Consultant to pilot UNCT UN-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard

Contract

This is a National Consultant contract. More about National Consultant contracts.

Background

At the 59th Session of the UN General Assembly, Member States, in adopting the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review (TCPR) of Operational Activities for Development of the UN System 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 UN 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 UN Country Teams (UNCTs).

In 2006, the UNDG Task Team on Gender Equality commissioned a background paper on accountability mechanisms in UNDG agencies. This paper reviewed accountability for programming in support of gender equality in ILO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WFP and found that: “A common understanding of how to apply gender mainstreaming in UN operational activities is needed. This is because if there is no agreement on what constitutes a minimum level of actions to support gender equality, how will it be possible to hold agencies and UN Country Teams accountable for this. Reaching agreement across agencies on what constitutes a minimally acceptable performance to support gender equality, through an agreed set of indicators, would contribute to stronger guidance and accountability”. Subsequently this 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’ Scorecard that sets minimum standards for UNCTs to assess their performance, and to identify gaps and progress across the system.

The Gender Scorecard was endorsed by the UNDG in 2008 in response to the UN Chief Executive Board for Coordination 2006 Policy on gender equality and the empowerment of women (CEB/2006/2) to establish an accountability framework for assessing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming by UN Country Teams. The UN SWAP formed another part of the accountability framework, focusing on the implementation of the policy at the entity level.

The QCPR calls for the United Nations development system to expand and strengthen the use of the Gender Scorecard as a planning and reporting tool for assessing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming in the context of the UNDAF. In this vein and in line with internal assessments, the UNCT SWAP-Scorecard methodology is being revised in tandem with the United Nations System-wide Action Plan for gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-SWAP) to ensure greater alignment with the UN-SWAP and the SDGs, drawing on good global practices with motivating, managing and measuring institutional change processes.

In order to support the development of the gender-responsive UNDAF and ensure better accountability of UNCT towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in line with UN corporative policy in this area and the the UN Country Team Sierra Leone will pilot the UNCT SWAP-Scorecard. The Gender Scorecard will be used for UNCT’s self-assessment and for identifying gaps and corrective actions. UNCT will lead this process to complete the scorecard process in a participatory and timely manner.

Reporting to the Head of Office , the National Consultant will provide support to the UNCT colleagues support in implementing the UNCT Gender Scorecard

Duties and Responsibilities

1. MAIN OBJECTIVES OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The main objective of this consultancy is to implement UNCT SWAP-Scorecard methodology and assess the effectiveness of the UN Country Team Sierra Leone in gender mainstreaming, promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as to provide a set of recommendations for improvements.

Purpose of the Scorecard exercise

• To assist UNCTs in identifying areas in which they are meeting or not meeting minimum UNDG standards.
• To stimulate a constructive dialogue within the UNCT about the current status of support for gender equality and women’s empowerment and how it can be improved.
• To identify where technical assistance can support the achievement of minimum standards.

• To share good practice in supporting national priorities to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.

  2. DESCRIPTION OF RESPONSIBILITIES / SCOPE OF WORK AND DELIVERABLES

The UNCT SWAP-Scorecard methodology has been designed for in-country self-assessment as a means of fostering deeper understanding and ownership of results. The external gender specialist will facilitate the exercise and apply participatory methods to ensure the UNCT SWAP- Scorecard Inter Agency Assessment team (IAAT) is formed from the beginning of exercise, leads and own the process.

The IAAT include broad representation to ensure an adequate knowledge base on joint UN System actions.

To guide and support the IAAT with the piloting process, the consultant will conduct the following activities within the stipulated timeframes:

A. Background document review (home-based, 3 working days):

• UNCT UN-SWAP P Guidance and Draft UNCT UN-SWAP Scorecard Framework
• UNCT Gender Scorecard Reports for the countries in the regions and from other countries
• UNDG UNDAF guidance
• UNCT planning, budgets programming documents
• CEDAW Reports/other national assessments/National Gender Plans, etc.

B. Assistance and support for the IAAT (3 working days),

• Support the collection of complementary data and evidence to score indicators.
• Conduct gender analysis of complementary documents required to help the SSAT score areas of performance (such as knowledge products; UN Staff Survey; budget; etc.)
• Facilitate working sessions –at least one per area of performance- with key stakeholders such as the Resident Coordinator; heads of Agencies; key programme staff; M&E teams, partners, etc. to discuss and score areas of performance.
• Complete the scoring matrix based on IAAT discussions and agreements.
• Facilitate a one full day debrief with the IAAT to discuss outcomes and observations from Scorecard exercise.
• Gather feedback on the exercise through observations and discussions throughout the process

C. Reporting

• Draft Scorecard and narrative report, with inputs from the IAAT (3 working days) –
• Complete the final Scorecard, narrative report and follow-up matrix (2 working days) –
• Consolidate feedback from IAAT on the pilot process and circulate to WACARO team (2 working days) –
• Propose an action plan to address the gaps

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

Functional Competencies

• Good knowledge of programme formulation, implementation, and Results Based Management
• Good knowledge of monitoring and evaluation, evaluation design, data collection and analysis, and reporting
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports
• Analytical and report writing skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification: ·

• Advanced (Masters) degree in social and political sciences, human rights, gender equality etc. PhD degree is an asset.
• Good computer skills in Windows environment, knowledge of internet communications and command of MS Office applications (Word, Excel, Power Point).

Experience:

• At least 10 years of practical experience of work on gender mainstreaming in development programmes/projects at national and international levels.
• At least 3 years’ experience of work on results-based management, review and/or evaluation.
• Experience in gender data collection and analysis, including interviews, survey and focus groups.
• Previous experience with the Gender Equality Scorecard, narrative report and follow-up matrix.
• Experience on conducting gender trainings for staff of development agencies.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.