Opportunity announcement for hiring a Consultant to revise the 2023-2026 strategic note of the United Nations Women’s multi-country office in South Africa (SAMCO)
Avis d’appel à manifestation d’intérêt pour le recrutement d’un Consultant pour la révision de la note stratégique 2023-2026 du Bureau multi-pays d’ONU Femmes en Afrique du Sud (SAMCO)
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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the efforts of the United Nations system to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO) is based in Pretoria, South Africa and serves five countries: South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and ESwatini.
UN WOMEN works to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women, on the basis of several international agreements that guide the work of the Entity; namely; the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Optional Protocol. The “Women’s Bill of Rights” is the cornerstone of all United Nations programs for women. More than 185 countries are party to the Convention; the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA) which sets out the commitments taken by governments to strengthen women’s rights.
The Beijing+25 assessment and review process reiterated many persistent and emerging challenges for the achievement of gender equality, with women and girls especially affected by multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination. In this context, increasingly, consequences such as the COVID-19 pandemic threaten to exacerbate long-standing obstacles to the full enjoyment of the fundamental rights of women. In light of these consequences and other direct and/or indirect effects, it is clear and urgent to take a multi-faceted approach into account when addressing the needs of women and girls.
In this context, during the 2020 annual session of the UN Women Executive Board, the Board requested that, « UN-Women, in accordance with its mandate, start preparations early for the next strategic plan, 2022-2025 in full consultation with the Executive Board including the presentation of the second regular session of a roadmap for the advisory process provided for in the preparation of the strategic plan.
In developing its new Strategic Plan, UN Women optimized alignment with conclusions of the review and assessment of Beijing+25, the 2030 Agenda for Development sustainability and other intergovernmental normative frameworks, Generation Equality, and rights conventions, the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review 2020, as well as the recommendations and conclusions of the midterm review of the then current UN Women Strategic Plan and additional assessments and reviews. The development of the new strategic plan was also based on extensive internal and external consultations at global, regional and national levels with key stakeholders, including Member States, civil society, other United Nations entities, the private sector and other actors working in development field.
SAMCO is refining its new SN that is anchored in and guided by the new UN Women Global Strategy (2021-2025), and which is regionally appropriate based on contextual analysis and synthesis of priority needs and challenges facing women and girls in Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. In order to build on and revise the existing draft SN, the following actions will be necessary:
In depth consultations and facilitated meetings with the SAMCO team to determine strategic priorities and programmatic area focus;
Ensure synergies between identified priorities, articulate shared results and identify practical and effective mechanisms to implement UN Women’s coordination mandate. Special attention will be needed regarding the identification of recommendations and future-oriented priorities of the Common Chapter;
For all the countries covered by SAMCO, one/two pager for each country to be drafted and attached under the ‘Proposed Programme’ section, clearly capturing UN Women’s role in these countries, along with proposed programmes and strategic partnerships;
Review the SN structure in relation to its oversight function and DRF to ensure it aligns with the DCO UNSDCF Guidance, one of UN Women’s internal compliance requirements;
Ensure revision as necessary and inclusion of all required sections/appendices including results matrix and risk analysis;
Facilitation of a strategic planning workshop for the UN Women SAMCO program managers team.
In order to ensure the process is effective, efficient and consistent with the range of inputs obtained during working sessions, SAMCO seeks the services of an International Consultant. The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Deputy Representative of the UN Women SAMCO.
Objectives of the assigment:
The UN Women SAMCO is embarking on the process of developing its SN for the period of 2023-2026, defining key development results and management/operational results for the next four years. The SN will be based on the global UN Women Strategic Plan (2022-2025), the South Africa UNSDCF and aligned to the UN Women Africa Strategy as well as to key development frameworks of the East and Southern Africa region as well as global normative frameworks.
Duties and Responsibilities
The duties and responsibilities include:
- Facilitating the retreat of the UN Women team (SAMCO personnel) for the revision of the draft SN 2023-2026;
- Drafting the revised version of the SAMCO’s SN with content support/inputs from relevant SAMCO personnel including coordination, operations, programmes, partnerships, etc.;
- Preparing the final version of the 2023-2026 SN and all of the appendices (including results framework, M&E framework, organizational chart, resource matrix and others details in UN Women Guidance Note on SN development);
- Revisiting the BWP and ensuring alignment.
Expected results:
The expected result at the end of the consultation is the 2023-2026 SN for the UN Women SAMCO, which is aligned with the UN Women Global Strategic Plan (2022-2025) as well as with the DCO UNSDCF guidance, (being part of UN Women’s internal compliance requirements).
The SN will give due consideration to SDGs and development issues, humanitarian and peace and security as applicable reflecting the context of SADC. The contextual analysis and root drivers of the content will be based on evidence from Country Portfolio Assessments (CPEs), the Africa Strategy review, (in the absence of a medium-term review) and in conjunction with the end term evaluation of the Strategic Note 2017-2022.
Consultancy Fee Payment:
The payment of fees will be made in two installments:
- 40% upon submission of the initially revised draft SN;
- 60% upon final submission of the Strategy Note and all of its annexes.
Key Deliverables:
Key activities:
Deliverable:
Estimated time:
a. Contribute to organization and facilitation of SAMCO retreat for revision of SN draft.
Retreat held
5 days
b. Production of SN draft based on inputs from ‘retreat’.
Revised draft*
3 days
c. Work with designated SAMCO personnel to populate required SN content in each of the respective sections based on newly revised draft SN.
Results Management System populated accordingly
2 days
d. Review and incorporate consolidated feedback for revised draft for further review and consideration by UN HQ
Revised SN Draft (ESARO comments incorporated)
3 days
Final revisions
Final SN submitted*
2 days
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.
Functional Competencies:
- Have a good knowledge of the norms and standards of evaluations of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG);
- Familiarity with DCO UNSDCF Guidance, and UN Women’s compliance requirements;
- Good command of data collection and analysis techniques quantitative and qualitative;
- Have excellent analytical, writing and synthesis skills;
- Demonstrate responsiveness, objectivity, organization and have a good methodology in carrying out the work;
- Demonstrate ability to produce quality results on time out sourced and work under pressure.
- Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
Master’s degree in International Relations, Gender, Sociology, Demography, Economics, Law or related field;
Experience:
- At least 10 years of planning, programming, reviews and/or evaluation experience, seven years of which in strategy planning/reviews in development programs related to human rights, gender and results-based management;
- Experience in designing and conducting inclusive strategic planning workshops including facilitating theory of change;
- 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 Southern Africa;
- Demonstrated experience collaborating with institutions, partners in development and civil society organizations in the region in especially those focused on promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment activities;
- Experience with the United Nations system, good knowledge of the UN Women mandate and its programmatic frameworks and rules and United
Nations procedures would be an asset.
Language Requirements:
- Fluency in oral and written English is required;
- Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.
Note:
Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment
At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.
If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application. At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.
UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)
