Consultants to conduct Midterm Review and Revision of UN Women East and Southern Africa Regional Office Strategic Note (2018 ? 2021) at UN Women

Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) was established by the General Assembly resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence, with the mandate to assist countries and the United Nations system itself to progress more effectively and efficiently towards the goal of achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment and upholding women’s rights. The Strategic Plan developed pursuant to paragraph 77 of resolution 64/2892 is the first such plan created by UN Women.

The mission statement of UN Women was set out in the proposal of the Secretary-General as follows: “Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the composite entity will work 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 composite entity 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.”

UN Women’s East and Southern Africa Regional Office’s Strategic Note 2018-2021 (SN) articulates the entity’s strategic direction, objectives and approaches to support efforts to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, including women’s full enjoyment of their human rights. It outlines how UN-Women will leverage its normative support functions, UN system coordination and operational activities, as mandated by its founding resolution, in an integrated and mutually reinforcing manner in support of transformative results. The SN also contributes to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, as well as Regional level commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment such as the AU 2063 Agenda, and it captures UN Women’s key contribution to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through its Integrated Results and Resources Framework (IRRF). The SN was approved by the office of the Executive Director of UN Women in 2017.

The first year of the SN, 2018, has been a year of profound change for the UN system. UN Women has been fully engaged in ongoing reforms, especially the repositioning of the UN development system (UNDS) and other reforms which provided an opportunity for UN Women to engage with a view to further strengthening system-wide accountability and action for gender equality. Repositioning is therefore central in order for UN Women to deliver on its mandate within the context of the UNDS. These ongoing changes also considers lessons learned for UN Women’s operations now after 10 years of its formation as well as recommendations from recent evaluations, audits and external assessments, including the 2018 Multilateral Organization Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN) assessment. In particular, the MOPAN assessment identified key strengths as well as some areas for improvement and/or risks, such as limited staffing and resources capacity at country level, unclear criteria for country presence, variability with implementation of the UN coordination role at country level, and a lack of clear criteria for resource allocation to strategic priorities. Programmatic focus as well as better delivery through partnerships, including with UN system, are also areas that require attention.

ESARO’s operation is also guided by the Africa Strategy that was developed after the launch of the SN. It is derived from the UN Women Global Strategic Plan 2018-2021 and is aligned to the AU Agenda 2063 and the Global Agenda 2030.

Under UN Women’s policies and procedures in relation to programme management, a Mid-Term Review (MTR) is mandatory for programmes of at least three years duration. This MTR will take place in a particularly symbolic timeframe in 2020 the year of the 25th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; five years of implementing the 2030 Agenda; 20 years of Security Council resolution 1325; and ten years of UN-Women. These anniversaries provide an opportunity to galvanize support for gender equality and women’s empowerment and provide opportunities for faster and more sustainable progress.

The MTR provides an opportunity to review performance and make adjustments to the strategic direction of UN Women ESARO to inform the implementation of the SN in 2020 and 2021, as well as feed into the development of the next SN.

Purpose And Use Of The Mid-Term Review

The MTR will enable ESARO to further adapt its strategic direction, programming and business processes in light of an analysis of performance to date; the repositioning of the UNDS; lessons learned from the implementation of the SN; and UN-Women’s change management process.

By assessing progress of the implementation of the SN to date and identify key lessons learned, the MTR gives UN Women an opportunity to recalibrate its SN as needed, including its Integrated Results and Resources Framework (IRRF). The MTR will be followed by and feed into the SN evaluation process to be conducted by the Independent Evaluation Services (IES). The MTR will also set the stage for ESARO’s direction in 2022-2025.

The following are the specific objectives/scope work of this MTR:

• To interrogate the SN’s Theory of Change;
• To Assess relevance and effectiveness of Regional level interventions and programmes;
• To Assess effectiveness of Regional Office functions and services including oversight mechanisms;
• To assess the quality of partnerships with both implementing and technical partners.
• Assess the implications of UN Development System reforms and other key developments, such as lessons and recommendations generated through the Beijing +25 review process, to ESARO’s strategy and implementation modalities, and propose necessary adjustments;
• Assess how and in what areas UN Women ESARO’s programmatic focus needs to be further improved to make greater impact and to contribute to SDGs in those areas where UN Women has comparative organizational strengths;
• Analyse how UN Women needs to generate greater impact more efficiently and effectively with limited resources through leveraging partnership approach and the UN coordination mandate, and look at opportunities for UN-Women to further leverage its collaborative advantage to boost its contribution to the implementation of Agenda 2030;
• Analyse and refine results measurement to better articulate the changes UN Women generates, including its efforts to Leave No One Behind, and propose adjustments to targets and indicators of IRRF;
• Contribute to lessons learned about normative, operational and coordination work by providing information about what is working well, what is not and the missed opportunities if any;
• Achieve better alignment with the Africa strategy;
• Contribute to lessons learned about normative, operational and coordination work by providing information about what is working well, what is not and the missed opportunities if any.
   

Duties And Responsibilities

The consultants will work under the overall guidance of the Deputy Regional Director and in close collaboration with the Planning and UN Coordination Specialist as well as the Regional Monitoring and Reporting Specialist for all day to day matters including:

• Conduct a Desk Review of key documents relevant to the work of the Regional Office such as: 2018-2021 SN and AWPs, 2016,2017 and 2018 Annual Reports; select recent studies related to Gender Equality and Women’s’ Empowerment in the region; UN Women Strategic Plan (2018 - 2021), the Africa Strategy, and the related theories of Change for the different thematic areas; the new UNSDCF related guidance notes; UN Women change management, SDGs, etc.;
• Draft and finalization of discussion papers that will guide the Mid-term Review meeting. These will include a compiled Mid-Term review paper;
• In collaboration with the regional evaluation specialist as well as the regional monitoring and reporting specialist, the Consultants will analyse and present the results of staff and partners’ surveys at the midterm review meeting and will incorporate partners and staff feedback to reflect the results in the new strategic note;
• Facilitation of the strategic note-midterm review meeting;
• Production of the report on the strategic note mid-term review;
• Draft an updated strategic note, including DRF and OEEF, and reflecting the mid-term review findings.

Key Deliverables

• Develop an Inception Report: Outlining the design-criteria, scope, methodology, data collection method and tools and time frame including a Draft Report Template. It must also reflect methodological development, as well as key normative, UN system coordination and programmatic developments, and the change management process underway in UN Women;
• The MTR Draft Report: The report should address the contents specified in Objectives Section and use a format that will be provided during inception phase. It should be logically structured, contain evidence-based findings, conclusions, lessons and recommendations, and should be free of information that is not relevant to the overall analysis. The report should respond in detail to the key focus areas described above. It should include a set of specific recommendations formulated for the project, and identify the necessary actions required to be undertaken, who should undertake those and possible timelines (if any);
• Validation Meeting: For presenting and discussing the draft final report interactively, the consultants will facilitate a one-day concluding workshop for the project stakeholders. Stakeholders will provide comments on the Draft Report, and the consultants will finalize the report in view of these comments;
• Submission of the Final Report to UN Women.
   

Work Schedule

Activities/deliverables

Estimated time

Inception report and structured questionnaire shared with core team (Evaluation Specialist, M&R, Thematic heads and Operations). The inception report among others reflect methodological development, as well as key normative, UN system coordination and programmatic developments, and the change management process underway in UN Women

3 Days

Evidence gathering, analysis and review of 2018-2021 SN and development of preliminary MTR recommendations

• Factors that have enabled or prevented results at different levels;
• Adjustments to strategies, targets and indicators;
• Adjustments necessitated by changes in the global context, key normative and other developments, changes in the UNDS and other UN reforms;
• Validity of UN-Women’s strengths and comparative advantages as outlined in the SN, how they have been applied, and necessary adjustments, in particular how UN Women has been able to deliver results through partnerships, including the FPIs as partnership platforms, and through its UN coordination mandate;
• Opportunities for UN Women to achieve even greater programmatic focus;
• Results measurement to better articulate the change UN Women makes;

Level of integration and application of the principle of ‘leaving no one behind’ across UN Women’s work;

13 Days

Facilitate the validation Meeting

1 Day

Submission of final report

3 Day

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

• Demonstrated ability and excellent communication skills to facilitate group discussions;
• Demonstrated ability to produce high quality evaluation reports, including recommendations for future work of the funding organization/ a donor;
• Ability to work with the Evaluation Manager to ensure that a quality evaluation report is produced;
• Facilitation skills and the ability to deal with multi-stakeholder groups;
• Excellent analytical and communication skills.
   

Education

Required Skills and Experience

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Social Sciences, International Development studies, Law, Human rights, Politics, Gender, Women studies or related field.

Experience

• At least 10 years of planning, programming, reviews and/or evaluation experience, seven years of which in planning/reviews in development programs related to human rights, gender and results-based management;
• Knowledge and experience with the national development, policy and legislative frameworks;
• Extensive experience with UN programming, especially the UNDAF and delivering as one;
• Experience working on women’s human rights and gender equality; familiarity with the relevant context in East and Southern Africa in all its diversity is an added advantage.
   

Language Requirements

• Fluency in written and oral English.

UNWOMEN 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 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.