Background

Duties and Responsibilities

II.Consulting Task

Background/Context

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 heart of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the efforts of the United Nations system to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming are translated into action worldwide. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The four global thematic areas are:

• Governance and Participation in Public Life.
• Economic Empowerment of Women.
• End Violence against Women and Girls.
• Women, Peace and Security, Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction.

Brazil has ratified key human rights treaties, such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Belém do Pará Convention, and the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD). Brazil is also a signatory to normative human rights and development instruments, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action, and the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. In September 2015, Brazil joined the international community in adopting the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, committing to the implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 5 “Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.”

Furthermore, as an organization, UN Women has as one of its main constituents civil society organizations and the women’s movement, either by supporting their own initiatives or by working in partnership to strengthen their capacities to demand the realization of women’s rights. In Brazil, the main initiatives involve strengthening the capacity, skills and communications between women and their organizations; and supporting their networks and their participation in national and international decision-making spaces. Finally, UN Women has a Civil Society Advisory Group (GASC) for effective, ongoing and structured consultations with civil society.

The UN Women Office in Brazil is seeking to hire a national consultant to support the program area in its relationship with civil society, including facilitating processes related to financial support granted, monitoring networks and advising the Civil Society Advisory Group, in all stages related to partnerships with grassroots civil society organizations, from the selection stage, through the communication flow and monitoring of implementation, to technical support and capacity building of organizations to prepare accountability reports. In collaboration with the programmatic and operational teams of the UN Women team, the National Consultant will support the selection and monitoring flow of projects supported with Small Grants, financial support and activities related to partnerships with civil society.

At the end of the consultancy, it is expected that UN Women’s partner organizations will have their capacities and skills strengthened in different ways. In addition, it is expected that UN Women’s relationship with civil society will be strengthened and that GASC will be active.

Description of Responsibilities/Scope of Work

Under the direct guidance and supervision of the Deputy Representative and Head of Programmes and in close collaboration and dialogue with the managers of the thematic teams of the UN Women Brazil office, the National Consultant will implement the following tasks/activities:

Task 1: Technically support UN Women to develop and conduct Calls for financial support for proposals from women’s organizations

1. Provide technical and substantive inputs to support the development and finalization of documents that will make up the call for projects with civil society organizations, based on consultations and strategic recommendations from partners indicated by the teams.

2. Provide technical and substantive support for the development of a strategy for disseminating and communicating the notice to the target audience, mapping organizations and disseminating it among them if in the form of a public call, or identifying potential beneficiaries, if in the form of an invitation.

3. Provide technical and substantive support for the development of methodology and organize, together with the programs area, informative/training sessions to present the notice to potentially interested organizations.

4. Provide technical and substantive support to the process of adapting and implementing a participatory methodology for evaluating and selecting proposals received, based on the project team’s guidelines, as well as screening the proposals received, if necessary.

5. Provide technical support to all processes related to the constitution, communication flow and meetings of the technical committee to be established to review the proposals received and considered valid, preparing meeting minutes, organizing documents and attaching supporting documentation.

6. Support the programs area by preparing text proposals for the award letters of selected projects.

Task 2: Facilitate the flow of communication with beneficiary organizations in order to provide ongoing specialized advice on aspects related to the management and financial and narrative monitoring of contracts with beneficiary organizations, in accordance with work plans agreed with UN Women.

1. Maintain fluid communication with beneficiary organizations, in a continuous training format, indicating the terms and conditions to be observed for the use of resources, as well as the obligations linked to the correct reporting.

2. Monitor the execution of resources by beneficiary organizations and provide guidance on the correct use of resources and recording of expenses, as well as practical guidance so that the pace of spending is adequate and there are no delays in execution.

Task 3: Facilitate the implementation of monitoring and capacity development mechanisms for beneficiary organizations.

1. Undertake practical training in accountability and report writing.

2. Review all documentation relating to the implementation of the grants, including narrative reports, invoices, receipts and bank statements and/or proof of bank transactions for all transactions related to the grant, and identify whether they comply with the guidelines provided during the training, pointing out any deficiencies and explaining to the beneficiary organizations how to correct them.

