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Background/Context 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. The Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) Section, part of the Programme, Policy and Intergovernmental Division (PPID) at UN Women, provides knowledge-based policy and programming guidance to a diverse array of stakeholders at international, regional and country levels. The Section provides substantive support to intergovernmental processes and leads global and regional initiatives to address violence against women and girls (VAWG), often partnering with other UN agencies and stakeholders, and is responsible for developing and managing several global and regional programmes to address VAWG. Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is one of the most serious and universal human rights violations. Nearly thirty years after the Beijing Platform for Action, and despite unprecedented momentum and commitments to eliminate VAWG, its prevalence has remained persistent. Global emergencies, crises and conflict have further intensified the drivers and risk factors of VAWG, and digitalization has exacerbated existing forms of violence and led to the proliferation of new forms. At the same time, the rise in anti-rights movements, shrinking civil society space and backlash against women’s rights are undermining efforts to prevent VAWG and leading to a rise in attacks against women human rights defenders. Despite these worrying trends, evidence demonstrates that the presence of a strong and autonomous feminist movement is the single most critical factor in driving policy change to end violence against women and girls. In this context, the European Union and UN Women have partnered to deliver the Advocacy, Coalition Building and Transformative Feminist Action (ACT) to End Violence Against Women Programme — a joint commitment between the European Commission and UN Women as co-leaders of the Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence (GBV). The ACT Programme is focused on strengthening global and regional advocacy, coalition building and transformative feminist action to end violence against women (EVAW). It is implemented over three years in two regions — Africa and Latin America — with a global component to accelerate impact and position the priorities of women’s rights movements in global fora. It builds on the EU–UN Spotlight Initiative’s results and lessons learned to strengthen women’s rights movements at the regional and global levels and to elevate women’s rights advocacy priorities in regional and global policymaking and intergovernmental fora. The Programme’s overall objective is to accelerate efforts to eliminate all forms of violence against women, through two overarching objectives:
ACT achieves its results through direct investments in global and regional feminist women’s rights organizations to strengthen their institutional capacities, resilience, coalition building, networking and leadership. ImportantlyACT does not primarily provide grants to CSOs for their own capacity strengthening; rather, it engages programme partners identified as already having stronger capacities in advocacy, coalition building and movement strengthening to, in turn, engage and support a broader range of CSOs and women’s rights organizations (WROs). UN Women leads the overall management and coordination of the initiative, while the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UNTF) provides grants to emerging women’s rights coalitions at the regional or sub-regional level. The ACT Programme Document set out a participatory evaluation strategy comprising a baseline study and a final assessment. A baseline study, together with capacity-strengthening (MEL) workshops and one-to-one mentoring sessions with ACT programme partners, has been completed under a separate engagement.Given ACT’s implementation models the final evaluation should capture changes experienced both by organizations funded by ACT as grantees or programme partners, but also by the broader set of organizations reached directly or indirectly through ACT through a wide range of convenings, capacity strengthening, movement and coalition-building, learning opportunities etc.. UN Women is commissioning a final Programme Evaluation of the ACT Programme. The purpose of the evaluation is to assess how well the Programme achieved its aims over its lifecycle. It will be commissioned as both summative (backward-looking) and formative (forward-looking). It will assess the achievement of programme results at the global and regional levels, identifying strengths and weaknesses, and will provide forward-looking recommendations on how UN Women can enhance its work to strengthen women’s rights movements, advocacy and coalition building to end violence against women. This is especially pertinent, as ending violence against women and girls is one of the four thematic impact areas of the UN Women Strategic Plan 2026–2029. The consultant will be reporting to Programme Management Specialist, and will be supported by the Finance & Programme Associate, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues. Description of Responsibilities/Scope of Work Evaluation in UN Women is guided by normative agreements to be gender-responsive and utilizes the entity’s Strategic Plan as a starting point for identifying the expected outcomes and impacts of its work and for measuring progress towards the achievement of results. The UN Women Evaluation Policy is the main guiding document that set forth the principles and organizational framework for evaluation planning, conduct and follow-up in UN Women. These principles are aligned with the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG) Norms and Standards for Evaluation in the UN System and the UNEG Ethical Guidelines. The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the contribution of the programme towards ending violence against women and girls. The evaluation will draw on the baseline study of the ACT Programme, and the corporate evaluation on UN Women Support to Civil Society. More specifically, the Consultant will
