[Hiring] Cash and Voucher Specialist @UN Women

Role Description

UN Women in Afghanistan is seeking up to 2 national consultants on retainer to provide needs-based technical and operational support to the agency’s Cash and Voucher assistance (CVA) to ensure it is of high quality, technically sound, and responsive to the needs of women and their families. The consultant will play an important role in transferring capacity and experience to strengthen UN Women’s internal institutional capacity in Afghanistan.

The consultant will be reporting to the Access, Coordination and Emergency Response Specialist, and work in close coordination with UN Women’s country office in Kabul and its five regional sub-offices. The Specialist will be expected to travel to Afghanistan as needed, and work directly with personnel across the agency and with its partners. In the event of a major humanitarian emergency, the Specialist may be expected to work outside the normal role profile and be able to vary working hours accordingly.

Responsibilities/Scope of Work

• Lead, oversee, and/or support the formulation, implementation, and quality assurance of UN Women’s CVA in Afghanistan, ensuring alignment with gender-responsive standards.
• Provide technical assistance and capacity strengthening to personnel and partners on CVA, including designing and delivering trainings.
• Lead, oversee, and/or support the design and/or management of information systems for beneficiary registration, deduplication, verification, etc., ensuring robust data management and protection, and adherence to UN Women’s data management policy and procedures.
• Support the Programme Manager to review existing procedures (SOPs) and guidance notes on CVA, and their roll out.
• Actively engage with the Inter-Agency Cash Working Group (CWG) and relevant clusters to ensure UN Women’s gender-focused priorities are integrated into humanitarian response.
• Develop and implement comprehensive monitoring frameworks and conduct regular field-level verification missions to ensure the accountability and safety of cash distributions.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based retainer consultancy. The consultant will be engaged under a retainer contract, which facilitates direct engagement of the consultant depending on need and availability within the contract period for a pre-agreed fee, for a maximum of 200 working days. While on retainer contract, there is no guarantee of work, and the selected consultant retains the right to decline assignments based on their availability. As part of the official duty of this consultancy, the consultant may be expected to travel to various regions of Afghanistan, which will be processed by UN Women, following the duty travel policy.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Respect for Diversity

Core Competencies:

• Aware and Sensitive Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

• Proven ability to identify risks and operational bottlenecks early, developing creative and practical solutions to ensure program continuity while working effectively under tight deadlines in high-pressure, complex environments.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with individuals and teams at all levels, both internally and externally.
• Awareness and ability to integrate gender analysis throughout CVA.
• Demonstrated technical knowledge of CVA in humanitarian settings.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Gender Studies, International Relations, International Development, or other social science fields is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A project/programme management certification would be desirable.

Experience

Required:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible work experience at the national or international level in the design, planning, implementation, and monitoring/evaluation of cash-based interventions, preferably in humanitarian contexts.
• Proven experience designing and managing information systems, and technical proficiency using tools, such as KoBo Toolbox, ODK, or other mobile data collection and statistical software.
• Proven ability to work under tight deadlines, navigate multiple tasks simultaneously, and work effectively both independently and as part of multicultural teams.

Desirable:

• Experience in designing and delivering CVA technical trainings to personnel and partners.
• Experience liaising with multilateral/bilateral entities, UN agencies, and donors.
• Experience working within the UN System and/or previous experience in the Afghanistan context.

Languages

• Fluency in English, Dari, and Pashto is required.

Statements

This is a re-opening of a position that was advertised before. Candidates who applied earlier will still be considered and do not need to re-apply.

Diversity and Inclusion

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