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.

As of 2025, the DRC remains one of the largest humanitarian crises worldwide. Millions of people continue to require humanitarian assistance, with women, children, and displaced populations disproportionately affected.  The humanitarian and protection situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo has significantly deteriorated throughout 2024–2025, with an acute escalation since January 2025, following renewed offensives by the M23 armed group in North Kivu and the progressive expansion of conflict into South Kivu. The capture of strategic areas, including repeated instability around Goma throughout early 2025 and the occupation of Uvira in December 2025, has triggered new large-scale displacement, severe disruption of basic services, and an increase in protection risks for civilians. DRC continues to face one of the most complex humanitarian crises, with approximately 21.2 million people in need of humanitarian assistance[1] and more than 6.9 million internally displaced people nationwide. Eastern provinces such as North Kivu, South Kivu, Ituri and Tanganyika remain the epicentre of violence, displacement and humanitarian need. Women and girls are disproportionately affected by this crisis. Since the resurgence of conflict in 2022–2025, humanitarian actors have reported a consistent rise in conflict-related sexual violence, survival sex, early and forced marriage, exploitation, and exclusion of women from decision-making processes. The occupation of territories, the collapse of essential services, the closure of schools and health facilities, widespread insecurity, and shrinking humanitarian space have significantly weakened protection mechanisms for women and girls. Displaced women, adolescent girls and women-headed households face heightened exposure to violence, economic insecurity, and reduced access to life-saving services. Protection needs are particularly high, particularly due to the proliferation of armed groups (around 120-armed groups are said to be active across the country[2]) and the recent occupation of the territory of UVIRA by the M23. For civilians, this translates into numerous protection incidents including armed attacks, mutilations and injuries linked to the presence of mines and other explosive devices, fires and looting of houses, restrictions on movement and gender-based violence[3]. Sexual violence against displaced women and girls has increased considerably in the eastern provinces of the country. While this transformation aims to streamline coordination, it also increases the risk that gender considerations, protection priorities and accountability to affected populations are deprioritized in decision-making processes.

In this highly volatile and rapidly evolving context, the humanitarian community continues to call for increased international engagement and temporary humanitarian pauses to facilitate civilian evacuations and the delivery of life-saving assistance. Access to timely, reliable and sex-, age- and disability-disaggregated data, supported by robust information management systems, is more critical than ever to ensure that gender equality, protection risks and the differentiated needs of women and girls continue to be systematically reflected in humanitarian analysis, planning, coordination and advocacy and enable effective coordination, strengthen accountability to affected populations, and ensure humanitarian responses are targeted, inclusive and responsive to the differentiated needs of women, girls and other vulnerable groups. In this context, UN Women’s mandate as the custodian of Gender in Humanitarian Action and as a becomes even more strategic.

The consultant’s actions will aim to strengthen gender coordination mechanisms in order to support the achievement of the following output: of the Workplan: Gender coordination contributes to women and girls playing a more important role and benefiting from development efforts, recovery and humanitarian response in compliance with national and international norms and standards.

The consultant will be reporting to the Head of the Women Peace Security and Humanitarian Pillar, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues. 
 

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:

• Excellent information management, analytical and research skills.
• Strong understanding of and commitment to gender equality and women's empowerment and its policy implications.
• Excellent writing skills.
• Excellent organizational skills.
• Excellent knowledge and experience of gender-related humanitarian issues in the country. 
• Strong knowledge and use of computer office tools and statistical software.
• Demonstrated ability to work in a team and in a cooperative and productive fashion both with internal and external colleagues.
• Excellent interpersonal and networking skills, and ability to work in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary environments. 

• Ability to work under pressure on multiple projects whilst maintaining high-quality and timeliness.

  Self-management

• Continuous awareness of political and gender sensitivity

Required Qualifications : 

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in gender, international relations, international development, or other social science fields is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advance.

Experience: 

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in managing gender data, analysis and reporting processes, with a particular focus on gender and protection in emergencies. 
• Technical experience in inter-agency coordination, preferably protection cluster coordination
• Experience in policy analysis and strategic planning. 
• Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field; 
• Experience working with the UN is an asset; and 
• Experience working in the region is an asset, particularly the ERP. 

Languages:

• Working proficiency in oral French is mandatory 
• Working knowledge of English 

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.