Background
UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) adopted its strategic plan for 2022-2025 in March 2022. In the strategic plan, it is highlighted that one of the key priorities to achieve gender equality in the Arab States is the speedy acceleration of womenโs employment throughout the region, which has hovered around 21% since the 1990s, UN Women is embarking on a large-scale multi-country program to surge womenโs employment in 7 countries (3 in North Africa, 2 in the Levante and 2 in the Gulf).
The initial phase of this work was concluded in May 2022. It was dedicated to the analysis of the factors behind the stagnated levels of womenโs employment in the Arab States, with a focus on not only challenges but, more specifically, on distinct opportunities that could accelerate womenโs employment in the region. The analysis established the need for a multi-disciplinary approach, bringing together efforts to shift social norms, reduce the burden of care work, improve laws and policies, and strategically use social and mass media to bring about these changes. The strategy has a strong emphasis on the role of the private sector, focusing on three sectors, with distinct business cases in each. Lastly, the approach seeks to guarantee sustainable finance to deliver on this agenda through a shift to gender-responsive budgeting and blended finance.
The regional programme will be implemented across several countries, with Jordan being one of them. UN Women Country Office for Jordan plans to engage with key national stakeholders to contextualise the programme to national and local priorities to enhance womenโs economic participation. This will be done through national consultations and analytical work on relevant themes and economic sectors. To support this process, UN Women Jordan Country Office is planning to recruit a long-term National Consultant on Womenโs Economic Empowerment to support:
- Support the co-creation of Surge Womenโs Employment programme in Jordan as part of the regional one by utilizing the initial analyses done for this purpose by UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States.
- Support the development of the country's profile on womenโs economic empowerment at JCO and contribute to making employment projections in collaboration with relevant staff and identified strategic partners and stakeholders.
- Identify strategic stakeholders and convene consultations and discussions to implement the adopted participatory approach in the development of the countryโs profile on womenโs economic empowerment and the Surge Womenโs Employment programme and to strengthen partnerships and recognition of UN Womenโs efforts in this field.
- Support the development of a sustainable finance component for Surge Womenโs Employment programme that is aligned with Jordanโs eco-system and that can attract partners to engage in (IFIs, MDBs, others).
The consultant will work under the overall guidance of the UN Women Jordan Deputy Country Representative and direct supervision of the Womenโs Economic Empowerment Portfolio Lead.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Support in the programme management and technical advice concerning the work for Womenโs Economic Empowerment Portfolio and the contextualization of UN Women regional Surge Womenโs Employment programme to Jordanโs case.
- Support the development of a roadmap for the contextualization of the Surge Womenโs Employment programme and its inception in Jordan, following the guidelines and outlines established as part of the Regional Programme
- Support in doing desk review to complement and improve an existing analysis done by UN Women JCO based on identified priorities to surge womenโs employment in Jordan. The goal is to develop a comprehensive country context analysis aligned to the themes and sectors of interest identified to surge employment of women in Jordan, particularly referring to the accelerators and enablers of the regional employment programme.
Support the development of a multi-disciplinary programme Undertake a mapping exercise of key national and sectoral level stakeholders, civil society organizations and businesses, particularly as related to the identified amplifiers of the programme.Support the organization of workshops to sensitize stakeholders of the design processes and the envisaged employment programme in Jordan and convene consultations to enhance national ownership and products localization.Contribute to the desk review to prepare a set of baseline and target indicators for Jordanโs country employment programme within the regional programme.Conduct and co-facilitate detailed key informant interviews, focus group discussion and sector level / member-based organizations workshops to consult on the design of the womenโs employment programme. Use these engagements to: Ideate and conceptualize possible interventions.Identify gaps if existed in the approach and support in closing them.Identify international best practices to introduce and national aspects to scale up.Map the ecosystem players (as aligned to the programmes multi-disciplinary approach), their strength weaknesses, opportunities and threats.Seek validation of ideas from other leading experts Support the development of a sustainable finance component for womenโs employment programme that is aligned with Jordanโs eco-system that can attract partners to engage in (IFIs, MDBs, others).Co-facilitate the respective in-country missions and work-sessions (supported by UN Women staff).
Support in the finalization and rolling out of the programme. Support the validation of the proposed implementation plan with the ad hoc consultative working group, key international partners and beyond.Support the initial rolling out of activities under the country-level implementation plan.Support the utilization of the identified entry points to develop programmes/ joint programmes for womenโs economic empowerment.
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the development and delivery of the employment strategy.
Deliverables
Activities
Deliverable
Payment Schedule
Planning for the assignmentPrepare an implementation plan, outlining methodology and overarching approach (aligned with the broad outline)
Approved workplan
Early June
Support in the programme management and technical advice concerning the work for Womenโs Economic Empowerment Portfolio and the contextualization of UN Women regional Surge Womenโs Employment programme to Jordanโs case.
Completed tasks per required by the requests of the Portfolio Lead
June- December
Support country level consultations. Mapping relevant actors and designing an engagement approach that are suitable.Document the outcomes, agreements and next steps from the engagements with stakeholders. Outline emerging lessons from engagements to inform design of programmeApproved consultation reports
Early July
Support the development of a multi-disciplinary programmeApproved deliverables based on the identified functions and accountabilities above
August
Contribute to the development of UN Women approach to surge womenโs employment in Jordan that contains: An overview of the situation and the proposed responseTheory of change interpreting the approach logic based on all the data collected,Incorporate all aspects JCO work on concerning surging womenโs employment, including policies and laws, social norms, private sector and blended finance, accompanied by three country level annexes (based on the identified economic sectors.specific implementation plan under the multi-disciplinary regional framework on Surging Womenโs Employment
Approved UN Women programme/approach to surge womenโs employment in Jordan
September
Support the validation of the proposed implementation plan with the ad hoc consultative working group, key international partners and beyond.
Final implementation plan
September
Support the development of the implementation plan and lead the rolling out of programme inception activities.
Agreed upon deliverables based on the workplan within 30 working days
November
Competencies
Core Competencies:
Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender IssuesAccountabilityCreative Problem SolvingEffective CommunicationInclusive CollaborationStakeholder EngagementLeading by Example
Please visit this link for more information on UN Womenโs Core Values and Competencies:
https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values
FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:
Strong knowledge of womenโs economic empowerment, especially on private sector development.Strong programme formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation skills.Strong analytical skills.Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making.Strong networking skills.Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities, and threats to fundraising.Strong knowledge of the region.Ability to write policy papers, speeches, and briefings.
Required Skills and Experience
Education and Certification:
Masterโs degree or equivalent in Economics, Finance, Law, Gender or a related field 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.A project/program management certification would be an added advantage.Experience
At least 5 years of experience in the development and management of large-scale national programs.Demonstrated experience in Women Economic Empowerment and Employment Creation is required.Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required.Excellent and verbal written communication skills.Languages
Fluency in English is required
How to Apply
Submission of application:
Personal UN Women P11 form: Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment .
A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page)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.UNWOMEN is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.