UN Women, International Consultant - PMR (Planning, Monitoring and Reporting) QA support Consultant (Retainer), Home-Based

Consultancy Assignment

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. 

The Asia Pacific Regional Office (RO) is responsible for proactively driving the positioning of UN Women among the donor community and development partners in the regional as well as globally through various HQ units by communicating strategic results, valuable good practices and key messages. Given the functional responsibilities of the RO, the work of the RO includes ensuring technical quality of documents and materials related to planning, monitoring and reporting (PMR) including donor reports by providing high quality technical advice (TA) and quality assurance (QA), strengthening result-based planning, monitoring, reporting and writing skills of staff, tracking submissions by multi/country offices and supporting them in the finalization/clearance processes. Communicating strategic directions and results and key messages are a must to mobilize partners and resources and are becoming more and more important in the highly complex socio-political dynamics, in the context of 2030 Agenda and the SDGs, in light of Beijing+30 and in various harmonization efforts among development partners.  Also, it strives to achieve resource mobilization goals set by the Strategic Plan 2026-2029. 

In addition, it is critical that the RO keep abreast of developments in the context of UN 80 and try to conduct strategic planning as sharp as possible practicing data-driven foresight and utilizing data and statistics as much as possible. Planning documents need to be constantly reviewed and modified with agility. Planning documents are posted on the public-facing portal and quality should not be compromised.  

It is expected that the current cost-sharing programmes require approximately 200-220 donor reports for 2026. Also, with the decentralization of donor report clearance, the RO plays a more significant role for itself and countries that have not received decentralization in this regard by conducting analysis, sharing lessons learnt and providing helpful tools and capacity building opportunities. RO is expected to provide effective oversight to Tier 1 Country Offices (COs) and conducting performance assessments by evaluating submitted reports is mandatory every two years. One of the indicators of the Business Review Committee that the HQ Senior Management pays attention to is the timeliness of donor report submissions, and lately it has been observed that UN Women is expected to comply with higher and tougher standards for donor reports.

Similarly, six -monthly and annual reporting has become an important tool for monitoring and oversight as well as sharing results to external partners with an introduction of “Transparency Portal”, a platform to share information on progress towards and achievements of results exported from annual reports. In this context, there is urgent need for country offices and the RO units to strengthen their capacity (and their monitoring and reporting focal points in particular) to produce quality reports meant for external audience and for the RO Planning, Monitoring and Reporting Unit to provide good quality feedback and coaching on how to address them.  These require that the RO have comparable capacity to meet the demand of writing and reporting needs, providing quality control and reflecting the results-based discipline, in order to support and strengthen advocacy and strategic partnerships development. 

The consultant will be reporting to Regional Programme Specialist, and will be supported by Programme Assistant, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work

Under the overall guidance of the Regional Programme Specialist, the consultant is responsible for the following: 

• Consolidate and edit documents for planning documents and help to improve quality of information (which might include web research) when requested. 
• Reviewing donor reports (narrative and financial) to improve quality of substantive content and ensure the consistencies with the donor agreements and the project documents/proposals, as well as the RBM standards and other requirements of UN Women. Similarly, where requested, review annual and six-monthly reports ensuring compliance with the corporate reporting guidance notes. These include liaising with project managers or submitting offices or monitoring and reporting focal points to solicit further necessary information or clarifications, where necessary, editing, revising, and formatting as to producing high quality, reader-friendly, results-based donor reports and other documents required by donors aligned with UN Women’s established standards and formats, and in compliance with the RO’s clearance and routing process.
• Supporting COs/NPPs by providing TA/QA for six monthly and annual reporting as well as supporting RO’s annual reporting process.  
• Preparing specific report or reporting-related feedback/analysis to relevant UN Women offices for improvements of quality and for training purposes. Providing them directly to project managers and to monitoring and reporting focal points through the Community of Practice on RBM, training and hands-on coaching to better address the feedback. Act as a trainer for relevant parts of the regional PMR policy/procedure training, customizing or using the training materials developed by HQ. 
• When requested, collect lessons learnt in reporting and package them for sharing and use them as a basis for developing tools and guidance for field staff. When requested, conduct capacity building sessions and/or report writing workshops online or in-person (modality will be determined as appropriate). 
• Carry out “Tier assessments”, if requested, by reviewing donor reports of Tier 1 COs and make analysis and draft assessment reports for Tier 1 and 2.     

 

Assignment Workplan and Tentative Timelines

• Donor reports and other PMR related documents that reflect high quality, result-based standard and format established by UN Women, ready for clearance by the Regional Programme Specialist and the Deputy Regional Director. Target submission date will be set up when the assignments are given.
• Detailed feedback sheet using the feedback template of the RO per report. Target submission date will be set up when the assignments are given.
• Analysis reports/write-up/power point slides on quality of sample/selected reports such as those for “Tier 1/Tier 2” donor reports (if requested). Target submission date will be set up when the assignments are given.
• Capacity building sessions and/or report writing workshops online or in-person. Modality and target submission date will be determined in due course.

 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. Travel is not needed for this assignment. 

 

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.
• Strong knowledge of UN Women processes and systems.
• Strong skills for data handling.
• Strong inter-personal skills, communicate effectively with staff at all levels of the organization and from diverse background. 
• Ability to work in a highly pressured environment.

Required Qualifications:

Education and Certification:

• Master's degree or other advanced degree in one or more of the following disciplines: social sciences, international development, and/or communications.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university.

Experience:

• Minimum of 7 years of high-level experience in reporting and communicating complex programmatic information/results in reader-friendly formats and styles in English, as part of responsibilities. 
• Professional experience in the field of international development is required, and project management, and resource mobilization is an asset.
• Proven work experience in writing, editing, reporting in international development is required.
• Demonstrated abilities and track record writing high quality English-language reports and information.
• Excellent understanding of and experience with gender-sensitive and results-based management and reporting is required.
• Experience in reporting in the UN system or its development partners is required. 
• Experience in training or coaching in reporting is an asset. 
• Must be capable of effectively using MS Word and Excel.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.

How to Apply

Submission of an application: 

Interested candidates are encouraged to submit an online application not later than 20 May 2026, with the following documents:

•  Cover letter outlining relevant work experience.
• Only shortlisted candidates will be requested to submit 1 Writing sample, preferably in the area of gender equality or women’s empowerment or international development.

 

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits employ, 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.