Publications Reader Survey Consultant

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 center of all its efforts, the UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides a strong and coherent leadership in supporting Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In East and Southern Africa region, UN Women has presence in 12 countries namely: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa (Multi Country Office), South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe. The Multi Country Office covers Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) countries namely: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. The Office in Ethiopia is both a Country Office for Ethiopia and a Liaison Office to African Union and Economic Commission for Africa. The region has a Country Programme in Somalia. The East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) in Nairobi provides oversight to all the ESAR countries.

The Country Offices have programmatic responsibilities in their respective countries. The Country Offices develop Strategic Notes (similar to country programmes for other agencies) which articulate UN Women’s programmatic and management results to support national priorities on gender. The Strategic Notes are aligned with UN Sustainable Development Corporation Framework both in terms of results and periodicity. The UN Women Country Offices are also responsible for partnership with a wide range of partners including various Government ministries and departments, Non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, donors, development partners, academia, and others.

UN Women East and Southern Africa is inviting consultants to apply for a consultancy to undertake a Publications Reader Survey. This is a biennial survey meant to continually improve the user-friendliness, practicality and overall quality of UN Women’s publications. Specifically, the survey shall asses the publications commonly sought by stakeholders of UN Women in the entire region i.e., what form of publications are being sought by diverse audiences and how often the publications are consulted by the audiences, which parties seek them and in what format they preferred whether electronic or hard copies, accessibility for development and, policy-making (particularly in East and Southern Africa) and ways UN Women ESAR could improve on the presentation of their publications to accelerate demand by diverse stakeholders. This survey follows a similar one conducted in 2019 and is meant to improve ESAR’s publications quality assurance processes, development, outreach as well as policy impacts.

UN Women produces an extensive range of publications and knowledge products that aim to share information, express innovative ideas and practical experiences, provide evidence for policy engagements and discussions, inform development, investment and programming interventions on gender equality and women’s empowerment and stimulate debate on various aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The dissemination of these publications and ensuring action oriented to gender equality and women’s empowerment is one of the output areas of focus for UN Women in East and Southern Africa Region. Analytically, the value of any publications produced by UN Women is dependent on its effective and targeted dissemination to present and future audiences. In fact, without outreach, the efforts of knowledge workers are wasted.

Under the direct supervision and guidance of the Knowledge Management and Research Specialist of the UN Women ESARO, the consultant will undertake a Publications Reader Survey to understand the readership of regional publications for the period 2020-2022.

Duties and Responsibilities

Functions:

UN Women seeks to hire a consultant to conduct a publications reader survey meant to continually improve the user-friendliness, practicality and overall quality of UN Women’s East and Southern Africa regional publications. The consultant will in particular:

• Map out stakeholders for the Publication Reader Survey;
• The consultant shall conduct a survey targeting diverse audiences with support from the Knowledge Management and Research Specialist and report on the status of usage of Publications by UN Women ESARO. This includes developing related tools for the survey;
• Participate and if necessary, facilitate a UN Women ESARO meeting to validate the findings of the survey which shall target diverse publics of UN Women in ESARO;
• Analyze and document the survey findings and make detailed recommendations on the way forward;
• Draft a final report of the Reader Survey showcasing critical findings of the survey and recommendations that inform improvement of UN Women ESARO publications.

Methodology:

• Inception meeting with the UN Women technical staff involved in the survey;
• Desk review of various related websites and documents from diverse regional agencies;
• Conducting an online survey on the readership of UN Women Publications;
• Virtual engagements and communications with targeted agencies and stakeholders;
• Consultation with UN Women M/COs Offices.

Deliverables:

• Inception report outlining study methodology;
• Data collection tools approved in collaboration with UN Women;
• A document presenting the methodology to be used, including the approach, the timeline, a list of documents to be consulted, and a list of persons, partners/stakeholders and institutions to be interviewed;
• Survey report with analysis on publications readership by diverse audiences of UN Women with critical recommendations on improving the quality and outreach of UN Women publications.

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

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to lead research, data collection and analyze and compare different publication situations;
• Ability to apply conceptual models in support of formulations;
• Ability to establish, build and sustain effective relationships with clients;
• Ability to create, edit and present information in clear and presentable formats, using appropriate IT functionality;
• Excellent event planning skills;
• Excellent ability to meet deadlines and work under pressure;
• Knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment in East and Southern Africa.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• A masters degree in social sciences, education, research, monitoring and evaluation, statistics/data or related field in international development at the national and international level 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.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience in development research, statistical analysis preferably for international development organizations;
• Demonstrated experience in research and use of statistical packages such as SPSS, STATA and qualitative data analysis tools such as Epi Info;
• Experience working with diverse groups at Regional and/or country office level;
• Strong knowledge of gender in the context of the assignment is required.

Language Requirements:

• Proficiency in written and spoken English is required.

Application:

Please note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment

Note:

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.