National Consultant -Master/Mistress of Ceremonies (Retainer)

Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the UN, UN Women 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. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of national priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with government, civil society, and other relevant actors.

In implementing its 2022-2025 Strategic Note, the UN Women Ethiopia Country Office (ECO) among others, focuses on improving needs-based knowledge generation, development, and sharing of knowledge products as contributions to the effective and efficient delivery of ECO’s triple mandate (normative, coordination and operational).  These will in turn strengthen ECO’s position as a knowledge hub on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and enhance UN Women’s positioning and visibility for evidence-based advocacy and resource mobilization. For this, it is key to ensure that events/conferences/workshops are well managed and moderated, quality reports /event proceedings, and policy briefs are produced, appropriately documented, and disseminated to larger audiences.

Within this context, the UN Women ECO is seeking to hire a highly skilled moderator of conferences, high-level events, and workshops with expertise in facilitating events and producing knowledge products including reports,  and policy briefs. The consultant will support UN Women ECO under a retainer contract, based on demand.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Program Leads and in close consultation with the Communication Team, the selected consultant will be responsible for undertaking the following tasks.

• Liaise with the UN Women to ensure proper preparations ahead of time and smooth running of the event.
• Familiarize with any logistics and technical issues of the workshop/conference as needed.
• Create a warm and friendly atmosphere for participants and ensure the effective management of time for the event while keeping the event on track.
• Have a mastery of the components of the event, from start to finish, with estimations of time, roles, functions, and notes concerning responsibility.
• Creatively communicate messages of the event (best practices, showcases, messages from beneficiaries, etc.).
• Produce proceedings, policy briefs (if required as per the specific description of the assignment), and knowledge products in consultation with relevant Programs.
• Produce analytical summary briefs of the consultation and collect and use human interest stories to feed into proceedings, knowledge products, and policy briefs.
• Provide technical expertise and advisory services on effective communication of results.
• It is expected the consultant will be proactive and work closely with ECO’s staff on the report and policy briefs.

Competencies

Compliance with UN Core Values

• Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Commitment to UN Women’s mission, vision, values, and strategic goals;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment.
• Ability to work remotely effectively and constructively with UN Women Ethiopia
• Being proactive in seeking clarifications, resourceful, and solution-oriented;
• Ability to communicate clearly both orally and in writing;

Required Skills and Experience

Academic qualifications

• Master’s university degree or equivalent in Public Relations, English Language or Literature, Communications, Journalism, and/or in a relevant field.
• Proven experience in professional writing, and moderating workshops with diverse audiences at national and/or international levels.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines.
• Knowledge and understanding of gender and Women’s rights.

Years of experience 

• Minimum of 7 years of experience in chairing/moderating/facilitating sessions in high-level forums, workshops, and conferences; and report and policy brief writing on the area of gender, women’s rights, and development.
• Experience working with intergovernmental and/or regional organizations including the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU)
• Substantive knowledge of gender and development.
• Knowledge and understanding of the social, cultural, and political context of Ethiopia and work in the country will be an asset.
• Good interpersonal skills and capacity to liaise with parties concerned.
• Strong writing and communication skills.

Language and other skills

• Fluent in and excellent knowledge of written and oral communication in English and Amharic.

Application:

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

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.)