Background

Background/Context

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.

UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on four strategic priorities:

• Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems
• Women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy
• All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence
• Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience, and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action

UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality, and in all deliberations and agreements linked to the 2030 Agenda. The entity works to position gender equality as fundamental to the Sustainable Development Goals, and a more inclusive world.

Center of Excellence for Gender Equality

Established in Seoul in 2022 with support from the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family of the Republic of Korea, the UN Women Centre of Excellence for Gender Equality (the Center) seeks to function as a ‘knowledge hub’ to facilitate research, education and training, sharing of innovations and lessons learned, networking, and development of multi-stakeholder partnerships for the achievement of gender equality in the Asia-Pacific region. The Centre aims to contribute to operationalizing normative frameworks on gender equality and the empowerment of women, informing innovative approaches to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”), transforming harmful social norms in the fast-changing and unique social landscape of Asia and the Pacific, and forging partnerships across sectors. The Centre’s working language is English, and it offers an international working environment, while Korean language skills are required for this particular consultancy, given the nature of the work involved.

In 2024, the Centre will implement its annual work plan with various training, research, and partnership-building activities. The Centre will explore policy alternatives for addressing significant gender-related challenges, with a focus on collaborating with government partners in the Asia-Pacific region. It will adopt a data-driven approach to support the countries to formulate evidence-based policy, as well as promote the region’s best policy practices by facilitating knowledge exchange.

For each thematic area, the Centre will organize various activities including training sessions, policy discussions, international forums, generate knowledge products, and support research. For the theme of WEE, the Centre is looking for a consultant to provide technical support to develop a report on promising practices of the Republic of Korea in advancing women’s economic empowerment.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objective of the consultancy

The objective of the consultancy is to develop a report on the promising practices of the Republic of Korea in advancing women’s economic empowerment. The report would use the existing documents to consolidate and review the Republic of Korea’s policies, and programmes that promote women’s economic empowerment. The report will be used in various activities of the Centre to share the promising practice of the Republic of Korea in advancing WEE.

The consultant will be reporting to Gender Training Specialist and will be supported by Administrative Assistant who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

It is expected that the report will employ the twin-track approach to gender. Firstly, it will review the current gender-focused policies and programmes that directly contribute to WEE. Those policies and programmes can include promoting equal employment opportunity, addressing employment-related gender discrimination, enhancing women’s status in the labor market and providing support for women to maintain and advance careers. Secondly, the report will also review other current policies and programmes that may have indirectly supported WEE. Those policies can be strengthening social responsibility for caregiving, guaranteeing the working parents’ maternal and paternal rights, fostering a family-friendly culture in the workplace, and promoting a gender-equal culture in daily lives.

Supervised by the Gender Training Specialist, the consultant is expected to carry out the following tasks.

• Outline the key WEE policies that the report will cover under the scope, including the list of the reference documents.
• Develop the report outline.
• Review and collect relevant data and information to draft the report.
• Regularly discuss with the COE team on the development of the report.
• Meet with relevant stakeholders to collect the comments/feedbacks from the key stakeholders on the draft report.
• Finalize the report based on the comments from UN Women and other stakeholders.
• Review the report in English after it was translated into English by the Centre of Excellence, to verify that the translation accurately reflects the original Korean version. 

Deliverables

For each policy and programme, the results on its implementation, including its lesson learns and recommendations, should be collected and analysed. As the purpose of the paper is to share the promising practices on the WEE policies to other countries, each policy and programme should cover the following information:

• The context that the policies and programmes was developed.
• The key stakeholders for the implementation and their specific roles during the implementation and monitoring of the policies.
• The Monitoring and Evaluation framework of the policy.
• The key implementation results so far and recommendations for further improvement.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. The consultant may come to Centre’s office to present the drafts in technical meetings convened by the Centre.

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/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values 

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 

• Excellent analytical skills
• Demonstrated ability to conceive, lead and report on independent strategic gender-responsive evaluations and reviews in a UN or similar setting
• Ability to identify good practices and areas for improvement, in particular root causes, in the areas of relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability, and provide specific, feasible and helpful recommendations and solutions.
• Ability to produce timely, quality outputs
• Ability to multi-task and work independently with little supervision
• Strong interpersonal, negotiation, presentation and communication skills including ability to listen actively and responds effectively
• Strong resourcefulness, logical thinking and report writing skills
• Demonstrated ability to use Microsoft office and qualitative and quantitative data analysis software for evaluation.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• A master’s degree in Gender and Development, Sociology, or other relevant disciplines
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 2 years relevant professional experience on gender equality and WEE.
• Have a very good understanding on the legal framework of the RoK in advancing WEE.
• Have experience in leading research activities, including drafting the reports.
• Previous working experience with stakeholders in the Republic of Korea will be an advantage.

Languages:

• Proficiency in Korean and English required

How to Apply 

• Personal CV or P11 (P11 can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc )
• A cover letter (maximum length: 1 page) explaining your interest in the consultancy and why you are the most suited candidate for this position.
• A report/paper on WEE (women’s economic empowerment) in English and/or Korean language to prove the analytical skill in the application. This must be a sample where the applicant was directly responsible for writing and demonstrating gender analytical skills.

The Statement of 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.)