UN Women - Senior Evaluation Consultant – Evaluation of UN Women’s Coordination Mandate, Home-based

• 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. 

The mandate and functions of UN Women call for the promotion of organizational and UN system accountability on gender equality through evaluation, strengthening evaluation capacities and learning from evaluation, and developing systems to measure the results and impact of UN Women with its enhanced role at country, regional and global levels. The UN Women Independent Evaluation Service (IES) of the Independent Evaluation, Audit and Investigation Services (IEAIS) evaluates the work of UN women to enhance organizational accountability, provide evidence-based information for decision-making and to contribute to learning on gender equality and the empowerment of women. 

As part of its evaluation plan, IES will conduct an Evaluation of UN Women’s Coordination Mandate, commencing in the first quarter of 2027. UN system coordination is central to UN Women’s triple mandate and positions the Entity to strengthen United Nations system-wide capacity and accountability to deliver on gender equality in development and humanitarian contexts. The purpose of the evaluation is to assess the relevance, coherence, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability of the coordination mandate, with particular attention to how coordination contributes to system-wide accountability, institutional change and collective results for gender equality. The evaluation will be contextualized within the current environment of UN reform, including UN80 and post-2030 processes, and will test the causal pathways and assumptions of the Coordination Mandate Theory of Change through new primary evidence, building on the 2026 Rapid Evaluation Synthesis of UN Women’s Coordination Mandate the ongoing synthesis on Strengthening Institutions for Accountability to Women and Girls and previous corporate evaluations of the UN system coordination mandate. 

Quality assurance of outputs and deliverables are measured against the UN Women’s Evaluation Policy and UNEG Norms, Standards, Ethical guidelines as well as guided by the UN Women Global Evaluation Reports Assessment and Analysis System (GERAAS) available at https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/Evaluation-GERAAS-guidance-2021-en.pdf.

The scope of the evaluation covers UN Women’s coordination work at global, regional and national levels and the institutional arrangements that underpin it; coordination across the triple mandate (coordination for results, coordination for results with rights, and coordination for accountability and resourcing); key frameworks and mechanisms including UN-SWAP, UNCT-SWAP, the Gender Equality Marker, the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan (GEAP), IANWGE, Gender Theme Groups, regional collaborative platforms and issue-based coalitions, Gender in Humanitarian Action mechanisms, joint programming, pooled financing and gender parity architecture; and coordination work across Country Offices, Multi-Country Offices and Programme Presences, covering UN Women’s work since at least the start of the last Strategic Plan. 

IES will conduct and manage the evaluation. The evaluation team will consist of a Team Leader and Evaluation Specialists supported by a Senior Evaluation Consultant, with oversight and quality assurance provided by the Chief and Director of IES and the support of a Peer Reviewer. Internal and external reference groups will provide technical feedback on key evaluation products. The evaluation will apply a mixed-methods, theory-based and utilization-focused design, drawing on theory testing and contribution analysis, systems analysis, comparative analysis, portfolio and financial analysis, semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, internal and external surveys, document and monitoring data review and, potentially, case studies. 

Under the supervision of the Chief of Evaluation, the Senior Evaluation Consultant will provide substantive written, analytical and technical contributions across the scoping and inception, data collection and analysis, and report writing and communication phases of the evaluation. The consultant will need to connect with the IES team during New York working hours via online platforms. 

Deliverables

Provide authoritative technical expertise into the design and delivery of all phases of an impartial and independent evaluation of UN Women’s coordination mandate, with the following deliverables:

The consultancy is to be paid based on satisfactory completion of the consultant’s contribution to the deliverables.

• The evaluation is completed on time, is of high quality, impartial, independent and credible, and meets UNEG professional standards and GERAAS quality criteria;
• Evaluation products are grounded in robust, triangulated evidence, with clear traceability between data, findings, conclusions and recommendations;
• Timely and authoritative technical advice provided to IES and to UN Women stakeholders at global, regional and country levels;
• Recommendations are strategic, actionable and used to inform UN Women’s coordination architecture, capacities, resourcing and results measurement;
• Quality and timely collaboration with other UN entities, Resident Coordinators, UN Country Teams and civil society partners in sensitive political terrain.

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

• 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: 

• Authoritative technical knowledge of all components of evaluation, including theory-based evaluation design, mixed-methods data collection and analysis, contribution analysis and reporting; 
• In-depth knowledge of UN system coordination, UN development system reform, inter-agency accountability frameworks and UN Women strategic priorities on gender equality and women’s rights;
• Substantive knowledge of gender-responsive evaluation and associated methodological approaches, including systems, comparative and portfolio/financial analysis, and demonstrated command of human rights-based approaches;
• Demonstrated ability to engage in complex corporate, institutional and system-wide evaluations in politically sensitive environments with many internal and external stakeholders;
• Ability to integrate and synthesize evaluative information across levels and mandate areas, and to write clear, concise and logical evaluation reports for senior and Executive Board audiences; 
• Strong knowledge of Results-Based Management principles and approaches, including measurement of mainstreamed and targeted gender equality results and collective UN delivery;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, with proven ability to represent an organization and build consensus in high-level and inter-agency settings.
• Competency in emerging AI tools and the responsible use of AI in evaluation. Understanding of ethical frameworks and principles guiding the use of AI in evaluation with a focus on human-in-the-loop application and maintaining a human-driven evaluation approach. 

• Master’s degree in evaluation, social science, international relations, international development and/or any relevant field directly related to gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls. 
• 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 minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible professional experience in evaluation in normative, development and/or humanitarian contexts. 
• Proven hands-on experience leading or contributing to complex corporate, institutional, thematic or system-wide evaluations, including theory-based and mixed-methods designs is required
• Demonstrated experience in gender equality analysis and gender-responsive evaluation, with substantive understanding of current development, humanitarian and UN reform issues are required.
• Experience working in the UN system or a similarly complex international organization, with a demonstrated understanding of global, regional and country level functions is required.
• Experience with UN system coordination mechanisms and accountability frameworks, such as UN-SWAP, UNCT-SWAP, the Gender Equality Marker, Gender Theme Groups, Resident Coordinator and UN Country Team system, joint programming and/or pooled financing is required. 

• Experience assessing coordination’s contribution to gender equality outcomes, institutional accountability, governance, capacities and resourcing is required. 

  Experience implementing normative, coordination or development programmes, and in evaluation use and knowledge management, is an asset.

  Experience related to UN Women’s triple mandate and coordination activities is an asset. 

   

• Fluency in English is required.

• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

   

• A lump sum fee will be paid in three tranches upon satisfactory completion of key deliverables: inception report (30%), preliminary findings (30%) and the approved final report (40%).
• The level of effort is anticipated to be 60 days over the duration of the evaluation.

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.

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.