I. Organizational Context

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.  The Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) is a partnership between the United Nations and the civil society, which supports women led and women’s rights organizations working to build peace and provide humanitarian response throughout the world. Since the end of 2016, the WPHF has been supporting over 900 civil society organizations (CSOs) and is present in 32 countries with 24 allocations. 

UN Women hosts the Secretariat of the WPHF. The WPHF Secretariat provides support to the Funding Board, mobilizes resources from Governments, companies, foundations and individuals, designs funding windows and mechanisms, provides day to day support to Country Offices implementing WPHF programmes, ensures timely and quality monitoring and reporting. The Secretariat’s mandate is also to strengthen stakeholders’ knowledge of and engagement with women, peace and security issues through proper internal and external communications, advocacy, and outreach. Finally, the Secretariat provides knowledge management services for the WPHF, and manages a Global Learning Hub (L-HUB) for WPHF CSO partners as part of its mandate to be a global hub of knowledge for local women peacebuilders and humanitarians. Through the L-HUB, which is open to past and current WPHF partners, WPHF has strengthened the institutional development of over 300 CSOs working in crisis settings since 2020. The L-HUB aims to support the CSOs’ resilience beyond WPHF funding through capacity development and peer learning initiatives. Another objective of the L-HUB is to connect CSOs to high-level decision-making spheres and promote the visibility and uptake of CSOs’ findings on the global stage, including in regional and international policy and advocacy fora.

Building on the success of the first “Global Women's Forum for Peace and Humanitarian Action” and with support from Germany, in May 2023, the WPHF Global Women’s Forum for Peace and Humanitarian Action (GWF) will bring together 150[1] peacebuilders and humanitarian responders from across the world to discuss their priorities to influence the peace agenda and continue their work amid multiple crisis and a global shrinking space for civil society activists. The event will be an opportunity for WPHF civil CSO partners to exchange perspectives, review current challenges for women-led peace, security and humanitarian action (PSHA) work, learn from each other and create synergies and partnerships. In addition, the CSOs’ priorities will be considered into WPHF Strategic Plans for 2023-2025 with a view to ensure that women's CSOs’ needs are adequately reflected in WPHF funding processes and mechanisms, and that women's CSOs’ WPS-HA initiatives are recognized and supported at all levels by decision makers and the international community.

The Forum’s main objectives are to:

• Identify trends, risks and priorities regarding women’s CSOs’ leadership and participation in PSHA across the world and outline advocacy entry points to foster the consideration of CSOs’ needs and challenges in international agendas (in terms of women's CSOs’ role in the localization of Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) National Action Plans (NAPs), conflict prevention, etc.).
• Promote movement building, networking, and cooperation among the participating women’s CSOs to respond to the challenges identified to conduct PSHA work and participate in PSHA decision making at all levels.
• Enhance CSOs’ exchange of knowledge and transfer of learning regarding women’s CSOs’ achievements and leadership in PSHA to promote the awareness, capitalization and replication of good practices in the peace and humanitarian sectors.

The Forum’s expected outcomes are:

• Outcome 1: Define a set of common priorities in the field of women’s participation in PSHA, including concrete recommendations for WPHF, the donor community and other stakeholders, to ensure that women’s CSOs’ needs and challenges to conduct PSHA work are recognized and supported in high-level spheres and at all levels. The expected output related to Outcome 1 is a declaration from the GWFs participants with concrete recommendations to ensure that women’s needs and challenges and their contributions to PSHA are recognized and supported at all levels.
• Outcome 2: Improved networking and coordination between women’s CSOs working in the field of PSHA at national, regional, and international levels which may lead to new collaboration opportunities on the ground or online following the GWF. Through proposing actions that could be led jointly by several women’s CSOs, the CSOs will gain ownership of the GWF and join their forces to support each other in their work and advance advocacy and support for women’s CSOs at all levels. One expected output related to the Outcome 2 is a series of ideas of actions (draft roadmap) that could involve several women’s CSOs following the GWF (for example, joint campaigns and advocacy coalitions on specific PSHA topics[2]?.
• Outcome 3: Increased awareness, and recognition of women leaders’ essential work in PSHA and enhanced visibility and capitalization of women's CSOs’ initiatives and lessons learned in the field of PSHA among WPHF CSO partners and WPHF strategic partners and donors. One expected output related to the Outcome 3 is a report on the CSOs’ experiences, best practices and success stories shared during the GWF (written and video document) and communications’ products highlighting women’s CSOs’ voices and expertise.

The consultant, with the guidance and under the supervision of the WPHF L-HUB and Programme Team, will support WPHF to draft the Forum’s expected outputs 1 and 2. To do so, the consultant will collect and review key documents on women's CSOs’ leadership in PSHA and the CSOs’ immediate needs and urgent gaps to enhance the recognition and advance the advocacy and support for increasing women's CSOs’ effective participation and influence in PSHA in high level spaces and at all levels. Based on the literature review, the consultant will elaborate an outline of the GWF's declaration and accompany the CSO participants before and during the GWF 2023 in May 2023 to draft a declaration that will be based on the gaps identified during the Forum and that will be validated and adopted during the GWF.

[1] Exact number of CSO representatives tbc.

[2] Some proposed initiatives might be conditioned to the mobilization of new funding by WPHF and other donors (the funding gap to support women-led follow up initiatives is estimated to be of $200,000).

II. Description and purpose of the consultancy

Even though there is widely recognized evidence of women's CSOs’ leadership in PSHA at international level, women's CSOs’ role in PSHA is still undervalued and insufficiently recognized and supported by the donors, the international community and high-level decision-making processes at all levels. In this context, the purpose of this consultancy work is to review existing literature on women's CSOs’ needs and challenges to be better valued, recognized and supported (declarations, action plans, international legislations and UN resolutions, including CSO networks’ calls to action and WPHF’s documents) and elaborate an outline (providing a potential structure, orientation and ideas) that will serve as a starting point for the WPHF GWF 2023’s declaration, to articulate the CSOs’ advocacy needs, gaps and priorities that will be identified by the women's CSOs during the Forum.

The consultant will compile and review existing documents that can work as reference documents for the future GWF to be held in May 2023 in Berlin. This review could be shared with the CSO participants ahead of the event to foster CSOs’ ownership and engagement in the GWF. During the event, the consultant will use the draft outline and support the CSO participants to articulate their challenges and priorities to conduct their PSHA work and summarize the most immediate needs and gaps identified by women's CSOs to further support their work in PSHA. The final declaration to be discussed and approved by the CSOs during the Forum will include some ideas of proposed joint actions (draft roadmap) that could be implemented following the adoption of the Declaration. At the end of the process, the aim is to validate the final version of the declaration in plenary the last day of the GWF.

The outline of the Forum’s declaration will include references to key documents including international declarations, action plans and other documents[1], such as WPHF’s Vienna Declaration, WPHF´s CSO Annual Survey, WPHF draft Strategic plan 2023-2025, WPHF Rapid Response Window on Women’s Participation in Peace Processes (RRW) Mid-Term Management Review report, RRW December 2022 INGO Partners Meeting Report and WHRD Window Workshop (Nov 2022).

The final Forum’s declaration will include recommendations for the donor community and other stakeholders, to better recognize and support women's CSOs’ leadership and contributions to PSHA. The final declaration document will also include ideas of joint/coordinated actions that could be developed by several participating women’s CSOs to support each other and advance advocacy and support for their PSHA work. This draft roadmap will arise from the breakout groups and plenary discussions that will be held during the GWF. The final declaration will be an advocacy-oriented document that will be used by WPHF to mobilize more support and funding for women's CSOs and to raise women's CSOs’ voices in international fora and decision-making spaces, such as WPHF’s Replenishment Conference or the UN Open debate on WPS to be held in October 2023.

[1] For example, WPS Security Council Resolutions, Global Compact Principles, Generation Equality Principles and Global Compact on Women, Peace, Security and Humanitarian Action, Global Study on the implementation of UNSCR 1325, Civil Society reports on Beijing +25/The WPS Agenda 25 Years After Beijing.

III. Responsibilities  

The consultant will be responsible for reviewing and consolidating data and information from key reports and declarations, including WPHF’s documents. Based on a gender inclusive analysis of these findings, the consultant will produce a compilation of relevant documents and a draft outline of the Global Women’s Forum Declaration, which will serve as a starting point to support the CSO participants in the preparatory phase and during the WPHF GWF 2023 to draft a declaration based on their urgent gaps, needs and priorities and should not exceed 10 pages in total (excluding annexes).

