The United Nations Office is hiring a Leave No One Behind Assessment Advisor -International Consultant

Deadline : 19 February 2024

Location : Addis Ababa

Brief Background About the Organisation

Background With the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at its core, and in response to the General Assembly resolution 71/243 on the quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system, the UN Secretary General’s report (December 2017) “Repositioning the United Nations development system to deliver on the 2030 Agenda: our promise for dignity, prosperity and peace on a healthy planet” puts forward a comprehensive proposal on further improvements to the resident coordinator system to ensure more coherent, accountable and effective support for the 2030 Agenda.

Leave No One Behind (LNOB) is the central promise and transformation of the 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It represents the unequivocal commitment of all UN member states to eradicate poverty in all its forms, put an end to discrimination and exclusion, and reduce the inequalities and vulnerabilities that leave people and undermine the potential of individuals and of humanity as a whole. In the UN context, Leaving No One Behind means moving beyond assessing average and aggregate progress, towards ensuring progress for all population groups at a disaggregated level. It means not only reaching the poorest of the poor, but also seeks to combat discrimination and rising inequalities, and their root causes.

The UN Sustainable Development Group (UNDG) has developed an Operational Guide on Leaving No One Behind for UN Country Teams to support UN Country Teams (UNCTs) to operationalize the pledge to Leaving No One Behind. The guide sets out a five-step methodology (minimum standards) to adopt to a LNOB approach and its integration into different development and humanitarian planning. At the country level, the UN’s commitment of LNOB is reflected in the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) signed in 2020, which commits the UNCT in Ethiopia to target those left behind, especially children in vulnerable households and conditions, and women and youth (15-29 years) and among them, those below the national poverty line who are unemployed, exposed to violence, displaced, facing discrimination, have a disability or are marginalized in civic and political spaces.

Likewise, the Common Country Analysis, that informs the UNSDCF, highlights the country situation from the perspective of the most vulnerable. Since the signing of the UNSDCF, Ethiopia has experienced multiple shocks that have pushed marginalized and vulnerable populations even further. The UNCT in Ethiopia conducted a project mapping exercise and assessed the mainstreaming of LNOB issues in its programming in February 2023. Based on the findings of the assessment, the UNCT agreed on the importance of reprioritizing UN’s response to especially serve the most left behind populations. However, due to data gaps and a lack of a comprehensive assessment, the evidence base is limited for defining which populations (who, how, why, and where) are the most left behind in Ethiopia.

Therefore, in line with the UNDG Guide, the UNCT agreed to conduct an LNOB analysis to: (1) enable the UN to design more ambitious inclusion approach and more impactful programmes to rescue the SDGs, premised on meaningful participation identified vulnerable/excluded groups 2) provide a robust evidence-base for advocacy and collaboration with government and partners on the needs and opportunities for empowerment of these groups.

Brief Information About the Position

• The purpose of the assessment is to inform the UNCT on the situation of the most excluded groups in Ethiopia and the causes of exclusion.
• It will also set out data and knowledge gaps and recommendation for the UNCT to better address the situation of the most excluded and vulnerable groups in Ethiopia.
• The consultants work under the overall guidance of the RCO Partnerships Officer and in cooperation with the Leave No One Behind Working Group.

Duties and Responsibilities

Tasks under the Consultancy The consultant work under the overall guidance of the RCO Partnerships Officer and in cooperation with the Leave No One Behind Working Group. He/she will be responsible for the following duties and responsibilities: –

– • Conducting desk review of existing data quality, consistency and completeness related to sub-populations, particularly those that may be left behind and developing a preliminary report on the gaps existing

• Gathering and analysing all data and information revealing gaps and trends in SDG implementation between sub-populations and/or geographic localities

• Consulting UN representatives (UNCT and/or LNOB WG members) as well as stakeholders such as national and regional authorities, CSOs, NGOs and development partners

• Complementing existing data to further understand which subpopulations may be left behind, and which ones are furthest behind, using participatory data collection methods

• Use the UN 5 circle criteria to identify groups that are left behind, and groups that are at the risk of being left behind.

• Establish a classification criterion and assess which regions, and which areas within the regions, are most “left behind”

• Data synthesis and the preparation of a draft paper

• Validation of the findings with representatives of excluded groups, national stakeholders, development partners, CSOs and the UNCT

• Integration of comments and suggestions as relevant into the final version of the paper

Required Qualifications, Skills and Experience

Qualifications/special skills

– Advanced degree in development studies, public administration, economics or related social sciences A minimum of ten years of professional experience in development work and research, including previous substantive involvement in development of strategic documents, reports, evaluations and/or reviews is required General knowledge of the UN system and UN common country programming processes is required;

A comprehensive understanding of UN guiding principles: Human Rights, Gender Equality and Women Empowerment and Leave No One Behind is required Specialized experience and/or methodological/technical knowledge, including specific data collection and analytical skills, particularly in the following areas:

– understanding of human rights-based approaches to programming; gender considerations; political and social analysis is required.

Data visualization skills (maps and other visuals) is required Excellent report writing skills as well as communication and interviewing skills is required Awareness and sensitivity to working with people of various backgrounds is required Experience in participatory data collection methods is desirable Understanding of Ethiopia’s sociopolitical context is desirable

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat. For the post advertised, fluency in oral and written English is required. Knowledge of another official United Nations language is an advantage.

Interested applicant must submit the following documents as an application package:

– Cover letter: clearly stating how their experience and skills match with the assignment requirements (if submitting as a team, each team member should have their own cover letter)

– Technical proposal: comprising of brief summary (not more than 3 pages) of the proposed methodology for the assessment and proposed work plan.

– List of relevant projects: including the most relevant and recent consulting projects completed with description of the projects and contact details for references.

– Financial proposal including professional fee. Cost of travel for data collection will be covered by the Resident Coordinator Office/UN. Only applicants who fully comply with the application process will be considered