UN WOMEN Jobs - 84641- International Consultant

International Consultant

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Addis Ababa, ETHIOPIA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

24-Apr-2019

Application Deadline :

19-Apr-19 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

International Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

40 days with in the duration of two months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

40 days with in the duration of two months

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Gender equality and women’s right are fundamental human rights recognized through various international instruments, including the Universal Declaration of Human Right. Among the many commitments made to bring gender equality and women rights, gender mainstreaming is outlined as a prior instrument to ensure equality in political, social and economic sphere. Understanding this, the Government of Ethiopia committed to mainstreaming gender in various sectors policy and programs. Still now, women and men in Ethiopia are affected by the existing policies and interventions differently. Gender audit is an important tool in ensuring gender is well mainstreamed in all areas and at all levels. Gender audit evaluate the status of gender equality through assessing organizational policies, programs, and budget allocations. It mainly considers the internal practices and environments for effective gender equality practice. Though gender audit is done by internal and/or external professionals, it is one of the self-assessment gender mainstreaming tools. It enhances the capacity of an organization and its projects by examining its qualitative and quantitative information from a gender perspective.

The budget, as an important component in the gender audit process, is an instrument that lead towards economic and social development. In line with managing the government budget, financial audit is concerned with budgetary records of an institution “emphasizing whether the records have been properly entered and adhere to

prescribed accounting principles and standards.” Linking this principle with gender audit, gender focused financial audit helps to understand if whether or not allocated budget for gender related interventions is utilized in accordance with its plan. Another component in the budget management process is performance audit. Performance audit is an “audit of economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which a government organization, a program, a project, an activity or a function uses its resources in carrying out its responsibilities.” Putting clear indicators of gender in performance audit helps to monitor and evaluate activities on the ground with an ultimate objective of improving efficiency and effectiveness of programmes/projects with interventions that promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The practice of budget allocation and spending (tracked mainly through both financial and performance auditing) in an organization shows the level of understanding and commitment on gender issues. Considering gender audit in the budget process it is necessary to ensure gender equality. Furthermore, auditing in a gender lens helps to establish a baseline, identify gaps and barriers as well as provide recommendations for innovative gender responsive implementation in the future; Secondly, it is a disciplinary mechanism, which direct budget planning and implementing strategy to reflect gender sensitive and responsive components; Thirdly, by showing situational gender dynamics, it ultimately conveys gender responsive budgeting system by ensuring allocation of adequate funds for achieving gender equality commitments.

The promotion of gender equality and women empowerment in sectors strategic plan and program is fundamental to ensure the promotion of human right and equality. Undertaking gender audit is therefore an effective method to achieve organizational goal. In Ethiopia the Government body mandated to audit budgetary institutions is Office of the Audit General.

The Office of the Federal Auditor General Ethiopia (OFAG) audits 165 public bodies, guided by audit manual and guideline and international standards. It has a mandate to carry out financial and performance audit and report findings on their achievement. According to the gender gap analysis of the Public Finance Management conducted by Ministry of Finance (MoF) and UN Women, gender issues are neither reflected in the audit guidelines nor in the reporting template and so are not reported. Despite a past attempt to carry out a performance audit on gender issues, they are not adequately covered.

For this reason, UN Women Ethiopia discussed with OFAG about the need to recruit a consultant from the region to develop a context-based Gender Audit training manual and to provide Training using the manual developed.

Duties and Responsibilities

Assess the existing auditing process of OFAG from gender perspective through primary and secondary data collection;
Review the audit manual and reporting template from gender perspective including assessing regional and global gender performance audit good practices
Produce contextualized Gender Audit manual, and indicators with guidance on how to conduct gender audit of sectors in terms of promoting women empowerment and gender equality by taking learnings from the good practices at regional and global level;
Produce gender audit training manual
Conduct training using the training manual and produce training report

Competencies

Functional Competencies
Strong interpersonal, teamwork and communication skills
Ability to be creative and work independently and proactively
Ability to develop new system and provide policy advice
Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills in English
Capacity to plan and deliver on the assignment timely and with excellent quality
focusing on impact and result and responding positively to feedback
Capacity to engage with various stakeholders, including government institutions and development partners
Ability to research and analyze the context and develop practical budget tracking tool

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree in auditing, economics, business administration and Social Science Studies with strong background in gender and auditing

Experience:

At least 10 years of professional experience on auditing, economics, business administration, social science at regional and/or country level
Comprehensive and documented knowledge of issues related to gender and audit with in Africa
Knowledge of training methods and techniques
Proven experience on presentation, training and facilitation skills for top government officials
Skilled in identifying the gaps of trainees during the training

Language Requirements: English