International Consultant at UN Women, September 2023
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, peace, and security. Placing women’s rights at the center 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 Member States to track and make public allocations 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 pay attention to 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 progress towards SDG target 5.4, the budgeting and planning processes that apply a care lens are 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 as crucial to increasing and tracking financial commitments and accelerating 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 the 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 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 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 and a good understanding of the care economy and the 3R/5R strategies. He or she 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 experience in GRB coupled with a good understanding of the 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 a public financial management (PFM) framework that is responsive to women’s and girls needs, harnesses 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 of gender and care perspectives in the national and subnational policymaking processes in line with 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 a 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.
- Finalize the GRB guidelines in coordination with the Budget Unit at the MoF and support their 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 for 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 the UN Women’s GRB TNA survey of 2022 of selected ministries and agencies
- Policy brief on the care economy of Tanzania, its linkages with the SDGs, challenges in integrating into the mainstream economy, policy recommendations, and costing
- Substantive gender responsiveness Budgeting inputs in the integrated National Financing Framework and preparing a list of actions for the PFMRP VI’s targets for 2027 for mainstreaming GRB
- Gender Responsive Budget Guidelines were submitted to the 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 input and representation in the Joint IMF-UN Women Ministry of Gender and Ministry of Finance meeting included 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: A 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 of progressively responsible experience in designing and managing programs and advocating for gender-responsive budgeting, ideally with some experience in Tanzania
- Understanding public financing in the care economy
- Experience in public policy analysis and strategic planning engages government officials.
- Experience in working with and building partnerships with governments, donors, and civil society organizations internationally and in the field
- Experience working with the UN is an asset.
- Experience working in the Southern and East African regions 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 a fee quotation
- A curriculum vitae with professional references
- A sample of the candidate’s written work, ideally a policy document that she or he helped to develop or revise,
