Call for Expression of Interest (EoI) - EAPRO Gender Consultant Roster 2022-2024, UNICEF East Asia and Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO), Bangkok, Thailand, Job No

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UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfilling their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, a better future

UNICEF works to ensure the rights of all children in the East Asia and Pacific Region. This means the rights of every child living in this country, irrespective of their nationality, gender, religion or ethnicity, to:

• survival – to basic healthcare, peace and security;
• development – to a good education, a loving home and adequate nutrition;
• protection – from abuse, neglect, trafficking, child labour and other forms of exploitation; and
• participation – to express opinions, be listened to and take part in making any decisions that affect them

How can you make a difference?

The Gender and Adolescent Development Section, UNICEF East Asia Pacific Regional Office (EAPRO) is seeking gender consultants to be part of a stand-by EAPRO Gender Consultant Roster for short- and longer-term consultancy assignments. These may be remote/home-based or in-person within EAP region working alongside the EAPRO Regional Gender Advisor (RGA) or Country Office technical leads. This EAPRO Gender Consultant Roster – of qualified and experienced pre-screened consultants – will be established to provide technical assistance to East Asia Pacific Country Offices (COs) or EAPRO to support the implementation of UNICEF’s new Gender Policy and Action Plan (GAP 2022-25), including but not limited to gender equality research for transformative results, programming and policy guidance, gender equality, and women and girl’s empowerment.

Candidates from the region are encouraged to apply.

This Expression of Interest (EoI) vacancy announcement is for gender consultants to submit their application for consideration to be placed on the EAPRO Gender Consultant Roster. Short-listed applicants will be placed on the roster to be sourced for upcoming assignments in 2022-2024.

Purpose of Assignment

UNICEF is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to promote the equal rights of women and girls and to support their full participation in the political, social and economic development of their communities. It strives to mainstream gender equality in all its work for children with the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) as a principal reference, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as an important underpinning of the organisation’s mandate and mission. In addition, as a joint implementer of the Common Chapter of the strategic plans of the funds and programmes and a participating entity of the UN System-wide Action Plan (UN-SWAP) on gender equality, UNICEF annually reports on the 17 common Performance Indicators. Programmatically and institutionally, UNICEF’s Gender Action Plan (GAP) provides the main vehicle for integrating gender equality concerns into its operational processes and policies, guiding the organisation’s contributions towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

UNICEF’s work on gender equality is guided by the GAP 2022-25. The GAP 2022-25 specifies how UNICEF will promote gender equality across the organization’s work, in alignment with the UNICEF Strategic Plan 2022-25 and supports the achievement of gender equality goals as outlined in Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The GAP 2022-2025 framework defines a dual-track approach for both integrated and targeted approaches to gender quality in programme strategies and results. Integrated refers to the integration of gender equality outcomes across the life course in all five Goal Areas of the Strategic Plan 2022-2025, such as (a) quality maternal health care and nutrition, and HIV testing, counselling and care; (b) gender-responsive education systems and equitable access to education for all; (c) addressing violence against girls, boys and women, as well as harmful practices; (d) equitable WASH systems; and (e) gender-responsive social protection systems and care work.

Targeted refers to four targeted priority actions designed to advance adolescent girls leadership and wellbeing, such as (a) promoting adolescent girls’ nutrition and pregnancy care and preventing HIV/AIDS and human papillomavirus; (b) advancing girls’ education, learning and skills, including science, technology, engineering, mathematics and digital skills; (c) eliminating child marriage and early unions; and (d) promoting accessible and dignified menstrual health and hygiene services, including tackling taboos with respect to menstruation.

GAP 2022-25 also articulates four cross-cutting principles and priorities to ensure the integration of gender within programmatic results remains tangible and actionable across all sections. These are (a) addressing gender-based violence; (b) changing discriminatory gender norms; (c) promoting gender-responsive workplaces and institutional accountability; and (d) engaging men and boys as allies for gender equality.

The purpose of this EAPRO Gender Consultant Roster is to assist in identifying prospective candidates for individual Consultants/Contractors for EAPRO and East Asia Pacific COs. Technical expertise provided by rostered gender consultants plays a critical role in supporting UNICEF EAPRO’s work in gender equality, whether it relates to situational analysis, programme and strategy design, communications, research and studies or monitoring and evaluations to achieve results for women and girls. Short-listed applicants will be placed on the EAPRO Gender Consultant Roster to be sourced for upcoming assignments in 2022-2024.

