UN Women: National Consultant-Coordination, Monitoring and Reporting, Dhaka, Bangladesh (Homebased)

Background/Context

UN Women exists to advance women’s rights, gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. As the lead UN entity on gender equality and secretariat of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, UN Women shift laws, institutions, social behaviours and services to close the gender gap and build an equal world for all women and girls. UN Women partnerships with governments, women’s movements and the private sector coupled with its coordination of the broader United Nations translate progress into lasting changes. UN Women strides forward for women and girls in four areas: leadership, economic empowerment, freedom from violence, and women, peace and security as well as humanitarian action. UN Women keeps the rights of women and girls at the centre of global progress–always, everywhere. Because gender equality is not just what we do. It is who we are. 

UN Women in Bangladesh supports the government in implementing commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. In line with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2022-2027, the corresponding UN Women Bangladesh Strategic Note (2022-2027) defines UN Women’s strategic engagement in Bangladesh. The country strategy focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s access to decent and safe work; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as other threats to peace and security. UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in Bangladesh, including the government, civil society and women’s organizations, youth, UN agencies and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. 

As per the General Assembly’s 2020 resolution on the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR, A/75/233), accelerating progress on gender equality is a core function of UNCTs.  Within the UN system, UN Women is mandated to lead, promote and coordinate efforts to advance the full realization of women’s rights and opportunities. The UN General Assembly has called on all parts of the UN system to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women within their mandates and ensure that commitments on paper lead to progress on the ground. Towards these ends, UN Women helps strengthen effective UN action on the global, regional and national levels. UN Women helps bolster capacities to make achieving gender equality central to programmes and policies, to advocate for greater resources, and guide and implement joint development programmes. UN Women supports measures upholding accountability for commitments to women, and has a key role in increasing knowledge about gender equality  in the United Nations.

In addition the Gender Equality Acceleration Plan (GEAP), launched by the UN Secretary-General on March 7, 2024, represents a historic opportunity to drive change at the country level, where women, girls, boys, men, and gender-diverse groups live and experience these challenges firsthand. It prioritizes gender equality as both a human rights imperative and a prerequisite for peace, security, and sustainable development.

One of the coordination mechanisms, under UNSDCF/UNCT, is the UN Gender Equality Theme Group (GETG) which was established in 2017 as the interagency coordination group to provide strategic support and advice to United Nations country teams in enhancing their gender mainstreaming efforts. The GETG has now merged with the Strategic Priority Group 5 of the UNSDCF. The objective of Strategic Priority Group-5 (SP-5) which was also co-chaired by UN Women and UNFPA is for women, girls and gender diverse people to benefit from an environment in which they are empowered to exercise their rights, agency and decision-making power over all aspects of their lives and are free from all forms of discrimination, violence and harmful norms and practices.

 UN Women and UNFPA co-chair the GETG and UN Women also provides the secretariat support.  The GETG focuses on enhancing the collective efforts, impact, and accountability of the UN in Bangladesh to contribute to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Gender equality is a common agenda for all agencies and gender mainstreaming is the responsibility of all UN agencies. Broadly, the main functions of the GETG can be classified into programme support, policy advisory, and technical assistance including quality assurance as needed and capacity development of UNCT. These functions cover all UNCT processes, monitoring, and reporting, supporting communications, advocacy, and partnerships for national gender equality priorities. Across these functions, the GETG’s role is to promote adherence to gender equality as a guiding principle and adherence to the UNCT-SWAP gender mainstreaming minimum standards. 

UN Women Bangladesh focuses on applying results-based management (RBM) principles in its overall programme cycle, including planning, monitoring and reporting. The office also focuses on partner capacity development in RBM principles as an integral part of its partner management policies and procedures. 

In this regard, UN Women is seeking the services of a national consultant to support the coordination and planning, monitoring and reporting functions to implement key priorities for 2026. The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the Partnerships and Coordination Analyst as well as the Planning, Monitoring and Reporting Analyst, based in the Dhaka office. The consultant will be support office-wide key priorities, partnerships, planning and reporting, stakeholder management and overall coordination across UN agencies.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work: 

Deliverables: Deliverable Expected completion time (due day)  Evidence of support in implementation of the 2026 workplan of the coordination groups/mechanisms through Gender Equality Theme Group (GETG)/ SP-5, in line with UNCT SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard. December 2026 Evidence of support to facilitate the implementation of the UNCT gender equality frameworks: Gender Capacity Building Plan (GCBP), Gender Parity Strategy (GPS), and Business Operations Strategy (BOS). December 2026 Evidence of support with youth engagement, coordination with the UN inter-agency youth group, civil society groups, private organizations, and UN-wide coordination. December 2026 Evidence of contribution to internal coordination mechanisms within UN Women and supporting with knowledge management and partnerships. December 2026 Evidence of support to the semi-annual reporting and partner capacity development efforts.  December 2026

Payment Schedule

Payment will be made  on a monthly basis, upon the submission  a monthly progress report with evidence of support provided in line with terms of reference. Evidence may  include meeting minutes, background notes, technical review and inputs of key documents, knowledge and advocacy products amongst others. 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

The assignment is home-based; however, the consultant will be required to attend the office in person minimum twice a week. 

Travel and DSA: 

If unforeseen travel to Dhaka or elsewhere in Bangladesh is required for this assignment, upon prior agreement/approval from UN Women, such travel expenses shall be borne by UN Women and the individual contractor/SSA shall receive a per-diem not to exceed the United Nations Daily Subsistence Allowance rate in such other location(s) and actual travel cost. 

Competencies Core Values: 

Education and Certification:

Masters degree in Gender Studies, International Development or equivalent.

Experience:

Languages:

Evaluation: 

Technical Qualification Evaluation Criteria:

The total number of points allocated for the technical qualification component is 100. The technical qualification of the individual is evaluated based on following technical qualification evaluation criteria:

Submission of Application 

The following documents should be submitted as part of the application:

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, colour, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All recruitment/procurement 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.