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.
UN Women Jordan Country Office supports the Government of Jordan to implement global norms and standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Under its Strategic Note for the period 2023-2027, the UN Women Jordan Country office promotes women’s economic empowerment, gender responsive governance and women’s political participation in alignment with the government of Jordan Triple Modernization Agenda; works to advance the implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda including through the Jordan National Action Plan for Women, Peace and Security (JONAP); and implements a resilience and empowerment model for Syrian refugee women and vulnerable Jordanian women in camps and host communities in support of the Jordan Response Plan (JRP). Working across the humanitarian-peace-development nexus, the country office is implementing and is prioritizing coherence and interlinkages across its projects and programmes and across UN Women’s triple mandate of operational, coordination and normative work.
Jordan’s Economic Modernization Vision (EMV) identifies increasing women’s labour force participation as a cornerstone of inclusive and sustainable economic growth, setting an ambitious target to raise women’s participation to approximately 28 per cent by 2033. Achieving this vision requires safe, respectful, and inclusive workplaces supported by gender-responsive policies and effective measures to prevent violence and harassment in the world of work.
In recent years, the Government of Jordan, in partnership with civil society and development partners, has strengthened the enabling legal and policy framework for gender equality. The 2023 Labour Law amendments introduced, for the first time, a legal definition of sexual harassment, complemented by collective bargaining agreements in the garment, education, and food sectors and national awareness initiatives promoting alignment with ILO Convention No. 190. Further reinforcing this commitment, the Government endorsed and launched the Gender Institutional Seal to Support and Empower Women (Gender Seal), establishing a national framework to promote and recognize gender-responsive practices across public and private sector institutions.
The private sector is central to achieving these national priorities. Through the Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs), more than 276 companies in Jordan have committed to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment, making Jordan the leading country in the Arab States region in terms of WEPs signatories. To help companies translate these commitments into measurable institutional change, the Gender Seal, led by the King Abdullah II Center for Excellence (KACE), provides a nationally recognized assessment and recognition framework. Fully integrating the WEPs into its assessment criteria, the Gender Seal supports organizations in embedding gender equality across leadership and governance, human resources, recruitment and promotion, equal pay, work-life balance, prevention of violence and harassment, procurement, service delivery, and institutional accountability. Through an evidence-based assessment process, organizations identify gaps, strengthen performance, and receive national recognition for their achievements.
To ensure the credibility and consistency of the Gender Seal, assessors must apply its criteria, methodology, evidence requirements, scoring approach, and ethical standards in a fair, impartial, and consistent manner.
In this context, the UN Women Jordan Country Office, under its mandate to advance women’s economic empowerment and building on its technical partnership with KACE in developing the National Gender Seal for the Private Sector, seeks to engage an expert consultant to design and deliver a training programme for prospective Gender Seal assessors.
The consultant will develop and deliver the training, assess participants’ readiness, provide structured feedback, and submit recommendations to KACE on candidates for inclusion in the national pool of qualified Gender Seal assessors, contributing to the credible and effective implementation of the Gender Seal.
Reporting
The consultant will work under the overall guidance of the Deputy Country Representative and the direct supervision of the Women's Economic Empowerment Programme Portfolio Lead, in close coordination with the UN Women Private Sector Analyst and will report directly to the KACE Criteria and Assessment Manager on technical implementation matters.
Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work
The main objective of this assignment is to design, prepare, implement, and report on a training programme for potential assessors on the Gender Institutional Seal to Support and Empower Women.
The assignment aims to:
- Train potential assessors to understand and apply the Gender Seal criteria, evidence requirements, assessment methodology, scoring logic, and assessor conduct requirements consistently and objectively.
- Unify concepts, terminology, assessment practices, evidence-review approaches, scoring interpretation, documentation requirements, and professional conduct expectations related to the Gender Seal.
- Strengthen participants' capacities in evidence review, interview/questioning techniques, assessment judgment, scoring consistency, assessment documentation, feedback formulation, and professional reporting.
- Assess participants' readiness and ability to serve as Gender Seal assessors in line with KACE-approved criteria, confidentiality requirements, impartiality principles, and professional quality standards.
- Provide KACE with practical recommendations for selecting qualified assessors and identifying participants who may require further development, coaching, or calibration before deployment.
