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Consultant to undertake a Gender Score Card Assessment of Gender mainstreaming in UNCT Zimbabwe

Harare

  • Organization: UNWOMEN - United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
  • Location: Harare
  • Grade: Consultancy - International Consultant - Internationally recruited Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Women's Empowerment and Gender Mainstreaming
  • Closing Date: Closed

Background

In adopting the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review (TCPR) of Operational Activities for Development of the UN System, Member states at the 59th Session of the UN General Assembly, called on all UN organizations to: mainstream gender and to pursue gender equality in their country programmes, planning instruments and sector-wide programmes and to articulate specific country-level goals and targets in this field in accordance with the national development strategies.

Further, ECOSOC Resolution 2004/4 Review of Economic and Social Council agreed conclusions 1997/2 on mainstreaming the gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system requested: ‘the Secretary-General to ensure that all United Nations entities develop action plans with time lines for implementing the agreed conclusions 1997/2, which address the gap between policy and practice identified in the Secretary-General’s report, with a view to strengthening commitment and accountability at the highest levels within the United Nations system as well as to establishing mechanisms to ensure accountability, systematic monitoring and reporting on progress in implementation.’

As a direct follow-up to the TCPR and to ensure a comprehensive response to many of its recommendations, the United Nations Development Group (UNDG) created a Task Team on Gender Equality as a sub-group of the UNDG Programme Group. The goals of the Task Team are: to support more consistent and coherent action among UNDG member agencies to mainstream gender equality and promote women’s empowerment at the country level; and to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment are mainstreamed into the wide range of tools and processes that emerge from the UNDG for use by United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs). 

In 2006 the UNDG Task Team on Gender Equality commissioned a background paper on accountability mechanisms in UNDG agencies. The paper reviewed accountability for programming in support of gender equality in International Labour Organization (ILO), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and World Food Programme (WFP) and noted the need for a common agreement across agencies on a set of indicators to constitute a minimally accepted agency gender mainstreaming performance level.

The background paper was endorsed at the UNDG Principals’ meeting in July 2006, where agreement was reached on development of a UNCT-level ‘Accounting for Gender Equality’ Score Card that sets minimum standards for UNCTs to assess their performance, and to identify gaps and progress across the system. The Gender Score Card is intended to assist UNCTs in filling this gap. The Score Card was developed by the UNDG (UNDG) Gender Equality Task Team, and endorsed by the UNDG Principals in 2008. UNCTs are encouraged to use the Score Card in its current form.

The Score Card is one of three system-wide accountability mechanisms in the UN. The Score Card is focused on the performance of the UNCT, rather than the performance of any one UN organization. It intends to provide an assessment of what the UN as a whole contributes to gender mainstreaming and consequently to the promotion of gender equality. It is intended to complement existing accountability frameworks. The main focus of the Score Card is to measure strategies and processes that are gender mainstreamed rather than development results.

UNCT in Zimbabwe undertook a Gender Score Card exercise in 2011 where UNCT scored highly in gender mainstreaming in Decision-making, Planning and Partnerships.  Low scores were in budgeting, Monitoring and Evaluation and Quality Control and Accountability[1] . The recommendations from the Score Card exercise are being implemented such as the UNCT gender mainstreaming strategy and UN Gender Coordination framework which were developed to ensure a common approach by all agencies. Due to lapse in time since the last score card exercise in 2011, it is important to conduct the same exercise as we head into the new era of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  This gives the UNCT an opportunity to create a baseline for monitoring progress on SDG 5.

The Gender Score Card Exercise:

The Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR) of Operational Activities for Development calls for the UN development system to expand and strengthen its work on gender equality and the empowerment of women including using the UN Country Team Performance Indicators for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (the “Scorecard”) as a planning and reporting tool for assessing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming by UN Country Teams (UNCTs). The importance of gender equality and women empowerment was reaffirmed by the General Assembly in Resolution 71/243 of December 2016[2].

