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.

As a standard-setting organization, the United Nations has a particular responsibility to lead by example in ensuring the equal and active participation of women at all levels of the UN system. This is also necessary for integrating a gender perspective into UN policies and programmes. UN Women is mandated to lead, coordinate and promote the accountability of the UN system for women’s equal representation.

The Charter of the United Nations stipulates that there shall be no restrictions on the eligibility of men and women to participate in every capacity and under conditions of equality in the system’s principal and subsidiary organs. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights reinforced this principle, stating that there can be no distinction or discrimination on the basis of gender.

Over many decades, the United Nations has made significant progress in advancing gender equality, including through landmark agreements such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).

UN Secretary-General António Guterres launched the “System-wide strategy on gender parity” in 2017. This strategy includes recommended actions to reach gender parity by 2028 across the whole UN. It covers, among others, targets and accountability, special measures, enabling environment, senior appointments, and mission settings.

Achieving gender parity is an urgent priority, not only as a basic human right, but also as it is essential to the United Nations’ efficiency, impact, and credibility. The United Nations, as the principal international standard-setting institution, bears a special responsibility to lead by example and leave no one behind. It has a pivotal role in supporting the full, effective, and accelerated implementation of the Beijing Platform for Action.

UN Women is committed to supporting the UN system to reach gender parity, based on its mandate to lead, promote and coordinate efforts to advance the full realization of women’s rights and opportunities. Implementation, follow-up, and monitoring progress are keys for achieving gender parity. UN Women has an implementation plan for its own gender parity efforts.

To support the Secretary-General’s system-wide Strategy on Gender Parity across the UN System. UN-Women has created the Enabling Environment Guidelines, Supplementary Guidance, the Field-specific Enabling Environment Guidelines for the UN system and booklet on How can we reach gender parity in the United Nations System by 2028? that need monitoring across the board. The Office leads and coordinate the System-wide Network of Gender Focal Points and provides capacity building sessions in order to ensure that these guidelines are being implemented across the System.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision and guidance of the Senior Adviser and Gender Parity Specialist, the selected candidate will assist the provision of technical and operational support to UN Women’s efforts to implement and follow up the Secretary-General’s System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity within the UN System. Key tasks include:

• Assist with the preparation of the 2025 Secretary-General’s report on the Improvement in the Status of Women in the UN system by collaborating and liaising with the System-wide Network of Gender Focal Points and other networks on data collection, refining the System-wide survey questions, interpreting the quantitative and qualitative data, and drafting. The consultant will also be responsible for editing and proof-reading, in accordance with the guidance;
• Provide support to UN Women’s leadership in the UN Executive Group on Addressing Sexual Harassment within the Organization of the United Nations system. The incumbent will continue to support the Senior Advisor and the Focal Point for Women, through developing ideas for high-level dialogues, organizing events, creating concept and briefing notes as well as other documents, liaising with internal and external stakeholders, including the UN Gender Focal Points (550+ members), and ensuring effective communication and advocacy.
• Assist to plan and organize capacity-building sessions for the System-wide Gender Focal Points as per the Office’s workplan and in consultation with supervisors;
• Support the maintenance and enhancements to the UN System-wide Dashboard on Gender Parity and the UN System-wide Knowledge Hub on Addressing Sexual Harassment;
• Support the UN system-wide implementation of the Enabling Environment Guidelines, Supplementary Guidance and the Field-specific Enabling Environment Guidelines;
• Assist in the day-to-day work of liaising closely with relevant in-house sections as well as external key partners and stakeholders on gender parity;
• Prepare talking points and presentations for webinars and meetings, as requested;
• Perform other official duties and special assignments which may be requested by the supervisor.

Competencies

Corporate competencies:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work: gender equality;

Functional competencies:

• Strong organizational and planning skills;
• Ability to work well under pressure, and to meet deadlines;
• Strong interpersonal skills and ability to work as part of a team;
• Excellent knowledge of office software packages.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree or equivalent in Gender/Women’s Studies, Social Sciences, Political Science, Communications, International Development, Psychology, International Law or related field.

• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• At least 1 year of professional experience working on gender equality and women’s rights. Demonstrated understanding of and interest in UN Women’s mandate, gender parity, enabling environments and the SDGs.

Languages:

• Proficiency in English is required, working knowledge of another UN official language will be an asset.

Qualifications

• Excellent writing abilities, including drafting, organizing and presenting information well.
• Demonstrated research skills and knowledge on gender equality.

• Excellent communication skills.
• Familiarity with UN Women’s work, especially related to gender parity, or prior experience with the UN considered an asset