International Expert on Gender Responsive Budgeting

Background

UN Women (UNW) 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 of its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations systems efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Over the past years, and in response to the need for increased accountability for implementation of gender equality commitments policies and financing decisions related to aid and domestic resources, UN Women played an active role with all its partners, to ensure that gender equality is mainstreamed in strategies, programmes and action plans. Moreover, UN Women is leading the global efforts related to women, peace and security (WPS) agenda.

One of the key areas of work for UN Women country office for Jordan is supporting Jordanian National Commission for Women (JNCW) and other government stakeholders in the security sector in the implementation of the Jordanian National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 (JONAP), which was endorsed by the prime minister and the cabinet in December 2017. The JONAP is based around four strategic goals, aiming to increase; (1) gender responsiveness and meaningful participation and leadership of women in the security sector and in peace operations, (2) participation of women in Prevention of Violent Extremism and in peacemaking, (3) gender sensitive services to refugee and Jordanian women, and (4) recognition of the benefits of gender equality and the role of women in Peace and Security.

Objective of this Assignment

The main objective of this assignment is to support government partners identified as responsible parties in the JONAP to strengthen their knowledge of gender responsive budgeting tools and their capacity to apply these tools to sector budgeting and to support national financing of the JONAP. The goal of this technical support is to strengthen institutional capacity of JONAP’s key implementing partners (including ministries and local government bodies, CSOs and Security Sector representatives) in gender responsive budgeting (GRB) and gender analysis.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of UN Women’s Country Representative, and the direct supervision of the Programme Management Specialist, the GRB Consultant will be responsible for the following duties and responsibilities:

1. Develop concept note and work plan for the assignment, including the methodology and the specific activities to be carried out.
2. Conduct a literature review of the most relevant legislative and policy documents on national budgeting procedures and existing gender equality policies and action plans. The review should include reviewing the current budget system and identifying the key gaps in GRB implementation and methods\mechanisms for incorporating JONAP in the coming budgeting cycle.
3. Direct data collection based on consultation and interviews with key stakeholders and available sources of information to estimate the budget allocated\to be allocated for the implementation of JONAP and identity possible methods and proposed budget lines.
4. Develop assessment\analysis report on GRB with a set of recommendations on JONAP priorities to be incorporated in the next Budget Cycle based on the JONAP’s logical framework and Costing.
5. Present the assessment’s findings and recommendations to UN Women and national stakeholders in a workshop to increase their knowledge in the budgeting process and procedures, and review the assessment report accordingly.
6. Develop and submit the training material\ modules for UN Women’s feedback and endorsement.
7. Adjust draft modules based on the feedback from UN Women and JNCW. The training modules should consist of the following minimum elements:
   • Course outline and agenda;
   • Training methodology;
   • Presentation slides with visuals, infographics, charts, maps, including notes for each slide;
   • Case studies and small groups exercises with handouts;
   • Background reading;
   • Pre and post tests to assess progress of participants’ skills and knowledge before and after trainings.
8. Deliver a 3 days training to sensitize the national partners on GRB analysis in the context of NAP. The training should include an introduction of key relevant concepts including GRB, Gender Mainstreaming and National Planning.
9. Liaise on an ongoing basis with UN Women and JNCW and provide advice to UN Women and partners, as needed.
10. Work closely with the national partners to ensure their effective engagement in the execution of the assignment.
11. Submit final report with recommendations for future interventions and results of the trainees’ pre-post evaluation.

Competencies

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A master’s degree in economics, public finance, public policy, administration, development studies, or relevant fields, combined with at least 5 years of professional experience.

Or, a bachelor’s degree in any same field combined with at least 7 years of professional experience.

Experience: 

- At least 5 years of relevant experience in the field of aid effectiveness, macro-economics, public finance or related fields.

- Proven experience on gender equality, gender responsive budgeting and strategic plan-ning and budgeting systems.

- Proven experience on costing gender equality priorities, including Gender Responsive Budgeting.

- Proven experience in developing training material and delivering training courses on gender equality, gender responsive budgeting and programming.

- Experience with UN agencies and other international organizations, as well as with government agencies for promoting result -oriented budget, gender sensitive planning and budgeting and gender equality, is an asset.

Language Requirements: 

- Fluent spoken and written English (Arabic is an asset).

Duration

The duration of this assignment is estimated to be 40 working days within a period of 3 months between August – November 2018. The contract will be managed in accordance to the UN Women applicable human resource procedures and general terms and conditions. 

Fees and Schedule of Payments:

The successful candidate will receive his/her payment, approved by the UNWOMEN Country Representative, based on satisfactory services and deliverables in accordance with the ToR.