Individual Consultant: Development Support of a Results Monitoring Framework and Data and Research Strategy for UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia’s (2022-2025) Strategic Note

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 center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality are translated into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts while building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The current four-year Strategic Note (2019-2021) for the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECA RO) outlines strategic direction, objectives and approaches to support efforts to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls across the region in five key areas: women’s leadership and political participation; women’s economic empowerment; elimination of violence against women and girls; peace, security and humanitarian action; and support to intergovernmental processes. With the endpoint of its current Strategic Note approaching, UN Women ECA RO is in the process of developing a new Strategic Note for the period 2022 – 2025 which will be fully guided by and aligned with the new UN Women Corporate Strategic Plan (2022 – 2025)[1] and Integrated Results and Resources Framework.[2]

In developing its new Strategic Note, UN Women ECA RO will optimize alignment with conclusions of the regional review and assessment of Beijing +25, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and other normative frameworks, Generation Equality, as well as evidence and findings culminating from consultation and engagement with more than 20,000 stakeholders across the region.

Data, Evidence and Knowledge (DEK) are indispensable tools for UN Women to achieve its ambition as a knowledge-driven organization, with deep expertise and authority on gender equality and women’s rights. Over the past decade, UN Women has progressively established itself as a thought leader at the forefront of the production and use of DEK on gender equality issues; however, assessments indicate that UN Women does not consistently utilize DEK in its decision-making processes and there are high levels of variability in the use of DEK at the regional and country level, including the varying use of data and statistics to demonstrate the magnitude of issues, limited use of empirical research to substantiate programmatic decisions, inconsistent monitoring and evaluation, limited codification of internal knowledge and learnings and limited guidance on the incorporation of DEK in key corporate processes, leave much room for improvement.

Under its new Strategic Note, UN Women ECA RO is placing particular emphasis on:  a) improving how it captures and measures its regional results; and b) developing a systematic framework and strategic approach to help focus and frame its work on data and research. Regarding the first area, UN Women Regional Office supports and provides guidance and technical assistance to UN Women offices at country level in planning, monitoring, reporting and RBM. Through ongoing reviews and evaluations of UN Women’s work, the need for improved frameworks to help capture and measure impact and outcome-level changes across the region has been highlighted. To support this work, a more strategic-level results framework is needed to better understand and capture the key changes that UN Women needs to measure and report on at a regional and corporate level. This work needs to be accompanied by further practical training on Results-based Management.

Related to data and research, timely and quality gender statistics, data and research/evidence are essential for the achievement of the gender equality commitments in the 2030 Agenda and the Beijing Platform for Action as well as the women, peace and security commitments of the Security Council. Enhancing the coordination, production, analysis and use of gender statistics, evidence and knowledge will enable UN Women to deliver on its triple mandate and advance gender equality and women’s empowerment. Also, data and research will allow to incorporate an intersectional lens to UN Women programmatic work to bring perspectives of the multidimensionality of people’s lived experiences in which multiple axes of identify and oppression intersect; and also, to recognize and address prevalent power dynamics and systems of inequality, discrimination and injustice to counter them. This principle and requirement are at the center of the Generation Equality Action Coalitions for 2021-2025 that were launched in Paris Forum conveyed by UN Women on 30 June – 2 July.

Across the region, UN Women has been creating an enabling environment for the increased production of, and improved access and use of gender statistics, evidence and research. The data and evidence have increasingly been used to inform policy implementation, programmes on governance and participation, economic empowerment, ending violence against women, and peace and security. To ensure that data, research, and knowledge is more systematically embedded into UN Women ECA RO’s business model, including through the support and guidance it provides to field offices across the region, a more systematic strategy is needed to guide future planning and prioritization of this work and develop a collective understanding across all offices in the region on what UN Women wants to be known for in terms of its data and research. An important part of the strategy is establishing systematic, transparent, and results-driven decision-making processes around which data, evidence, and research pieces to collectively invest in at the regional or sub-regional level as well as to generate collective thinking and suggestions regarding the approaches required to advance high quality regional research and data work and fostering a UN Women-wide DEK culture.

To ensure that ECA RO’s new Strategic Note responds to UN Secretary-General’s Data Strategy[3] and advances these two priority areas, the Regional Office seeks the services of an International Consultant.  The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Planning and Coordination Specialist of the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia, and in general consultation with the Deputy Regional Director and Gender Statistics Specialist.

