UN Women Rapporteur for Collective Leadership Dialogues (CLDs) Tamil, Home based, National Consultant

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.

Given Sri Lanka’s high vulnerability to extreme weather events, women, especially those in rural communities and those engaged in agriculture and fisheries, face disproportionate challenges. Yet, they remain largely excluded from decision-making processes that shape climate adaptation and economic policies. Globally, UN Women promotes women’s economic empowerment within the broader sustainable development agenda, with a focus on green economics and climate change. Against this background, UN Women Sri Lanka is in the process of planning the implementation of a five-year project focused on “THRIVE: Together for Her: Resilience-building, Inclusivity, and Voices for Equality in Sri Lanka” to strengthen the economic and social resilience of women who are marginalized by equipping them with the resources needed to navigate and recover from crises, insecurity, and the impacts of climate change. The project envisions three main outcomes: a) Women’s enterprises are resilient to climate impacts and crises, b) Shifts in community attitudes towards the perception of women, and c) Women’s participation in leadership and decision-making.

UN Women Sri Lanka plans to conduct a series of Community Dialogues at the district level focused on collective leadership and women’s engagement in decision-making as part of THRIVE. This series is based on UN Women’s successful dialoguing model for the Multi-Party and Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues for Peacebuilding and Collective Leadership that were convened for each of the 25 districts in Sri Lanka in 2018-2022 and the Inter-Community, Multi-Stakeholder Dialogues that were convened in four districts to advance the Women, Peace and Security agenda in 2024. These women-centered dialogues aim to foster understanding, trust, and collaboration among diverse groups. It provides a platform for open communication, enabling communities to prioritize issues affecting their districts/communities, address grievances, and collectively develop joint, shared solutions to the identified issues. The dialogues contribute to the development of collective leadership by encouraging inclusive decision-making processes that incorporate the perspectives and lived experience of various community members, in particular, those of women and other marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities. Overall, the dialogues will target elected officials, public officers, civil society, women activists, media, religious leaders, Praja Mandala members, women entrepreneurs from the THRIVE project, and members from Community Development Forums (if existing in the district).

A central focus of the dialogues will be on inclusive governance within community and local level decision-making processes, with women and other marginalized groups at the forefront, as well as mitigating the impact of climate change and building climate resilience. The dialogues are expected to take place at the district level in Colombo, Badulla, Kilinochchi, Mannar, Monaragala, and Nuwara Eliya.

 Against this background, UN Women is seeking a National Consultant – Rapporteur to support the National Lead Consultant with documenting the Collective Leadership Dialogues (CLDs) at the district level. The CLDs are conceptualized as part of the THRIVE project implemented by UN Women and Chrysalis in partnership with the Government of Australia and will be accompanied by capacity-building and workplan development workshops for sustainability.

The National Consultant - Rapporteur will report to the Head of Office, and will be supported by the Project Officers, who will be the point of contact on substantive and administrative issues. 

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

Under the supervision and guidance of the Head of Office, the National Consultant - Rapporteur is expected to undertake the following tasks in close collaboration with the other National Consultant - Rapporteur (Sinhala-speaking) and with the support of the National Lead Consultant, and Consultant - Co-facilitator. 

The Rapporteur is responsible for preparing district reports, either independently or jointly with the other Rapporteur, as appropriate to the linguistic and demographic profiles of the respective districts.

The quality of the consultancy deliverables will be assessed based on attention to detail as well as the consultant’s ability to synthesize and analyse information in a clear, structured and results-oriented manner.

1

Develop a documentation strategy outlining the methodology of documenting the sequence of programmes, including dialogues and follow-up assessment workshops. The documentation strategy should detail the tools to be used, sources of input, data storage system, especially for participants’ disaggregated data, documentation outputs and templates, timeline for the documentation and quality assurance, and control measures. 

Note: The two Rapporteurs are expected to submit a cohesive documentation strategy for rapporteuring the proceedings of the dialogues and follow-up workshops, in consultation with UN Women, the National Lead Consultant and the Co-facilitator. The documentation strategy can be considered as a working document, to be adapted and further developed as the programmes unfold, subject to approval by UN Women. Each Rapporteur must submit a brief report summarizing their contributions to the documentation strategy.

2

Attend 05 CLDs at the selected districts below and draft and finalize 05 district-specific (Badulla, Colombo, Kilinochchi, Mannar and Nuwara Eliya) reports following the completion of the CLDs.

Each CLD will be for 3-4 days as per the tentative schedule below.

*Attended by both Rapporteurs.

**The above timeline and number of days are subject to change in line with other project activities and findings of the needs assessment conducted by the National Lead Facilitator and Co-Facilitator.

Note: The Rapporteurs will be responsible for documenting the proceedings of the dialogues assigned to them, following the established documentation strategy. While it is acceptable to take notes in a language of the Consultant’s preference, all reports must be written in English. 

For Badulla, Colombo, and Nuwara Eliya Rapporteurs are expected to collaborate and produce a single, consolidated district report in accordance with the reporting format agreed by UN Women. In such cases, each Rapporteur must also submit an individual activity completion report, detailing their specific contributions to the jointly prepared district report. The Tamil-speaking Rapporteur will be responsible for drafting the reports for Mannar and Kilinochchi.

