WRD Technical Support Consultant – To Build Partner Capacity

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 Fiji Multi Country Office (MCO) covers 14 Pacific countries, with field offices/presence in 6 countries, and five ‘focus countries’ (Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Samoa). Each field presence is led by a national Country Programme Coordinator. UN Women, in partnership with Pacific Islands Governments, regional organizations, CSOs, donors and UN agencies, focuses on delivering within four interlinked programme areas:

 

• Ending Violence against Women and Girls (EVAWG);
• Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE);
• Gender and Protection in Humanitarian Action; and
• Governance and Participation in Public Life (GPPL)

 

UN Women Fiji MCO is implementing the Women’s Resilience to Disasters (WRD) Programme in the Pacific. UN Women promotes gender-responsive disaster risk reduction (DRR) and resilience across its triple mandate through technical and policy support, provision of gender expertise to DRR mechanisms and processes (local, national, regional, and global), advocacy and knowledge management, and by implementing programmes and projects for gender-responsive DRR and resilience building, including the Women’s Resilience to Disasters (WRD) programme, which is UN Women’s signature DRR initiative.

 

The WRD Programme aims to reduce the loss of lives and livelihoods from disasters and threats, including COVID 19 and climate change, and to contribute to sustainable, secure, and thriving communities and countries through addressing critical gender gaps in disaster and climate resilience. UN Women’s key partners include the 50 UN entities related to the UN Plan of Action on Disaster Risk Reduction for Resilience, all stakeholders working on disaster and climate resilience including the Early Warnings for All Initiative, the Loss and Damage collaboration and international financial institutions, and various gender, DRR and climate platforms at the global, regional, and national levels.

 

UN Women’s WRD programme proposes a comprehensive package for building women’s resilience to disasters, climate change and threats.   The aim of the WRD Programme is to render women’s and girls’ lives and livelihoods disaster-resilient, contributing to sustainable and secure communities, by promoting gender responsive prevention, preparedness, and recovery systems, plans and tools; and by enabling targeted action to help women and girls withstand hazards and threats, recover fully from disasters, and increase their resilience to future risks. 

 

UN Women is supporting Vanwods MFI after Vanuatu has experienced twin tropical cyclones, Judy and Kevin in March of 2023 severely affecting Shefa and Tafea Provinces. while efforts on humanitarian responses were executed by the government, UN Women through Women Resilience to Disaster program under its outcome 2 focusing on increasing number of women and girls in WRD countries have voice and agency to withstand multiple hazards, recover from disasters, and increase their resilience to current

 

and future risks, UN Women is working with local women led organizations to identify recovery activities leading to women empowerment to increase their capacity to be resilient.

 

Vanwods was identified during this process to implement output 2. 5 targeting accessible innovative climate and disaster resilient livelihood opportunities for women in selected communities as a recovery activity on the Island of Efate in Shefa Province and Tanna Island in Tafea province.

 

Vanwods and UNWomen came into partnership on the 5th of October 2023 through a Fast track partnership mechanism, targeting 100 Vanwods members living on Efate and Tanna. The partnership entailed supporting 100 women with  funding solar home systems to power lights, deep freezers and sewing machines to women not connected to the grids of Lenakel and Efate, so they could elevate their businesses and increase their income capacity as a way of fast recovery from the twin cyclones. The amount of subsidy allocated for this project totals at a value of VT24,000,000 from UN Women through WRD program with funding support from DFAT.

Duties and Responsibilities

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work

Following the twin cyclones in 2023, a partnership between UN Women Fiji MCO and Vanwods MFI was finalized through a Fast track partnership mechanism to provide recovery services to community women affected by the cyclones. The fast-track partnership mechanism under UN Women policy stipulates a Risk Based Assessment which was carried out to identify some risks for the organization especially with regard to  clear management policies to follow for transparent  mitigation measures  as well as  a targeted capacity building of staff to strengthen the organization capacity.

 

To that end, UN Women Fiji MCO is looking for an individual consultant to support the Vanwods MFI with the development of some management policies as outlined in the capacity development plan in their Risk based Assessment.   This consultancy assignment will be for a maximum of 4 months period under the supervision of UN Women- WRD programme, Vanuatu and in close collaboration of Vanwods Executive Director.

