UNWomen-National Analyst on Women’s Economic Empowerment/Consultancy Contract
UNWomen-National Analyst on Women’s Economic Empowerment/Consultancy Contract
Location :
Amman, JORDAN
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 women’s 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 women’s 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 women’s employment in the Arab States, with a focus on not only challenges but, more specifically, on distinct opportunities that could accelerate women’s 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 women’s 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 Women’s Economic Empowerment to support:
- Support the co-creation of Surge Women’s 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 women’s 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 country’s profile on women’s economic empowerment and the Surge Women’s Employment programme and to strengthen partnerships and recognition of UN Women’s efforts in this field.
- Support the development of a sustainable finance component for Surge Women’s Employment programme that is aligned with Jordan’s 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 Women’s Economic Empowerment Portfolio Lead.
Duties and Responsibilities
Key Functions and Accountabilities
- Support in the programme management and technical advice concerning the work for Women’s Economic Empowerment Portfolio and the contextualization of UN Women regional Surge Women’s Employment programme to Jordan’s case.
Support the development of a roadmap for the contextualization of the Surge Women’s 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 women’s 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 Portfolio Lead in programme management tasks under the WEE portfolio. Support the Portfolio Lead in managing responsible parties and consultants as required under the WEE portfolio.
2. 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 Jordan’s 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 women’s employment programme. Use these engagements to:
a) Ideate and conceptualize possible interventions.
b) Identify gaps if existed in the approach and support in closing them.
c) Identify international best practices to introduce and national aspects to scale up.
d) Map the ecosystem players (as aligned to the programmes multi-disciplinary approach), their strength weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
e) Seek validation of ideas from other leading experts
Support the development of a sustainable finance component for women’s employment programme that is aligned with Jordan’s 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).
3. 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 women’s economic empowerment.
4. The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the development and delivery of the employment strategy.
ActivitiesDeliverablePayment Schedule1) Planning for the assignment
Prepare an implementation plan, outlining
methodology and overarching approach (aligned with the broad outline)Approved workplanMid Dec2) Support in the programme management and technical advice concerning the work for Women’s Economic Empowerment Portfolio and the contextualization of UN Women regional Surge Women’s Employment programme to Jordan’s caseCompleted tasks per required by the requests of the Portfolio Lead
Dec - Jan 3) 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
programme Approved consultation reports Jan - Feb4)Support the development of a multi- disciplinary programmeApproved deliverables based on the identified
functions and accountabilities aboveFeb - March5) Contribute to the development of UN Women approach to surge women’s employment in Jordan that contains:
- An overview of the situation and the proposed response
- Theory of change interpreting the approach logic based on all the data collected,
- Incorporate all aspects JCO work on concerning surging women’s employment, including policies and
laws, social norms, private sector a
