UNWomen-National Analyst on Women’s Economic Empowerment/Consultancy Contract

Background

UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) adopted its strategic plan for 2022-2025 in March 2022. In the strategic plan, it is highlighted that one of the key priorities to achieve gender equality in the Arab States is the speedy acceleration of women’s employment throughout the region, which has hovered around 21% since the 1990s, UN Women is embarking on a large-scale multi-country program to surge women’s employment in 7 countries (3 in North Africa, 2 in the Levante and 2 in the Gulf).

The initial phase of this work was concluded in May 2022. It was dedicated to the analysis of the factors behind the stagnated levels of women’s employment in the Arab States, with a focus on not only challenges but, more specifically, on distinct opportunities that could accelerate women’s employment in the region. The analysis established the need for a multi-disciplinary approach, bringing together efforts to shift social norms, reduce the burden of care work, improve laws and policies, and strategically use social and mass media to bring about these changes. The strategy has a strong emphasis on the role of the private sector, focusing on three sectors, with distinct business cases in each. Lastly, the approach seeks to guarantee sustainable finance to deliver on this agenda through a shift to gender-responsive budgeting and blended finance.

The regional programme will be implemented across several countries, with Jordan being one of them. UN Women Country Office for Jordan plans to engage with key national stakeholders to contextualise the programme to national and local priorities to enhance women’s economic participation. This will be done through national consultations and analytical work on relevant themes and economic sectors. To support this process, UN Women Jordan Country Office is planning to recruit a long-term National Consultant on Women’s Economic Empowerment to support:

• Support the co-creation of Surge Women’s Employment programme in Jordan as part of the regional one by utilizing the initial analyses done for this purpose by UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States.
• Support the development of the country’s profile on women’s economic empowerment at JCO and contribute to making employment projections in collaboration with relevant staff and identified strategic partners and stakeholders.
• Identify strategic stakeholders and convene consultations and discussions to implement the adopted participatory approach in the development of the country’s profile on women’s economic empowerment and the Surge Women’s Employment programme and to strengthen partnerships and recognition of UN Women’s efforts in this field.
• Support the development of a sustainable finance component for Surge Women’s Employment programme that is aligned with Jordan’s eco-system and that can attract partners to engage in (IFIs, MDBs, others).

The consultant will work under the overall guidance of the UN Women Jordan Deputy Country Representative and direct supervision of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Portfolio Lead.

Duties and Responsibilities

Key Functions and Accountabilities

1. Support in the programme management and technical advice concerning the work for Women’s Economic Empowerment Portfolio and the contextualization of UN Women regional Surge Women’s Employment programme to Jordan’s case.

• Support the development of a roadmap for the contextualization of the Surge Women’s Employment programme and its inception in Jordan, following the guidelines and outlines established as part of the Regional Programme
• Support in doing desk review to complement and improve an existing analysis done by UN Women JCO based on identified priorities to surge women’s employment in Jordan. The goal is to develop a comprehensive country context analysis aligned to the themes and sectors of interest identified to surge employment of women in Jordan, particularly referring to the accelerators and enablers of the regional employment programme.
• Support the Portfolio Lead in programme management tasks under the WEE portfolio.
• Support the Portfolio Lead in managing responsible parties and consultants as required under the WEE portfolio.

2. Support the development of a multi-disciplinary programme

• Undertake a mapping exercise of key national and sectoral level stakeholders, civil society organizations and businesses, particularly as related to the identified amplifiers of the programme.
• Support the organization of workshops to sensitize stakeholders of the design processes and the envisaged employment programme in Jordan and convene consultations to enhance national ownership and products localization.
• Contribute to the desk review to prepare a set of baseline and target indicators for Jordan’s country employment programme within the regional programme.
• Conduct and co-facilitate detailed key informant interviews, focus group discussion and sector level / member-based organizations workshops to consult on the design of the women’s employment programme. Use these engagements to:

a) Ideate and conceptualize possible interventions.

b) Identify gaps if existed in the approach and support in closing them.

c) Identify international best practices to introduce and national aspects to scale up.

d) Map the ecosystem players (as aligned to the programmes multi-disciplinary approach), their strength weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

e) Seek validation of ideas from other leading experts

• Support the development of a sustainable finance component for women’s employment programme that is aligned with Jordan’s eco-system that can attract partners to engage in (IFIs, MDBs, others).
• Co-facilitate the respective in-country missions and work-sessions (supported by UN Women staff).

3. Support in the finalization and rolling out of the programme.

• Support the validation of the proposed implementation plan with the ad hoc consultative working group, key international partners and beyond.
• Support the initial rolling out of activities under the country-level implementation plan.
• Support the utilization of the identified entry points to develop programmes/ joint programmes for women’s economic empowerment.

4. The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the development and delivery of the employment strategy.

ActivitiesDeliverablePayment Schedule1) Planning for the assignment

Prepare an implementation plan, outlining

methodology and overarching approach (aligned with the broad outline)Approved workplanEarly June2) Support in the programme management and technical advice concerning the work for Women’s Economic Empowerment Portfolio and the contextualization of UN Women regional Surge Women’s Employment programme to Jordan’s caseCompleted tasks per required by the requests of the Portfolio Lead

June- December3) Support country level consultations.

• Mapping relevant actors and designing an engagement approach that are suitable.
• Document the outcomes, agreements and next steps from the engagements with stakeholders.
• Outline emerging lessons from engagements to inform design of

programme Approved consultation reports Early July4)Support the development of a multi- disciplinary programmeApproved deliverables based on the identified

functions and accountabilities aboveAugust5)Contribute to the development of UN Women approach to surge women’s employment in Jordan that contains:

• An overview of the situation and the proposed response
• Theory of change interpreting the approach logic based on all the data collected,
• Incorporate all aspects JCO work on concerning surging women’s employment, including policies and

laws, social norms, private sector and blended finance, accompanied by three country level annexes (based on the identified economic sectors.

• specific implementation plan under the multi-disciplinary regional framework on Surging Women’s EmploymentApproved UN Women programme/approach to surge women’s employment in JordanSeptember6)Support the validation of the proposed implementation plan with the ad hoc

consultative working group, key international partners and beyond.Final implementation planSeptember7)Support the development of the implementation plan and lead the rolling out of programme inception activities.Agreed upon deliverables based on the workplan within 30 working daysNovember

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: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Strong knowledge of women’s economic empowerment, especially on private sector development.
• Strong programme formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation skills.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making.
• Strong networking skills.
• Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities, and threats to fundraising.
• Strong knowledge of the region.
• Ability to write policy papers, speeches, and briefings.

Required Skills and Experience

Recruitment Qualifications

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Economics, Finance, Law, Gender or a related field is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A project/program management certification would be an added advantage.

Experience

• At least 5 years of experience in the development and management of large-scale national programs.
• Demonstrated experience in Women Economic Empowerment and Employment Creation is required.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required.
• Excellent and verbal written communication skills.

Languages

• Fluency in English is required

How to Apply

• Personal CV or P11 (P11 can be downloaded from:?

https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/E mployment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc)

• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)
• Managers may ask (ad hoc) for any other materials relevant to pre-assessing the relevance of their experience, such as reports, presentations, publications, campaigns, or other materials.?

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