 

The Consultant will be reporting to the  UN Women (WRD national coordinator) and in close coordination with Vanwods while  aligning with national provisions and standards.

 

Expected Deliverables

 

The duration of this assignment will be up to 38 working days over a 4-month period and divided into 2 broad frameworks:

a). Draft/update financial and HR manual for the organization covering the following:

• Financial manual with internal control framework, procurement mechanisms
• Human Resource manual covering hiring procedures, anti-fraud and Sexual exploitation and abuse guidelines.

b). Conduct orientation on the reviewed policies to existing staff for implementation of the same.

 

The Consultant is expected to deliver, the following major tasks or outputs as per the table:

No.	Deliverable 1	Estimated duration to complete	Timeline	Percentage (Payment Schedule – optional)
	Actions
	Initial meeting and workplan	Up to 1 day	October
	Review of documents	Up to 2 days	October
1.	Financial manual with internal control framework, procurement mechanisms	Up to 14  days	October
2.	Human Resource manual covering hiring procedures, anti-fraud and Sexual exploitation and abuse guidelines.	Up to 12	November	MM YY
	Deliverable 1 Payment		End of November	70%
	Actions
	Organize orientation of staff on the new policies	Up to 4 days	December
	Deliverable 2
3.	Report for the orientation	Up to 2	January
4.	Final report to UN Women and Vanwods	Up to 3	January
	Deliverable 2 – Final payment		final week of January	30%
	Total	38 days

Note: All the deliverables should be accepted by  UN Women’s Humanitarian & Resilience Programme Team and Vanwods management as per the ToR and provided in English hard and electronic copy.

All the documents and materials utilized need to be returned to Vanwods & UN Women in electronic format. Any printed materials utilized to be referenced and returned.

 

Institutional Arrangement

The Consultant will work under the direct supervision of UNW WRD Vanuatu team and Vanwods Executive Director with oversight from WRD Team, Fiji MCO.

The Consultant is expected to be based at the Vanwods Office and will be provided with all the relevant documents necessary for the assignment.

 

Duration of the Work

The consultant is expected to start from 30th September 2024 and is expected to be completed by 30th January 2025.

 

Duty Station

The contractor’s duty station will be at the Port Vila – combining UNW and Vanwods and only requires partial presence on UN Women premises, if required.

 

Performance Evaluation

The Consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.

 

Financial Arrangements

Payments will be disbursed to the consultant in two (2) instalments, upon submission and approval of deliverables set forth in the section “Expected Outputs and Deliverables” above, and Certification of UN Women for satisfactory performance.

Upon receipt of the final deliverables and prior to the payment of the instalment, the deliverables, related reports, and documents will be reviewed and approved by UN Women at least within 10 business days of submission.

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:  

 

 

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 

Expertise & experience in  management skills for developing vision,  management policies for organisation focusing on financial and human resource management

Project Management: Experience on  strategic thinking, visioning, incorporating acceptable values relevant to the mission of the organisation, and resource management of organisations.

Capacity Building and Training: Proven skills in designing and delivering training programs and capacity-building activities, translating the policies to staff for implementation and compliance especially in establishing  financial accountability within the organisation and HR policies  

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certifications:

• Master’s degree or expertise in institutional and management support or other related areas 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 and Skills:

• At least 2 years (with Master’s degree) or 4 years (with first-level university degree) of progressively responsible experience related to finance and management or other closely related fields.
• Minimum of 2 years’ relevant National experience both in   management including finance and HR
• Excellent writing and consultation skills with the ability to gather and synthesize information, and present it in a clear, concise format, is required.
• Experience with risk assessment metrics is an advantage.
• Experience in training and building capacity in the field of finance and management.

 

Language and other skills:

• Excellent skills and fluency in verbal and written English is required. 
• Fluency in Bislama language is an asset.

 

Note:

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.)

 

How to Apply

• Personal CV or P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: )
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)

UN Women 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.