UN Women: National Consultant for Women's Poverty Desk Review, Home-based, Turkiye

Background:

UN Women exists to advance women’s rights, gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. As the lead UN entity on gender equality and secretariat of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, UN Women shift laws, institutions, social behaviours and services to close the gender gap and build an equal world. UN Women’s partnerships with governments, women’s movements and the private sector coupled with its coordination of the broader United Nations translate progress into lasting changes.

In Türkiye, in line with its global Strategic Plan 2022-2025 and Country Strategic Note (2022-2025), and the overall UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Turkey (UNSDCF) (2021-2025), UN Women works towards the overarching goal of “Women and girls including those at greatest risk of being left behind fully exercise their human rights, enjoy a life free from violence and discrimination, and lead, influence and benefit from sustainable and inclusive socioeconomic development towards the advancement of gender equality in Türkiye”. UN Women works in four thematic areas: (i) governance and participation in public life; (ii) women’s economic empowerment; (iii) ending violence against women and girls; and (iv) women, peace and security, humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction. In line with its coordination mandate, UN Women promotes coordination and coherence across the UN system to enhance accountability and results for gender equality and women’s empowerment, including through joint programmatic and advocacy actions and initiatives, standardized tools and guidance and services to strengthen the relevant capacities of the UN system. 

Towards these goals, UN Women implements programmes and projects that aim to advance gender equality, improve women’s access to opportunities, rights, and services in political, social, and economic life, and combat gender stereotypes, discrimination, and violence, as required by international and national legal and policy commitments. UN Women collaborates with numerous partners – central and local level government authorities, civil society organizations, including women’s organizations and platforms, academia, private sector companies, and other UN agencies. It commits itself to the Leave No One Behind principle, by supporting targeted actions to remove the obstacles that marginalized and vulnerable groups of women face in accessing their rights and to promote them as agents of change. UN Women Türkiye has been at the forefront of support for Türkiye’s continuous commitment to implement international norms and standards on women’s rights, and the enhancement and implementation of relevant national legal and policy frameworks. The Country Office has been operational in Türkiye since 2012. 

Globally and in Türkiye, UN Women engages with and supports civil society organizations (CSOs), in particular women's organizations, as key advocacy and knowledge partners, as well as implementing partners in operational activities in advancing women's economic, political and social rights. UN Women's work with civil society encompasses facilitating and expanding spaces for CSOs to come together for coordinated actions and to engage in dialogue with duty-bearers and decision-makers at local, national, regional and international levels, and in the context of inter-governmental processes. UN Women is focused on convening multi-stakeholder partnerships and engaging a wide variety of stakeholders, including men and boys and young people, to bring forth transformative change towards gender equality, in line with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, Sustainable Development Goals and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

Under this framework, UN Women embarked on the second phase of “Strong Civic Space for Gender Equality Phase II” with the financial support of the European Union. The overall objective of the project to be implemented until September 2027 is to reduce gender inequalities by enhancing the ability of CSOs in Türkiye to be agents of transformative change towards gender equality and women's rights. The specific objective is \"Women's rights groups, women-led CSOs and other relevant rights-based CSOs more effectively influence the gender equality and women's empowerment agenda at the national and local levels.\" 

 Within the scope of the Project, UN Women will pursue the following output: “Women’s rights groups, women-led CSOs, other rights-based organizations, gender equality advocates and other relevant stakeholders including members of public institutions and local administrations have increased access to data, knowledge, research and learning opportunities to enhance their skills to implement and mobilize around effective evidence-based advocacy strategies”.  To this end, UN Women Türkiye CO will conduct field research to better understand the multidimensional aspects of poverty operating as hindrances in women’s and girls’ access to public services and enjoyment of their rights, their well-being as well as exacerbating existing gender inequalities.  Consequently, the research findings will serve to the development of policy recommendations and interventions to interrupt the poverty cycle for women and girls thus serving to their empowerment.  

As a foundational step prior to research design and primary data collection, a comprehensive desk review is required to guide the subsequent stages of the planned research and to ensure that the research addresses existing data gaps on multi-dimensional aspects of poverty hindering gender equality. With this objective, UN Women Türkiye CO seeks to hire a national consultant to conduct a comprehensive desk review on women’s poverty in Türkiye.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

The objective of this assignment is to undertake a comprehensive desk review of existing research on women’s poverty in Türkiye, with a specific focus on uncovering and analyzing the gender data gaps that persist in multidimensional poverty measurement and analysis.

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Deputy Country Director and the direct day-to-day supervision of the UN Women Programme Specialist, National Consultant on Women’s Poverty will implement a set of tasks, including:

Map the landscape of poverty research in Türkiye, cataloguing which dimensions of poverty (including but not limited to income, unpaid care, access to services and rights, economic violence, regional disparities including urban and rural areas and age etc.) have been measured disaggregated by gender and which have not.

Summary PPT (max 10 slides) of key findings

All deliverables shall be received and cleared by UN Women. All reports shall be presented in English, in electronic version. 

The mentioned number of working days has been estimated as being sufficient/feasible for the envisaged volume of work to be completed successfully and is proposed as a guideline for the duration of assignment. It cannot and shall not be used as criteria for completion of work/assignment. The provision of envisaged deliverables approved by the UN Women shall be the only criteria for consultant’s work being completed and eligible for payment/s. 

The National Consultant will be reporting to Programme Specialist and will work together with the programme teams at UN Women.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

The assignment is home-based, and no travel is foreseen for the assignment. If there will be any need to travel outside of consultant’s city of residence, UN Women Türkiye CO will organize the travel of the consultant and cover the expenses in line with the UN Women’s travel rules and policies.    

Mandatory Training Courses

The Consultants shall complete all mandatory and other required UN training courses and modules on time. The certificates shall be submitted to the supervisor.

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: 

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.