International Consultant to support the preparation of SN of UN Women DRC Strategic Note 2025-2029

Background

The West and Central Africa region encompasses 24 countries, UN Women being present in 10 of them, through Country Offices (CO) with full delegation of authority.  The CO are located in Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Niger and CAR.  

UN Women DRC is a fully-fledged national office with around 10 operational projects working in the fields of women’s economic empowerment, combating violence against women, women’s leadership and political participation, women and peace and security, and emergency humanitarian response. In addition, DRC SN is informed by the ongoing UN Reform as well as in national processes process and the Secretary General’s report which emphasizes an integrated programmatic and operational approach for all UN agencies. DRC is, therefore, focusing mainly on providing high-end policy advisory, technical support and knowledge Management services on development, peace and security and humanitarian action from a gender perspective within an integrated UN focusing on leaving no-one behind. The UN Coordination component is transversal to all the impact areas. DRC also plays a key role in supporting humanitarian and peace and security interventions and plays a crucial role with inter agencies bodies such as One UN Gender Team, GTG and other thematic groups.

Furthermore, UNW has approved its Strategic Plan 2022–2025 and integrated a large number of new indicators. The Strategic Plan 2022–2025 aims to guide UN-Women for the next four years – with an eye toward the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It articulates how UN-Women will leverage its unique triple mandate, encompassing normative support, UN system coordination and operational activities, to mobilize urgent and sustained action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and support the achievement of the 2030 Agenda.

In 2020 DRC country office developed its Strategic Note (SN) 2020-2024 aligned within the DRC National Strategic Development Plan (PNSD) and with the UNWOMEN Strategic Plan 2022-2025, as well as the DRC UNSDCF 2020-2024 guiding all agencies priority and intervention.  DRC SN has been implemented the last four years during which a mid-term review was organized at the 3-year implementation stage. The National Strategic Development Plan (NSDP) is currently being revised and consequently a new cycle of the DRC’s UNSDCF 2025-2028 will be produced. Under UN Women’s policies and procedures in relation to program management and in lign with the new PMR policy,

For the above reasons, DRC is seeking the support of a consultant to elaborate the new strategic note 2025-2029 that will be aligned with the new cooperation framework 2025-2029

The consultant will take into consideration the following assignments:

1. Total alignment with the new UNSDCF 2025-2029
2. the new SN needs to be elaborated to align with UNWOMEN SP last year 2025 as well as integrate new challenges and economic, political and social trends including analysis and reflection on the progress of the program and the validity of UN Women’s strategy in the region.
3. A re-examination of the CO core functions: i) Oversight and quality assurance; ii) Policy advisory and technical support; iii) Data and knowledge management.
4. A re-examination and revision of the theories of change for each impact areas of the Development Results Framework (Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action, EVAW, WEE and Governance and political participation).
5. Engagement with partners and beneficiaries in consideration
6. Revisit the coordination mandate and place it at the core of the new cooperation framework.
7. Review and actualization of the resource mobilization strategy, communication and advocacy strategy and risk mitigation strategy.
8. Recognition and response to changes in the programming context, particularly noting normative developments.
9. Alignment with the SP 2022.2025 indicators
10. Elaboration of a narrative, a result framework and all mandatory annexes, including, resource mobilization strategy, rosk register, human resources planning and HR data, organigramme and evaluation plan.

 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Country Representative, the consultant will be responsible for the following tasks to assist the preparation of the SN:

• Desk review of key documents, including:

• UNW guidance for elaboration of SN
• Mid Term Reviews of Strategic Notes
• Mid term reviews  and final evaluation of UNSDCF
• Last review of CCA
• Gender Profil of DRC
• PMR Policy
• UN Women WCARO and DRC Strategic Note (2022-2025)
• UN WomenDRC Annual Reports (2021-2022-2023)
• UN Women DRCAnnual Work Plans (2022-2023)
• Mi-rerm Review of the Strategic Note (2020-2024)
• Prodocs of exisiting and pipeline projects and programmes
• National Strategic Development Plan (PNSD)
• Key regional evaluations conducted so far for DRC
• UNCT Gender Score Card Evaluation

• Prepare a short questionnaire and conduct a survey of key DRC and Regional partners on UNW positioning in DRC
• Organize a wide consultation with stakeholders + Survey with partners
• Organize workshops for a Context and Problem Analysis, developpement of the Theory of Change (ToC) and results framework
• Elaborate the draft narrative of the SN including TOC, mandatory sections and results framwork
• Prepare and finalise last version of the SN including mandatory annexes summarising findings from the consultation and retreat/ workshop discussions.
• Provide all supports and documents in a shareholder for easy access to all staff.

Expected Key Deliverables by the Consultant and its timeline.

Key Deliverables	Timeline
Inception Report with outline of methodology, roadmap for consultation, drafting and validation process, documents for review	15 April 2024
Draft Strategic Note (2024 – 2029) Narrative, Result Framework, and annexes according to the guidelines for development of strategic notes by Country Offices, plus offline monitoring plan.	30 May 2024
Final Strategic Note 2024-2029 and annexes	30 Jun 2024

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit a CV, a technical and financial proposal.

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 Competences

• Excellent analytical and research skills
• Strong facilitation skills.
• Strong interpersonal and good communication abilities
• Excellent writing skills in both French and English
• Proven ability to work within limited time constraints in the preparation of high-quality documents.
• Ability to organize work efficiently and deal with multiple tasks.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or advanced university degree in social science, gender/women’s studies, program management, or other related fields

Experience:

• At least 5 years of professional work experience in program development and implementation, including monitoring and evaluation activities.
• Experience working on gender equality and women’s empowerment issues in West and Central Africa.
• Proven experience in guiding and documenting program reviews and evaluations.
• Proven knowledge of program monitoring and evaluation theory, including theories of change, methodology, technology, and tools.
• Experience with new generation of UNSDCF
• Experience with UNW policies and procedures and in elaborating SNs
• Experience working programming, monitoring and evaluation with the UN agencies, similar international organizations, NGOs, multi/bilateral and/or government institutions would be an advantage.

Language requirements:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and French is mandatory.

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: . 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.

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.