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

UN Women’s triple mandate, along with its global network and deep policy and programming expertise, continues to endow the Entity with a unique capacity to: (i) support Member States to strengthen global norms and standards for gender equality and women’s empowerment, and mainstream gender perspectives in other thematic areas; (ii) promote coordination and coherence across the UN system to enhance accountability and results for gender equality and women’s empowerment; and (iii) undertake operational activities to support Member States, upon their request, in translating global norms and standards into legislation, policies and strategies at country level.

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997 (as UNIFEM). In line with the national priorities, the work of UN Women for the period 2023-2025 is aligned with three of the Palestine United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework’s (UNSDCF 2023-2025) outcomes:

• Palestinians have greater access to economic opportunities that are inclusive, resilient, and sustainable, including decent employment and livelihoods opportunities in an empowered private sector.
• Palestinians, including the most vulnerable, have equal access to sustainable, inclusive, gender responsive and quality social services, social protection, and affordable utilities.
• Palestinian governance institutions, processes, and mechanisms at all levels are more democratic, rights-based, inclusive, and accountable.

Its 2023-2025 Strategic Note supports the efforts to achieve measurable results in country in terms of four UN Women global Strategic Plan impacts (2022-2025): (SP Impact 1). Governance and participation in public life; (SP Impact 2). Women’s Economic Empowerment; (SP Impact 3). Ending Violence Against Women and Girls and SP Impact 4. Women peace and security, Humanitarian & Disaster Risk Reduction.

The “Advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Palestine” programme started on 11 November 2019 and ended on 30 October 2023. The overall project goal is to meaningfully contribute to the achievements of women, peace and security (WPS) commitments in Palestine through policy change and community-level action. Institutionally, the programme aims at supporting the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325, including via facilitating the adoption and implementation of a National Action Plan (NAP) on United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325. Furthermore, the programme aims at supporting women’s political participation in decision-making processes.

As the project reached its conclusion, UN Women is commissioning a Final External Review of the project. The review intends to measure progress towards achieving the planned results of the programmes; provide credible and reliable evidence for decision-making and evidence-based advocacy and policy making; and contribute to lessons learned about the implementation of the project. For this purpose, UN Women is seeking to engage a national consultant to carry out a review to the implementation of Advancing the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Palestine” programme started on 11 November 2019 and ended on 30 October 2023.

Duties and Responsibilities

Brief information about the project

The specific objectives of the project are related to (1) supporting the strengthening of the State of Palestine and Palestinian Civil Society’s accountability in the implementation and mainstreaming of the NAP/UNSCR 1325 in Palestine and partners to hold the Israeli occupation accountable and prevent impunity in accordance with national and international mechanisms; (2) promoting women’s political participation and access to decision-making processes and (3) enhancing the resilience of Palestinian women and girls living under occupation and to mainstream gender issues into the humanitarian and recovery efforts in Gaza and other areas.

The project has been generously funded by the Government of Norway with a grant of three million US$ and was managed by the UN Women Palestine Head of Gaza Sub-Office supported by Women Peace and Security (WPS) and humanitarian experts (including a UN Fellow, an International UNV and technical consultants), M&E experts and a financial associate.

The Outcomes and associated output of the project are as following:

Outcome 1: An enabling environment for implementation and monitoring of WPS commitments in Palestine is promoted.

Output 1.1: Policy makers have the capacity to effectively implement, monitor and track WPS commitments.

Output 1.2: Gender equality advocates have the resources and capacity to promote evidence -based advocacy and engage in reconciliation efforts and national dialogue.

Output 1.3. UN system supported to meet WPS commitments (lead coordination & implementation of UN accountability frameworks on WPS

Output 1.4: Women feminist leaders, young women and young men have the resources and capacity to engage in and lead advocacy, policymaking, and decision-making efforts.

Output 1.5: Young people, including young women and men, have the capacity and space to participate in political processes and peacebuilding efforts.

Outcome 2. More women play a greater role and are better served by humanitarian and recovery efforts.

Output 2.1. Women have increased capacity to participate in and benefit from post conflict planning and recovery efforts.

Output 2.2. Increased participation of women and women’s organizations in humanitarian planning, response frameworks and programming

Output 2.3: Conflict affected, and at-risk women have increased access to income opportunities and multisectoral protection services.

Purpose of the Review

The main purpose of the Review is to assess the extent to which the project has resulted in progress (or lack thereof) towards intended results and/or unintended results.

