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.  

One of the programme priorities of UN Women for Ethiopia is enhancing women’s leadership and decision making at all levels and their political participation. In this area, UN Women at the global level works to build capacity of women leaders and political candidates, sensitize the public on gender equality and the rights of women to have equal share in leadership positions and encourage constitutional reforms to ensure that women enjoy their political rights in equal footing with men. 

UN Women Ethiopia’s ‘Increased Participation and Effective Representation of Women in Leadership in Ethiopia: The Road to Equitable Development’ program (2022-2026) aims at contributing to the overarching goal: ‘Women fully and equally participate in leadership and decision-making and women and girls benefit from gender-responsive governance’ by addressing multifaceted barriers that hinder women including young women and women with disabilities from equally and effectively participating in public and political life as leaders and decision makers. It also aims to contribute towards gender responsiveness of key democratic and governance institutions including parliament and regional councils, local governments, political parties, and electoral management bodies in Ethiopia. The programme is designed to advance UN Women Strategic Plan (2026-2029) Impact area one ‘Governance and participation in public life’, to support Ethiopia towards achievement of SDG Goal 5, Target 5.5; Goal 16, Target 16.7. The programme is in line with United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework UNSDCF (2025-2030) in Ethiopia, particularly with outcome 5; and UN Women Strategic Note (2026- 2030) and Government of Ethiopia’s 10-year Perspective Plan (2020/21-2029/30) that aspires to bring women at the centre of the country’s development. 

Since 2017, UN Women has been working closely with local partners to advance women’s effective participation and equal representation in leadership and decision-making roles by implementing multipronged strategies. Among these strategies, establishing sustainable capacity‑building support for women leaders particularly in transformative leadership and political empowerment has been a key priority.

In line with this vision, UN Women collaborated with the Amhara Bureau of Women, Children, and Social Affairs and Bahir Dar University to establish a Transformative Leadership for Gender Equality (TLGE) Training Center at Bahir Dar University. This initiative followed the institutionalization of a TLGE curriculum in 2020 and the development of corresponding training materials. Since then, UN Women has been using and progressively refining this curriculum to empower women leaders across Ethiopia. The Presidential Leadership Program for Women Leaders, one of UN Women’s flagship initiatives, integrates the TLGE content alongside modules on women, peace, and security.

Given the upcoming national elections, UN Women has also partnered with the National Election Board of Ethiopia (NEBE) and other electoral actors to promote the meaningful participation of women as voters, candidates, and electoral stakeholders. These efforts include ensuring a violence‑free electoral environment through coordinated action with institutions working to prevent and address Violence Against Women in Elections (VAWE). UN Women will also further its coordination with electoral actors to enhance women’s participation in elections and address the growing threat of VAWiE through structured, standardized prevention and response mechanisms. 

As part of its Strategic Note (2026–2030) and Annual Workplan (2026–2027), UN Women will continue strengthening women’s leadership and participation in decision making through comprehensive capacity‑building programs that support their equal and effective participation in politics and elections. This ongoing support aims to ensure that women and girls benefit from governance systems that are gender‑responsive, contributing to inclusive democratic governance and sustainable development in Ethiopia. 

The training programs are expected to result in: 

• Enhanced knowledge and skills among diverse groups of women leaders including young women, women with disabilities, candidates, and aspirants enabling their meaningful participation in public and political life, including national and regional elections, and strengthening their influence on inclusive, effective, and gender-responsive decision-making.
• Increased confidence and satisfaction among women leaders and aspirants in applying newly acquired skills, supporting their effective political engagement, electoral participation, and continued progression along the leadership pipeline.
• Improved understanding among key stakeholders including political party leaders and members, associations and coalitions, election management bodies, media houses, CSOs, and election observation and monitoring groups, of electoral legal frameworks, violence against women in elections (VAWiE), gender-responsive media practices, gender-sensitive party structures, and gender-responsive election observation and monitoring across the electoral cycle.

In line with the above expectations, UN Women is currently seeking to recruit resource persons under retainer contracts to facilitate multiple rounds of training across several capacity building programs. These trainings will utilize UN Women’s official modules and packages on Transformative Leadership for Gender Equality (TLGE), the Presidential Leadership Program (PLP); Women’s Political Empowerment and political leadership and campaigning; Violence against Women in Politics/Elections (VAWiP/E) (based on UN Women global module); gender sensitive election reporting; gender responsive election observation and monitoring as well as various electoral normative frameworks including those related to VAWiE. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE CONSULTANCY

