International Consultant to review and prepare the Mozambique Strategic Note 2027 - 2030
UN Women
Consultancy Internationallly Recruited 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 all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. UN Women Country Office (CO) has been operational in Mozambique since 2010. For UN Women, the Country Office Strategic Note (SN) is the main planning tool for the agencies’ support to normative, coordination and operational work. The current CO Strategic Note is aligned with the previous and National Development Strategy (ENDE – (2015 -2025 and 2025-2044), the five-year government programme (PQG – 2020 – 2024), the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), as well as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDGs 1,5, 8, 10, 13, 16 and 17 and the Strategic Plan (2022 – 2025).
UN Women vision for Mozambique is the empowerment of women and girls, and the fulfilment of their human rights are achieved in a peaceful and resilient Mozambican society. To achieve this vision, the CO builds and sustains synergies with other UN Agencies under the principle of “Delivering as One”, the Regional Bodies, Development Partners and Private Sector through Joint Programming. In support of this goal and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the Mozambican context, UN
Women concentrates its efforts and interventions toward the realization of the following outcomes, as described in the organization strategic note (SN):
• Outcome 2.1 - By 2026 more people, particularly women and youth, participate in and benefit from a more diversified, inclusive, and sustainable economic growth based on increased production, productivity, and greater value-added chains (CF Outcome 2)
• Outcome 3.1 - by 2026, more people, particularly the most vulnerable and marginalized, have a more equitable access to and utilization of quality, inclusive, resilient, gender- and shock responsive social protection and essential social services (CF Outcome 1)
• Outcome 4.1 - by 2026, more people, especially the most vulnerable and marginalized, are protected, enjoy their rights, and benefit from a secure, peaceful environment, enabled by inclusive governance systems, and independent and accountable institutions abiding by the rule of law (CF Outcome 4)- (WPS for UN Women)
• Outcome 6.1 - Global norms, standards, and processes on gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls are translated into gender-responsive laws, policies, and plans and effectively implemented (New).
• Outcome 6.2 - The UN system coherently and systematically contributes to the progress of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls (New). Description of the Strategic Note UN Women Mozambique Country Office Strategic Note (2023-2026) guides the work of the organization in the country, articulating how it will contribute to the achievement of national goals. The Country Office has embraced an integrated programming approach and the triple nexus development-peace and humanitarian with Leave No One Behind (LNOB) principles to spearhead the impactful changes in the communities but also making sure that Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) is embedded in policies, laws, programmes, institutions and financing mechanisms. The SN programmes were designed in a context of ongoing development and humanitarian challenges and aimed at advancing the triple nexus by addressing humanitarian needs and peacebuilding while also focusing on resilience, life-saving support, access to services including Gender Based Violence (GBV) assistance, livelihoods and the protection of women’s and girls’ rights. Full implementation of the current SN is costed at 39 million from 2023 to 2026, divided per impact area: Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work Guided by the technical direction of the Planning, Monitoring & Evaluation and Reporting Officer (PMERO) and under the overall supervision of the Senior Management Team (SMT) at UN Women Mozambique, the consultant will be tasked with reviewing the progress of Mozambique’s 2023-2026 Strategic Note (SN) and managing the design process leading to the approval of the 2027-2030 Strategic Note.
The consultant will in particular:
• Conduct a comprehensive desk review of key documents including evaluations, monitoring data and both internal and external audit reports and undertake consultations to review the progress in attaining the planned outcomes detailed in the current Mozambique SN (2023–2026). Reference UNSDCF results, highlighting challenges encountered and lessons learned throughout the implementation period to inform preparation of the new SN.
• Facilitate internal and external consultations with key stakeholders (including development partners, Gender Development Partners Group, Government, civil society (especially CBOs, WLOs/WROs), private sector, as well as other UN system stakeholders) to validate the findings of the desk review, the preliminary analysis, results framework, the key elements of the Strategic Note and obtain additional insights on key GEWE gaps, challenges, priorities, opportunities, and recommendations for future programming.
• Work with the CO team to elaborate session agendas and facilitate workshops with the UN Women team to develop various components of the SN including but not limited to the Theory of Change, Results Framework (DRF and OEE); 4-year budget, and all accompanying documents1.
• Draft the first version of the Strategic Note as per the UN Women Guidance on SNs including coordinating the submission of inputs required from various staff.
• Prepare an agenda for and facilitate the validation workshops with stakeholders as guided by the country team.
• Incorporate the comments from validation sessions with external stakeholders, Regional and Global Technical Review Committees and the global PRG into a complete Strategic Note package consisting of all the relevant attachments as per the Guidance note.
• Prepare the power point presentation for the global PRG jointly with the Country Office team.
• Take on any other task that may come up and are essential for successful SN development.
Deliverables
The consultant is expected to produce a desk review report of the performance of UN Women SN (2023 – 2026) and the new UN Women Mozambique Strategic Note (2027 – 2030). Mozambique Country Office. The full list of deliverables is presented below:
| Deliverable | Expected completion time (due day) | Payment |
| Inception report developed, including methodology and work plan and presented to UN Women Mozambique Management Team | 5 days after contract signature | - |
| Desk Review report of the performance of UN Women SN (2023–2026), incorporating findings from stakeholder consultations and inputs to the Early Thinking Presentation. | Mid/May | 15% |
| Draft Strategic Note developed, containing all the relevant attachments as per UN Women Guidance | Early June | 15% |
| Draft Strategic Note validated by external stakeholders, UN Women Mozambique office, Resident Coordinator and Peer Review Group (PG) of UN Women (regional and headquarters office) | End June | 20% |
| Final Strategic Note document containing all the relevant attachments as per the UN Women Guidance | Mid July | 50% |
| A Power Point Presentation and two-pager summarizing the Strategic Note |
Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel This is hybrid consultancy which combines home-based with a field mission to Mozambique. As part of this assignment, there will be a maximum of 1 trip to Maputo City (Mozambique) for stakeholder consultations and validation meetings.
Competencies :
Core Values:
Core Competencies:
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:
Functional Competencies:
• Excellent facilitation and communication skills, including experience in field data collection and facilitating meetings.
• Extensive evaluation experience with UN agencies and programmes.
• In-depth knowledge of gender equality and women's rights issues;
• Experience in Programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Knowledge of Results Based Management
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings
• Good knowledge of technical area
• Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail
• Ability to use ICT based solutions
• Strong analytical and presentation skills
Required Qualifications:
Education and Certification:
• Master’s degree in social sciences, gender/women’s studies, international development, international relations, programme management, public policy or other related fields
Experience:
• At least 07 years of professional work experience in programme development and implementation, including monitoring and evaluation activities.
• Experience working on gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa and Mozambique in particular
• Proven experience in guiding and documenting programme reviews, evaluations and using learning to prepare strategic documents for international organizations.
• Proven knowledge of programme monitoring and evaluation theory, including theories of change, methodology, technology and tools.
• Advanced knowledge of results-based planning, including planning of monitoring & evaluation work including demonstrated experience of UN results-based management standards and guidelines, and UN planning processes (UNDAF/UNSDCF and/or UN Country Program Documents)
• Demonstrated experience in project management, conducting research and writing strategic documents, and proposals preferably within the UN system
Languages:
• High proficiency in Portuguese and English
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:
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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.
