UN Women: Cash and Voucher Specialist, Home-Based, International Consultant, Retainer – 2 Positions

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.  Afghanistan is one of the world’s most complex emergencies, and the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Afghan people are grappling with the impact of chronic, poverty, climate change, economic decline, and natural disasters. Afghan women and girls face unique and amplified vulnerabilities particularly the series of restrictions and bans that restrict their access to education, health, workplaces and public spaces. In this context, it remains urgent that Afghan women and girls are provided targeted support and that they can continue to shape the development of their country, and that their gains are protected. UN Women remains fully committed to supporting Afghan women and girls and to putting them at the center of the global response to the poly-crises crisis in Afghanistan.

UN Women has been in Afghanistan for two decades. UN Women’s programming approach is informed by analysis of the political, economic and humanitarian situation, risks to and capacities of partner organizations, and needs of Afghan women and girls. UN Women Afghanistan currently has five key programme priorities: (1) Integrated Programming and Localization, (2) Women’s movement building through core grant making; 3) Policy and Research; 4) Economic Resilience and Private Sector and 5) Coordination, Access and Humanitarian Response. UN Women Afghanistan operates through its main office in Kabul and five sub-offices located in the provinces of Balkh, Bamyan, Herat, Kandahar and Nangarhar..

In Afghanistan, community preference clearly favours flexible assistance modalities. According to community feedback, 28 per cent of respondents preferred a combination of cash and in-kind assistance, and 27 per cent preferred cash alone, reflecting the strong demand for assistance that allows households to prioritize food, rent, healthcare, transport, and debt repayment.  In a context of severe restrictions on women, cash assistance also offers a degree of privacy, discretion and flexibility that is often lost in in-kind assistance.

UN Women in Afghanistan is seeking up to 2 international consultants on retainer to provide needs based technical and operational support to the agency’s Cash and Voucher assistance (CVA) to ensure it is of high quality, technically sound, and responsive to the needs of women and their families. The consultant will play an important role in transferring capacity and experience to strengthen UN Women’s internal institutional capacity in Afghanistan.

The consultant will be reporting to the Access, Coordination and Emergency Response Specialist, and work in close coordination with UN Women’s country office in Kabul and its five regional sub-offices. The Specialist will be expected to travel to Afghanistan as needed, and work directly with personnel across the agency and with its partners. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the Specialist may be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

Deliverables

The selected consultant may be requested to undertake the following responsibilities;

• Lead, oversee, and/or support the formulation, implementation, and quality assurance of UN Women’s CVA in Afghanistan, ensuring alignment with gender-responsive standards.
• Provide technical assistance and capacity strengthening to personnel and partners on CVA, including designing and delivering trainings.
• Lead, oversee, and/or support the design and/or management of information systems for beneficiary registration, deduplication, verification, etc. ensuring robust data management and protection, and adherence to UN Women’s data management policy and procedures.
• Support the Programme Manager in the review existing procedures (SOPs) and guidance notes on CVA, and their roll out.
• Actively engage with the Inter-Agency Cash Working Group (CWG) and relevant clusters to ensure UN Women’s gender-focused priorities are integrated into humanitarian response.
• Develop and implement comprehensive monitoring frameworks and conduct regular field-level verification missions to ensure the accountability and safety of cash distributions.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based retainer consultancy. The consultant will be engaged under a retainer contract, which facilitates direct engagement of the consultant depending on need and availability within the contract period for a pre-agreed fee, for a maximum of 100 working days. While on retainer contract, there is no guarantee of work, and the selected consultant retains the right to decline assignments based on their availability.

As part of the official duty of this consultancy, the consultant may be expected to travel to Afghanistan, which will be processed by UN Women, following the duty travel policy.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

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 Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrated technical knowledge of CVA in humanitarian settings;
• Proven ability to identify risks and operational bottlenecks early, developing creative and practical solutions to ensure program continuity while working effectively under tight deadlines in high-pressure, complex environments;
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with individuals and teams at all levels, both internally and externally;
• Awareness and ability to integrate gender analysis throughout CVA. 

Required Qualifications

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Gender Studies, International Relations, International Development, or other social science fields is required;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage;

Experience:

Required:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible work experience at the national or international level in the design, planning, implementation, and monitoring/evaluation of cash-based interventions, preferably in humanitarian contexts;
• Proven experience designing and managing information systems, and technical proficiency using tools, such as KoBo Toolbox, ODK, or other mobile data collection and statistical software;
• Proven ability to work under tight deadlines, navigate multiple tasks simultaneously, and work effectively both independently and as part of multicultural teams;

Desirable:

• Experience in designing and delivering CVA technical trainings to personnel and partners;
• Experience liaising with multilateral/bilateral entities, UN agencies, and donors;
• Experience working within the UN System and/or previous experience in the Afghanistan context.

Languages:

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

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.