This review aims to contribute to results-based management through a participatory approach that documents results achieved, challenges and opportunities to progress, and contributions to the dialogue and consultations on the strategic priorities related to the women, peace, and security (WPS) agenda.

The review will also have a forward-looking focus and will aim to provide key recommendations for the implementation and scaling up opportunities of future work, based on the lessons learned identified through this review and will also provide forward looking actionable recommendations including on the roles of all key stakeholders to ensure linkages and mutual synergies of the different national bodies.

The main user of the review is UN Women Palestine Country Office, who will use the findings of the review to feed into the strategic note and related resource mobilization strategy for the period 2024-2026. The review will be also used by national stakeholders including the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, the National Coalition on UNSCR 1325, the Higher National Committee on 1325, the General Union of Palestinian Women for drawing lessons on the implementation of the WPS Agenda in Palestine and by international stakeholders to identify priorities related to the implementation of the WPS agenda in Palestine.

1.Review Objectives, Criteria and Key Questions

The specific objectives of the review are:

• Assess the relevance of the project at the national level and alignment with the needs of the intended beneficiaries and with international agreements and conventions on gender equality and women’s empowerment.
• Assess the effectiveness related to the achievement of the project results as identified in the project document, as well as unintended outcomes.
• Assess the impact of the project.
• Assess the potential sustainability of the project’s results.
• Assess the efficiency of the project.
• Identify and validate lessons learned, good practices and innovations.
• Provide actionable recommendations with respect to the UN Women intervention.

The review should pay particular attention to principles of leaving no one behind and through the mainstreaming of gender, human rights, disability inclusion, youth, and environmental sustainability concerns.

The guiding questions of the review should be the following:

• Relevance:
  • To what extent was the project able to influence or align with national strategies/governmental partners (i.e., MoWA), priorities, and relevant normative frameworks?
• Effectiveness:
  • To what extent did UN Women manage to promote the WPS agenda in Palestine?
  • To what extent did the partners contribute to the overall project objectives?
  • What were the main hindering factors and how to mitigate them in future interventions, especially in view of the changed political context in Palestine?
• Impact:
  • What are the enabling factors, ‘game-changers,’ and main good practices that could be replicated and scaled up at the country level, regional level, and global level to ensure more sustainable results?
  • What is the change/ impact partners contributed to? What are the achieved results of the project?
• Sustainability:
  • What measures have been put in place to ensure that the positive outcomes and impacts achieved by the project will continue to be realized and maintained after the project has concluded?
• Efficiency:
  • To what extent were the resources (financial, human, time) used optimally to achieve the project’s objectives and outcomes?

2.Review phases and timelines:

The review will assess the collective performance and implementation of all project’s partners for the period January 2019-August 2023. The review will cover the entire geographical areas and all beneficiaries targeted by the project, which includes the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The review will apply a descriptive gender-sensitive approach using a combination of document reviews, analysis of secondary data, focus groups, and interviews with key counterparts.

Phases:

• Design phase: The Consultant will initiate the review through a desk review of the preliminary documents. Based on the findings from the desk review, the consultant will develop the review methodology including the review criteria and questions. A list of interviewees and stakeholders for consultation will be identified in consultation with the UNCT. A short inception report (2-3 pages) highlighting methodology and expected actions will be submitted.
• Data collection phase: the consultant will complete the desk review with data collection resulting from interviews, workshops, and focus group discussions with key stakeholders.
• Data analysis and synthesis phase: the consultant will submit an initial draft of the review. A validation meeting with key stakeholders will be organized to validate the findings. Afterwards, the consultant is expected to present the final results through a presentation, including with the donor.

Timeframe:This review is expected to be carried out within 2 months

3.Deliverables

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. As part of the assignment, the consultant may be requested to conduct field visits or in-person meetings.

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:

• Excellent facilitation and communication skills.
• Excellent review skills.
• Good understanding and practice of capacity development.
• Outstanding knowledge of women, peace, and security.
• Outstanding understanding of the gender and developmental work and coordination mechanisms by different stakeholders in Palestine.
• Good understanding of the context of Palestine.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

Master’s degree or higher in social science, development, international relations, gender studies, economics, and/or related field.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of leading reviews and assessments on gender equality programmes and interventions.
• Proven record of conducting good quality WPS reviews in the past – minimum two evaluations to be clearly indicated in the application.
• At least 4 years of experience on the Women Peace and Security Agenda, and relevant challenges and issues in the local context is required.
• Experience in the MENA region is desired.
• Proven experience working with UN and International Organizations is an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of Arabic is an asset.