the main trends of transformative change identified across the 9 impact stories into written document following UN Women’s Brief template
• Produce a high-quality 10-minute documentary that brings together 9 of the impact stories

2. Key Deliverables: 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the UN Women SCE Programme Manager in collaboration with the UN Women M&E Staff, the consultant shall be responsible for:

• Carry out field mission in 9 project sites.
• Collect relevant field data (audio recordings and high-quality photos) through in-depth interviews with SCE participants that capture the impact that the program has had in their lives.
• Production of film on video that highlights impact stories of 9 participants.
• Production of  9 high-quality written impact stories, one per participant and two per region, following UN Women’s template for impact stories that clearly showcase the impact that the program has had on individuals
• Analyze and summarize  the main trends of transformative change identified across the 9 impact stories into written document following UN Women’s Brief template
• Produce a high-quality 10-minute documentary that brings together 9 of the impact stories.
• Development of a brochure and video that summarizes SCE project.
• Produce 9 high-quality written impact stories, one per participant and two per region, following UN Women’s template for impact stories that clearly showcase the impact that the program has had on individuals.

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
• Excellent video production skills, including post-production video editing skills
• Strong research and data analysis skills
• Ability to produce engaging, concise and easy to understand texts on complex issues
• Strong knowledge of women’s rights and gender equality issues
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment.
• Experience working in the UN or other international development organization is an asset
• Excellent photographic skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:   

Master's Degree in Communications, film-making, public relations or related field.

Experience:       

• Minimum 5 years of relevant experience in written and audiovisual Communications
• Strong demonstrable written communication skills producing written articles and stories;;
• Strong demonstrable audiovisual communications skills producing high-quality video products from scratch and including post-production video-editing
• Experience with women’s empowerment and gender equality in the areas of education or livelihoods is highly desired;
• Experience working in the area of education in humanitarian crisis and developing country contexts is an asset.

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

 NB: The consultant’s fees will be paid according to the official UN scale of consultant in Cameroon as follows at the deadlines specified above:   

5. 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.

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