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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality are translated into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts while building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Strategic Plan 2022–2025 will guide UN Women for the next four years—with an eye toward the 2030 deadline to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It articulates how UN Women will leverage its unique triple mandate—encompassing normative support, UN system coordination, and operational activities—to mobilize urgent and sustained action to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls and support the achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The four-year Strategic Note (SN) covering 2023-2027 of the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO) which guided by the corporate Strategic Plan (SP) outlines strategic direction, objectives and approaches to support efforts to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls across the region The new four-year Strategic Note (SN) covering 2022-2025 of the UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO) which guided by the corporate Strategic Plan (SP) outlines strategic direction, objectives and approaches to support efforts to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls across the region in key areas: women’s leadership and political participation; women’s economic empowerment; elimination of violence against women and girls; peace, security and humanitarian action; and support to intergovernmental processes.

To ensure a coherent and impactful response at country and regional level aligned with the SP / SN priorities, UN Women ECA is looking for a consultant with proved track record with traditional cooperation and/or innovative funding for Gender Equality to support regional and country offices with writing project proposals, based on needs, to facilitate resource mobilization efforts.

The consultant will be reporting to the Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Specialist, and will be supported by the Junior Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Officer, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

Duties and Responsibilities

UN Women seeks a highly skilled professional writer who will support regional and country offices with project proposal writing. The consultant will support the drafting and finalization of proposals, concept notes and other fundraising materials, in response to identified funding opportunities, through specific missions. The duration of each mission will vary, depending on the requirements of the funding opportunity.

The consultant will prepare high quality grant applications (proposals or concept notes) or other material for submission to donors in a timely manner.

In particular, the consultant is expected to carry out the following functions and activities:

  • Draft and design programme proposal following funding opportunity formats and deadlines.
  • Maintain effective communication with UN Women staff and partners in the design process.
  • Communicate regularly with the lead supervisor to inform about the proposals’ drafting advance and validate design decisions.
  • Participate in relevant staff briefings and meetings or donor engagements to support the preparation of submissions; capture notes and synthesize information into a cohesive narrative.
  • Manage the proposal / concept note writing, including: drafting the initial materials needed for the application for the technical team’s reviews; after reviews and quality checks, editing consolidating the team’s various contributions towards the finalization of the application documents; ensuring quality check and final consistency in regards to the donor language and requirements of the call for proposals ; delivering the finalized package to the partnerships team for submission.

 

Deliverable

Expected completion time (due day)

Payment Schedule (optional)

Undertake desk review of available concept notes, and conduct interviews with relevant colleagues to inform proposal writing.

Ad hoc and as needed

MM YY

Draft and review of proposals, concept notes and other fundraising materials, in response to identified funding opportunities.

Ad hoc and as needed

MM YY

 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy.

Competencies

Core Values: 

  • Respect for Diversity 
  • Integrity 
  • Professionalism 

Core Competencies: 

  • Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues 
  • Accountability 
  • Creative Problem Solving 
  • Effective Communication 
  • Inclusive Collaboration 
  • Stakeholder Engagement 
  • Leading by Example 

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

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values 

 

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 

  • Excellent English writing skills.
  • Knowledge products development.
  • Strong programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and RBM competencies.
  • Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions, and present findings and recommendations.
  • A good understanding of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

  • Advanced University Degree in social development, economics, business, philosophy, gender and development or other related fields.

 

Experience:

  • At least 7 years of progressive work experience in the field of development developing and implementing development projects or programs with different funders.
  • At least 7 years of progressive work experience writing and/or proved experience in resource mobilization and projects drafting.
  • Previous work experience with UN, including UN Women, or other development agencies an asset.

 

Languages:

  • Fluency in English is required.

 

How to Apply: