International Consultant to Conduct an Evaluation of the Partnership between UN Women and African Union Commission

Contract

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Background

Since 2005, UN Women has partnered with the African Union Commission (AUC) with the view to leveraging ongoing and emerging policy dialogue processes and initiatives for greater integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) priorities; strengthening knowledge management by tracking the implementation of policies, identifying good practices to inform AU Heads of States’ decisions and priorities on empowerment of women and girls in Africa and disseminating to catalyze gender sensitive regional policies and; the promotion of a coherent UN System support to the AU priorities in line with various AU GEWE frameworks.

The mandate of the AUC is to support, facilitate and advance the integration agenda of the African Union (AU), in line with Agenda 2063. Aspiration 6 of Agenda 2063 calls for “An Africa, whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children.” The AU recognises that that gender equality is a fundamental human right and an integral part of regional integration, economic growth and social development and has developed the AU’s strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) to ensure the inclusion of women in Africa’s development agenda. The AUC’s Women, Gender and Youth Directorate (WGDD) is the responsible for leading, guiding, advocating for and coordinating the AU’s efforts to achieve gender equality and promote women’s empowerment and ensuring African countries live up to the AU’s Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa (SDGEA).

As the global GEWE champion, UN Women continues to work towards accelerating progress on meeting the needs of women and girls in Africa through its Country Offices in the East and Southern African Region (ESAR), the West and Central Africa Region (ESAR) and the Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS), Regional Offices in the three regions as well as the AU Liaison Office support African Union (AU) and AU Member States to domesticate, implement, monitor and report on global and continental GEWE standards. UN Women works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that these standards are effectively implemented and benefit women and girls in the region and across Africa. UN Women - also engages globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals and AU’s Agenda 2063 a reality for women and girls.

To reinforce the long-standing partnership, an MOU was signed between UN Women and African Union Commission in December 2020 which was operationalized for an initial 3 (three) year period. The MOU broadly aims at facilitating cooperation and close collaboration between the two institutions with the aim of accelerating progress to the achievement of continental GEWE commitments. Specific areas of collaboration include the economic empowerment of women; the promotion of women’s leadership and effective participation in decision making positions; the elimination of all forms of violence against women; the protection of women’s rights in conflict, post-conflict and humanitarian situations; the

promotion of women’s reproductive health and rights; joint advocacy for the ratification, domestication and implementation of global and regional norms; strengthening gender mainstreaming and monitoring capacity in AU and AU organs; promoting an enabling environment for women and girls engagement in ICT; and forging joint resource mobilization for GEWE programs. The MOU mandated the two institutions to further develop operationalization documents such as work plans and program/project documents for the effective implementation of the joint areas of collaboration. To further the objectives of the MOU, a joint African Union-UN Women Strategy on GEWE in Africa was launched in February

2023 outlining the priorities that advance the implementation, monitoring, evaluation of the AU Strategy for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment 2018-2028. The AU GEWE priorities have also been espoused by Agenda 2063’s first ten-year implementation plan (FTYIP) (2013-2023) which is nearing completion and ushering the beginning of the roll out of the second ten-year implementation plan.

In this regard, the technical collaboration sustained the efforts for the enhanced mainstreaming of gender in policies, organs and processes of the AU. It further strengthened monitoring and reporting of the SDGs, the AU Agenda 2063 as well as other policy and legal commitments and advanced multi- stakeholder partnerships in mobilizing Africa’s inputs to global CSW processes. Through the partnership, joint flagship regional programs such as the Spotlight Initiative Africa Regional Program (SIARP), Positive Masculinity Initiative and the African Girls Can Code Initiative (AGCCI) have been implemented to advance the continental EVAWG, HPs, SRHR and STEM related GEWE priorities. Joint initiatives such as the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) was operationalized continentally and in 34 AU Member States to galvanize women’s leadership towards lasting peace and sustainable development in all sectors and at all levels, building on, and working with, existing women networks. The partnership also facilitated the participation and engagement of women’s organisations; GEWE Civil Society organisations, youth and their networks; traditional, cultural and religious leaders in continental and global normative and advocacy processes and initiatives.

In view of the fast-approaching completion of the duration of the MOU, the two institutions agreed to evaluate progress in the implementation of the priorities which constitutes one of the key actions under the agreement. The findings and recommendations of the evaluation will inform strategic level dialogue, the review of the existing agreement and the development of supplementary planning/programming documents to inform future cooperation frameworks. It will also inform the development of the Agenda 2063’s second ten-year implementation plan which is underway.

To this end, UN Women and AUC propose to commission a consultancy to carry out an evaluation of the current cooperation framework between the two institutions under the MOU (2020-2023) to generate the lessons; assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the implementation of the areas of collaboration; assess the relevance and sustainability of the results as a contribution to longer-term outcomes in line with key continental and global GEWE commitments. The evaluation will enable the partners to identify strategies to address the gaps and intensify the ongoing cooperation towards the full realization of the objectives under the MOU.

Duties and Responsibilities

The main deliverables of the evaluation are;

• An inception report- upon the review of available documents and an initial discussion with senior and technical focal points from UN Women and AUC.
• Preliminary Findings to be shared and presented with relevant stakeholders in UN Women and AUC.
• Final Evaluation report with key recommendations.
• A 2-3 pager executive summary of the evaluation report
• A short PowerPoint presentation summarizing the key findings and recommendations.

Competencies

C****o****mpetencies: Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

C****o****r****e Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

• Have a good knowledge of the norms and standards of evaluations of the United Nations Evaluation Group (UNEG).
• Good command of data collection and analysis techniques quantitative and qualitative.
• Have excellent analytical, writing and synthesis skills.
• Demonstrate responsiveness, objectivity, organization and have a good methodology in carrying out the work.
• Demonstrate an ability to produce quality results on time outsourced and work under pressure.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master's degree in international relations, gender, sociology, demography, economics, law or other disciplines related.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of planning, programming, reviews and/or evaluation experience, seven years of which in strategy planning/reviews in development programs related to human rights, gender and results-based management.
• Knowledge and experience with Africa regional development, policy and legislative frameworks;
• Extensive experience with UN programming, and the Africa regional context with intergovernmental organizations such as AUC and RECs;
• Experience working on women’s human rights and gender equality; familiarity with the relevant
• context in Africa;
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with institutions, partners in development and civil society organizations in the region in especially those focused on promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment activities;
• Experience with the United Nations system, good knowledge of the UN Women mandate and its programmatic frameworks and rules and United Nations procedures would be an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Working knowledge of French language is an asset.

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) a completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment.

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided?on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel 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.)