UN Women: National Consultants for Panel Facilitation and Reporting, Home-based, Turkiye

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. 

In Türkiye, in line with its global Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and Country Strategic Note (2022-2025), and the overall UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Turkey (UNSDCF) (2021-2025), UN Women works towards the overarching goal of “Women and girls including those at greatest risk of being left behind fully exercise their human rights, enjoy a life free from violence and discrimination, and lead, influence and benefit from sustainable and inclusive socioeconomic development towards the advancement of gender equality in Turkey”. UN Women works in four thematic areas: (i) governance and participation in public life; (ii) women’s economic empowerment; (iii) ending violence against women and girls; and (iv) women, peace and security, humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction. In line with its coordination mandate, UN Women promotes coordination and coherence across the UN system to enhance accountability and results for gender equality and women’s empowerment, including through joint programmatic and advocacy actions and initiatives, standardized tools and guidance and services to strengthen the relevant capacities of the UN system. 

Towards these goals, UN Women implements programmes and projects that aim to advance gender equality, improve women's access to opportunities, rights and services in political, social and economic life and combat gender stereotypes, discrimination, and violence, as required by international and national legal and policy commitments. UN Women collaborates with numerous partners – central and local level government authorities, civil society organizations, including women's organizations and platforms, academia, private sector companies, other UN agencies. It commits itself to the Leaving No One Behind principle by supporting targeted actions to remove the obstacles that marginalized and vulnerable groups of women face in accessing their rights and to promote them as agents of change.

Globally and in Türkiye, UN Women engages with and supports civil society organizations (CSOs), in particular women's organizations, as key advocacy and knowledge partners, as well as implementing partners in operational activities in advancing women's economic, political and social rights. UN Women's work with civil society encompasses facilitating and expanding spaces for CSOs to come together for coordinated actions and to engage in dialogue with duty-bearers and decision-makers at local, national, regional and international levels, and in the context of inter-governmental processes. UN Women is focused on convening multi-stakeholder partnerships and engaging a wide variety of stakeholders, including men and boys and young people, to bring forth transformative change towards gender equality, in line with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Sustainable Development Goals and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Under this framework, UN Women Türkiye is implementing “Reimagining Gender Equality Across Generations and Communities\" (Short name: Reimagining A More Equal Future) project, funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project aims to reduce gender inequalities by enhancing the ability of civic groups and young women to be agents of transformative change towards gender equality and women’s rights. The project started in January 2024 will have an implementation period of 3 years.

Under this project, UN Women Türkiye is working with local level civic groups, grassroots initiatives, young people, especially young women, and civil society organizations as knowledge partners, responsible parties, and advocates to promote and raise awareness on gender equality at grassroots level in various localities/municipalities to be identified. The intervention has a strong empowerment angle specifically targeting local level civic groups and young women and an advocacy component to be implemented particularly at the local level. The project also seeks active engagement of young men in partnership with young women for gender equality and ending gender-based discrimination and violence and to explore and challenge predominant notions of masculinities. Additionally, it fosters the intergenerational dialogue among young women and experienced current leaders of the women’s movement in Türkiye in a way to address the issue of further involvement of young women in civic activism and to learn from young women to integrate alternative advocacy approaches and strategies to appeal to a wider and a younger audience on gender equality. Finally, the project facilitates discussions among various organizations to devise strategies to counter the pushback on gender equality.

The movement defending the pushback on the hard won gains in gender equality has solidified its base, developed a narrative to widen its sphere of influence to appeal to a larger audience and finally started to impact policies at the national and international level. There is a growing need to understand the current factors shaping this pushback, its dynamics, the narrative developed and the web of communication.  Given that the variety of local dynamics and due to the grassroots engagement objective of the “Reimagining a More Equal Future” Project, UN Women Türkiye will hold a series of discussions at designated localities to bring together experts, gender equality activists, members of women led organizations and civil society organizations aiming to understand and address the factors and the dynamics of the pushback integrating the unique experiences of each locality. The outcomes of the panel discussions planned indicatively as five sessions in different localities, will be compiled in one report highlighting the unique aspects of the discussions. More detailed information on the content of the report is provided in this ToR below. 

Within this framework, UN Women will contract two consultants for the implementation of the panel discussions at the local level. The consultants will be tasked to provide a general framework on the current characteristics and the dynamics of the pushback, linking it with the overall frame of anti-democratization wave and its possible consequences. Additionally, they will be tasked to focus on the local context and provide an overall picture in relation to how local level work and advocacy of the civic groups, organizations and activists are impacted with the current narrative and the actions of the actors standing against gender equality. They are also expected to structure and facilitate the panel discussion, to create an enabling environment for an interactive discussion and finally guide the discussions on which approach and tactics would be useful to present and continue to advocate for the gender equality agenda. A report focusing on the commonalities as well as differences based on localities, the narrative used during the discussions, possible tactics developed to counteract the impact of the pushback on gender equality and new approaches for effective advocacy of gender equality at the local level.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

Within the scope of the assignment, under the supervision of UN Women Programme Specialist and in close collaboration with the Programme Analyst, the National Consultants will work collaboratively to accomplish the following tasks: 

Task I: Develop and Facilitate Local Panel Discussions

Task II: Document Key Findings and Develop Reports

Deliverables and Payment Schedule:

The duration of the assignment is from 26 May 2025 to 31 December 2025. The Consultants are expected to spend up to 25 working days for developing and facilitation local panel discussions in various cities and submit a final report with recommendations. The contract will be output (daily) based, on a non-consecutive basis throughout the assignment. 

The mentioned number of working days has been estimated as being sufficient/feasible for the envisaged volume of work to be completed successfully and is proposed as a guideline for the duration of assignment. It cannot and shall not be used as criteria for completion of work/assignment. The provision of envisaged deliverables and timesheets approved by the UN Women Programme Analyst shall be the only criteria for Consultant’s work being completed and eligible for payments. 

Payments shall be made based on the provision of timesheets and supporting deliverables approved by the UN Women Programme Analyst who shall confirm Consultant’s work is completed and eligible for payment.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based assignment with travels to at least 5 provinces. UN Women Türkiye Office will cover the organization and the costs of the consultant’s travel as per UN Women’s rules and regulations. UN Women will not be responsible for covering any transportation costs within the duty station, including taxi fares.

Mandatory Training Courses

The Consultants shall complete all the mandatory and other required UN training courses and modules on time. The certificates shall be submitted to the supervisor.

Competencies :

Core Values:

Core Competencies:

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

Functional Competencies:

Qualifications:

Education and Certification:

Experience:

Languages:

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

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. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.