Two (2) International Consultants on Women’s Political Empowerment and Leadership Capacity Development

Position description

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.

UN Women is the UN’s leading entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, it was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide. UN Women is uniquely positioned to work on women’s leadership and political participation. The promotion of women’s political empowerment and leadership is widely regarded as a strength for UN Women. Since its inception, through technical support and expertise, the entity has promoted inclusive political processes and institutions in over 100 countries, directly contributing to electoral and legal reforms, and institutional processes to advance women’s political participation and representation, and strong and established partnerships with national, regional and international organizations that can be leveraged to achieve greater results through synergies and cooperation.

In Ukraine, UN Women is committed to delivering results across strategic priorities, exercising its 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. UN Women has long been actively supporting local priority areas in Ukraine from increased political participation to gender mainstreaming in public policy, and economic development.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine which started in February 2022 and expanded upon the war begun in 2014, has exacerbated a wide variety of existing inequities, which women and girls experience in Ukraine. The war’s disproportionate impact on women and girls’ access to human rights, livelihoods, and services, limits their ability to meaningfully participate in decision making. While women’s leadership and decision-making has increased at household and partially at the community levels, this has not been reflected in formal political and decision-making processes. Only 21% of seats in parliament[1] are currently held by women, while 4 of 22 cabinet ministers are women. As a result of the 2020 local elections women won 28% of the seats in the regional councils, 34% in the local councils, 33% in the city councils, and 41% in the village councils[2]. No woman was elected as mayor of a major city[3]. At the same time, today an estimated 10,000 women[4]serve on the frontline and 67,000 women serve in the Armed Forces; 19,000 of them as employees and 48,000 as servicewomen[5]. Women volunteers at the local level, who are often deeply engaged in humanitarian relief for their communities, have been recognized as holding high levels of public trust[6].

The Government of Ukraine has continued to prioritize gender equality and women’s empowerment as part of its EU accession requirements, as well as its international commitments. The first-ever comprehensive State Strategy on Equal Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men by 2030, and its operational action plan, were adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers in August 2022. The Strategy envisions “the balanced representation of women and men in decision making in executive authorities, local self-government bodies, companies and organizations, including through the implementation of positive actions (gender quotas, coaching and mentoring programmes)”, “consultations with citizens’ associations that represent different groups of women and men”, as well as “regular sensitization and training activities on methods and forms of participation in policy making, implementation and evaluation at the national, regional and local levels for different groups of women” . 

As part of its new Strategy for 2025-2029 in Ukraine, UN Women plans to support gender responsive governance and women’s leadership to meaningfully engage in decision-making and participation in political life. In July 2024, UN Women Ukraine hosted an expert mission to conduct a comprehensive mapping exercise of stakeholders in government and non-governmental organizations, and among international development partners, who support women’s participation in political life. To expand this initiative, UN Women Ukraine is organizing a training for trainers (TOT) program on political leadership and candidate training during 25-29 November 2024 in Kyiv or in Kyiv region, Ukraine. The TOT agenda will closely follow a comprehensive training curriculum developed by UN Women to support broader programs on women’s political empowerment and leadership, specifically by helping expand the pool of qualified women willing to run a campaign, win and serve in elective office.

Around 30 trainers on gender equality, elections and women’s political participation will be selected through a competitive process to learn UN Women’s curriculum, deliver some of its components and receive a certificate upon completion. In this context, UN Women will contract two (2) International Consultants to facilitate and act as lead trainers at the TOT. Working under the overall guidance of the UN Women Representative in Ukraine and the Regional Policy Specialist on Political Participation and Governance, and under direct supervision of the Program Specialist, the Consultants will learn UN Women’s curriculum, work with the training team to adapt its methodology for a TOT agenda, help prepare the necessary content, facilitate the TOT and help build capacity of trainers to deliver the UN Women’s curriculum.

