Individual Coach - Facilitate Individual Coaching Programme for Women Leaders

Background

BACKGROUND / PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the UN, UN Women 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, 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 will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women Ethiopia Country Office (ECO) is thus dedicated to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment. UN Women Ethiopia Country office new Strategic Note (SN) 2021 – 2025, which is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2020-2025, sets out to work in four thematic priority areas 1) ending violence against women and girls; 2) governance and participation in public life; 3) economic empowerment and resilience; and 4) peace and security, humanitarian action, and disaster risk reduction.

UN Women’s Women in Leadership and Governance Programme (2022– 2026) aims to contribute to the overarching goal: ‘Women fully and equally participate in leadership and decision-making and women and girls benefit from gender-responsive governance’ by addressing multifaceted barriers that hinder women from equally and effectively participating in public and political life as leaders and decision makers. It also aims to contribute towards gender responsiveness of key democratic and governance institutions including parliament and regional councils, local governments, political parties and electoral management bodies in Ethiopia. The Programme contributes to UN Women Strategic Note (2021 -2025) and United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) (2020-2025) Outcome 1 ‘All people in Ethiopia enjoy the rights and capabilities to realize their potential in equality and with dignity’ and Outcome 2 ‘All people in Ethiopia live in a cohesive, just, inclusive and democratic society’, and Government of Ethiopia’s 10-year Perspective Plan (2020/21-2029/30) that aspires to bring women at the centre of the country’s development.1

With this background, UN Women has been partnering and working closely with local partners to increase women’s effective participation and equal representation in leadership and decision making since 2017 by employing multipronged strategies. Among the strategies, availing a sustainable backstop for women leaders on capacity building and mentorship support are key. As a part of its wider capacity building program on transformative leadership and decision-making, UN Women in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Social Affairs (MoWSA) is planning to launch a two -month individual coaching programme for 32 middle level women leaders drawn from federal sector ministries and regional bureaus with the aim to strengthen their self-confidence, personal resilience, improving communication skill and influencing skill for effective communication and transformative capabilities to pursue their leadership potential.

In addition, the coaching aims to provide an opportunity for women leaders to learn and build on their qualities and identify and commit to improved skills to ensure successful execution of their functions in the workplace and beyond. In light of this, coaching themes can among others include general leadership skills and identification of development areas and qualities, talent management and development, public speaking, managing difficult conversations, building confidence, developing resilience and coping strategies, building effective teams, managing change in self and others and overcoming challenges of being a women leader and gender inequality.

UN Women is therefore seeking to recruit professional coaches for women leaders to lead a coaching session that will be scheduled over two months period between August and September 2022.

Duties and Responsibilities

SCOPE OF THE WORK

Under direct supervision of the UN Women in Leadership and Governance Team, the national consultants will facilitate four consecutive coaching sessions with each coachee. During the coaching, appropriate focus of the coaching theme will be selected by women leaders themselves considering their self-reported development areas and leadership challenges they face in their personal relations and organizational roles.

The thematic selection of the coaching sessions will not however be restricted to the proposed themes to allow women leaders to bring various topics in relation to their leadership roles including how to develop their transformative competencies and employ effective leadership styles for different organizational situations and how to equitably address the needs of their team members during their leadership period etc.

Specific responsibilities include:

The professional coach is expected to participate in a preliminary discussion with UN Women and MoWSA to understand the priority areas of the coaching focus and desired expectations and outcomes
Develop the coaching structure and reporting tool and identify measurable results and areas for the coaching with women leaders;
Conduct four one on one 1 and half hour sessions with women leaders spread over a period of two months; (the platform must be online and can be Zoom, WhatsApp, Telegram etc)

Develop practical exercises, self-reflection themes and individual assignments for the coachee between each session;
Support the evaluation of the impact through self-assessment and other tools;
Provide detailed feedback to the coachee on the result of the Coaching, and the progress made;
Prepare a midterm report of ongoing and completed coaching sessions to UN Women for follow up;
Participate in a monthly discussion with UN Women to update on status of coaching sessions;
Provide overall report and feedback on the Programme as well on the results of the coaching;
Make recommendations as appropriate for the coachee who still require development in further areas;
Provide overall report and feedback on the Programme as well on the results of the coaching

DELIVERABLES

Main deliverables of the national consultant should include:

Task

Duration

Remark

Develop the coaching structure and reporting tool

Two Days

UN Women and MOWSA will provide input on the structure and tools

Facilitate briefing session with coaches

One day

Deliver the coaching session for women leaders (8 women leaders)

48 hours (6 hour per one women leader)

Facilitate final networking workshop with caches (face to face)

One Day

Provide midterm report and final overall report and feedback on the Programme as well on the results of the coaching

Two days

UN Women and MOWSA will provide input on the stricture and tools

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

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Minimum of master level degree in social sciences, particularly on gender studies, social work, psychology, leadership or another related field.

Experience

A minimum of five years’ experience in the area of transformative leadership, coaching, and counselling preferably with women
Proof of solid skills in coaching, facilitation and institutional capacity development with government is required;
Certification as a coach is required
Good knowledge on the area of gender equality, gender mainstreaming and women’s participation in leadership.
Specific experience facilitation of adult trainings/dialogues and coaching sessions
Previous professional experience with the United Nations is desirable

Language

Written and oral proficiency in Amharic and English is required.