Background:

UN Women, 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.

The UN Women Regional Office for Arab States (ROAS) exercises UN Women functions at a regional level and in support of UN Women’s engagement in 17 countries across the region. Drawing on UN Women’s triple mandate, ROAS promotes the realization of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The ROAS Strategic Note 2022-2025 includes a comprehensive and innovative monitoring and reporting framework to measure and report on transformational results at the regional level, including in those countries where UN Women is a regionally based entity. ROAS engages with regional and global inter-governmental processes to ensure gender equality is an integral part of norms and standards and promotes women’s full participation and leadership in policy processes and gender-responsive governance systems, including gender statistics. ROAS aims to advance supportive regulatory frameworks for promoting decent work and enterprise development, including for women migrant workers, and promotes private sector engagement and the Women’s Empowerment Principles. Focusing on prevention and response, ROAS works to eliminate violence against women. ROAS’s programming takes a gender-responsive approach to the prevention of violent extremism and supports integration of gender considerations into humanitarian action and to advance the women, peace, and security agenda. 

The monitoring and reporting function plays a central role in facilitating the implementation of the Strategic Note/Biannual Work Plan, internal reporting processes, and donor reporting. Importantly, gender-responsive monitoring and reporting is critical to track and measure the impact of UN Women’s coordination mandate at country and regional levels, and the impact of engagement with the private sector on ESG priorities. In 2025, the Regional Office will develop a new Strategic Note covering the period 2026-2029, including a results framework and indicators that measure alignment with global priorities and demonstrate the impact of regional operations.  

The consultant will report to the Regional Coordination Specialist and will liaise closely with the Regional Strategic Planning Specialist and programme and monitoring and reporting colleagues in ROAS and Country Offices, as well as colleagues in the Strategic Planning, Resources and Evaluation Division in headquarters.

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work:

• Conduct in-depth bespoke research projects to answer questions of strategic importance for the office’s coordination, private sector partnerships, and programme development. This includes developing research tools, executing surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews, as well as quantitative and qualitative data analysis with tools such as Stata, R, SPSS, Atlas.ti, etc. This includes lead research and analysis on the impact of the Gender Equality Marker as a planning tool on reported results, impact assessment of corporate volunteerism as part of the Nokia portfolio, and other studies as needed;
• Conduct a comprehensive strategic review of UN Women ROAS’s operational and normative coordination results in the current Strategic Note and identify gaps and opportunities to strengthen coordination as a mainstreamed priority for UN Women’s operational and normative mandate in the context of the UN Gender Equality Acceleration Plan and UN80 process (includes developing a data collection plan, desk review of documentation, developing data collection tools (e.g., interview guides), conducting key informant interviews, and systematic and thematic analysis of qualitative data);
• Develop innovative indicator frameworks, monitoring plans, indicator methodological notes, and tools to facilitate measurement and reporting, including in relation to UN Women’s coordination and normative mandate in the context of the UN Gender Equality Acceleration Plan, and engagement with the private sector (e.g. Nokia project);
• Conduct trainings, develop analysis and research etc. to build capacities for gender-responsive planning, monitoring and reporting both within UN Women (ROAS and COs) and UNCTs and Gender Theme Groups in the Arab States region in line with standards contained in the UN System-Wide UN Country Team Gender Equality Scorecard;
• Lead coordination and quality assurance of ROAS’s corporate reporting (mid-year and annual) for the development of high-quality ROAS annual reports, including confirming accurate measurement of indicators against methodological notes, in line with UN Women’s standards;
• Perform other related tasks in line with the scope of this TOR. 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. In the event that mission travel is required, such costs will be covered by UN Women in line with travel policy. 

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

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 Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

• Knowledge and skills of results-based management;
• Strong knowledge of general gender equity and women’s empowerment issues in the Arab States region;
• Very strong knowledge of the UN system and the gender accountability tools and frameworks;
• Commitment to continuous improvement;
• Skills in qualitative and quantitative data analysis, including data analysis software like Stata, R, SPSS, Atlas.ti, QGIS, GoeDa, etc.

Required Qualifications:

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in data analysis, development, social sciences, gender and/or other 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.

Experience:

• At least seven years of progressively responsible experience at the national and/or international level in programme monitoring and reporting or evaluation and/or other related field is required;
• Experience in the field of gender and human rights of women is required;
• Experience working in the UN System is required;
• Experience particularly in the Arab States region is desirable;
• Excellent analytical skills with strong drive for results and capacity to work independently is required.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of Arabic or French is desirable.

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

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.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.