Work Assignment

Gender consultants on the EAPRO Gender Consultant Roster will work alongside UNICEF EAPRO Regional Gender Advisor (RGA) and/or UNICEF Country Office technical leads to respond to gender support and technical assistance requests, and to advance the knowledge and implementation of the GAP 2022-25 integrated, targeted and cross-cutting gender priorities. Support and technical assistance requests will be formulated into a specific Terms of Reference (ToR) for each work assignment.

The main service areas in future work assignment ToRs are as follows:

• Gender support to sectoral programming: technical assistance to conceptualize and operationalize gender mainstreaming in UNICEF’s sector programming: Health, Nutrition, WASH, Child Protection, HIV/AIDs, Education, ECD, Social Policy, ADAP, Climate Action, Emergency, SBC, Innovation, Disability, Private Sector Engagement etc. Provision of technical inputs to increase gender-responsiveness of sector-specific toolkits, manuals, packages, standards, trainings, process guidance, programme documents, policy drafts, etc.
• Gender reviews and gender analysis: support gender reviews of country office programmes, guided by UNICEF the new gender programmatic review (GPR) tools; map and identify country programme outputs and activities with the greatest potential for impact and scale; support in-depth gender analysis linked to selected outputs, sectoral or cross-sectoral programme components; assist with developing Theories of Change (ToC) that analyse and address intermediate gender barriers/bottlenecks and structural determinants; provide actionable recommendations for accelerating gender in the programme.
• Gender capacity building/training: support gender development building efforts in a variety of models, methods and materials delivered in multiple accessible formats and languages relevant to East Asia and Pacific region and country contexts; enhance gender capacity for high quality gender-integrated programming, research, advocacy and communications, through coordination of training of sectoral specialists and gender focal points; and keep updated on the global and regional strategies, initiatives and events on the dissemination of gender-related tools and guidance.
• Gender research and evidence building: Develop and conduct gender-related research, using both qualitative and quantitative approaches, including scoping studies and strategic research for advocacy; support efforts to close the gender data gap and advise on data collection and management strategies and tools; strengthen the quality of research, analysis, and evidence building on gender related programming and policy.
• Gender results frameworks: Provide guidance to the articulation of gender results in country programmes and the development of gender-inclusive results frameworks; provide capacity building in framing gender results and indicators and gender-responsive monitoring and evaluation; support the review and development of gender-related indicator sets; perform (rapid) field reviews/assessments of gender results of programmes or programmes components.
• Gender & Innovation: Provide gender technical support to the development of innovative solutions (technical or social innovations) to ‘unsolved’ problems of the Gender Action Plan; improve the gender-responsive and transformative nature of ongoing innovation projects; provide review of and advice on innovative gender pilots and planning of scale up. Support the learning agenda in the areas of girls’ digital skills and entrepreneurship; girls and the gender digital divide; gender-smart innovative finance.
• Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment: support cross-sectoral partnerships and programming that work with and for adolescent girls and strive to empower them, through evidence-generation, technical assistance, quality assurance, coordination, communication, or other, in particular in the areas of:

1. Adolescent Pregnancy and Child Marriage: provide technical advisory services on adolescent pregnancy and child marriage programming, based on latest evidence in the EAP region, including drivers of and response services to adolescent pregnancy and child marriage.
2. Girls’ engagement and leadership in Climate Change Action: support emerging programming on climate change action with a particular focus on girls’ leadership and engagement; generate and share evidence on what works; advise on partnerships and approaches; etc
3. Girls Digital Literacy: provide expertise in advancing girls’ digital literacy, including trainings, frameworks, curricula, etc that support girls’ use and adoption of digital opportunities.

• Communications and Knowledge Management: Support documentation and sharing of guidance and experience in gender programming and lessons learned; showcase gender-related best practices; design and edit gender knowledge products; develop social media contributions to promote gender equality; perform gender knowledge management tasks for country offices.

Work Schedule and Deliverables: Based on the specific TOR for each assignment.

Estimated Duration of Contract: Up to 11.5 months (with possibility of extension)

Official Travel: Official travel will be specified in the TOR for each assignment, as requested by EAPRO and/or COs.

