National Economist at UN Women

Location: Abuja, NIGERIA
Time left: 11d 20h 53m
Additional Category:Gender Equality
Type of Contract: Service Contract
Post Level : SB-4
Duration of Initial Contract: 1 year

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.
• Women in West and Central Africa represent the most deprived group of the population despite their paramount social and economic role. They have limited access to, and control over critical resources, as a result of social, cultural and economic norms. UN Women’s programmatic work to support women’s economic empowerment in the region is centered around three pillars: (i) Improving women’s access to climate resilient agricultural value chains; (ii) Promoting and strengthening women entrepreneurship; and (ii) Enhancing women’s income security and social protection.
• COVID19 hit West and Central Africa at the beginning of the second quarter of 2020. The shock triggered by COVID-19 came at time when the region’s economy was already plagued by rising income inequality, financial fragility and mounting debt, and limited fiscal space by Governments. The socio-economic impact of the pandemic affected women disproportionately in the region as a result of their overrepresentation among very small businesses and informal and vulnerable workers. The lockdown measures have also increased the unpaid care burden of the region or rates of Gender Based Violence against women’s and girls.
• To respond to the crisis, Government across the region are spending significant resources to provide immediate support measures and to boost economic recovery through ‘fiscal stimulus packages. It is important to ensure that adopted economic stimulus and recovery package are gender responsive. UN Women has developed a range of policy tools to support Governments in identifying and addressing the gender impacts of the pandemic, including one on “How to Assess and Engender Fiscal Stimulus Packages to Respond to the Socio-Economic Impacts of COVID-19”.
• In Nigeria, the Government has pledged to prioritize women as beneficiaries of the stimulus packages that are being conceptualized/rolled out. UN Women has stepped up its engagement with the government and civil society to identify gender impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and how to address them in national policies. In recent months, UN Women has conducted a rapid analysis of the Government’s fiscal stimulus package, has engaged with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and Planning, with a view to organizing a policy dialogue to identify opportunities for improving the gender impact of the stimulus program, and has facilitated dialogue with women businesses associations and key representatives from women’s organizations to identify priorities for women -led businesses in economic recovery strategies.
• With the support from the Government of Korea UN Women is now launching the program “Engendering Fiscal Stimulus Packages and Recovery Efforts Adopted in Response to the COVID-19 Health and Economic crises” to support Governments in West and Central Africa in engendering fiscal stimulus packages through direct advice and technical assistance, as well as advocacy and policy dialogue. Nigeria is one of the countries participating in the program. UN Women is seeking to engage the services of a national economist to implement the global project in Nigeria.

Duties and Responsibilities
Reporting to the Country Representative, the consultant works in close collaboration with the regional feminist economist in UN Women’s Regional Office, UN Women’s program and operations teams in the Nigeria Country office, and implementing partners. In particular, the consultant is expected to perform the following functions:

Project Management:

• Act as focal point for the program “Engendering Fiscal Stimulus Packages and Recovery Efforts Adopted in Response to the COVID-19 Health and Economic crises” in Nigeria
• In collaboration with the regional feminist economist and other national focal points, contribute to the development of a work plan to operationalize the global project “Engendering Fiscal Stimulus Packages and Recovery Efforts Adopted in Response to the COVID-19 Health and Economic crises” for West and Central Africa in 2021
• Lead the implementation of work plan activities in Nigeria;
• Monitor project progress in Nigeria according to the work plan, and draft Nigeria focused inputs to regional monitoring and donor reports

Technical assistance and advice on engendering fiscal stimulus packages:

• To design, under the oversight of the regional feminist economist, strategies to integrate gender in Nigeria national fiscal stimulus package and recovery policies
• To provide ongoing technical assistance and support to Government counterparts in Nigeria in implementing those strategies including, conducting gender analysis of fiscal stimulus packages, organizing events to discuss and disseminate results and recommendations, support different stakeholders in the implementation of policy dialogues and advocacy strategies to promote recommendations to engender fiscal stimulus packages, and other technical support and advice as needed
• To foster partnership and ongoing liaison with women-owned businesses in Nigeria and facilitate dialogue and consultations between women-owned businesses and government counterparts
• Provide technical assistance and support to Government counterparts in the process of piloting, implementing and adapting existing Gender responsive budgeting initiatives to integrate gender priorities in post-COVID19 recovery strategies

Capacity Building:

• Support the regional feminist economist in adapting existing tools and developing new ones to support Governments in analyzing gender impact of stimulus packages and integrating gender priorities in economic recovery plans in Nigeria;
• Facilitate tailored capacity-building sessions for leaders of women’s networks to facilitate their advocacy and monitoring interventions aimed at enhancing gender-responsiveness of stimulus packages
• Design and deliver, in collaboration with regional feminist economist, capacity building activities for UN Women’s Nigeria CO staff, Government and other key national stakeholders to enhance capacity to engender economic policies;
• Support the regional feminist economist in the delivery of one regional capacity building event for UN Women staff and Government counterparts on key economic reforms to integrate women’s needs in post-COVID19 recovery in Q2 of 2021

Competencies
Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Strategic thinking
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement

Functional Competencies:

• Good understanding of national context including the development plans; social protection mechanism and the gender equality situation
• Strong analytical skills on gender and economic policy and women’s economic empowerment;
• Strong communications skills in English and French
• Strong drafting skills and ability to produce a variety of knowledge products for different audiences and purposes
• Ability to produce impactful communications materials and knowledge products  
• Strong commitment to knowledge-sharing within a multicultural environment
• Ability to design and deliver training and other capacity-building strategies in the area of gender and economics to a variety of audiences
• Basic project management skills  

Required Skills and Experience
Education and certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in development economics, feminist economics or any other relevant field of economics or public policy.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of experience and record of accomplishment promoting economic policy reform in the area of development economics, gender and economics, poverty reduction, social protection or women’s economic empowerment policies in the context of Nigeria
• Proven experience with economic policy analysis and mastery of quantitative and qualitative analysis and methods
• Experience working in other countries in West and Central Africa is an asset
• Experience working in the UN System is an asset

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.