International Consultant – Strengthening the Governments’ Capacity to Undertake Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting

Location : Home-based with travels to Tanzania for specific field assignments, TANZANIA

Application Deadline : 12-Sep-23 (Midnight New York, USA)

Type of Contract : Individual Contract

Post Level : International Consultant

Languages Required : English

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

25-Sep-2023

Duration of Initial Contract : 45 working days

Expected Duration of Assignment : 3 months

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.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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 centre of its efforts, UN Women is mandated to lead and coordinate the United Nations’ system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming are translated into action. It is also mandated to provide strong and coherent leadership in support of the Member States’ priorities and efforts and build effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The SDG monitoring indicator 5.c.1 requires the Members States to track and make public allocation for gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) commitments, including the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPfA), the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and other instruments, linking the policy and legal requirements for gender equality with resource allocations for their implementation. Gender-responsive planning and budgeting (GRB) enables governments to effectively reduce gender inequalities through policies, plans and budgets that address equally the specific needs and priorities of women and men, girls, and boys, including the most excluded. It is an effective tool designed to track and analyze the way governments make plans, allocate budgets, and use funds to promote gender equality and attention to the leaving no one behind (LNOB) issues through a variety of interventions. GRB generates data revealing both policy gaps and achievements, helping to guide governments and other institutions to improve their plans, allocations, and spending to promote gender equality and LNOB in line with national, regional, and local priorities.

The SDG target 5.4 envisages GEWE through the so-called 3R strategy to address the disproportionate burden of unpaid care work on women. Across the globe, unpaid care work remains a key constraint on women’s economic empowerment. By recognizing, reducing, and redistributing (“3R”) unpaid care work and rewarding and representing (“5R”) those who are engaged in the care economy, the 3R/5R strategies allow for a coherent understanding of policy opportunities to address unpaid and underpaid care work and provide a framework for care policy analysis and policymaking. To implement the 3R/5R strategies and monitor the progress towards the SDG target 5.4, the budgeting and planning process that apply a care lens is critical to identifying the care policy gaps and promoting necessary interventions. GRB provides a useful framework to analyze, budget and plan programs that fill the care policy gap and value care responsibilities.

The UN system in Tanzania, through the new UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), identified GRB crucial to increase and track financial commitments and accelerate progress towards the GEWE and LNOB commitments. Also, UN Women Tanzania’s Strategic Note 2023-2027 sets forth an output (2.1.1) envisaging the increased capacity of national and subnational governments to address women’s disproportionate share of unpaid and domestic care work. Furthermore, Tanzania’s National Five Year Development Plan (FYDP) III 2021/22-2025/26 entails strong elements on GEWE and LNOB, providing yet another opportunity for UN Women and other UN agencies and development partners to strengthen GRB capacities of national and subnational governments to deliver concrete results for the most vulnerable groups including women. The COVID-19 pandemic recovery measures also require an increased innovative financing for GEWE and LNOB as the pandemic revealed the disproportionate burden of care work on women.

The UN Women Tanzania Country Office (CO) has been implementing GRB initiatives and projects over the past eight years with national and subnational governments and civil society organizations (CSOs) with positive results. The CO is also increasingly addressing the disproportionate care burden on women through the 3R/5R strategies in partnership with subnational governments and CSOs.

Against this background, the CO plans to scale up and expand its technical assistance to the governments on gender-responsive, inclusive planning and budgeting processes. As the care economy is emerging as key to women’s economic empowerment, the CO intends to apply a care lens analysis to the on-going GRB capacity building support. To accomplish these goals, the CO seeks to hire an international consultant (IC) with expertise in GRB with a good understanding of care economy and the 3R/5R strategies. S/he will report to the country representative of UN Women and work closely with the program staff at the CO and one national consultant to be hired through a separate contract. The two consultants will work as a team, with the IC as the lead, responsible for overall quality assurance.

Duties and Responsibilities

The UN Women Tanzania Country Office (CO) is looking for an international consultant (IC) with substantial experiences in GRB coupled with a good understanding of care economy and the 3R/5R strategies. S/he will be responsible for providing technical support to government partners (both national and subnational) on engendering the public financial management (PFM) framework that are responsive to women’s and girl’s needs, harness opportunities for their economic empowerment, and addresses the care work’s disproportionate burden.

Under the overall guidance of the country representative of UN Women and in coordination with the WEE program specialist as well as the national consultant, the IC will provide technical expertise on GRB to address opportunities and challenges in promoting sustainable development The consultant will strengthen the government partners’ capacity and promote efforts necessary for the inclusion and mainstreaming the gender and care perspectives in the national and subnational policymaking process in line with the international standards. The IC’s main duties and responsibilities are as follows.

•  Document critical findings of last year’s UN Women’s GRB capacity needs assessment surveys
•  Prepare one policy brief on the care economy and its significance for Tanzania as a member of the global Care Alliance
•  Provide capacity building support for the Ministry of Finance (MoF) on GRB, including the development of a list of actions to reach the 2027 targets of GRB mainstreaming as per the Public Financial Management Reforms Project (PFMRP) VI
•  Finalise the GRB guidelines in coordination with the Budget Unit at the MoF and support its publication and dissemination.
•  Preparation of TORs for the GRB Coordination Technical Working Group (GRB TWG) and participation in initial engagements with the group.
•  Provide technical support for the Joint IMF-UN Women Regional Workshop in close coordination with the MoF and the Ministry of Gender scheduled in November 2023
•  Ensure the integration of GRB into the Integrated National Financing Framework for Tanzania through consultations with line ministries and UN agencies.
•  Develop the capacity of Gender focal Points on GRB to the Gender Focal Points in the line ministries.

Deliverables

•  Assessment with key findings of UN Women’s GRB TNA survey of 2022 of selected ministries/agencies
•  Policy brief on the care economy of Tanzania, its linkages with the SDGs, challenges in integrating into the mainstream economy and policy recommendations and costing.
•  Substantive Gender Responsive Budgeting inputs in the integrated National Financing Framework and prepare a list of actions for the PFMRP VI’s targets for 2027 for mainstreaming GRB.
•  Gender Responsive Budget Guidelines submitted to MOF for dissemination to sectoral ministries.
•  Gender focal points Gender responsive Budgeting training presentation
•  Development of TOR for the GRB Technical Working Group.
•  Organizing at least three consultations in support of the establishment of an inter-ministerial coordination mechanism.
•  Substantive UN Women inputs and representation in the Joint IMF- UN Women Ministry of Gender and Ministry of Finance meeting including consultations with partners, UN Women regional and HQ.

Competencies

CORE 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/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Master’s degree or equivalent in international development, economics, political science, social science, gender/women studies, human rights, international relations or other social science fields is required

Experience:

•  At least 7 years progressively responsible experience in designing and managing programmes and advocating for Gender Responsive Budgeting, ideally, with some experience in Tanzania
•  Understanding of public financing in care economy
•  Experience in public policy analysis and strategic planning engaging government officials
•  Experience in working and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field
•  Experience in working with the UN is an asset
•  Experience in working in the Southern and East Africa region is an asset

Language Requirements:

•  Fluency in English is required
•  Knowledge of the other UN official language is an asset

Submission of Applications: The interested consultant (s) should respond to this TOR by submitting to UN Women:

•  A cover letter explaining why the candidate is the most suitable for the work with fee quotation.
•  A Curriculum Vitae with professional references
•  A sample of the candidate’s written work, ideally a policy document that she/he helped to develop or revise.

Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment .

UNWOMEN 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.