Work Location: The consultants short-listed for the EAPRO Gender Consultant Roster may be required to work remote/home-based or in-person within East Asia Pacific region, and be willing to travel to East Asia Pacific countries as needed. The consultant should perform the work using their own resources (e.g. computer, internet connection) and UNICEF will not provide working space/equipment.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

Technical Expertise

Candidates must possess technical expertise in at least one of the following areas:

• Gender Equality in Health Systems & Workforce (Early Child Development, Girls’ nutrition, pregnancy care, HIV & HPV prevention)
• Gender Equality in teaching and education systems (Girls’ secondary education, learning & skills)
• Gender socialization (Human Rights; ADAP; SIP; C4D; Disability)
• Gender Based Violence (GBV) against girls, boys and women (GBV in Emergencies & development linkages, child marriage and early unions, FGM/C and other harmful practices, Child Protection)
• Gender responsive WASH & hygiene systems (including Menstrual Health & Hygiene)
• Resource mobilization/strategic partnerships
• Gender Equality data and analysis
• Knowledge Management
• Programme Management

Professional Experience

Candidates must possess professional experience in the following areas:

• An advanced university degree in one of the disciplines relevant to the following areas: Public Health, Behavioral and other Social sciences, Public Policy, International Development, Gender Studies, or another field relevant to international development and humanitarian assistance.
• A minimum of five years of progressively responsible professional work experience in the UN or other international development organization, national government or the private sector.
• A proven record of developing field tools and guidance for gender analysis and sector programming.
• A sound understanding of gender equality and gender issues in international development.
• Experience developing training materials and conducting training and related capacity building on gender equality programming for transformative results.
• Previous experience developing and managing evidence-based communications and advocacy initiatives.
• Ability to work under pressure and respond to deadlines without sacrificing quality.
• Demonstrated drive for results in previous work experiences.

It will be a desirable asset that candidates possess professional experience in:

• Minimum of 2 years of progressively more responsible and relevant professional work experience with gender equality, research, data analysis, field programming and evaluation in international development will be an asset.
• Experience implementing gender equality programming for transformative results and research in low- and middle-income settings will be an asset.
• Experience developing case studies, blogs, documenting lessons learned, etc. desired.

Skills

Strong candidates will possess the following skills:

• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to work across different units and encourage collaboration; ability to explain complex concepts to different audiences; ability to communicate with all levels of management and staff, sensitivity for cultural differences
• Excellent writing and analytical skills, especially in synthesizing complex information for multiple audiences
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to handle multiple assignments with competing deadlines
• Coordination (experience in an inter-agency coordination role is an advantage)
• Professionalism (proven integrity, objectivity, and professional competence)
• Ability to work with different stakeholders and build consensus
• Advocacy across a wide variety of sectors
• Leadership (ability to lead a technical network)
• Leveraging (ability to engage at senior leadership level and secure buy-in)
• Problem-solving (ability to know what needs to be done and identify the resources to do it)

Languages

Fluency in English a must and knowledge of a language in the East Asia Pacific region is an asset.

Behavioural competencies

• Core values: Diversity and Inclusion, Integrity, Commitment to Core Competencies: Communication, Working with people, Drive for Results
• Functional competencies: Analyzing, Learning and Researching, Planning and Organizing, Following instructions and Procedures

Interested candidates are requested to submit CV or P-11, full contact information of minimum 3 references, availability, and proposed daily professional fee in USD by 29 September 2022****.

FORM P11.doc

For every Child, you demonstrate…

UNICEF’s values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, Accountability (CRITA) and core competencies in Communication, Working with People, and Drive for Results.

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

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UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles 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.

Remarks:

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.

Individuals engaged under a consultancy or individual contract will not be considered “staff members” under the Staff Regulations and Rules of the United Nations and UNICEF’s policies and procedures, and will not be entitled to benefits provided therein (such as leave entitlements and medical insurance coverage). Their conditions of service will be governed by their contract and the General Conditions of Contracts for the Services of Consultants and Individual Contractors. Consultants and individual contractors are responsible for determining their tax liabilities and for the payment of any taxes and/or duties, in accordance with local or other applicable laws.

UNICEF is committed to promote the protection and safeguarding of all children.