[1] Official data from the Human Resources Department of the Verhovna Rada of Ukrainehttp://surl.li/qravai

[2] Official data from the Central Election Commission of Ukraine as of December 2020: https://www.cvk.gov.ua/actualna-informaciya/187243.html&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1721285940100163&usg=AOvVaw3GofeLna_Kfl0rG18EQHPy 

[3]  In April 2023, the mayor of the city of Poltava was dismissed from his position. Currently, the acting mayor of the city of Poltava is a woman, Kateryna Yamshchykova, who previously served as the Secretary of the Poltava city council.

[4]  As announced by Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Olha Stefanishyna on 11  July, 2024 during the NATO Public Forum in Washington D.C. – “today, 10 000 Ukrainian women serve on the frontline” http://surl.li/qravai

[5] As announced in June 2024  by the Deputy Minister of Defence of Ukraine, Natalia Kalmykova, – “currently, 67 000 women serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine; 19 000 0f them are employees, and others as servicewomen.” https://www.rbc.ua/rus/news/skilki-zhinok-narazi-sluzhat-zsu-vidpovid-1717936412.html

[6] In 2023, 61% of Ukrainian society has fully trusted CSOs and 88% of Ukrainian society fully trusted the volunteers according to the poll “Civil society of Ukraine in conditions of war”, initiated by ISAR Ednannia and carried out by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. http://surl.li/zaputf

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

The Consultants will be responsive for the following tasks:

Task 1. Support preparation and implementation of UN Women’s TOT on women’s political leadership 

• Read and learn UN Women’s curriculum.
• Provide inputs to the TOT agenda that corresponds to the TOT objectives, and suggest relevant adaptations, based on the UN Women’s political leadership and training curriculum and methodology and given the contextual considerations of working in Ukraine.
• Using agreed methodology and in close collaboration with UN Women, review all training materials and provide feedback.
• Conduct an online session (2-3 hours long) on core training facilitation tools and other techniques, based on participants’ requests.

Task 2. Act as lead trainers

• Lead and facilitate a 5-day TOT, support facilitation of assigned portions of the TOTs and provide technical guidance as needed.
• Provide guidance to participants and help evaluate their performance.

Task 3. Prepare TOT report and capture lessons learned

• After TOT, draft and submit a brief memo reporting on the TOT, as well as on challenges encountered during the TOT, lessons learned and recommendations to support UN Women’s knowledge management.

Task 4. Prepare inputs and present

Prepare virtual inputs for a post-training refresher session and serve as a virtual presenter on the training modalities and challenges that may arise. To facilitate delivery of the above tasks, UN Women will provide the Consultants the following: 

• UN Women’s political leadership and training curriculum and methodology
• Sample presentations prepared in line with the curriculum and methodology
• Other documents and contacts as necessary

Deliverables

DeliverableExpected completion time (due day) Payment Schedule (optional)

Deliverable 1.

Conclusions of the introductory consultative meeting with UN Women CO Ukraine and UN Women RO ECA on the approach to TOT delivery, to include adapted TOT agendas, and all tailored training materials submitted and approved by UN Women (3 working days)

 

By 6 November 2024

 

November 2024

Deliverable 2.

Deliver online session on core training facilitation tools and techniques (2-3 hours long) conducted for TOT participants upon request (1 working day)

By 22 November 2024December 2024

Deliverable 3.

If not agreed differently with the UNDSS and Security Officer, offline Secure Approaches in the Field Environment (SSAFE) and Individual First Aid Kit (IFAK) training completed upon request (4 working days)

By 29 November 2024

December 2024

 

Deliverable 4.

5-day in-person TOT on UN Women’s political leadership and candidate training curriculum implemented (5 working days)

By 29 November 2024

December 2024

 

Deliverable 5.

TOT report, including lessons learned ad recommendations, prepared by the Consultant and approved by UN Women (1 working day)

By 7 December 2024

December 2024

 

Deliverable 6.

Participate virtually in delivering online refresher session on the training modalities, and to discuss a set of challenges and opportunities that may arise from the trainings. (2 days)

By 1 March 2025March 2025

Application instructions

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