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.

Women’s Political Participation (WPP) is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work, recognizing the role of women’s leadership in strong and stable democratic processes and inclusive societies. It is covered under the Entity’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 Impact Area 1 – Participation and Governance in Public Life: “Women and girls participate in leadership and decision making and benefit from gender responsive governance”; and across several Systemic Outcomes of the Strategic Plan, mainly: Outcome 1 on Normative Frameworks and Policies, Outcome 5 on Voice Leadership and Agency; and Outcome 7 on UN coordination. 

UN Women works with various partners and stakeholders nationally, regionally, and globally to ensure more women of all ages fully participate, lead, and engage in political institutions. Within this framework, UN-Women has partnered with the European Union to one of the components of the European Union funded Women and Youth in Democracy Initiative (WYDE) Initiative. Launched by the European Union in 2023 WYDE seeks to strengthen the rights, empowerment, and participation in public and political life of youth and women as key actors of development and change. A multiparter initiative, WYDE includes five interlinked components,[1] which are aligned with the European Union Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy for the period 2020–2024 and the Youth Action Plan. 

UN Women, jointly with the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA), the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), and United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), will implement the WYDE/Women Leadership component through a three-year programme titled: "Advancing Women’s Political Participation and Decision-Making through Social Norms Change, Networking and Global Advocacy.” Over three years UN Women will leverage their convening power to facilitate feminist and women’s rights movements participation in global and regional advocacy spaces and access to decision-making fora. The four implementing partners will use the opportunity presented the EU’s WYDE initiative, to leverage collective action, partnerships, coordination, knowledge, and resources at a global level to support the full and effective participation and decision-making of diverse women, especially those most often left furthest behind. 

The WYDE | Women’s Leadership programme will prioritize changing social norms and shifting cultural attitudes that portray women’s roles in communities and society as incompatible with political power; and put specific focus on building critical skills of young women and engage men and boys, office holders and the media as allies for gender equality and women’s empowerment. It will enhance synergies between women’s rights movements, Member States, decision makers, the international community, the media, and other key actors, including the WYDE community across its different components, to maximize the effectiveness of spaces for coalition building, advocacy, and campaigning to promote WPP. 

As a  key deliverable of the programme, UN Women will prepare a framework on social norms related to women’s participation in public life which would inform the overall programmatic work on WPP including WYDE. To support development of the framework UN Women will convene an Expert Group Meeting (EGM)to discuss and identify social norms affecting women’s participation in public life. The Expert Group Meeting will gather diverse voices to discuss, identify, and define social norms, resulting in key messages that will guide the WYDE programme throughout its implementation. The framework and the EGM should build on UN Women's existing work on social norms and adopt a tailored approach to understanding social norms, particularly those related to women's political participation globally. The EGM should have a regional balance of expert viewpoints covering social norms change and the thematic topic of political participation. The Meeting will aim to codify these norms and the drivers for change to inform the framing and communication of the project specific to advancing women’s political participation and leadership through transforming such social norms. Further, the Expert Group Meeting should work towards agreement on a framework for measuring social norms change for the work of advancing women’s political participation and leadership. In this context, UN Women will engage an international consultant to lead the overall design and development of the social norms framework on WPP as well as design and facilitate the Expert Group Meeting including support to identify participants, conduct the sessions, and producing a report with the outcomes, key messages and lessons learned.  

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Programme Manager, WYDE and overall guidance of the UN Women Global Policy Advisor on Political Participation and working closely within the UN Women Women’s Political Participation team, the consultant will be responsible for the following duties: 

1. Literature review of existing social norms approaches

• Review existing materials regarding transforming social norms to inform the development of the agenda and concept of the Expert Group Meeting.
• Consult with colleagues and external experts where necessary to collect input into existing research and methodologies, including interviews with UN Women Country Offices that implement projects on women’s political participation and social norms changes ahead of the Expert Group Meeting.
• Reference UN Women Political Participation knowledge to properly frame the findings under the WPP umbrella to guide the WYDE programme
• Produce a pre-meeting document summarizing key approaches and measurement approaches to transforming social norms around women’s rights and gender equality.

2. Conceptualize the objectives of the Expert Group Meeting

• Produce/finalize a concept note to define the objectives and intended outcomes of the sessions.
• Contribute to the expert invitation list and consult with experts as needed to define the scope of the meeting.
• Format the Agenda and flow of the Expert Group Meeting to ensure meeting the objectives.
• Help ensure a diverse representative of experts are present in the meeting.

3. Facilitate the Expert Group Meeting on Social Norms change for women’s political participation and leadership.

• Act as the facilitator in person for the overall Expert Group Meeting.
• Aid the discussion through guiding the meeting to encourage diverse viewpoints.
• Organize the Expert Group Meeting to ensure a participatory approach.
• Ensure the conversations contribute to the outcomes including building towards an agreed framework to measure social norms change.

4. Prepare a report outlining the findings from the Expert Group Meeting

• After the meeting, produce a paper (approximately 10 pages) with the key findings from the meeting and how the meeting should inform the work of WYDE in the coming two years of implementation.
• Reference the overall WYDE programme and make recommendations on how the agreed definitions of social norms change can be properly integrated by WYDE | Women’s Leadership partners.
• Make links to UN Women’s overall work on social norms change to connect the results of the Expert Group Meeting and the WYDE programme to overall UN Women ambitions on transforming discriminatory social norms.

5. Produce the key messages coming out of the Expert Group Meeting  

• Draft a set of key messages at the conclusion of the Expert Group Meeting to amplify the results of the meeting and codify the results into easily understood messages to inform programme activities by the partners.
• Produce a summary document (max 4 pages) combining the key results from the report (Deliverables from the Responsibility No.4) with the key messages, which will be further designed (separately) for communications and advocacy purposes.
• Brief WYDE partners on the results and key messages to frame the WYDE programme in the context of UN Women’s work on Women’s Political Participation.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy with presence required and/or travel to facilitate the EGM (tentatively in Brussels, Belgium during November 2024).

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: 

• Strong technical knowledge of transforming harmful social norms. Academic research experience is desirable.
• Experience designing and leading Expert Group Meetings or similar technical level convenings;
• Demonstrated knowledge in the field of women’s political participation and leadership;
• Knowledge on how to synthesize information and to write clear, concise and reports;
• Broad and in-depth knowledge in social development issues particularly those pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities around transforming social norms;
• Experience in moderation and workshop facilitation with diverse participants;
• Excellent oral skills and written communication skills. 

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in in social science or related discipline.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• Experience drafting knowledge products, advocacy pieces etc
• A minimum of 10 years professional experience in gender equality and social norms, experience with women’s political participation is an advantage.   
• Proven experience in facilitating workshops and meetings
• Experience working in an international organization, or similar complex organization, is an asset;
• Experience in knowledge exchange, collaboration, and co-creation activities is highly desirable;

Language Requirements: 

• Fluency in English (oral and written) is required.
• Fluency in Spanish (oral and written) is desirable.
• Fluency in French (oral and written) is desirable.