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.

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.

UN Women has been present in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) region since its creation in 2011 and prior to UN Women’s creation the former UNIFEM was also operational in the region. Currently in the ECA region, the Regional Office (RO) provides support and oversight to UN Women Offices in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Georgia Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Georgia, Turkey and Ukraine. The ECA Regional Office Strategic Note 2022-2025 is aligned with the global UN Women Strategic Plan.

UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (the “ECARO”) has positioned GRB as one of the priority areas in which the ECARO has unique technical expertise grounded in the combined technical skills in budgetary processes including GRB and the overarching expertise and credibility in GEWE. This work is aligned with Outcome 2: Financing for gender equality of UN Women Strategic Plan 2022–2025.

The gender-responsive budgeting (GRB) has become an internationally acknowledged tool for achieving gender equality. This tool was first pioneered in Australia in 1984, with a federal government assessment of the budget’s impact on women. A decade later, the concept was endorsed by the UN’s Fourth World Conference on Women and the Beijing Platform for Action in 1995. Presently, more than 90 countries all around the world pursue a variety of GRB initiatives that span civil society, government and international organizations. Responding to the demand from countries to introduce or institutionalize GRB, the UN Women contributes extensively to building interest, capacity and commitment to incorporate a gender equality perspective in budgetary processes and practices.

UN Women’s supported GRB initiatives operate on different levels and vary in their objectives, but they are united in their ultimate goal: to contribute to the realization of women’s rights and gender equality through changes in budget priorities as well as increased women’s participation in budgetary debates and decision-making. Since 2009, in ECA Region, GRB initiatives have taken place in the following countries: Albania, BiH, North Macedonia, Moldova, Georgia, Serbia, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan; Tajikistan; Türkiye; Belarus and Ukraine.

Regional Programme “Transformative Financing for Gender Equality towards more Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Western Balkans” (from now on “the regional programme”)

Over the past years, through technical and financial support, UN Women has carried out different initiatives in Western Balkans’ countries and territories to strengthen democratic governance and advance women’s rights by mainstreaming gender in policy planning and budgeting. As a result, gender responsive budgeting has increasingly been recognized as an important tool for advancing de facto gender equality, support the SDGs, the 2030 Agenda and other global goals as well as contribute to the achievements of the commitments of the Western Balkans under the EU Gender Action Plan 2021 – 2025 in the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025.

To deepen the work previously done and to ensure the sustainability of the interventions on GRB, UN Women initiated a regional programme implemented in the Western Balkans with the participation of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo* and Serbia “Transformative Financing for Gender Equality towards more Transparent, Inclusive and Accountable Governance in the Western Balkans” (2020-2024). The main programme approach is transformative financing as an enabler factor for policy and financing actions to accelerate the implementation of existing national and international commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment in the Western Balkans.

The programme supports transformative financing for gender equality (GE) towards more transparent, inclusive, and accountable governance, which requires national and local governments to mobilize and make effective use of financing sources and to enhance the capacities of right holders to demand accountability.

The consultant will be reporting to Regional Evaluation Specialist, and will be supported by HR consultant, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

Duties and Responsibilities

Duties and responsibilities of the regional evaluation consultant who will cover Albania and Kosovo:

• Supporting inception, following up with UN Women offices in Albania and Kosovo offices and synthesizing relevant information;
• Assisting in the preparation of the missions with UN Women offices in Albania and Kosovo as relevant;
• Participating in country data collection missions (one week data collection mission to be tentatively scheduled in June, another mission to be tentatively schedule in September);
• Conducting interviews and collect additional data as needed;
• Attending and supporting the preparation of all meetings and presentations;
• Providing inputs for the inception report, preliminary findings and synthesis report;
• Prepare country profiles for Albania and Kosovo;
• Supporting the analysis of the evidence at country level.

Evaluation deliverables

The evaluation team is responsible for the following deliverables:

• An inception report: The evaluation team will present a refined scope, a detailed outline of the evaluation design and methodology, evaluation questions, and criteria for the approach for in-depth desk review and field work to be conducted in the data collection phase. The report will include an evaluation matrix and detailed work plan. A first draft report will be shared with the evaluation management group and, based upon the comments received the evaluation team will revise the draft. The revised draft will be shared with the evaluation reference group for feedback. The evaluation team will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the final inception report.

• Presentation of preliminary findings: A PowerPoint presentation detailing the emerging findings of the evaluation will be shared with the evaluation management group for feedback. The revised presentation will be delivered to the reference group for comment and validation. The evaluation team will incorporate the feedback received into the draft report.

• A draft evaluation report: A first draft report will be shared with the evaluation management group for initial feedback. The second draft report will incorporate evaluation management group feedback and will be shared with the evaluation reference group for identification of factual errors, errors of omission and/or misinterpretation of information. The third draft report will incorporate this feedback and then be shared with the reference group for final validation. The evaluation team will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the revised drafts.

• The final evaluation report: The final report will include a concise Executive Summary and annexes detailing the methodological approach and any analytical products developed during the course of the evaluation. The structure of the report will be defined in the inception report.

• Evaluation communication products: A PowerPoint/Prezi presentation of the final key evaluation findings and recommendations, and a 2-pager/infographics on the final key findings, lessons learned and recommendations.

Regarding the validation process of all products, those will be shared with the evaluation reference groups for feedback and validation. The evaluation team will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the final inception report. Final evaluation report will be approved by the IEAS.

Deliverables and time frames

Deliverable	Expected completion time (due day)	Regional consultant expected days of work
Inception phase and report (including two rounds of revision) The evaluation team will present a refined scope, a detailed outline of the evaluation design and methodology, evaluation questions, and criteria for the approach for in-depth desk review and field work to be conducted in the data collection phase. The report will include an evaluation matrix and detailed work plan. A first draft report will be shared with the IEAS leadership and, based upon the comments received the evaluation team will revise the draft. The revised draft will be shared with the internal and external reference groups for feedback. The evaluation team will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the final inception report. The regional consultant will support this inception phase carrying out the relevant duties listed above, including the inception report, synthesizing relevant information for Albania and Kosovo.	June 2024	5 days
Field visits (data collection phase) Field visits in the 4 countries covered by the regional programme will be conducted. The findings from the field visits will be integrated in the synthesis report. The regional consultant is expected to attend 2 field missions in Kosovo and Albania.	June/October 2024 (1 field mission is expected to be conducted in June and 3 field missions are expected to be conducted between September-October 2024. The consultant is expected to attend 2 field missions (namely, Kosovo and Albania).	10 days
Presentation of preliminary findings (one round of revision) A PowerPoint presentation detailing the emerging findings of the evaluation will be delivered to the management and reference groups for comment and validation. The evaluation team will incorporate the feedback received into the draft report.	December 2024	2 days
Draft Report (including three rounds of revision prior to the final report), including country profiles for Albania, BiH, Serbia and Kosovo. A first draft report will be shared with the IEAS leadership and the internal reference group. The second draft report will incorporate internal feedback and will be shared with the external reference group for identification of factual errors, errors of omission and/or misinterpretation of information. The third draft report will incorporate this feedback and then be shared with the reference group for final validation. The evaluation team will maintain an audit trail of the comments received and provide a response on how the comments were addressed in the revised drafts. The regional consultant will cover Albania and Kosovo.	December 2024	10 days
Final Report The final report will include a concise Executive Summary and annexes detailing the methodological approach and any analytical products developed during the course of the evaluation. The structure of the report will be defined in the inception report.	January 2025	3 days

The UN Women Regional Evaluation Specialist for Europe and Central Asia will act as the Team Leader for the evaluation. The team leader will be supported by a team consisting of be the main responsible person for the satisfactory delivery of all the deliverables listed above. The team leader will be responsible for overall coordination of the production of deliverables during all phases of the evaluation process, ensuring the quality of outputs and application of methodology as well as timely delivery of all evaluation products in close collaboration with the evaluation management group.

An evaluation team will be comprised of the UN Women Regional Evaluation Specialist for Europe and Central Asia acting as the evaluation Team Leader, a research assistant, and 2 regional consultants (to cover Albania and Kosovo and Serbia and BiH, respectively) who will support all substantive aspects of the evaluation. The team leader, is responsible for overall coordination of the production of deliverables during all phases of the evaluation process, ensuring the quality of outputs and application of methodology as well as timely delivery of all evaluation products in close collaboration with the evaluation team and the management group. The team leader is expected to lead the first data collection mission in a country -yet to be determined-. Following the first data collection mission either the team leader or the international evaluation specialist will participate and lead all field missions in the rest of the countries to be supported by local consultants.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. As part of this assignment, the consultant will travel in Albania and Kosovo , a maximum of one week data collection mission in Albania and one week data collection mission in Kosovo.

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:

• Commitment continuous improvement
• Resilience
• Research
• Commitment to continuous improvement
• Ability to produce well written reports
• Demonstrated facilitation and communications skills, experience in participatory approaches and ability to negotiate amongst a wide range of stakeholders;

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in gender studies, law, economics, social sciences, development studies or a related area is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the Master’s degree.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of relevant experience in the area of gender-based discrimination and ending violence against women;
• Experience of gender-responsive and human rights-based approaches to evaluation and experience of conducting gender-responsive evaluations and/or applied research utilizing a wide range of approaches and methods;
• Experience within the United Nations system or similar international organisations will be considered an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.

How to Apply

Qualified and interested candidates are required to apply online and submit the following documents:

• Completed Personal History From – P11 (P11 can be downloaded from:https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc )
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)

How to Submit the Application: To submit your application online, please follow the steps below:

• Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11).
• Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11) and Cover Letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded.
• Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement).
• Click ‘Apply Now’ button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click ‘Submit Application;’
• Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents (underlined above).
• You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system.

Notes:

• UN Women retains the right to contact references directly. Due to the large numbers of applications, we receive, we are able to inform only the successful candidates about the outcome or status of the selection process.
• The individual consultants should take the mandatory learning security course prior to commencement of assignment– details will follow before the issuance of contract.

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.)