[1] https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/executive%20board/2021/2%20-%20as%20annual%20session/documentation/draft%20unwomen%20sp%2020222025%20finalclean2.pdf?la=en&vs=0

[2] https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/executive%20board/2021/2%20-%20as%20annual%20session/documentation/sp%20irrf_1st%20draft%20to%20eb%20may%202021v3.pdf?la=en&vs=5410

[3] https://www.un.org/en/content/datastrategy/index.shtml

Objectives of the Assignment:

Under the supervision of the Planning and Coordination Specialist, the consultant will be responsible for:

1) Supporting ECA RO to develop and implement a strategic-level results framework to capture its higher-level results and impact by:

• Reviewing UN Women’s new Integrated Results and Resources Framework under its new Strategic Plan and UN Women ECA RO’s current results measurement frameworks, results reporting and RMS results dashboards and providing targeting suggestions on ways to better capture higher-level aggregated results;
• Conducting consultations with UN Women field offices and RO staff to understand challenges and future priorities with regard to capturing and reporting on regional results;
• Supporting the development of ECA RO’s new results framework, aligned with the corporate UN Women Integrated Results and Resource Framework and aggregating higher level results from thematic areas of work and programming;
• Co-designing and delivering an advanced and practical RBM training for UN Women staff in the region.

2) Developing a systematic framework and strategic approach to help focus and frame UN Women’s work on data, evidence and research in the region by:

• Conducting a desk review of UN Women’s past work on data and research at the regional and country level and comparing against emerging priority areas;
• Conducting consultations with partners to identify gaps and priorities in data and research and validate key priorities and areas of collaboration;
• Conducting consultations with UN Women field offices and RO staff, in coordination with Women Count programme consultations on Phase II priorities, to understand challenges, gaps and future priorities with regard to data, evidence and research at the country and regional levels;
• Developing a draft strategy to prioritize UN Women’s approach and work on data and research under its new Strategic Note that: a) identifies what it is that UN Women wants to be known for regarding its work on data, evidence and knowledge in the region – in line with agree thematic areas/corporate results for the new SN; b) identifies collective regional priorities and approaches for UN Women’s next Strategic Note; c) proposes clear procedures and processes to embed a strategic-level approach and systematic decision-making process related data and evidence into UN Women ECA RO and field office business model; d) elaborates key areas for data and research initiatives to be integrated into the regional programmes and initiatives (including phase II of the Women Count programme) and also how to ensure synergies/complementarities, including with other UN Women’s regional programmes and UN agencies.
• Supporting to strategize a shift to GE knowledge hub’s model in regard of data and research work at the regional level;
• Contributing to development of a new Knowledge Management Strategy for the ECA region where data and research are a core part;
• Proposing procedures and results-driven decision-making processes to ensure that a systematic approach to data and evidence is embedded into UN Women ECA RO’s business model, including through the support and guidance it provides to field offices across the region.

Deliverables Schedule:

Payment:

The payment of fees will be made in three installments:

• 35% upon submission of Deliverable 1 (submission of a report and PPT highlighting key issues from consultations and targeted session on data/research and results framework)
• 30% upon submission of Deliverable 2 (final data/research strategy and proposed procedures)
• 35% upon submission of Deliverable 3 (final results framework for SN and PPT slides from completed RBM training)

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

Education:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in international relations, gender, sociology, demography, economics, law or other related disciplines.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of planning, results-based management and/or evaluation experience, seven years of which in strategy planning/reviews in development programmes related to human rights, gender and results-based management;
• Experience in designing and delivering training on results-based management and reporting;
• Experience in designing data and research-based strategies;
• Ability to introduce new systems and affect staff behavioural/attitudinal change;
• Ability to build strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Experience in analysis and visualization of data and trends desirable.
• Prior experience in the UN system and the region an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.

5. Evaluation of Applicants

UN Women applies a fair and transparent selection process. Applicants will be evaluated using a cumulative analysis method taking into consideration the combination of the applicants’ qualifications/skills and their financial proposal. Contract will be awarded to the individual consultants whose offer has been evaluated and determined as:

• Responsive to and compliant with the requirements of the ToR; and
• Having received the highest score out of below combined technical and financial criteria.

Only candidates obtaining a minimum of 49 points in the technical evaluation would be considered for financial evaluation.

Evaluation of submitted financial offers will be done based on the following formula: S = Fmin / F * 30

S – score received on financial evaluation;

Fmin – the lowest financial offer out of all the submitted offers qualified over the technical evaluation round;

F – financial offer under the consideration.

6. Application Procedure:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their applications by 2 August with the following documents.

• Duly filled Personal History Form (P-11 form) – including past experience in similar assignments; can be downloaded at http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment, a signed copy should be submitted.
• Letter of Intent to include a one-page brief overview about which of your previous experiences makes you the most suitable candidate for the advertised position.
• Financial proposal (in USD) – specifying an all-inclusive fixed total contract price, supported by a breakdown by deliverable and include a daily amount/cost as per template provided. All travel will be subject to the permitted movement under the COVID pandemic and therefore, UN Women will pay for travel of the consultant separately. For this reason, travel should not be included in the consultant’s financial proposal.

Technical evaluation will be represented through desk review of applications and further interview will be organized if needed, depending on the short-listed candidates’ qualifications. The hiring manager reserves the right to also hold interviews as required.