National Consultant to support the Mid-Term Review of UN Women Kenya Country Office Strategic Note 2023-2026

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 provides support to Member States’ efforts and priorities in meeting their gender equality goals and for building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women Kenya Country Office (KCO) is currently implementing its Country Programme based on the Strategic Note (SN) 2023-2026, which was approved by the Deputy Executive Director of UN Women in early 2023. The SN is one of the main strategic planning documents for UN Women Country Offices (COs) to articulate their strategy and main results in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (Cooperation Framework) and UN Women’s Strategic Plan (SP) with an indication of the resources needed to achieve these results. In general, UN Women’s SN is the equivalent of the “Country Programme Document” used by other UN agencies and entities. The SN is inclusive of the Development Results Framework1 (DRF) and the Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency (OEE2) framework.

The KCO Strategic Note 2023-2026 is fully aligned with the Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as priorities of the Government of Kenya namely the Constitution of Kenya, Fourth Medium Term Plan (MTP IV) 2023-2027, and the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA). In addition, the SN is guided by Kenya’s UNSDCF strategic priorities, theory of change and the key results areas. The SN is anchored on the triple mandate of UN Women encompassing 1) Normative support, 2) UN system coordination, and 3) Operational activities as espoused in the UN Women Global Strategic Plan 2022-2025. The SN particularly focuses on five areas of the UN Women Global Strategic Plan i) Governance & Participation in Public Life; ii) Women’s Economic Empowerment; iii) Ending Violence Against Women; iv) Women, Peace & Security, Humanitarian Action, & Disaster Risk Reduction and v) Coordination.

Objectives of the MTR

After implementing the SN since early 2023, KCO conducts a voluntary Mid-Term Review (MTR) to adjust the SN to the changed implementation context in Kenya and globally, including challenges caused by the climate change, global conflicts (Ukraine, Gaza), Kenya’s middle income country status and decreasing Official Development Assistance (ODA).

The following are the objectives of the MTR for the SN 2023-2026.

1. To interrogate the SN theory of change;
2. To analyze and reflect on the progress of the programme and the validity of UN-Women’s strategy in Kenya and re-examine the SN theory of change and outcome areas (Women in Leadership and Decision Making; Women’s Economic Empowerment; Ending Violence Against Women and Girls; Women Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action and; Coordination).
3. To analyze the programming context (including normative developments) and operational context, key UN Women strategic priorities and to facilitate alignment of the SN with the analysis including taking corrective measures where gaps are identified.
4. To assess key management issues, such as availability of data and evidence to allow informed and credible analysis of performance, and the ‘evaluability’ of the SN.
5. To develop practical recommendations based on all the findings to address major gaps in the current Strategic Note.
6. To update and finalize SN and annexes based on the practical recommendations in close consultation with KCO.

Duties and Responsibilities

The SN MTR is not meant to be an evaluation, instead it is meant to provide strategic reflection and insights of the work of KCO in identifying gaps, challenges, opportunities and recommendations. The MTR is meant to enable KCO to further adapt its strategic direction, programming, and business processes considering an analysis of performance to date; the repositioning of UN Women within the UN System in Kenya; lessons learned from the implementation of the SN; and UN-Women’s change management processes. The MTR allows UN Women to review and update the SN as needed, including its Integrated Results and Resources Framework (IRRF). It is expected that the findings of the MTR will be aligned to the overall UN System in Kenya and the priorities, vision and plans of the government of Kenya.

Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the Planning, M&E Specialist and the Deputy Country Representative of the UN Women Kenya Country Office, the consultant will be responsible for following tasks:

i. Conduct a desk review of key documents relevant to the work of the KCO, including but not limited to UN Women Strategic Plan 2022-2025, 2023-2026 SN and Biennial workplans, 2022 and 2023 KCO annual reports, key donor reports, key UN Sustainable Cooperation Framework documents, gender scorecard reports, key UN Country Team gender documents, select recent studies related to Gender Equality and Women’s’ Empowerment in Kenya.

ii. Develop a two-pager strategic position paper on UN Women’s work in Kenya outlining relevance and program balance.

iii. Develop discussion papers that will guide the MTR. Review and make recommendations on discussion papers to be prepared together with the KCO team on Programme, Partnerships, Normative Issues, Learning and Capacity, Coordination Issues, Operations and Communication.

iv. Develop relevant KCO staff and partner (Development & Operational partners) surveys to feed into the MTR process and produce a discussion paper based on findings.

v. Facilitate SN midterm review meetings; summarize results and decisions in a short 2-page report.

vi. Prepare and finalize SN MTR report including summarizing findings from the MTR process.

vii. Develop and finalize revisions to the SN and annexes based on the MTR results.

Deliverables

The following are the key deliverables for the consultant.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy, with meetings organized in Nairobi.

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:

• Demonstrated ability and excellent communication skills to facilitate group discussions.
• Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality evaluation reports, including recommendations for future work of the funding organization/donor.
• Facilitation skills and the ability to deal with multi-stakeholder groups.
• Excellent analytical and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or PhD in Social Sciences, International Development studies, Program Management, Law, Human rights, Politics, Gender, Women studies, or related field.

Experience:

• 10 years of professional work experience in programme development and implementation, including monitoring and evaluation activities.
• Experience working on gender equality and women’s empowerment Programmes within East & Southern Africa region.
• Proven experience in supporting the development and review of strategic plans or country programme documents for gender focused international organizations.
• Proven experience in guiding and documenting programme reviews and evaluations.
• Proven knowledge of programme monitoring and evaluation theory, including theories of change, methodology, technology and tools.
• Experience working on programming, monitoring and evaluation with the UN agencies, similar international organizations, NGOs, multi/bilateral and/or government institutions would be an advantage.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in oral and written English.

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

Please note that the system will only allow one attachment and candidates are required to include in the P-11 form links for their previously published reports and articles completed within the last two years. Applications without the completed and signed 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.