International Consultant to support the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard
UN Women
Consultancy Internationallly Recruited 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.
At the 59th Session of the UN General Assembly, Member States, in adopting the Triennial Comprehensive Policy Review (TCPR) of Operational Activities for Development of the UN System called on all UN organizations to: “mainstream gender and to pursue gender equality in their country programmes, planning instruments and sector-wide programmes and to articulate specific country-level goals and targets in this field in accordance with the national development strategies”.
Further, ECOSOC Resolution 2004/4 - Review of Economic and Social Council agreed conclusions 1997/2 on mainstreaming the gender perspective into all policies and programmes in the United Nations system requested: “the Secretary-General to ensure that all United Nations entities develop action plans with timelines for implementing the agreed conclusions 1997/2, which address the gap between policy and practice identified in the Secretary-General’s report, with a view to strengthening commitment and accountability at the highest levels within the United Nations system as well as to establishing mechanisms to ensure accountability, systematic monitoring and reporting on progress in implementation”.
As a direct follow-up to the QCPR, and to ensure a comprehensive response to many of its recommendations, the UN Development Group (UNDG, now UNSDG) created a Task Team on Gender Equality as a sub-group of the UNDG Programme Group. The goals of the Task Team are: to support more consistent and coherent action among UNDG member agencies to mainstream gender equality and promote women’s empowerment at the country level; and to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment are mainstreamed into the tools and processes that emerge from the UNDG for UN Country Teams (UNCTs).
In 2006, the UNDG Task Team on Gender Equality commissioned a background paper on accountability mechanisms in UNDG agencies. This paper reviewed accountability for programming in support of gender equality in ILO, UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF, and WFP and found that: “A common understanding of how to apply gender mainstreaming in UN operational activities is needed. This is because if there is no agreement on what constitutes a minimum level of actions to support gender equality, how will it be possible to hold agencies and UN Country Teams accountable for this. Reaching agreement across agencies on what constitutes a minimally acceptable performance to support gender equality, through an agreed set of indicators, would contribute to stronger guidance and accountability”.
Subsequently, a background paper was endorsed at the UNDG Principals’ meeting in July 2006, where agreement was reached on development of a UNCT-level “Accounting for Gender Equality” Scorecard that sets minimum requirements for UNCTs to assess their performance across the system. The Gender Scorecard was endorsed by the UNDG in 2008 in response to the UN Chief Executive Board for Coordination Policy on gender equality and the empowerment of women (CEB/2006/2) to establish an accountability framework for assessing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming by UN Country Teams.
The 2016 QCPR called for the United Nations development system to expand and strengthen the use of the Gender Scorecard as a planning and reporting tool for assessing the effectiveness of gender mainstreaming in the context of the UNDAF (OP 83; now Cooperation Framework). Building on this call, an updated version of the framework, the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard, was launched in 2018, resulting from almost two years of work by the UNSDG Task Team on Gender Equality under the Results Group on Voice, Values and Norms, to align the Action Plan with the SDGs and to it with its entity level equivalent, the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan, drawing on good global practices with motivating, managing and measuring institutional change processes. Furthermore, the 2019 UNSDG United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework Guidance calls for UN entities to “put gender equality at the heart of programming, driving the active and meaningful participation of both women and men, and consistently empowering women and girls, in line with the minimum requirements agreed upon by the United Nations Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG) in the UNCT System-wide Action Plan (SWAP) Gender Equality Scorecard” (para 20).
In order to support the implementation of the gender-responsive UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework for Georgia (UNSDCF) for the years 2026-2030 and ensure better accountability of UNCT towards gender equality and women’s empowerment in line with UN corporative policy in this area, the UN Country Team will use the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard (UNCT-SWAP) to assess status and identify gaps and corrective actions. The UN Gender Thematic Group under the leadership of UN Women and the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office will lead this process to complete the UNCT-SWAP in a participatory and timely manner.
The main objective of this consultancy is to facilitate the UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard and assess the effectiveness of the UN Country Team in gender mainstreaming, promotion of gender equality, and women's empowerment. The consultant will also provide a set of actions for improvements and identify relevant reporting milestones for the annual performance review and assessment reporting of the UNCT. Within delegated authority, the consultant will be responsible for the following duties:
The UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard methodology has been designed for in-country self-assessment as a means of fostering deeper understanding and ownership of results. The international Consultant will facilitate the exercise and apply participatory methods to ensure the Inter-Agency Assessment Team (IAT) is formed from the beginning of the exercise and leads and owns the process.
To guide and support the Inter-Agency Assessment Team, the consultant will conduct the following activities within a stipulated timeframe of 20 working days:
Background document review:
Assistance and support for the IAT with the in-country assessment:
Draft and finalize UNCT SWAP comprehensive report and Action Plan
Review and complete the final draft of the UNCT-SWAP narrative report and Action Plan based on feedback, including from the UN Resident Coordinator and UNCT Heads of Agencies.
| Deliverables | Expected completion time (due day) | Payment Schedule (optional) |
| Background documents reviewed | By 6 March (5 working days) | |
| Assistance and support rendered to the IAT with the in-country assessment | By 20 March (8 working days) | By 10 April 2026 |
| UNCT SWAP comprehensive report and Action Plan drafted and presented to UNCT | By 31 March (5 working days | |
| UNCT-SWAP comprehensive report and Action Plan finalized based on the UNCT feedback | By 10 April (2 working days) |
This assignment will be entirely home-based and rely on desk research and on-line interaction with IAT, UN Women Office in Georgia, UN RCO Georgia and UNCT, any change will be communicated and agreed upon in advance.
The Consultant will report to UN Women Country Representative and the Head of UN RC Office, and work in close coordination with the UNCT. Periodic check-ins will be scheduled to validate progress and provide technical inputs.
All deliverables are to be submitted electronically.
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:
Fluency in English (written and oral) is required.
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.
