UN Women: Gender Responsive Planning and Budget Consultant, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, International Consultant Contract

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.

Gender inequality in Papua New Guinea (PNG) is severe, with the country ranked 169 out of 170 globally. Women and girls face high rates of gender-based violence (GBV) and low literacy levels. The DHS 2016-2018 indicates that 54% of women have experienced GBV in the past year, and nearly 23% of women aged 15-49 have no formal education.  Structural barriers, cultural norms, and weak protection systems worsen the situation. Tribal conflicts, sorcery accusation-related violence (SARV), and small arms proliferation, especially in the Highlands, increase violence. Despite policies to reduce discrimination, comprehensive strategies are urgently needed to address these issues and achieve gender equality. Additionally, ongoing conflicts have displaced communities, further exacerbating GBV incidents. The persistence of these challenges highlights the critical need for targeted interventions to promote social stability and human rights and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly 05 on gender equality, 10 Reduce Inequality and 16 Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions. 

Building on the gains of the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative to Eliminate Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) in Papua New Guinea (PNG), UN Women, UNFPA and UNOPS (Agencies) have commenced implementation of a joint initiative entitled “Soim Wokabout: Gender-Based Violence Referral Pathways Programme”, financed under the Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI Global Europe).  The joint programme aims to reduce the incidence of GBV in communities in target provinces, including in and out of schools (Eastern Highlands and the National Capital District).  This will capitalize on existing programmes addressing specific forms of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHRs) while supporting prevention and protection efforts for GBV survivors, strengthening access to justice, and ending violence against women and girls at national, provincial, district, and community levels.  It seeks to scale up effective integrated approaches to deliver quality coordinated services, strengthen referral pathways, mobilize communities and networks to address harmful gender and social norms fuelling GBV and SARV and promote implementation of laws and policies to reduce GBV and SARV while mobilizing national, provincial and community leadership on the programme’s investments to enhance sustainability.   

The joint programme’s specific objectives are: 1. To increase access of women, men, girls and boys in all their diversity, experiencing gender-based violence, to essential quality services, protection and justice. 2. To improve advocacy and agency of civil society organisations, women’s rights organisations, social movements and communities to end gender-based violence (GBV).  3. To make more effective the engagement of community leaders, male advocates and influential groups and actors in society in changing discriminatory social norms, gender stereotypes, GBV and harmful practices.  

The introduction of the National Gender Based Violence Strategy (NGBVS) Strategy 2016-2025, the National Public Service Gender Equity and Social Inclusion Policy, and the Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE) Policy demonstrates the Government of PNG’s commitment to advancing gender responsive planning and budgeting. (GRPB) These policies frameworks, among others, integrate gender considerations into government planning and budgeting to ensure that resources are allocated according to the specific needs of women, girls, boys, men and other marginalised groups.

Assessments under the Spotlight Initiative also recommended the integration of gender perspectives into budgetary processes at both national and sub-national levels to enhance transparency and accountability in governance. Furthermore, the assessments highlighted the importance of creating opportunities for capacity building on GRPB for civil society, churches and other key stakeholders. Strengthening their capacity is critical to ensuring that public budgets reflect the diverse needs of women, girls, boys, the marginalised groups, while also enabling stakeholders to hold the government accountable.  

Against this backdrop, UN Women PNG seeks to engage an International GRPB Consultant who will work closely with the National Consultant to provide technical expertise and support in institutionalizing gender mainstreaming in key line ministries, agencies and departments. The consultant will also play a key role in strengthening the civil society to effectively integrate gender mainstreaming strategies into their programmatic planning, budgeting and monitoring processes.  

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

This consultancy will be undertaken under the overall leadership and direction of the Country Representative with supervision by the Deputy Country Representative, and in coordination with the EVAWG Programme Technical Coordinator. The consultant will work closely with the National Consultant and also engage with government representatives at national and sub-national level, civil society, and other relevant stakeholders.  Throughout the consultancy, the consultant will receive support from UN Women team and input from the implementing agencies – UN Women, UNFPA and UNOPS.  

Deliverables

The Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting Consultant will undertake the following tasks and delivery of expected results.  

Task 1: Conduct a desk review and submit an inception report including methodology, tools and work plan  

Task 2: Conduct institutional GRPB assessment for parliamentarians, Government key stakeholders and Civil Society, including institutional and individual capacity needs assessment to identify the status and capacities and identify entry points and good practices 

 Task 3: Organise tailored gender responsive planning and budgeting, capacity building activities for Parliamentarians (with focus on the Permanent Parliamentary Committee), Key government line Ministries and selected civil society Representatives.  

i) Parliament will include specifically Members of the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on GEWE including Members of Parliament from the targeted Provinces – Eastern Highlands Province (EHP) and National Capital District (NCD):  

ii) Government stakeholders will include the key government line ministries where GRPB is to be piloted for this programme. These include Department for Community Development and Religion, Department of National Planning and Monitoring, Department of Treasury/Finance.  The consultant will facilitate high level advocacy and engagement through the Office of the Prime Minister to strengthen national ownership, commitment and sustainability of the program. 

iii) The Civil Society will include representatives from CSOs at the national and provincial (EHP and NCD) levels including those representing vulnerable groups. UN Women will support in identifying CSO participants 

Task 4: Establish a monitoring mechanism aligned with the existing government’s monitoring mechanism to track allocation of budget and expenditure for the implementation of gender policy frameworks  

Task 5: Prepare and submit a final report  

 Task 1: Inception report including methodology, tools and workplan submitted 

5 days 

Before end January 2026

(With in the first five days of signing the contract)

Task 2: GRPB assessment for parliamentarians, Government key stakeholders and Civil Society:  

10 days 

By mid-February 2026

(Within the first Month of Contract Signing)

Task 3: 

35 days 

Before end March 2026

(In the Second Month of Contract Signing) 

Task 4: A monitoring mechanism aligned with the existing government’s monitoring mechanism to track allocation of budget and expenditure for the implementation of Gender policy frameworks established 

Task 5: Submit a final report detailing future GRPB interventions and support through UN Women

10 days 

 Before end April 2026

(Within the last Month of Contract Signing)

10 days 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

The assignment requires an intermittent presence on UN Women premises and therefore is both an office-based consultancy and a home-based consultancy. This assignment is based in Port Moresby with expected travel to the field and as part of this assignment, there will be a maximum of two trips to Port Moresby. 

The consultant will be required to travel to the field to facilitate meetings and workshops with key stakeholders such as the civil society, churches, youths and women’s networks as well as the government officials. The duration of these intermittent visits to the field will be a maximum of 30 days. 

Competencies :

Core Values:

Core Competencies:

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

Education and Certification:

Experience: