Programme Development Consultant

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 United Nations system efforts 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.

Under UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025, the corporate Humanitarian Strategy has been developed in response to the recognition that effective humanitarian action requires putting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls at the center of preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. Through its humanitarian action, UN Women aims to address the erosion of rights and livelihoods of the most vulnerable women and girls affected by crisis, and the overall threat posed to the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls in all their diversity. As articulated in its Humanitarian Strategy 2022-2025, UN Women takes a two-pronged approach to advance the agenda: (i) strengthen accountability towards gender commitments in coordination and implementation of UN-led humanitarian and refugee responses; and (ii) strengthen comprehensive protection and livelihoods support to crisis-affected women and girls along with the Humanitarian-Development-Peace (HDP) Nexus.

UN Women has contributed to strengthening protection and livelihood services for women and girls in emergencies and protracted crises in over 35 countries through its Leadership, Empowerment, Access, and Protection (LEAP) Gender Equality Accelerator. This includes the Second Chance Education (SCE) programme, which provides crisis-affected women with access to learning/training opportunities and pathways to employment and entrepreneurship. UN Women ensures complementary with other organizational global accelerators such as Ending Violence Against Women and Girls (EVAWG) and women, peace, and security programming in addressing gender gaps and challenges in relation to women’s protection, access to livelihoods in crisis.

UN Women is partnering with Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) - a German state-owned investment and development bank - to explore entry points for a long -term partnership and draft a programme under Governance and Peace – Europe and Asia KfW division. The Division has currently an active portfolio in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Moldova, Türkiye, and Ukraine to respond quickly and flexibly to crisis situations. Building on the experience of its Leadership, Empowerment, Access, and Protection (LEAP) Gender Equality Accelerator, UN Women plans to develop a new two-year programme that delivers critical multisectoral services to vulnerable women and girls in crisis contexts.

As the programme adopts the nexus approach, it will be guided by UN Women’s relevant strategies, policies, guidelines, and initiatives such as the Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) Strategy and Framework, WEE principles and the Global WPS Facility, among others. The programme will be developed in partnership with KfW and led by UN Women’s Humanitarian Section, in coordination with other sections/units including EVAW, Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE), and Peace, Security and Resilience (PSR), as well as relevant Regional and Country Offices (ROs/COs).

At the programme formulation phase, UN Women will hold internal consultations with relevant Headquarter sections and Regional Office/Country office colleagues to define the content and strategic direction of the programme. Against this background, the Humanitarian Section seeks the services of an experienced consultant that will coordinate internal consultations with relevant HQ/RO/CO colleagues and develop the programme framework for submission to KFW.

The consultant will be reporting to the Livelihood and Protection Programme Specialist /SCE Programme Manager of UN Women Humanitarian Section.

Duties and Responsibilities

UN Women requires a Programme Development Consultant for:

• Review the relevant UN Women’s strategies, policies, guidelines, and programme documents (including humanitarian action, EVAW, WEE, and PSR) and KfW’s documents that will inform the program development.
• In coordination with the main focal point for KfW-UN Women in the Humanitarian section, hold consultations with UN Women staff from HQ, ROs, and COs to assess needs and capacities for programme implementation and develop the programme structure, results and monitoring framework.
• Draft a concept note for the programme, including the overview of programme structure and components, and the tentative budget plan.
• Coordinate consultations with various offices of UNWOMEN and sections in UNWOMEN Geneva office & HQ
• Socialize the concept note and finalize it based on the inputs from the KfW, including KfW-UN Women workshop and consultation with relevant HQ/RO/CO staff.
• Produce a full programme document building on the concept note and further consultation with relevant HQ/RO/CO staff and KfW feedback.
• Integrate comments and feedback on the programme document from UN Women staff and finalizing for submission to KfW.

Deliverables

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy with travel request on ad hoc basis depending on the needs.

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/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Strong knowledge of gender issues
• Familiarity with humanitarian action, Humanitarian-Development-Peace Nexus and programming in crisis context
• Demonstrated ability to coordinate diverse stakeholders
• Experience in drafting concept notes and project proposals
• Knowledge and experience in project design/development
• Excellent communication skills
• Highly effective organization and planning skills and high attention to detail
• Team player
• Strong knowledge and use of computer office tools.
• Excellent analytical and drafting skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree in gender studies, human rights, international affairs, social science, public policy, and/or any relevant field directly related to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
• 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:

• A minimum of seven years of progressively responsible experience in the area of gender equality and women's empowerment and humanitarian action at the international level.
• Demonstrated experience in formulating and managing programmes/projects for donor fund raising on gender equality and women’s empowerment in humanitarian settings with the HDP nexus approach.
• Strong understanding of the HDP nexus approach and its implementation at the field level, preferably in humanitarian settings.
• Proven track record in developing concept notes and programme/project proposals for donors and having working experience with private sector partners is an asset.
• Experience in managing internal and external stakeholders and coordinating consultations.
• Experience in developing and implementing projects funded by KfW is a strong asset.
• Excellent analytical and writing skills to synthesize the large amount of information.
• Working experience with UN Women or other United Nations agency an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of Arabic, French, Spanish or any other UN official language is an asset.

How to Apply

• Personal CV or P11 (P11 canbe downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc )
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)
• Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns, or other materials.