The objective of this consultancy is to enhance the leadership, political participation, and electoral engagement capacities of women leaders and aspiring candidates by delivering high quality training across multiple capacity‑building programs using UN Women’s modules and tools. It also has an objective of enhancing the capacity of electoral actors in the various areas related to gender responsive electoral processes. Through this assignment, the consultants will facilitate a range of capacity building interventions for various actors and stakeholders. The consultancy aims to ensure consistent, impactful, and context appropriate delivery of these training sessions to support women’s effective and meaningful participation in political and electoral processes.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES/ Scope of the Work 

Under the direct supervision of the LEAD Program Specialist, the consultants are expected to undertake the following tasks:

• Develop training packages suitable both for online and offline trainings, in line with UN Women’s already available training modules and facilitators guide; 
• Facilitate training sessions across multiple capacity‑building programs, including:
• Presidential leadership program. 
• Transformative Leadership for Gender Equality (TLGE).
• Women’s Political Empowerment, Leadership, and Campaigning, including candidate and aspirant preparation, using UN Women’s training modules and toolkits.
• Electoral Legal and Normative Frameworks, including gender‑responsive electoral administration, election observation, and monitoring across the electoral cycle.
• Gender‑Responsive Media Reporting and Communication, including ethical coverage of women in politics and elections.
• Prevention of and Response to Violence Against Women in Politics and Elections (VAWiP/E), using UN Women’s global VAWiE modules and other recommended training packages.
• Gender‑Sensitive and Gender‑Responsive Election Observation and Monitoring, including documentation, reporting, and accountability mechanisms, using UN Women training modules and tools, and 
• Training on other cross cutting areas such as Women, Peace and security (WPS)
• Conduct pre and post‑training assessments using standardized tools to measure changes in participants’ knowledge, skills, and capacities.
• Collect daily feedback from participants and adapt training approaches and methodologies as needed to ensure effective learning outcomes.
• Prepare a comprehensive training report summarizing the training content, pre‑ and post‑assessment results, participant engagement, challenges encountered, lessons learned, and recommendations for strengthening future UN Women capacity‑building programs.
• Consolidate and harmonize all individual session and training reports into one comprehensive final document for submission to UN Women.
• Review, adapt, and develop standardized training content for online delivery, ensuring consistency across modules and enhancing accessibility through inclusive design, clear learning outcomes, and user‑friendly digital formats.

DELIVERABLES

• Develop and enhance comprehensive training packages for both online and offline delivery across all LEAD program capacity-building components, ensuring alignment with UN Women’s existing training modules and facilitator guides.
• Deliver high-quality training sessions across the various LEAD program capacity-building programs using UN Women’s designated training packages. This includes preparing agendas, PowerPoint presentations, practical exercises, and administering pre- and post-training assessments, as well as conducting daily and overall training evaluations.
• Prepare a concise training summary report that highlights key issues discussed, major action points, session highlights, participant stories or reflections, and the results of the pre‑ and post‑training assessments
•  Consolidate and harmonize all individual session and training reports into a single, comprehensive final document for submission to UN Women.
•  Review, adapt, and develop standardized training content suitable for online delivery, ensuring consistency across modules and improving accessibility through inclusive design, clear learning outcomes, and user-friendly digital formats
•  Provide expert advice to UN Women on effective follow-up strategies to monitor how the training contributes to participants’ leadership development and supports broader behavioral or institutional change.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This consultancy is home‑based; however, travel to designated training locations is required as part of the assignment.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

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 Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to work with minimal supervision.
• Evidence of having undertaken similar assignments
• Experience in editing reports, developing policy briefs, and preparing documents for publication. 
• High level written and oral communications skills in English
• Result-oriented, team player, exhibiting high levels of enthusiasm for gender equality, diplomacy, and integrity.
• Demonstrate excellent interpersonal and professional skills 
• Ability to work effectively and harmoniously with people from varied cultures and professional backgrounds.
• Ability to produce well-written and edited documents

Education and Certification:

• Minimum of master level degree in social sciences, particularly on governance, law, management, political science, leadership, peace and security, or another relevant field.
• 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:

• A minimum of five years’ experience in developing training materials and facilitating capacity building programs on gender equality, TLGE, WPE, VAWE, electoral legal frameworks and media guidelines and cross-cutting themes such as WPS.
• Strong knowledge of women’s human rights, electoral processes and legal frameworks, women’s political participation, VAWE, transformative leadership, gender‑sensitive media reporting, and peace and security issues, including the WPS agenda.
• Personal commitment, ability to work independently, and capacity to work effectively and harmoniously with individuals from varied cultures and professional backgrounds. 
• Proven experience with developing and applying adult learning methodologies and providing training for Government institutions and community-based organizations.
• Past experience with collaborative training, development of training and facilitation of workshops with diverse stakeholders. 
• Previous experience working with UN agencies, particularly UN Women, is considered an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in Amharic and English is required. 
• Working knowledge of other UN languages is an asset.

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.