Evaluation scope The scope of the evaluation will cover the entire lifecycle of the ACT Programme, from its inception in September 2023 until its completion, scheduled for February 2027. It will include all geographic areas of implementation at global and regional level (Africa and Latin America), as well as components of the UN Trust Fund, to assess the ACT programmes’ relevance, efficiency, effectiveness, coherence, impact and sustainability. The evaluation will draw on data provided by both funded programme partners and the wider set of CSOs/WROs supported through ACT. Evaluation criteria and guiding questions The evaluation will assess the Programme’s relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, coherence, impact and sustainability, in line with UN Women and UNEG evaluation criteria and grounded in gender equality and human rights principles. The evaluation consultant should gain consensus on the final evaluation questions (including the gender equality and human rights aspects) with key stakeholders, as part of the consultative process. The evaluation consultant is expected to develop an evaluation matrix as part of the inception report, summarizing key questions, indicators, sources of information and methodology to guide the analysis and triangulation. The final inception report and evaluation matrix must be reviewed and approved signed off by UN Women before the onset of the evaluation. Evaluation methods and management processes Methods: The evaluation will be a transparent and participatory process involving relevant UN Women staff, stakeholders and partners at the global, regional, national and local levels, and ensure a plan for inclusion of women’s right organizations (both, direct financial partners and CSOs/WROs that were influenced through the ACT Programme), in all their diversity, across the programme regions as part of the evaluation process, including the provision of translation and interpretation, as necessary. It will be carried out in accordance with the UNEG Norms and Standards and Ethical Code of Conduct and the UN Women Evaluation Policy. The content and process must integrate gender equality and human rights principles in line with the UNEG guidance on integrating human rights and gender equality in evaluations, drawing on feminist theory and methodologies and ensuring context and cultural sensitivity. The evaluation will provide evidence-based information that is credible, reliable, and useful. It will use a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis aligned with the final set of questions. This is expected to include a desk review of key documents followed by a series of at least 30 key informant interviews (KIIs) and focus group discussions (FGDs) with all key stakeholders (including UN Women teams, the UNTF, the global Civil Society Steering Committee, regional institutions, programme partners and the wider CSO/WRO constituency); and a targeted endline survey for Outcome Indicator 1.1. As part of the evaluation, the consultant will design and administer a targeted endline survey to generate the values for reporting against Outcome Indicator 1.1 of the ACT Results Framework (proportion of women’s rights organizations/coalitions, autonomous social movements and CSOs — including those representing young people and groups facing intersecting forms of discrimination/marginalization in a partner country — that report having greater influence and agency to work on ending gender-based violence). The survey will capture the wider set of CSOs/WROs supported through ACT, not only funded programme partners. The consultant will document case studies, key results and good-practice examples. Detailed methodology will be developed by the consultant in an Inception Report and shared with relevant stakeholders for input and approval before data collection. The evaluation consultant should take measures to ensure data quality, reliability and validity of data collection tools and methods, and their responsiveness to gender equality and human rights. Limitations of the sample (representativeness) should be stated clearly, and data should be triangulated against other sources where possible to ensure robust results. In line with the UN Women evaluation policy and the UNEG norms and guidelines, the evaluation must be conducted with the highest standards of integrity and respect for the beliefs, manners and customs of the social and cultural environment; for human rights and gender equality; and for the ‘do no harm’ principle. Given the focus of ACT on ending violence against women, the consultant must elaborate and adhere to an explicit protocol for the protection of stakeholders engaged in the evaluation, drawing on the relevant WHO ethical and safety recommendations for research on violence against women. The consultant must respect the right of institutions and individuals to provide information in confidence, ensure sensitive data is protected and cannot be traced to its source, obtain informed consent, and validate statements with those who provided the information. Evaluation process: The evaluation process includes the following three phases, which will be used to determine timelines and set deliverables/performance indicators:
Management and governance arrangements: The Evaluation Manager The evaluation will be managed by the ACT Programme Specialist, under the supervision of the EVAWG Policy and Programme Management Specialist with support from the ACT Programme Analyst (Monitoring, Reporting and Learning) and relevant ACT Regional Advisors, and with guidance and strategic inputs from the UN Women Chief, EVAW Section. Evaluation Management Group (MG) The management group is constituted to oversee the evaluation management, make key decisions and quality assure the different deliverables. It is composed of the Evaluation Manager, the ACT global component team, relevant ACT Regional Advisors, and guided by the UN Women Chief EVAW Section. The evaluation manager will lead the day-to-day management of the process and will consult with the management group on key issues. The inputs of members are expected to strengthen the quality and credibility of the evaluation. As applicable, other colleagues from the ACT Programme team will participate in the evaluation process through interviews with the consultant and/or contribute to quality inputs and assurance and to the development of the final report. Reference Group (RG) A Reference Group (RG) will be constituted to support the process, ensure quality and enable participation. Members will provide substantive technical inputs, facilitate access to documents, serve as key informants as needed, and help ensure the high quality of the evaluation report. The RG will include the ACT Programme team, regional colleagues and other UN Women colleagues collaborating closely with the Programme. Deliverables The Consultant is expected to produce the following deliverables at the indicated timelines:
Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel This is a home-based consultancy, with potential travel to project regions. Travel expenses will be reimbursed separately. |
| III. Competencies |
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Core Values:
Core Competencies:
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:
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| IV. Required Qualifications |
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Education and Certification: • Master’s degree or equivalent in Social Sciences, International Development studies, law, human rights, gender, women studies or a related field 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. • Advanced training or certifications in evaluation methodologies, gender-responsive evaluation, strategic planning, or project management would be an added advantage. Experience:
Languages:
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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:
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If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.
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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.