Specific tasks include:
1.Preparatory phase
- Review and study the Gender Seal criteria, assessment model, evidence requirements, guidance materials, and related implementation documents provided by KACE.
- Develop a detailed assessor training agenda, including themes, sessions, timing, learning objectives, methodologies, practical exercises, and expected outputs.
- Prepare the complete assessor training package, including training materials, presentation deck, case studies, evidence-review exercises, scoring and calibration exercises, assessor simulation tools, and facilitation instructions.
- Design interactive activities and practical exercises to strengthen evidence analysis, assessment judgment, interview/questioning skills, scoring consistency, documentation quality, feedback formulation, and ethical assessor conduct.
- Develop tools to evaluate participants' performance and measure readiness to serve as Gender Seal assessors, including observation checklists, simulation scoring sheets, calibration tools, and assessor readiness rating tools.
- Coordinate with KACE's team to finalize and obtain approval of the agenda, content, tools, and implementation arrangements before delivery.
2. Implementation phase
- Deliver the approved assessor training programme during the second or third week of July 2026, in accordance with the final agenda approved by KACE.
- Facilitate assessor-focused sessions covering the Gender Seal criteria, evidence requirements, assessment process, objectivity, impartiality, scoring/calibration, documentation, interview techniques, and reporting expectations.
- Manage applied activities, role plays, assessment simulations, evidence review exercises, case-based applications, scoring calibration exercises, and structured feedback sessions.
- Assess each participant individually during evidence review exercises, assessor simulations, scoring/calibration activities, interview role plays, documentation exercises, and applied case discussions.
- Provide constructive individual and group feedback to strengthen participants' readiness to perform future Gender Seal assessment roles.
- Provide KACE with recommendations regarding participants qualified to be selected for, or further considered for, KACE's approved pool of Gender Seal assessors.
3. Reporting and recommendations phase
- Prepare a final report summarizing the design, implementation, participant engagement, learning results, practical exercises, calibration outcomes, and key observations.
- Submit individual assessor readiness results for participants, including performance against agreed readiness criteria and evidence from practical exercises and simulations.
- Provide clear recommendations for selecting qualified assessors, identifying participants requiring further development, and strengthening future Gender Seal assessor calibration and quality assurance activities.
Deliverables
| Deliverables | Expected completion time (due day) |
|
Deliverable 1: Inception and detailed assessor training plan
|
By August 2026 |
|
Deliverable 2: Complete assessor training package
|
By August 2026 |
|
Deliverable 3: Delivery of the assessor training programme
|
By August- September 2026 |
|
Deliverable 4: Final report and assessor selection recommendations
|
By August-September 2026 |
Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel
The assignment is home-based, with intermittent presence required at KACE and UN Women premises, as well as in-person attendance during training delivery.
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.
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:
Functional Competencies:
- Assessor training design, facilitation, delivery, and adaptability
- Capacity building, coaching, and assessor development
- Assessment methodology, evidence review, scoring consistency, and calibration
- Ability to assess potential assessor performance and readiness objectively
- Ability to provide constructive feedback and selection-oriented recommendations
- Knowledge of gender equality, women's empowerment, excellence management, institutional excellence, and assessment frameworks
- Analytical reporting, professional judgment, impartiality, and quality assurance orientation
Required Qualifications
Education and Certification:
- Master’s degree or equivalent in business, economics, social science, or other related fields is required
- A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree
- Certification or demonstrated professional training in assessment, assessor calibration, institutional excellence, excellence management, gender equality, facilitation, or related capacity-development fields is an asset.
Experience:
- Minimum of seven years of experience in gender equality, women's empowerment, excellence management, institutional excellence, organizational development, assessment, or related capacity-building assignments is required.
- Experience in excellence management, institutional excellence frameworks, quality management, organizational assessment, evidence-based review, or assessor calibration is desirable.
- Experience in facilitation and ability to manage diverse groups, assess participant performance, and provide constructive feedback is desirable.
- Experience with government entities, public-sector institutions, development partners, excellence/quality frameworks, or gender-responsive institutional programmes is desirable.
Languages:
- Working knowledge of English is required
- Fluency in Arabic language is required
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.
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.