Job: NATIONAL - GENDER MARKER CONSULTANT FOR DARP

Location : West Bank, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES

Deadline : 19-Sep-13

Additional Category

Women's Empowerment

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Post Level :

National Consultant

Languages Required :

Arabic   English  

Starting Date :
(date when the selected candidate is expected to start)

30-Sep-2013

Duration of Initial Contract :

2 months

Expected Duration of Assignment :

2 months

Description

Background

UN Women (UNW), 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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) since its inception in 1997. UN Women oPt focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In support of this goal and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the oPt context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions toward the realisation of following strategic goals: Engendering governance, peace and security; Supporting women's economic security and rights; and Promoting women’s rights and protection against violence.

UN Women works very closely with the Palestinian Ministry of Women's Affairs (MoWA) as the principal national mechanism and with other key national partners for coordinating gender policy development and for monitoring and reporting. In that regard, UN Women (As UNIFEM) has been supporting MoWA since its establishment in 2003 to fulfil its mandate in providing support to other government institutions for gender mainstreaming, including capacity building of and technical assistance for the promotion of gender mainstreaming at the national level. UN Women plays an active role with all its partners, including donors, to ensure that Gender Equality is mainstreamed in strategies, programmes and action plans and with Local Aid Coordination Secretariat members to strengthen capacity and accountability of donors and stakeholders in aid coordination mechanisms to achieve mutual commitments towards gender equality in stable and fragile countries.

Within the framework of the currently implemented “Increasing Accountability in Financing for Gender Equality programme (FfGE), and in close partnership with ministry of Women Affairs (MoWA) and Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development (MoPAD), it is intended to work on the development of the Development and Reform Platform database (DARP), mainly established to monitor and track donors’ findings/allocations at the national level, and currently administrated by MoPAD.

The current DARP system is gender neutral which necessitates devising this initiative in an attempt to develop the above-mentioned Aid Tracking Database to be gender responsive.
The main objective from establishment of a gender responsive aid monitoring & tracking tool/database is to ensure women and girls, boys and men have equal access to and benefit from available resources including donors funding/ assistance whether humanitarian, developmental or budgetary support and to provide information on how money is being spent and who benefits.

The main idea behind instituting a system of tracking funding – called a gender marker is to make sure that we target all the population equally and make sure available resources are being distributed according to real needs based on gender equality and social justice.

Objective of this Assignment:

The main objective of this assignment is to examine the current DARP system administered by MoPAD in an attempt to develop it to be a more gender responsive aid tracking tool and suggest feasible recommendations for development though presenting a feasible layout/design ready to be translated at the functional/IT level.
It is not to simply add gender-sensitive words to a document or a current system, but to strengthen programming and analysis based on the different needs, concerns, capacities and contributions of women, men, girls and boys. It ensures that response to different social segments needs is appropriately designed and targeted.

Scope and Duration:

The consultant is required to work closely with the Ministry of Women Affairs (MoWA) as national machinery mandated to integrate gender equality and women’s empowerment in policies and strategies and with Ministry of Planning and Administrative Development (MoPAD) as an administrator for the current DARP system and key national institution on Aid Management and Coordination. 

The duration of this assignment is 2 months with an estimated 20 working days.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall supervision of UN Women’s Special Representative, and the direct supervision of the   FfGE program advisor, the consultant will be responsible for examining the current DARP system and suggesting needed modifications to make it gender responsive/ Gender Marker. In specific the consultant’s duties and responsibilities are the following:

• Develop a detailed proposal and work plan for development of the current DARP system/ Gender Marker, including specific activities to be carried out;
• Present draft methodology and discuss it with concerned parties including MoWA, MoPAD, UN Women and LACS/donors;
• Conduct proper consultations with LACS members, MoWA and MoPAD;
• Develop a layout for the development of the current DARP system to be gender responsive aid tracking tool ready to be translated on the technical/IT level;  
• Present the proposal for discussion with stakeholders as suggested by the UN Women, MoWA and MoPAD;
• Final report on main findings and recommendations based on feedback on the proposal.

Deliverables:

• Work plan with a clear methodology for the development of the current DARP system;
• Documentation of consultation meetings and interviews with national partners and LACS members;
• Final layout/design for the development of the Gender Marker within the current DARP system ready to be translated at the technical/IT level;
• Presentation in Arabic/ English;
• Final report on findings and recommendations.

Results:

• Layout/design to develop the current DARP system to be gender responsive monitoring tool is developed.
• Clear recommendations on how to develop the current system to be a gender responsive tracking and monitoring tool (Gender Marker) are presented.

Competencies

Core values / Guiding Principles:

• Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
• Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity. 

Core Competencies: 

• Results oriented: Plans and produces quality results to meet established goals, generates innovative, practical solutions to challenging situations;
• Ethics and Values: Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity;
• Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
• Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring: Initiative-taking; coaching and mentoring ability;
• Working in Teams: Acting as a team player and facilitating team work;
• Communicating Information and Ideas: Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively;
• Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating synergies through self-control;
• Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements: Managing conflict; 
• Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of other.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master degree in Economics, public policy and finance, development studies, or other related fields.

Experience: 

• At least 10 years of relevant experience in the field of the aid coordination, monitoring and valuation, development sphere, public policy or related fields;
• Specific expertise on related issues of financing & planning for gender equality/ Gender Marker;
• Proven expertise in Aid Effectiveness, gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Proven analytical and writing skills.

 Language Requirements:

• Fluent spoken and written English and Arabic.

Note:
 
UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications who will meet minimum requirements.

UNDP 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.

More Info and Application