The United Nations Country Team (UNCT) in Zimbabwe works under the Delivery as One modality to support national development priorities in the country. The work of the UNCT in Zimbabwe is guided by the priorities set out in the Zimbabwe United Nations Development Assistance Framework (ZUNDAF) 2016-2020 and the UN Resident Coordinator (UNRCO), participating agencies and funds. They work together across their respective mandates to deliver a joint and multi-sectoral programme – ‘Delivering as One’ – thereby enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness and coherence of the UN Systems activities in Zimbabwe. The UN Secretary General, in his address to ECOSOC in June 2017[3] on “Repositioning the UN development system to deliver on the 2030 Agenda”, called for clear strategies and action plans to achieve gender equality.  The Score Card is currently being revised to ensure relevancy to delivering as one countries.

UN Women on behalf of the RCO and as part of UN Women’s mandated role of gender mainstreaming in UNCT will coordinate the second Gender Score Card process.

The results will guide future planning and programming with the aim of fully integrating gender dimensions in all the UN supported work especially in the ZUNDAF 2016-2020.

An International consultant will be recruited to undertake the Score Card exercise.

Purpose of the Score Card:

The purpose of the Score Card exercise is to assess the effectiveness of the UN Country Team in gender mainstreaming, promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as to provide a set of recommendations for improvements.

The objectives of the Score Card exercise are:

  • To assist UNCTs in identifying areas in which they are meeting or not meeting minimum standards;
  • To stimulate a constructive dialogue within the UNCT about the status of support for gender equality and women’s empowerment and make recommendations for improvement;
  • To identify technical assistance needs to support the achievement of minimum standards;
  • To identify and share good practices in gender mainstreaming and the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

[1] Gender Score Card 2011

[2] GA 71/243 of 2016

[3] ECOSOC 2017- “Repositioning the UN development system to deliver on the 2030 Agenda”.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work and Deliverables:

The International consultant will work under the direct supervision of the UN Women Representative in consultation with RCO, guided by the GRG Coordinator. Working in close collaboration with the Gender Results Group, the Programmes Management Team and the UNCT Heads of Agencies, the consultant will undertake the Gender Score Card exercise and produce an analytic report on the results, including the Gender scoring and recommendations.

The consultant will:

Review the following documents:

  • Gender Scorecard and User’s Guide; ZUNDAF 2016-2020; ZUNDAF Joint Implementation Plan; ZUNDAF 2016 Annual report; UNDG Common Country Assessment and UNDAF Guidelines for UN Country Teams on Preparing Country Comprehensive Assessment (CCA) ; UNCT planning and programming documents and reports; Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) State; UNCT  and Shadow Reports 2012  and 2014; UPR reports 2012 and 2016; National development documents and key national planning documents;  UNCT Joint Programmes and Budgets; UNCT Performance Indicators for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (Desk Review 2012-2014-published 18 June 2015; Zimbabwe  UNCT Gender Score Card report 2011; UNCT Gender Mainstreaming strategy

Conduct Gender Score Card and Gender marker induction meeting for Gender Results Group;

Conduct Individual and Focus Group Interviews with;

  • Resident Coordinator; Heads of Agencies and other UN Staff; ZUNDAF –Results Groups chairs and Coordinators; Joint teams (SDGs, UN Human Rights); OMT Chair; Counterparts including women’s groups, civil society and government ministries; other stakeholders as recommended by the Resident Coordinator’s Office and HODs; development partners;

Draft Score Card and narrative report;

Present the draft score card and report at a validation meeting for the GRG/PMT/UNCT Heads of Agencies;

Debrief the Resident Coordinator and the UNCT members;

Complete and submit the final Scorecard, narrative report and follow up action matrix.

The Gender Score card exercise will cover the period of 2012 to 2016.

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: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Demonstrate good oral and written communication skills;
  • Focus on impact and results for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s Degree or its equivalent in Social Sciences, Gender and Development, Human Rights, International Development or other relevant fields.

Experience:

  • 10 years of professional experience in gender equality and development with international organization;
  • Experience on gender mainstreaming and results-based management;
  • Familiarity with UNDAF processes and UN inter-agency coordination processes;
  • Previous experience with the Gender Equality Score Card, narrative report and follow up action matrix for UNCTs;
  • Proven experience in producing UN analytical reports in the area of gender equality and women’s rights;
  • Proven experience in evaluations, research and critical assessments, report writing, development of gender mainstreaming materials and technical support to UNCTs.

Language:

  • English with excellent writing and presentation skills.
UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.
This vacancy is now closed.
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