3. Carry out the analysis of the interim and final reports following the work plans and dates established in the contract with the grantees, including the narrative part and the accountability, and prepare brief reports from each organization for the UN Women team, describing the process and highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the organizations’ reports and how the grantees overcame the difficulties and strengthened their capacities.

4. Provide information on the results achieved by the projects individually, as well as connecting the results of the projects in a broader way and preparing a summary of the impact achieved in the lives of the women and communities benefited, feeding the results communication strategy.

Task 4: Technically support UN Women in its engagement and relationships with women, civil society organizations and networks

1. Technically and substantively support UN Women’s engagement with women, civil society organizations and networks as required by the program area.

2. Provide technical inputs, facilitate dialogues and design a proposal for a partnership strategy with civil society, advising on its implementation and management in order to build trust and maintain effective relationships with organizations in the ecosystem of women’s civil society organizations in Brazil.

3. Build strong and professional relationships with partner organizations by maintaining an extensive list of up-to-date contacts and focal points of civil society organizations that are strategic for the UN Women programme area.

4. Provide technical support and advice to the UN Women team in the preparation of documents, technical notes, reports and other documents in support of specific resource mobilization activities and coordination of project activities that contain financial support for civil society organizations.

5. Provide technical and substantive support to the restructuring and management of the Civil Society Advisory Group of the UN Women office in Brazil, aligned with global, regional and national corporate priorities.

The consultant will report to the Deputy Representative and Head of Programmes and will work closely with thematic and project area managers. In addition, he/she will be supported by the UN Women operations team, who will be the point of contact for contractual and payment matters.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a consultancy carried out remotely and virtually. As part of this assignment, no travel is planned for the development of this consultancy. If necessary, all travel costs will be processed internally by the UN Women Brazil team considering the available budget.

Competencies

III. Skills

Core values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Main Skills:

• Gender Awareness and Sensitivity
• Responsibility
• Creative problem solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Lead 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 analytical and communication skills.
• Good teamwork skills.
• Understanding the gender equality agenda.
• Good relationship skills.
• Proactivity.

Required Skills and Experience

IV. Required Qualifications

In order to be considered, candidates must meet the following qualifications and requirements:

Education and Certification:

• Mandatory Higher education in Social Sciences, Communication or related areas.
• Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Communication or related areas will be considered a differential.

Professional experience:

• Mandatory professional experience of at least 5 years with the theme of gender, race and ethnic equality and women human rights defenders.
• Must have at least 2 years of prior experience in preparing, conducting and finalizing funding calls for proposals for civil society organizations. Experience should include: drafting terms of reference, conducting selection processes and/or calls for proposals, and technical evaluation of social project proposals.
• Previous professional experience with project design, implementation and monitoring is mandatory.
• Previous professional experience in dialogue and coordination with civil society organizations and women’s movements is mandatory.
• Previous professional experience with training and capacity building processes is desirable.
• Previous experience with results-based management (RBM approach) is desirable.
• Previous experience in the UN System is desirable.

Languages:

• Fluent Portuguese required.
• Practical knowledge of English (working knowledge ) is desirable.
• Practical knowledge of Spanish ( working knowledge ) is desirable.

V. Application Process

1. All candidates must complete the online application on the UNDP Jobs website
2. Complete, sign and attach the UN Women Personal History Form (P-11), which can be downloaded at: UN Women – Form P11
3. A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page), with a link to an online portfolio, which includes the candidate’s previous work and demonstrates his/her ability and creativity in performing the tasks.
4. Please note that the platform only accepts one file, unique and in PDF format.

For more help with your application, please watch this video: LinkedIn – UN Women

USE:

Candidates who do not complete the online application and do not submit supporting documents will not be considered.

Candidates who fail to provide evidence of the information provided in the online application and/or Form P-11 will be disqualified.

Due to the large number of applications received, only selected candidates will be notified.

Candidates must be Brazilian citizens.

Interested candidates should apply by 11:59 p.m. (New York time) on September 23, 2024. https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm)

VI. Diversity and Inclusion

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly established UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women emerged as part of the UN’s reform agenda, pooling 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.

At UN Women we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains and promotes without regard to race, religion, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment decisions are based on qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you require any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include that information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is inconsistent with the goals and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All successful candidates are expected to comply with UN Women policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women staff and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include verification of academic credentials and employment history. Successful candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.