Key Deliverables

The consultancy is to commence by April 2023 and is expected to require up to 18 days of work over a period of three months. Key deliverables and tasks with estimated dedication are:

• Inception meeting with WPHF Secretariat (L-HUB and Programme team) (2 hours)
• Desk review based on existing literature on women's CSOs’ leadership and contributions to PSHA and analysis of the advocacy needs, challenges, and gaps to advance the advocacy and support for increasing women's CSOs’ effective participation and influence in PSHA, including WPHF documents that will be provided by the WPHF (3 days)
• Draft outline of the GWF’s Declaration (main needs, challenges and gaps and structure and orientations for the future drafting of the Declaration) setting an advocacy for a better recognition and support of women's CSOs’ leadership and influence in PSHA and recommendations to engage WPHF CSO partners in the preparatory phase of the GWF (4 days)
• Discussion of the GWF’s Declaration outline with WPHF L-HUB and Programme team and finalization of the outline of the Forum’s Declaration following feedback from WPHF Programme team (2 days)
• Distribution of the literature review/analysis of CSOs’ gaps and needs among the CSO participants to foster the women’s CSOs’ engagement and ownership of the GWF’s literature review and Declaration’s outline (this could include liaising with specific CSOs and speakers to prepare for the GWF) (8 half days).
• Provide a short presentation of the literature review the first day of the GWF in plenary (including PowerPoint slides deck giving an overview of main women's CSOs’ needs, gaps and priorities to advance the advocacy and support for women's CSOs’ PSHA work at all levels) (0,5 day for preparation of the presentation)
• Support the CSO participants in the drafting of the GWF’s Declaration during the event, including recommendations and ideas of joint actions (draft roadmap) based on the women's CSOs’ challenges, needs, priorities and possible collaborations identified during the Forum (4 days).

The final GWF’s outcome document (Declaration) should include a list of recommendations for WPHF and other identified stakeholders to better recognize, value and support women's CSOs’ work in PSHA and ideas of collaborative actions (draft roadmap) based on the women's CSOs’ ideas and proposals during the Forum.

Payment will be made upon submission of all deliverables and certification by the WPHF/UN Women focal point that the work has been completed to satisfaction. All raw data files, consent forms and relevant documentation must be returned to WPHF and UN Women before release of final payment. In addition, WPHF will cover the consultant’s travel, accommodation, local transport and subsistence during the GWF in Berlin.

IV. Competencies  

Core Values

• Respect for diversity
• Professionalism
• Integrity

Core Competencies

• Accountability
• Awareness and sensitivity regarding gender issues
• Creative problem solving
• Fulfills obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment 
• Treats all people fairly and without favouritism 
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability 
• Effective communication
• Inclusive collaboration
• Stakeholder engagement
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.

 Technical Competencies

• Strong research capabilities and analytical skills
• Monitoring, evaluation and learning processes
• Results-based management
• Advocacy skills
• Excellent written and oral English communication skills - ability to produce compelling synthetic written reports in English

V. Required Skills, Knowledge and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree or equivalent in international development studies, social sciences, political sciences, public policy or other relevant fields is required.

Knowledge and Experience

• At least 7 years of demonstrable experience working on women, peace, and security.
• Strong knowledge of women’s CSOs role and leadership in peace and security, crisis response and humanitarian action.
• Strong understanding of the peace and security agenda and good knowledge of international declarations and documents relating to WPS and women's CSOs’ roles and trends in crisis response.
• Experience in working with civil society and feminist movements is required.
• Knowledge and/or experience working on at least two different geographic regions related to work on conflict-affected and/or post-conflict contexts.

Language Requirements

• Fluency in English is required. 
• Knowledge of Arabic and/or French and/or Spanish is an asset. 

VI. Performance evaluation

Contractor’s performance will be evaluated against such criteria as: timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered.

Recommended Application

The following documents should be submitted:

1. Personal CV and P11 (All applications must provide the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment), indicating all past experience from similar projects, as well as the contact details (email and telephone number) of the Candidate and at least three (3) professional references;
2. Brief description of why the individual considers him/herself as the most suitable for the assignment.
3. 1-2 writing samples related to prior research or advocacy work.

IMPORTANT

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment. Please combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

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.