UN Women, Community of Practice, National Consultant, Home Based

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 Nepal, deeply rooted gender-discriminatory social norms hinder the realisation of women’s rights. This manifests in high rates of gender-based violence, limited mobility, and unequal access to decision-making spaces. Feminist movements have played a crucial role in confronting these issues by challenging patriarchal systems and building community consciousness for change. Yet globally, feminist organizations receive a mere 0.13 per cent of total official development assistance. 

Hamro Sahas (Our Courage), co-created by UN Women Nepal and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), seeks to address these needs. It is a transformative programme supporting feminist movement-building for social norm change. This three-and-a-half-year programme (2025-2028), focusing on Karnali, Madhesh and Lumbini Provinces, takes a three-pronged strategy i) capacity strengthening and increasing availability of resources for WROs/feminist organizations to promote and implement strategies for advocacy and leadership on social norm change through a competitive funding mechanism; ii) strengthening networks of WROs/feminist organizations through communities of practice, collaboration and knowledge exchange; and iii) increasing capacity of local governments to meaningfully engage with WROs/feminist organizations. 

The programme funds nine consortia of (26) diverse WROs and feminist organizations in Karnali, Madhesh, and Lumbini Provinces. These were selected through a competitive call for proposals, based on strength of programme design and their representation of groups with intersecting marginalised identities. The Hamro Sahas Community of Practice, established under Output 1.2 aims to to serve the learning needs of the 26 grantee partners by further strengthening their capacities to advance gender transformative change through peer exchange, capacity building, and solidarity building on three broad themes: 1) addressing discriminatory norms and practices – lessons, best practices, and future efforts; 2) women’s leadership, political participation and the normative agenda; and 3) a resilient and strong movement – skills, care, and solidarity.

The consultant will co-design and co-facilitate the Hamro Sahas Community of Practice together with the International GESI Coordination Consultant and report to the Programme Specialist, Gender Inclusive Governance. 

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work

Creating repository of resources, knowledge products etc. Supporting development of knowledge products in relation to the CoP. 

 Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel:

This is a home-based consultancy with travel to Hamro Sahas programme provinces (Madhesh, Karnali, Lumbini) as agreed with the Programme Manager, with anticipated travel to all three provinces in 2025.

Competencies :

Core Values:

Core Competencies:

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

Functional Competencies:

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in gender studies, social sciences, political science, economics, communications, journalism or a related field is required.

• 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:

Languages:

Fluency in English and Nepali is required.

Evaluation Criteria:

The maximum score that the candidate can achieve for this consultancy is 100. Hence out of 100, candidates should score more than 70 to qualified for this position.  

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.