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 for women as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.  Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Based on UN legislative mandates and the UN Women Strategic Plan, the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) is tasked with providing strategic programme development, policy/ technical advisory services and quality assurance support to Multi-Country Offices (MCOs), Country Offices (COs) and Programme Presence Offices (PPOs). It undertakes or coordinates regional research and data analysis; advises on norms, policies and strategies for achieving the internationally and regionally agreed goals related to gender equality and women’s empowerment issues. It acts as a knowledge hub at the regional level, collecting evidence on progress and emerging issues and sharing knowledge on innovative approaches and lessons learned in implementation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an acute, multifaceted impact that leads to a deeper global crisis or feed additional conflict with especially dire consequences for women and girls. Women and girls deeply affected by the pandemic. Economic uncertainties due to lockdowns have left many women and men vulnerable to insecurities and many forms of violence. Likewise, a rise in hate speech targeted at women further heightens women’s vulnerability. Civil society and women’s groups, who have been on the frontlines of preventing violent extremism and promoting social cohesion in their communities in Asia, have now mobilized to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and to respond to the aftermath of lockdowns and related restrictions. With stretched capacity and limited financial support, they are still a lifeline in their communities but in dire need of support. These inherently regional problems of violent conflict as well as COVID-19 must consider a regional response, be gender sensitive, and learn from best practices and lessons learned in a rapidly changing context.

UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific in partnership with governments, civil society, research institutes and think tanks will implement the project “Gender-Responsive COVID-19 Prevention and Response” in four Mekong Countries (Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, and Viet Nam) with the aim to reduce the disproportionate gender-based risks and negative impact of COVID-19 on women, including those who are the most marginalized and in particularly vulnerable situations, while contributing to the COVID-19 prevention efforts in the Mekong region. In realizing this goal, UN Women will focus on three mutually reinforcing areas of intervention, including:

1. Women in at-risk and disaster-prone communities have access to life-saving information and resources that will reduce the spread of COVID-19;
2. Women have increased access to and benefit from COVID-19 prevention measures, including in GBV protection and prevention services; and
3. National and regional platforms are strengthened to inform inclusive and gender- responsive measures to prevent the spread and negative impact of COVID-19.

UN Women is working to ensure that women and girls, especially those most marginalized, are at the centre of COVID-19 prevention and response. The Monitoring and Reporting (M&R) Consultant will work under the “Gender-Responsive COVID-19 Prevention and Response” programme, which focuses on Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), Thailand and Viet Nam, and with a regional component. The project aims to increase women’s access to life-saving information and resources to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in at-risk and disaster-prone communities, increase their access to COVID-19 and gender-based violence (GBV) protection and prevention services, as well as leverage national and regional platforms to advance research and tools to inform inclusive and gender-responsive national and regional measures to reduce negative socio-economic impacts of the pandemic.

Reporting directly to the Programme Coordinator on COVID-19, the M&R Consultant is responsible for liaising with the COs/PPOs and their partners to ensure effective monitoring of the implementation and results, and to report results to the donor.

Duties and Responsibilities

Scope of Work

The purpose of the consultancy is to work with the regional and country team members of the “Gender-Responsive COVID-19 Prevention and Response” programme to ensure effective, timely and accurate monitoring and results reporting of the programme. Given the COVID-19 situation and travel restrictions, all monitoring activities that will be undertaken by the M&R Consultant will likely be done virtually.

In light of this, the M&R Consultant will perform the following tasks:

1. Establish monitoring work process and timeline based on UN Women guidelines and policies, and upon consultation with the UN Women country and regional teams under the “Gender-Responsive COVID-19 Prevention and Response” programme.
2. Develop a monthly monitoring report template, which will be submitted to the Programme Coordinator on COVID-19 every month. Contents include, but not limited to: intended plan for the month based on the agreed monitoring work process and timelines; monitoring and reporting work achieved during the month vis-à-vis the plan; areas that require additional support; and plan for the next month. Contents of the monthly monitoring report will cover from the first day to end date of the month.
3. Contents of the monthly monitoring activities include, but not limited to the following:
   • Coordinate with UN Women country and regional teams and their partners under the “Gender-Responsive COVID-19 Prevention and Response” programme to align existing monitoring tools and framework. 
   • Guide and support the regional and country teams in their monitoring activities based on UN Women’s guidelines and policies, including the review of the partners’ financial and narrative reports.
   • Advise regional and country teams to ensure that their implementation statuses are aligned with the results set forth in the prodoc.
   • Lead the interim and final donor reports drafting process, and draft the reports based on the results achieved and UN Women and donor guideline and policies.

Tasks and Deliverable 

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

Required Skills and Experience

Requirements and Qualifications

• A Master’s degree in Social Science, Economics, International Development Studies, Gender/Women's Studies or other related field; Bachelor’s degree with additional 2 years of relevant experiences as per below, may be substituted;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;
• Additional certificate and/or courses on monitoring, evaluation and reporting are considered an asset.
• 2 years of relevant national/international working experience in international development preferably with substantive experience in the area of development and or gender equality and women’s empowerment issues;
• Preferably 2 years of which experience working in the area of monitoring and reporting of donor-funded programme(s), including proven track-record in the design and implementation of comprehensive monitoring systems;
• Experience in the United Nations, UN Women and/or other multilateral organization, field work experiences are highly desirable;
• Strong analytical and writing skills;
• Good knowledge of research methods, solid understanding of knowledge management, and knowledge of ATLAS and Prince2 are considered an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required
• Fluency in Japanese is an asset
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset
• Knowledge of languages spoken in the programme countries is an asset

Institutional Arrangement

The consultant will work under the supervision of the Programme Coordinator of the COVID-19 and Humanitarian Action Programme & Regional Advisor for Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction. Given the COVID-19 pandemic situation, there will likely be no travels for the assignment. If travel is indeed arranged, UN Women will support flight cost and DSA. Work laptop, office supplies and other related costs will be covered by the consultant.

Contract period and work location

The consultant will be home-based, with the ability to participate in virtual meetings in times compatible with working hours of ASEAN Member States and the contract period will be 9 months, starting on 20 June 2022 and ending on 31 March 2023.

Evaluation

Applications will be evaluated based on the cumulative analysis.

• Technical Qualification (100 points) weight [80%]
• Financial Proposal (100 points) weight [20%]

A two-stage procedure is utilised in evaluating the applications, with evaluation of the technical application being completed prior to any price proposal being compared. Only the price proposal of the candidates who passed the minimum technical score of 70% of the obtainable score of 100 points in the technical qualification evaluation will be evaluated.

Technical qualification evaluation criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Financial/Price Proposal evaluation:

• Only the financial proposal of candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation will be considered and evaluated.
• The total number of points allocated for the price component is 100.
• The maximum number of points will be allotted to the lowest price proposal that is opened/ evaluated and compared among those technical qualified candidates who have attained a minimum of 70% score in the technical evaluation. All other price proposals will receive points in inverse proportion to the lowest price.

Submission of application

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit electronic application to hr.bangkok@unwomen.org  with -cc to duanglutai.khomson@unwomen.org not later than  9 June 2022, 23:59 Bangkok time.

Submission package includes:

1. Application letter explaining your interest in the consultancy and why you are the most suited candidate for this position
2. Updated CV
3. Personal History Form (P11) - The P11 Form can be downloaded from the following website: https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-04/P_11_form_UNwomen%20-JUL%202021.docx
4. A document (maximum of 2 pages) outlining the suggested monitoring framework, work process and timeline, taking in consideration of the COVID-19 situation, and the above background and scope of work
5. A writing sample that demonstrates the experience/expertise in monitoring and/or reporting
6. Financial proposal specifying a daily consultancy rate in USD, a breakdown per deliverable

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11)

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Payment

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will not be based on the number of days worked but on the completion of each stated deliverable within the indicated timeframes.

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.)?