UN Women Regional Evaluation Research Consultant (Retainer), Home-based

II. Consultancy Assignment

Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, works for the elimination of discrimination against all women and girls.

The mandate and functions of UN Women call for the promotion of organizational and UN system accountability on gender equality through evaluation, strengthening evaluation capacities and learning from evaluation, and developing systems to measure the results and impact of UN Women with its enhanced role at country, regional and global levels. The purpose and role of evaluation in UN Women is to enhance accountability, inform decision-making and contribute to learning on the best ways to achieve women’s empowerment and gender equality through operational and normative work.  

The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES) of the Independent Evaluation and Audit and Investigation Services (IEAIS) serves as the custodian of the evaluation function in UN Women, in line with United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards. IES evaluates the work of UN women to enhance organizational accountability, provide evidence-based information for decision-making and to contribute to learning on gender equality and the empowerment of women. IES posts Regional Evaluation Specialists in the Regional Offices of UN Women with a key task to lead independent evaluations and to support country office personnel with the management of decentralized evaluations.  UN Women hires external consultants to conduct evaluations as evaluation Team Leader, thematic expert or evaluation analysts.  

UN Women, through its Strategic Plan 2026-2029, convenes actors from all sectors to promote institutional change, positive social norms and collective action anchored in human rights obligations and commitments. UN Women has identified four impact areas through which the organization strives to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment: 

• Women’s leadership and decision-making
• Women Peace and Security, and Humanitarian Action
• Women and girls free from violence
• Women’s Economic Empowerment in resilient economies

Regional Evaluation Research consultants to support evaluation team leaders in the conduct of evaluations.  The consultants directly supervised by the Regional Evaluation Specialist for Asia and the Pacific who is based in the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in Bangkok, Thailand. The Regional Evaluation Specialist reports to the Chief of Independent Evaluation Service at UN Women headquarters. The consultants will be contracted on a retainer basis based on their availability (and in line with UN Women’s Consultant Contract Policy). The contract duration will be from 1 August 2026-31 July 2029 for up to a total of 400 working days for the contract period. 

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work

As assigned by the Regional Evaluation Specialist, the Regional Evaluation Research Consultant will be expected to support the overall implementation of regional and country portfolio evaluations. The consultant will also support decentralized evaluations as assigned.  The work of the consultant will be home-based and they will need to connect with the team during Asia and the Pacific working hours via online platforms.  

• Evaluation Planning stage:

  • Systematizing and reviewing all relevant documents (i.e. Strategic notes, project documents, donor and/or other monitoring reports, evaluation and audit reports, etc.) to identify efforts relevant to the evaluation topic. 
  • Providing support to the portfolio analysis to provide an overview of the different efforts undertaken by the CO/RO for the thematic area. 
  • Support the management and logistics of the evaluation.

• Evaluation Inception phase:

  • Support the Human rights-based stakeholder analysis from a thematic perspective. 
  • Contribute to the development of an inclusive Evaluation methodology which is tailored to relevant inquiry in the thematic area (including through the evaluation matrix, data collection tools etc)

• Evaluation Data collection:

  • Support interviews and consultations by taking detailed notes and ensuring adherence to ethical guidelines. 
  • Contribute to evaluation analysis by capturing results, challenges, gaps and learning pertinent to the evaluation topic. 
  • NVIVO or qualitative data analysis.

• Reporting phase:

  • Provide substantive inputs to the final preliminary findings presentation and synthesis report. 
  • Support to case study through inputs on the thematic areas. 
  • Leading the compilation of annexes.
• Other tasks as assigned by the supervisor.

Deliverables for the Regional Evaluation Research Consultant include the following: inception presentation, inception report, data collection tools, data collection notes shared with the RES, analytical products, presentations and final synthesis reports and annexes for evaluations. The consultants must abide by the UNEG Ethical Guidelines and related code of conduct. All deliverables must be high quality and in line with the GERAAS criteria established by UN Women. The consultant shall adhere to UNEG guidance on the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI), ensuring that any AI tools used in the evaluation are applied ethically, with full transparency, appropriate human oversight, protection of sensitive data, active mitigation of bias, and explicit documentation of AI-supported processes in all deliverables. The consultant must assure independence from any organization/office/unit/programmes that have been involved in designing, executing, or advising any aspect of the intervention that is the subject of the evaluation. They must also ensure that any outside work will not interfere or pose conflict of interest and submit relevant documentation to UN Women ethics office. 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. 

As part of the official duty of this consultancy, the consultant may be expected to travel, which will be processed by UN Women, following the duty travel policy.

III. Competencies

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

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

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent analytical skills
• Strong knowledge of UN Women processes and systems
• Strong networking skills
• Strong inter-personal skills, communicate effectively with staff at all levels of the organization;
• Ability to work in a highly pressured environment

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

IV. Required Qualifications

Education and Certification:

1. Master’s degree in a field of relevance for the evaluation (i.e. Social Sciences, Gender Equality, Evaluation, international affairs).
2. 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 and skills:

3. At least 2 years of work experience contributing to gender-responsive evaluation or experience in gender analysis and human-rights based approaches or research.

4. Prior experience using tools such as NVIVO/Dedoose or other similar data analysis software for systematizing and analyzing large amounts of qualitative and quantitative data. 

5. Prior experience using evaluation approaches and methods including experience in gender equality and human rights responsive evaluation (e.g. participatory and inclusive approaches). 

6. Experience working with the United Nations or a similar international organization context is an asset. 

7. Experience in the Asia and the Pacific region is an asset. 

Languages:

8. Language proficiency in English is required. 

V. How to Apply

1. Application letter explaining your interest in the consultancy and why you are a suitable candidate for the consultancy position. 
2. Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified and not considered for further assessment. 

*Applicants who have been shortlisted will be asked for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, 2-3 relevant writing samples. These samples must have been authored by the applicant. Alternatively, the applicant should be able to show that they led in the drafting of the same,  copy of biodata page of national passport and copy of the highest education certificate.

VI. Statements :

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.

VII. Diversity and inclusion:

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, color, 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.

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.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.