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.
The work of UN Women in Moldova is guided by its Country Strategic Note 2023-2027, aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Moldova (2023-2027), UN Women Global Strategic Plan, National Programs and Strategies and aims to contribute to the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Strategic Note focuses on four main areas: 1) Ending Violence against Women; 2) Women’s Leadership and Governance; 3) Women’s Economic Empowerment; and 4) Humanitarian and Peace development nexus and UN Coordination on gender equality and women empowerment.
To ensure that women and girls, including those at greatest risk of being left behind, have improved access to resources, equal opportunities, and rights to enjoy a life without discrimination and violence, UN Women is implementing the project “Ending Violence, Expanding Livelihood Opportunities for Women and Accelerating Gender Governance in Moldova (EVOLVE4GE)” with financial support of European Union. The project addresses the key challenges women and girls face in the country, such as a) gender-blind policies and budgets that enable the persistence and perpetuation of gender inequalities; b) uneven participation, contribution, and benefit of women and men from the national economy; c) high prevalence of gender-based violence and limited access to specialist services and capacities for integrated service provision.
One of the key priorities is to support national authorities in advancing women’s economic empowerment through data generation and analysis of gender sensitive data. National Bureau of Statistics as the main central authority responsible for data production and coordination of production and development of official statistics in the national statistic system in the Republic of Moldova is the key partner for collecting gender-sensitive economic data. Part of the process, UN Women will provide targeted capacity-building initiatives for NBS staff and other data producers to strengthen their ability to collect, process, and analyze gender-disaggregated data. Additional support is oriented toward the development, analysis, and presentation of reports, studies/national analyses in the above-mentioned fields to provide comprehensive data and evidence for informed decision-making and actions, as well as to offer recommendations regarding national policies and the legal framework for the economic empowerment of women and women entrepreneurship.
Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work
In this regard, UN Women will contract an individual consultant to support NBS on mainstreaming gender into business statistics. Specifically, the consultant will lead efforts to: 1) map available statistical and administrative data from various sources, related to women entrepreneurship; 2) provide technical support to operationalize the statistical definition of women-owned businesses (WOB) and/or women-led businesses (WLB), 3) identify the core indicators to measure business demography by sex, women on business and trade, as well additional indicators needed to assess the entrepreneurial attitudes and barriers from gender perspective. The identified and analyzed core indicators will initially be produced as experimental statistics with potential to be integrated into official statistics on a regular basis.
The consultant will be responsible for the following activities:
The consultant will report to the Project Officer on women’s economic empowerment, who will be the contact point on contract and payment issues, under overall coordination of the Project Manager and UN Women Specialist on women’s economic empowerment. The ECA Regional Specialist on Statistics will lead the technical oversight of the entire process, ensuring alignment with international recommendations and the quality of the final deliverables. The consultant is expected to collaborate closely with designated counterparts at the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the ECA Regional Specialist on Statistics. Regular progress reports will be required in accordance with the outlined deliverables and work plan.
Deliverables
Working under the overall supervision of the UN Women Project officer on economic empowerment and ECA Regional Specialist on Statistics, the consultant will be responsible for the following:
Deliverable | Expected completion time (due day) | Payment Schedule (optional) |
Report on the mapping of available data sources and indicators produced by NBS on women entrepreneurship. | By April 30, 2025 | September 2025 |
Report on conceptual framework on compilation of women-owned businesses (WOB) and/or women-led businesses (WLB) and recommendations of core indicators for business demography along with summary of data analysis. | ||
Recommendations on key indicators and methodology for data collection using business and trade survey. | By 15 July, 2025 | |
Recommendations on data collection tools for assessing the entrepreneurial attitudes and barriers form gender perspective. | By September 30, 2025 | |
Analytical report with key indicators on gender and business, including trade | By October 20, 2025 | October 2025 |
Summary of key findings about entrepreneurial attitudes and barriers from gender perspective. | By November 10, 2025 | November 2025 |
PPP and other supporting materials to be used for national workshop |
Language of deliverables
The reports and timesheets delivered to UN Women shall be prepared in English.
The assignment should be carried out within a period of 9 months (with possibility of extension following satisfactory performance and needs for support expressed by national counterparts). The start date of the assignment is envisaged for March 2025 and will be completed by November 2025, unless extended by UN Women based on amended ToRs.
Financial Arrangements
Payments shall be made following certification by UN Women that the services related to each deliverable, as described above, have been satisfactorily completed and the deliverables have been achieved by or before the specified due dates.
Performance evaluation
The consultant’s performance will be evaluated against performance criteria such as timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.
Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel
Under the current assignment, no travel is envisaged. In the case of unforeseeable travel, UN Women will ensure transportation outside Chisinau. All travel shall be coordinated with UN Women.
Required Qualifications
Education:
Experience:
Languages:
Competencies:
Core Values:
Core Competencies:
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:
Functional Competencies:
APPLICATION PROCESS AND SUBMISSION PACKAGE
Interested candidates are invited to submit applications with the following documents.
Only short-listed applicants will be contacted.
Statements :
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together 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.
Diversity and inclusion:
At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.
If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.
UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)
Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.
Level of Education: Bachelor Degree
Work Hours: 8
Experience in Months: No requirements