Background:

UNFPA Türkiye Country Office is implementing the Women Friendly Cities (WFC) Programme – Phase III (2025–2027) to strengthen gender-responsive local governance, increase women’s participation, and promote inclusive policies at the municipal level, with a focus on health and well-being.

A core instrument of the WFC Programme is the development and implementation of Local Equality Action Plans (LEAPs), which provide municipalities with a structured, participatory, and evidence-based roadmap for advancing gender equality across local policies and services.

Health and well-being, including reproductive health, is a core thematic area of LEAPs, given its critical role in reducing gender-based health inequalities, ensuring equitable access to health and psychosocial support services, strengthening women’s bodily autonomy and well-being, and addressing intersecting vulnerabilities at the local level.

In this context, UNFPA seeks to recruit a Short-Term Thematic Expert on Health and Well-being (including SRH) to provide specialized technical support to municipalities and civil society organizations (CSOs) enabling them to develop effective health-related components of LEAPs.

Job Purpose:

The purpose of this consultancy is to focus on local-level health and well-being priorities, including access to services, quality of care, reproductive health (RH), mental health and psychosocial support, prevention and referral mechanisms, and cross-sector coordination. The assignment will support municipalities to develop context-specific, feasible, and measurable health-related actions aligned with the WFC framework and UNFPA’s mandate.

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, supports efforts to end preventable maternal deaths; end gender-based violence and harmful practices; and adapt to demographic change through evidence and rights-based policies. 

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody international norms and standards and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates who transform, inspire, and deliver high-impact and sustained results and ensure effective external relations, communications, and partnership-building and resource mobilization in a rapidly changing development and funding landscape. We need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them, and who commit to delivering excellence in programme results.

The Position:

The retainer contract will start on 16 March 2026 and remain into force until 15 February 2027. The consultant will be engaged on an ‘as needed’ basis for a total number of work days not to exceed 60 working days during the duration of the contract, where 1 work day would be approximated to 8 hours of work.

The consultancy will be home-based; occasional in-person meetings or sessions on-site when required by UNFPA. In the scope of this consultancy, Individual Consultant (IC) may travel to WFC programme cities and Ankara in order to conduct and facilitate meetings, trainings and any other duties relating to the WFC Programme. The travel expenses of the consultant will be covered by the UNFPA in accordance with UNFPA Travel Policy.

The consultant will provide activity reports (electronic), including the details of working days and tasks. Payment will be made in installments using the daily fee rate and will be based on the actual number of work days completed for each specific assignment. Each payment is subject to timely submission and acceptance by UNFPA Turkiye CO of the respective deliverables.

The consultant will report to UNFPA Programme Analyst, WFC.

You would be responsible for:

Within the WFC framework, the consultant will provide technical input on gender equality in health, including access, quality, psychosocial support, prevention, and referral mechanisms at the local level.

The consultant will support municipalities and CSOs in addressing health-related gender equality issues within LEAPs, including but not limited to:

• Gender-based inequalities in access to health and well-being services
• Reproductive Health and Rights including access to information, counselling, and referral mechanisms, adolescent-friendly health services
• Mental health and psychosocial well-being, including stress, trauma, and community-based support
• The climate change -health and positioning and combat of the municipalities
• Access to health and well-being services for migrants, refugees, disadvantaged, and vulnerable groups
• Gender-sensitive prevention of and response to GBV-related health impacts, including health consequences of GBV and access to specialized services, where relevant at the local level
• Coordination between municipalities, health institutions, social services, and CSOs

A. Main Duties and Deliverables

SECTION 1

1. Technical & Quality Assurance (Health, Well-being & RH)

Duties

• Provide technical expertise to municipalities and CSOs to integrate gender-responsive health, well-being and RH components, including puberty MHM and menopause into Local Equality Action Plans (LEAPs)
• Review the WFC LEAP framework and draft/sample LEAPs from a health, well-being and SRH perspective
• Ensure that proposed LEAP health and RH actions are realistic, measurable, and aligned with municipal planning, coordination and budgeting processes
• Provide technical quality assurance for health-related LEAP sections, tools and guidance developed under the WFC Programme
• Work closely with municipalities to review pilot SRH service models, assess their institutional integration and sustainability, and support the documentation of pilot experiences, lessons learned and good practices
• Facilitate experience-sharing, peer learning and inter-municipal cooperation related to SRH service provision, feeding practical insights into LEAP development

