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.

UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards. It stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: increasing women’s leadership and participation; ending violence against women and girls; engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality. 

In East and Southern Africa, UN Women covers 25 countries through twelve country offices, a programme presence, as well as support to the UN Country Team where we do not have an office.[1] The UN Women Liaison Office serves the African Union and UN Economic Commission for Africa, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In accordance with the UN Women Strategic Note (2026-2029) and in support of global and regional commitments for advancing gender equality, UN Women works to advance social, economic, and political rights of women and girls, including the right to live free of all forms of violence and the right to meaningfully engage in all aspects of peace and security across the humanitarian, development and peace nexus. 

Ending violence against women and girls (EVAWG) remains a priority area for UN Women in East and Southern Africa, as the most widespread violation of human rights. Regional prevalence estimates of women and girls’ experiences of different forms of violence are often higher than global averages.[2]  For example 35% of women experience intimate partner violence (IPV) in their life time and 20%  in the past year, above global average ( 27%vs 13%).[3] Over 50 million girls in ESA were married before age of 18.[4] seventeen countries have IPV prevalence data, eight reported femicide data and six track technology-facilitated-VAWG.[5] Despite high IPV costs on GDP ( 0.9% in Ethiopia, 5.5% in Lesotho), funding gaps, weak legal implementation, shrinking civic space and perpetrator impunity hinder accountability. Despite these legal reforms, investment in prevention and survivor services is growing, offering opportunities or accelerated action.

The ESARO also focuses on women and girls in their diversity, with attention to  marginalized, excluded, and underrepresented groups, including, but not limited to rural women, women with disabilities, women living with or affected by HIV, women survivors of violence, women migrants, widows, elderly women among others.

UN Women East and Southern Africa is working to improve the impact of existing programming in the region, with particular attention to enhancing holistic investments and accountability for addressing VAWG. This will focus on strengthening capacities of regional actors on effective approaches for the prevention and response to violence against women and girls (VAWG), improving access to evidence and facilitating learning of what works and enhancing the role of social influencers and non-traditional gender equality advocates for transforming discriminatory social norms in favour of gender equality. This requires deepening collaborative partnerships and multi-level and multi-sectoral programming for EVAWG across Africa. 

As part of these efforts, UN Women is working to strengthen feminist movements to coordinate efforts to end VAWG through the Advocacy, Coalition Building and Transformative Feminist Action (ACT) to End Violence Against Women ACT Programme, with support from the European Union, and in collaboration with the UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women. ACT is designed to accelerate efforts to eliminate all forms of VAWG through transformative feminist action, movement strengthening, and coordinated advocacy. It builds on the foundation laid by the EU-UN Spotlight Initiative and responds directly to the rising urgency for systemic, cross-sectoral action to prevent and respond to VAWG.

UN Women ESARO seeks to hire an Advocacy and Coordination Support Consultant to enhance the ACT Progrmme implementation, with particular attention to regional convenings and advocacy. The consultant will work under the direct supervision of the ACT Regional Coordinator.

Purpose of the Assignment:

The purpose of this assignment is to provide support to the implementation and coordination of ongoing advocacy strategies under the ACT Programme. The role focuses on facilitating communication and collaboration among partner organizations, ensuring alignment of activities with the regional advocacy agenda, and supporting documentation, monitoring, and knowledge-sharing. The consultant will support enhanced efficiency, coherence, and impact of ongoing advocacy initiatives without duplicating existing strategic leadership provided by partner organizations.

Scope of Work:
The consultant will provide support in the following key areas:

• Coordination Support: Facilitate regular coordination meetings among ACT partners and linkages with broade EVAWG stakeholders, ensuring communication of updates, sharing of resources, and identification of opportunities for collaboration across regional initiatives.
• Technical Support: Assist partners in planning and executing advocacy activities, including preparing briefing notes, supporting events or workshops, and facilitating engagement with stakeholders and contribute to drafting outcome document of key results for high visibility.
• Monitoring and Documentation: Track progress of advocacy activities, document outcomes, and consolidate reports and case studies for internal learning and external communication.
• Knowledge products: support partners in development of knowledge products, develop country specific ACT framework including UN Women approach to women’s movement strengthening, Including ACT updates in UN Women monthly updates, COP and EVAWG regional meetings and partners in sharing lessons learned, good practices, and evidence-based approaches to enhance regional advocacy and influence policy implementation.
• Administrative Support: Assist in organizing ACT and broader EVAWG stakeholder consultations, webinars, and multi-partner engagements to strengthen visibility and impact of advocacy efforts.
• Capacity Support: Provide on-demand guidance to partners on coordination mechanisms, reporting, and information management to streamline implementation of advocacy strategies.

Key Deliverables:

• Monthly coordination briefs summarizing partner activities, progress, challenges, and emerging opportunities.
• Documentation of advocacy activities, including notes from meetings, events, and workshops.
• Develoment of ACT outcome result document- focus on high impact results 
• Documentation of country specific ACT framework- UN women approach  to women’s movement approach and feminist funding. 
• Consolidated progress reports highlighting results from activities supported and lessons learned for ACT Programme and EVAWG Unit management and partners.
• Support materials for EVAWG advocacy events, stakeholder meetings, or workshops, including agendas, presentations, and summaries.

Duration of Assignment:
The consultancy is expected to last 6 months.

Reporting:
The consultant will report to the ACT Programme Regional Coordinator and work closely with partner organizations. Weekly check-ins and progress updates will ensure alignment with ongoing advocacy activities.

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:

• Demonstrable knowledge of ending violence against women;
• Demonstrable experience working on advocacy for gender equality in Africa, preferably in East and Southern Africa

Required Qualifications

Education and Certification:

• Completion of secondary education required.
• Degree in Social Sciences, Gender Studies, International Relations, Development Studies, or related field is an asset.

Experience:

• Minimum of 3 years of experience supporting advocacy, coordination, or programmatic initiatives related to gender equality and women’s rights.
• Strong organizational, facilitation, and communication skills.
• Experience in multi-stakeholder coordination and engagement with civil society, governments, or regional bodies.
• Knowledge of VAWG issues, regional gender policy frameworks, intersectional and feminist approaches to advocacy
• Familiarity with UN Women’s work is an advantage.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required; 
• Working knowledge of another UN language is an advantage.

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.