Background

UN Women is 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 center of all its efforts, the UN WOMEN will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In Kenya, the UN Women Country Programme contributes to the development objectives of Kenya’s blue print, the Vision 2030 and is aligned to the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF) of 2014-2018 and the upcoming UNDAF of 2018-2022, as well as UN Women Global Strategic Plan and has  over  the  years  supported  the   national  gender machinery to implement its mandate for the citizens of Kenya through technical and  financial   assistance  on  gender  equality  and  women's  empowerment initiatives.

In addition, and to mainstream gender and women’s empowerment within the Devolution governance system in Kenya, UN Women is a partner agency within the Kenya Devolution Support Programme whose results framework addresses key issues and builds on current interventions within the devolution process in Kenya. Three Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE) areas of interventions prevail i) Strengthened county-level planning & public financial management (PFM) systems support adoption and compliance to principles of Gender Responsive Budgeting; ii) Strengthened citizen participation systems to significantly increase participation of women in the planning and budgeting process including increased uptake of 30% procurement quota by women, youth, PWDs,  iii) Improved capacity at county level to manage human resources (HR) through strengthening gender advisory functions within inter-governmental platforms and delivery of capacity development.

UN Women therefore works with government (national and county) and non-governmental partners to help them put in place policies, laws, services, and resources that women require to move towards equality. To this end, UN Women in partnership with the Council of Governors has under the Letter of Agreement 2018/19 selected 10 focus counties (Kirinyaga, Kitui, Bomet, Turkana, Marsabit, Kakamega Baringo, Meru, Kisumu and Kilifi) based on criteria.

The County Governments are progressively appreciating the importance of the development process as guided by their CIDPs to be engendered and aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other key national processes and are keen to ensure their structures, systems, and workforce is fully engendered, and that their capacities reflect the Kenyan thresholds on gender. In light of the aforementioned, the 3 counties of  Bomet, Kirinyaga and Kitui have requested UN Women to provide them with Technical Assistance on GEWE through seconding of gender advisors to their counties.

The framework is through cost sharing between the county and UN Women. UN Women has indicated to the county the maximum contribution towards this consultancy per month.

It is in this context that UN Women in Kenya is seeking to recruit Gender Advisors to provide technical assistance on GEWE to the 3 counties of Bomet, Kirinyaga and Kitui.

The objective of the assignment to is to provide technical advice to the respective County Government ensuring strategic cross cutting advice on gender equality and women empowerment (GEWE) in leadership and women’s participation, devolved governance, women’s economic empowerment, Gender Based Violence (GBV) and women in peace and security.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the Governor of the respective county, and the direct day to day supervision of the CEC Public Service, the Gender Advisor will be responsible for providing strategic and technical advice to the County Government ensuring strategic cross cutting advice on GEWE.

Additionally, the Advisor will be expected to report to UN Women Country Director as the seconding agency, to ensure close collaboration and coordination. The on hands supervision of the Gender Advisor at UN Women will be the Team Leader-Democratic Governance. The advisor will also closely work with other stakeholders (e.g. Civil society, private sector and especially the women movement).  Within the UN Delivering as One Framework, the Gender Advisor is expected to contribute to the United Nations Development Framework results.

 Output – deliverables

The Consultant shall provide:

  • A monthly workplan outlining intended plan of activities to ensure delivery of the expected outcomes as per Section 3.0 (Scope of Work). The workplan should be approved by their designated superviser of the respective county;
  • A monthly report detailing the technical assistance provided to the respective county as per the pre-approved monthly workplan progress made and including results achieved at the end of assignment during the reporting period approved by the CEC Public Service and UN Women;
  • At least one piece of a written communication article on GEWE work in the county within the contract period;
  • One final report covering the whole contract period, signed off by the Head of Public Service and the County Governor, submitted to UN Women.

Competencies

Core Values and Ethics
• Demonstrate cultural sensitivity and able to work in a multi-national environment; 
• Support the Organization’s corporate goal;
• Comply with UN WOMEN rules, regulations and code of conduct;
• Demonstrate integrity.

Teamwork
• Build effective client relationships and partnerships;
• Interact with all levels of staff in the organization;
• Excellent interpersonal skills;
• Build and share knowledge;
• Provide guidance and support to others;
• Apply existing knowledge to work;
• Make valuable practice contributions.

Communication
• Excellent oral and written skills;
• Listen actively and respond effectively.

Task Management
• Plan, prioritize and deliver a variety of tasks on time;
• Exercise sound judgment/analysis;
• Develop creative solutions.

Learning
• Promote learning environment in the office;
• Provide constructive coaching and feedback for others.

Required Skills and Experience

Education 

Masters Degree in either Gender, Public Policy, Planning, Devolution and Local Governance, Public Finance, Economics, Law, Management, Statistics, and Social Sciences or a related field. A Bachelor degree in any of  the above mentioned fields in combination with demonstrable work experience  of at least 10 years in lieu of the masters degree will be accepted.

Experience 

  1. Demonstrable knowledge and experience on gender equality and women empowerment for at least 5 years;
  2. Demonstrable knowledge and experience in the devolution issues in Kenya;
  3. A minimum of   5 years of progressively responsible experience in development, focused on providing policy advice, technical  assistance and/or  programming  around  gender  equality,  women's  empowerment and women's rights issues;
  4. Demonstrable development/programming skills particularly on devolution, local governance and decentralisation;
  5. Skills in effectively facilitating policy dialogue, knowledge sharing events, meetings involving a variety of stakeholders from Government, civil society and development partners;
  6. Excellent organizational skills, ability to negotiate, influence decisions and moderate high-level meetings and discussions;
  7. Strong analytical, writing and presentation skills.

Language requirments 

Fluent in English language.