The deliverable should be finalized incorporating the feedback received from UN Women.

The Rapporteur is also responsible for collecting and digitizing disaggregated participant data, based on the guidelines set forth by UN Women. In situations where both Rapporteurs attend the same dialogue, they must coordinate and submit a single, unified dataset in the prescribed format.

3

Attend 05 follow-up workshops at the selected districts below and draft and finalize 05 district-specific (Badulla, Colombo, Kilinochchi, Mannar and Nuwara Eliya) reports following the completion of the follow-up workshops.

Follow-up workshops are planned for 12 months following the conclusion of the CLDs as per the tentative schedule below.

*Attended by both Rapporteurs. 

**The above timeline and number of days are subject to change in line with other project activities. 

 Note: The Rapporteurs will be responsible for documenting the proceedings of the workshops assigned to them, following the established documentation strategy. While it is acceptable to take notes in a language of the Consultant’s preference, all reports must be written in English.  

For Badulla, Colombo, and Nuwara Eliya Rapporteurs are expected to collaborate and produce a single, consolidated district report in accordance with the reporting format agreed by UN Women. In such cases, each Rapporteur must also submit an individual activity completion report, detailing their specific contributions to the jointly prepared district report. The Tamil-speaking Rapporteur will be responsible for drafting the reports for Mannar and Kilinochchi.

The deliverable should be finalized incorporating the feedback received from UN Women.

The Rapporteur is also responsible for collecting and digitizing disaggregated participant data, based on the guidelines set forth by UN Women. In situations where both Rapporteurs attend the same dialogue, they must coordinate and submit a single, unified dataset in the prescribed format. 

Deliverables

The National Consultant - Rapporteur will remain accountable for the timely submission of the deliverables as per the timeline given below. All deliverables should be finalized after incorporating the feedback received from UN Women.  No. Deliverables Expected completion time  1

Activity completion report indicating contribution to the documentation strategy.

The finalized Documentation Strategy must be attached as an Annex.

Drafts of the district-specific reports for Kilinochchi and Mannar following the completion of the CLDs.

The digitized list of participants’ disaggregated data and transcripts of the proceedings must be annexed as part of this deliverable.

Finalized district-specific reports for Kilinochchi and Mannar on the CLDs, incorporating feedback given by UN Women.

The digitized list of participants’ disaggregated data and transcripts of the proceedings must be annexed as part of this deliverable.

Drafts of the district-specific reports for Badulla, Colombo and Nuwara Eliya with the other Rapporteur following the completion of the CLDs.

The digitized list of participants’ disaggregated data, transcripts of the proceedings and an activity completion report indicating contribution to the drafting of the reports must be annexed as part of this deliverable.

Finalized district-specific reports for Badulla, Colombo and Nuwara Eliya with the other Rapporteur following the completion of the CLDs, incorporating feedback given by UN Women.

The digitized list of participants’ disaggregated data, transcripts of the proceedings and an activity completion report indicating contribution to the drafting of the reports must be annexed as part of this deliverable.

Drafts of the district-specific reports for Kilinochchi and Mannar following the completion of the follow-ups. 

The digitized list of participants’ disaggregated data and transcripts of the proceedings must be annexed as part of this deliverable. 

Finalized district-specific reports for Kilinochchi and Mannar on the follow-ups, incorporating feedback given by UN Women. 

The digitized list of participants’ disaggregated data and transcripts of the proceedings must be annexed as part of this deliverable. 

Drafts of the district-specific reports for Badulla, Colombo and Nuwara Eliya with the other Rapporteur following the completion of the follow-ups. 

The digitized list of participants’ disaggregated data, transcripts of the proceedings and an activity completion report indicating contribution to the drafting of the reports must be annexed as part of this deliverable. 

Finalized district-specific reports for Badulla, Colombo and Nuwara Eliya with the other Rapporteur following the completion of the follow-ups, incorporating feedback given by UN Women. 

The digitized list of participants’ disaggregated data, transcripts of the proceedings and an activity completion report indicating contribution to the drafting of the reports must be annexed as part of this deliverable. 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel 

The consultancy is expected to start on 28 November 2025 and continue until 31 March 2028. As part of the official duty of this consultancy, the consultant may be expected to travel, which will be processed by UN Women, following the duty travel policy.  

 Payments 

Payments for this consultancy will be based on the achievement of each deliverable and certification that each has been satisfactorily completed. Payments will be made upon submission of deliverables with the approval of the Head of Office of UN Women Sri Lanka. Mobile and internet bills, as well as printing and stationery costs may be reimbursed based on prior approval from UN Women, and will be processed separately, following the relevant policy.  

Competencies :

Core Values:

Core Competencies:

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

Functional Competencies:

Required Qualifications

Education and Certification:

Experience:

Languages:

Proficiency in (written and spoken) Tamil and English is mandatory.

How to Apply 

Intellectual Property

All information pertaining to this assignment (data, analysis, reports, documentary, digital, cyber, project documents, etc.) belonging to UN Women, which the consultant may come into contact within the performance of their duties under this assignment shall remain the property of UN Women who shall have exclusive rights over their use. Except for purposes of this assignment, the information shall not be disclosed to the public nor used in whatever form, without the written permission of UN Women in line with the national and International Copyright Laws applicable.

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.

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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.