Background

The UN Women Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) exercises UN Women's functions at a regional level and in support of UN Women’s engagement in 17 countries across the region. Drawing from UN Women’s triple mandate, ROAS promotes the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of women through active engagement in all five outcome areas of the UN Women Global Strategic Plan (2018-2021). ROAS engages with several regional and global inter-governmental processes in ensuring gender equality is an integral part of norms and standards and promotes women’s full participation and leadership in policy processes and gender-responsive governance systems, including gender statistics.  ROAS aims to advance supportive regulatory frameworks for promoting decent work and enterprise development, including for women migrant workers; and promotes private sector engagement and Women’s Empowerment Principles. Focusing on the prevention and response as the main areas, ROAS works to eliminate violence against women.  ROAS’s programming takes a gender-responsive approach to the prevention of violent extremism and supports the integration of gender considerations into humanitarian action.

The Monitoring and Reporting Pillar plays a central role in assisting ROAS’s monitoring of the Strategic Note/Annual Work Plan and the ROAS senior management’s oversight of the performance of the Regional Office and Country Offices. The Monitoring and Reporting Pillar also leads various reporting exercises of the RO as well as providing quality assurance for quarterly online monitoring systems (via the Results Monitoring System - RMS), annual reports, and donor reports of the region.

Under the overall supervision of the Coordination Specialist (P4), the Monitoring and Reporting Consultant assists the ROAS management in providing technical support and oversight for the monitoring and reporting functions of the RE and of Country Offices.  She/he works in close collaboration with the programme and operations team at the RO, Field Offices, and UN Women HQ staff.     

This assignment is home-based and part-time (15 working days per calendar month). 

Duties and Responsibilities

Support the results-based management (RBM) function of the Regional/Country Offices:

• Provide technical support for ROAS and COs in using RMS for monitoring and reporting purposes and make follow-ups with relevant staff and offices for timely completion of RMS reporting, where necessary.
• Organize monthly capacity-building webinars on RBM specific topics to strengthen ROAS and field offices’ RBM and reporting capacity.
• Provide technical input in formulating indicators for ROAS and CO new Strategic Notes as required and projects for RO and CO colleagues through reviews of draft SN/AWPs (if available), project documents/PMFs.
• Offer technical advice to relevant colleagues in collecting baselines, targets and sources as may be necessary.
• Problem-shoot for navigation of the RMS for colleagues in the RO and COs.

Provide technical support in the reporting function of the Regional/Country Offices:

• Coordinate and lead the 2020 annual reporting process, including quality assurance for country office level reports.
• Engage with ROAS / Tier II office personnel to discuss inputs required for high-quality reports and support them to develop their capacity in this regard as required.
• Review donor reports of ROAS/Tier II Offices to assist in finalizing them by liaising with submitting offices to ensure accuracy and consistency and an emphasis on bringing UN Women’s results to the fore, as well as compliance with the requirements of the donor agreements.   
• Lead on the compilation of inputs to all corporate reporting exercises as requested by HQ as well as the top results by COs on a quarterly basis.

Contribute to programmatic quality assurance support, knowledge management and capacity building

• Identify and disseminate good practices, lessons, and knowledge, as identified through programme monitoring and reporting activities.
• Support the capacity-development of ROAS and country office personnel on RBM, including through the provision of monthly donor reporting clinics. Provide programmatic quality assurance support and monitor compliance through regular business processes:
• Provide support to the Regional Committee for Partner Assessments (RPAC).
• Review and approve entries of reports in Donor Agreement Management System (DAMS). Guide offices in making amendments as necessary.
• Provide technical support in knowledge management initiatives, briefings to ROAS management on key results etc. as required.

Perform other duties as requested.

Competencies

Core Values

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

Core Competencies

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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Functional Competencies

•  Strong knowledge of general gender equity and women’s empowerment issues in the Arab States region;
• Very strong knowledge of UN system and understanding of rules and regulations.
• Ability to contribute the formulation, implementation, monitoring and reporting of development programmes and projects
• Knowledge and skills of Results Based Management
• Good interpersonal skills
• Ability to work independently
• Very strong oral and written communication skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in international relations, development studies, public administration, gender or other social science field;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience at the national and/or international level in planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of programmes.
• Experience in the  field of gender and human rights of women is a significant advantage
• Prior experience in the UN System will be an asset, particularly in the Arab States region

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in written and spoken English is required. 

Evaluation Criteria:

Individual consultants will be evaluated based on the following methodology: Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for the financial evaluation.

Criteria Weight Technical: 70% (70 points)

Financial: Lowest Financial Proposal: 30% (30 points)

The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula:

• Contract will be awarded to the technically qualified consultant who obtains the highest combined score (financial and technical);
• The points for the Financial Proposal will be allocated as per the following formula: (Lowest Bid Offered*)/ (Bid of the Consultant) x 30;
• 'Lowest Bid Offered' refers to the lowest price offered by Offerors scoring at least 49 points in the technical evaluation.

Application:

Interested Individual Consultants must submit the following documents/information to demonstrate their qualifications:

• A cover letter with a brief presentation of your consultancy explaining your suitability for the work and link to the portfolio of work;
• UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
•  Personal CV; and Financial proposal; Proposed inclusive daily rate.

The above-mentioned documents should be merged in a standalone file including all them since the online application submission does only permit to upload one file per application. Incomplete submission can be a ground for disqualification.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW, and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.