Key Deliverables

• Written technical inputs to health and well-being sections of LEAPs and related roadmaps
• Proposed health and RH-related indicators and activity packages for LEAPs
• Written technical review and feedback notes on draft LEAPs
• Documentation of pilot SRH service experiences and good practices
• Technical inputs to a consolidated, practical guideline on integrating SRH services into LEAPs
• Brief workshop summaries and experience-sharing outputs contributing to knowledge development under the WFC Programme

2. Mentorship & Applied Technical Support

Duties

• Provide hands-on mentorship to municipalities and CSOs during the drafting and refinement of health and well-being-related LEAP components
• Deliver targeted thematic sessions or applied workshops where advanced technical support is required, particularly on SRH and psychosocial well-being for services in the LEAPs
• Provide written technical guidance and recommendations following mentorship engagements

Key Deliverables

• Mentorship plans and session outlines
• Advanced training and workshop materials
• Written feedback reports following each mentorship session

SECTION 2 

3. Training Programmes Duties

• Design and deliver health and well-being-focused training content, including RH components, in line with UNFPA and WFC methodologies
• Adapt training approaches and materials to different stakeholder groups (municipalities, CSOs, UMT)
• Design/adapt UNFPA SOPs for municipal health services
• Facilitate interactive learning through case studies, applied exercises and group work
• Conduct pre- and post-training assessments and consolidate participant feedback

Key Deliverables

• Training plans, agendas and trainer notes for health and SRH modules
• Audience-specific training modules on health and SRH
• Pre- and post-training assessment tools and consolidated feedback summaries
• Health SOP for municipalities

4. Advocacy & Policy Integration

Duties

• Advocate for the integration of SRH services within the Women-Friendly Cities framework and their formal embedding into municipal Local Equality Action Plans
• Support municipalities in engaging relevant decision-making, coordination and policy mechanisms to ensure institutional ownership and sustainability
• Promote the adaptation and scale-up of successful pilot SRH service models in other local contexts

Key Deliverables

• Technical advocacy inputs supporting SRH integration into LEAPs
• Policy-oriented recommendations for municipal planning and coordination structures

B. Performing Other Duties

• Undertaking any additional responsibilities as required under the WFC Programme, related to project activities or deliverables listed in the ToR, to ensure the timely achievement of objectives in alignment with approved Work Plans and UNFPA’s programme standards

Qualifications and Experience: 

Education:  

• Minimum 2 years of proven professional experience in gender-responsive health programming, reproductive health (RH) including puberty MHM and menopause, public health, or gender-responsive public service planning, with a master’s degree in Public Health, Medicine, Gender Studies, Social Sciences, Public Administration, Development Studies, or a related field; or a minimum of 4 years of such experience with a bachelor’s degree in Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, Social Sciences, Gender Studies, Public Administration, Development Studies, or a related field.

Knowledge and Experience: 

• Demonstrated experience in developing training materials, guidance notes, and practical toolkits for capacity-building purposes.
• Strong facilitation and mentoring skills, with experience delivering trainings and supporting applied learning processes.
• Proven ability to translate technical and policy-level health and SRH concepts into user-friendly, practical tools suitable for local-level implementation.
• Experience working with municipalities and/or civil society organizations (CSOs), particularly in the context of health, SRH, or social service delivery, is an asset.
• In-depth knowledge and practical experience in gender mainstreaming, SRH, GBV prevention and response, and advancing women’s and girls’ health and well-being at the local level is an asset.
• Experience in health-related programme design, communication, and advocacy material development is an asset.
• Strong interpersonal skills, with demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with municipal staff, CSOs, health institutions, and diverse local stakeholders is an asset.
• Familiarity with UNFPA, UN system operations, and/or EU-funded health and gender equality projects is an asset.

Languages: 

• Excellent command of written and spoken Turkish and English.

Required Competencies: 

Values:

• Exemplifying integrity,
• Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system,
• Embracing cultural diversity,
• Embracing change

Core Competencies: 

• Values 
• Achieving Results 
• Being Accountable 
• Developing & Applying Professional Expertise 
• Thinking Analytically & Strategically 
• Working in Teams/Managing our-selves and relationships 
• Communicating for Impact 

Functional Competencies:

• Delivering result-based programs 
• Providing conceptual innovation to enhance/strengthen programme effectiveness
• Generating, managing and promoting the use of knowledge and information

UNFPA Work Environment:

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA's workforce - click here to learn more.

Disclaimer:

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts.