Consultant for elaborating and supporting the implementation of a Knowledge Management Strategy for the “Win-Win: Gender Equality means Good Business” Programme

Workplace: Home-based
Area: Economic Empowerment
Type of contract: Individual Contract
Required languages: Portuguese, Spanish and English
Start date: At the signing of the contract
Duration of service: 4 months from the start of the contract
Application deadline: September 15th (23:59 Brasilia time)

1. 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.

In 2015, on 25 September, the United Nations General Assembly adopted unanimously the Resolution 70/1 Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Gender equality and women’s empowerment is at the heart of the agenda, as numerous goals and targets address structural barriers to achieve equal rights and opportunities between women and men, girls and boys.

One of the key areas of concern is the economic empowerment of women. It is expressed in targets and indicators of SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and SDG 8 (Promote inclusive and sustainable development, decent work and employment for all). Progress toward it depends not only on the adoption of a set of public policies by government, but also on the existence of an enabling environment and active engagement of the corporate sector. This is also relevant to the achievement of SDG 17 (Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development).

Around 90% of jobs in the world are in the private sector. This represents a huge potential to implement transformative actions in the world of work and social responsibility in favor of women, benefiting the whole society. There is an increasing consciousness, interest and commitment of private and public-sector companies on the value and benefits of gender equality and the economic empowerment of women and its role to achieve it. This perspective includes not only large corporations but also medium and small. Women participation in entrepreneurship activities has been increasing, in many countries as not for vocation but as it is the only way to survive.

To guide companies to engage and advance their practices towards to women empowerment in the workplace, in the value chain and in the communities, UN Women and Global compact created the platform “Women Empowerment Principles” (WEPs). Today there are more than 2,000 companies around the world that have signed the WEPs and more than 400 in Latin America and the Caribbean. UN Women has also been working on activities to foster women entrepreneurship activities and, in this framework, it has produced the guide “The power of procurement: how to buy from women owned business”.

In January 2018 UN Women started implementing a Programme, in partnership with the European Union (EU) and the International Labor Organization (ILO), called “Win-Win: Gender Equality means Good Business” to increase companies’ engagement and practices aimed to advance gender equality and women owned business (entrepreneurs) access to market as well as to accelerate labor market conditions and economic activities of women.

To achieve Programme goals and results, a series of methodologies, tools, knowledge products, trainings, studies, campaigns to advocate and raise awareness to promote gender equality in the private sector and non-discriminatory work places are been elaborated. Also, the Programme is identifying and promoting incentives for companies to enjoy recognition of their good practices and promoting exchange of experiences between national and regional corporate commercial associations, chambers and networks and advocate for implementation of WEPs in LAC.

Considering the Programme potential to establish a sustainable model of private sector involvement as a key partner of gender equality journey, the designing and implementation of a consistent strategy of knowledge management is crucial to foster appropriation and sustainability of “Win-Win” results towards positive changes in business culture.

Knowledge Management is a set of systematic processes, or range of practices to identify, capture, store, create, update, represent and distribute knowledge for internal and external use, awareness and learning. In doing so, it promotes efficiency, reduces duplication and fosters learning and innovation. Through Knowledge Management, knowledge is transformed into an asset that can make the organization more efficient and effective. The objective is to produce and deliver the right knowledge in the right format to the right person at the right time in the right context.

UN Women counts with a corporate knowledge management strategy and UNW in LAC has developed an internal knowledge management platform on sharepoint to which the knowledge management strategy developed by the Win-Win Programme needs to be aligned.

2. Objectives

The Win-Win will hire a consultant to design and support implementation of a knowledge management strategy for the Programme, aligned with UNW’s corporate knowledge management strategy and with the UNW LAC knowledge management platform.

3. Responsibilities of the consultant / Activities to be carried out to achieve the objectives

In order to achieve the objectives, the consultant will conduct the following activities under the supervision of the Regional Programme Coordinator and in close dialogue with knowledge management focal points in Brazil CO and RO for the Americas and the Caribbean:

1. Design and develop Knowledge Management strategy and tools

• Undertake a comprehensive mapping of existing and upcoming knowledge activities, studies, campaigns, guidelines, trainings, methodologies and tools developed/implemented by, and relevant to the Win-Win Regional Programme;
• Design a repository for knowledge products using the categories developed by the UNW LAC knowledge management platform, in the section on women’s economic empowerment;
• Elaborate a KM strategy for quality knowledge products to be systematically and efficiently developed, organized, implemented, shared and integrated, including localized innovative solutions, for both internal and external audiences, and support its implementation.

2. Facilitate knowledge building, knowledge sharing and knowledge management

• Make recommendations on innovative mechanisms to share and manage knowledge in the framework of the Programme and methodologies and tools to systematize that knowledge;
• Identify and synthetize best practices and lessons learned directly linked to the Programme goals and activities.

4. Products to be delivered for the achievement of objectives

Product 1: Comprehensive mapping of existing Knowledge Management activities, guidelines, studies, campaigns, trainings, methodologies and tools developed/implemented by, and relevant to the Win-Win Regional Programme, using as reference the format for systematization of knowledge management products of the UNW LAC knowledge management platform;

Product 2: Elaborate of a Knowledge Management Strategy for the Win-Win Regional Programme, that includes innovative mechanisms to systematize and share knowledge, including through Communities of Practice.

Product 3: Identify and synthetize best practices and lessons learned.

5. Schedule of product deliveries and payments

Number Product Expected delivery Schedule of payments
1 Mapping of existing good practices on Knowledge Management activities, guidelines, studies, campaigns, trainings, methodologies and tools developed/implemented by, and relevant to the Win-Win Programme. 1 month after signing the contract 30% of the total
2 Elaborate a Knowledge Management Strategy for the Win-Win Programme 2,5 months after signing the contract 30% of the total
3 Compilation of best practices and lessons learned. 4 months after signing the contract 40% of the total


6. Form of payment

Payments in USD will be made against the delivery of the specified products to the satisfaction of UN Women with the presentation of the corresponding invoices by the consultant.


7. Intellectual rights, patents and other property rights

UN Women shall be entitled to all intellectual property and other property rights including, but not limited to: patents, copyright and registered trademarks, in relation to products, processes, inventions, ideas, technical knowledge, documents and other materials that the consultant has been prepared or collected as a result of or during the execution of this consultancy, and the consultant acknowledges and agrees that said products, documents and other materials constitute work carried out pursuant to the hiring of UN Women. However, in the event that said intellectual property or other property rights consist of any intellectual property or property rights of the consultant: i) that existed prior to the consultant's performance of their obligations under the of this contract, or ii) that the consultant may develop or acquire, or may have developed or acquired, independently of the performance of its obligations under this contract, UN Women shall not claim nor shall it claim ownership interest whatsoever the same, and the consultant will grant UN Women a perpetual license to use said intellectual property or other property right solely for the purpose and for the requirements of this contract.

8. Supervision of the consulting and other logistical aspects

• The supervision of the development of the consultancy will be ensured by the Regional Programme Coordinator, in close collaboration with the Regional Communications Associate, Brazil CO Knowledge Management focal point and the LAC Regional Strategic Planning and Coordination Specialist.

• The Consultant is not an official of the United Nations and will carry out the activities from their own workspace in accordance with the agreed in the work plan.

• Inputs for the realization of the consultancy, such as equipment, food and transportation will be borne by the consultant. International travel costs (airplane tickets and DSA) will be covered by the Win-Win Regional Programme, if necessary.

• The consultant will maintain permanent coordination with the supervisor for an effective execution and development of the products requested from this consultancy and will provide all information requested within the framework of these terms of reference.

9. Competencies with UN Core Values

• Personal commitment, ability to work independently, and capacity to work effectively and harmoniously with persons from varied cultures and professional backgrounds.
• Demonstrates integrity and fairness by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
• Commitment to UN Women’s mission, vision, values and strategic goals;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism;
• Fulfills all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf.

10. Required and Desirable Skills and Experience

Required Education:

• Master´s degree in Social Sciences, Economics, Administration, Development Studies, Gender or any other relevant field.

Required Experience and skills

• Relevant working experience on Knowledge Management;
• Working and/or academic experience with gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Experience in social/development research. Relevant publications/reports must be attached to the technical proposal.

Required Language:

• Excellent knowledge of written and oral communication in English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Desirable Skills

• Experience in working with UN Nations agencies and other International Organizations;
• Demonstrated ability to produce well-written, well-structured and high-quality reports;
• Previous working experience liaising with private sector and/or women’s economic empowerment.

11. Application and Evaluation Process

Step 1: Interested individual consultants must submit their proposal including the following documents to [ Click to reveal ] by September 15th (at 23:59 Panama time):

• Personal History Form (P11) or resume indicating all past experience from similar consultancies and the contact details (email, Skype ID and telephone number) and three (3) professional references.
• Copies of publications/reports produced by the candidate on the consultancy scope.
• Letter explaining motivation and how the activities will be performed
• Financial Proposal in US$, including VAT.

Step 2: UN Women will evaluate the technical proposal and only after financial proposals will be evaluated

Step 3: Candidates might be contacted to be interviewed