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 governments, civil society, and regional organizations in translating global norms into coherent regional and national action. Guided by the Strategic Plan for 2026–2029 and Regional Strategic Note for Europe and Central Asia (ECA), UN Women prioritizes strengthening gender-responsive governance and ensuring that women can meaningfully participate in political and public life. More specifically, UN Women’s policy and programme work aims to ensure that all women are able to fully and equally participate in decision-making, and that women and girls benefit from gender-responsive laws, policies, budgets, services, and accountable institutions. Under this portfolio, UN Women also supports Member States in advancing and operationalizing gender-responsive foreign policies. As part of these efforts, UN Women in ECA has produced guidance and resources such as the brief Streamlining the Global Path to Gender Equality: The Role of Feminist Foreign Policy (2023), alongside country-level support including the Analysis of Gender Equality in Foreign Policy in North Macedonia (2024), and has supported Member State led multistakeholder convenings  to offer insights on emerging trends and shared priorities in feminist approaches to foreign policy in the region.

Data from the WPS- Humanitarian Action snapshot [1]in ECA indicates that, while women’s representation in diplomacy has improved over the past two decades, it remains uneven and below parity across the region. Globally, women account for approximately one quarter of ambassadors, with only a few countries reaching or exceeding parity, and similar patterns are reflected across ECA. Although women’s participation in diplomatic and multilateral roles has expanded, contributing to more inclusive decision-making and broader stakeholder engagement, structural barriers, including gender norms, limited access to senior career tracks, and emerging risks such as online harassment, continue to constrain their advancement. As highlighted in the Snapshot, progress remains fragile and uneven, underscoring the need for sustained investment to move beyond numerical gains toward meaningful participation and leadership of women in foreign policy and diplomatic spheres across the region.

Over the last decade, Feminist Foreign Policies (FFP) have emerged with significant ambition to promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment through external action. Several Member States in the ECA region have introduced feminist lenses into their foreign policies, reflecting growing global recognition, reaffirmed at CSW69, that gender equality is central to effective and inclusive foreign policy, multilateralism, enforcement of international humanitarian and human rights laws and standards. Importantly, strengthening coherence between FFP and the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda is essential to ensure that commitments to women’s participation, protection, and leadership are consistently integrated across diplomatic, security, and peacebuilding efforts. As these approaches continue to evolve, they vary widely across regional and national contexts, highlighting the need for context-specific analysis to identify opportunities for stronger alignment and coordinated action.

Against this backdrop, UN Women ECARO will undertake a regional scoping study on gender-responsive foreign policies to better understand the current landscape in the region, identify opportunities and propose actionable recommendations for policy development and implementation. The scoping study is part of UN Women’s broader global efforts to examine the evolving landscape of gender-responsive and feminist foreign policy and contributes to a series of regional analyses worldwide.

The primary objective of the study is to assess the current state of gender equality in foreign policy frameworks in the ECA region, examining progress, trends, perspectives and opportunities over the first decade of FFPs (2014–2024), within the broader context of rising gender backlash and shrinking civic space. It will also provide strategic guidance on operationalizing FFP approaches, ensuring coherence with its strategic vision, expected results, and alignment with thematic priorities, including women’s leadership and WPS in a frame of the UN Women Strategic Note for ECA region. The study will cover up to three UN Women programme countries, as well as two other countries in the region that have recently adopted FFP approaches. 

The UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECARO) intends to recruit an international consultant to lead the design, data collection, analysis, and preparation of the scoping study, working closely with the Regional Office, HQ, and relevant stakeholders across the region.
 

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

Deliverables

Reporting to the WPS Policy Adviser at the UN Women ECARO, the consultant will be responsible for the following:

1. Conduct a comprehensive desk review on approaches to gender mainstreaming in  foreign policy. This includes mapping how GE is integrated across both UN Women programme and non-programme countries, documenting institutional mechanisms, including within Ministries of Foreign Affairs (MFAs) and others to promote women’s participation in diplomacy, and analyzing how gender considerations are reflected in key foreign policy domains such as peace and security, external migration, trade, and intercultural dialogue.
2. Building on existing global evidence and the outcomes of previous international feminist and gender-responsive foreign policy event/s discussions, to analyze key lessons learned from these dialogues, with particular attention to institutionalization, financing, and accountability as critical enablers for translating policy commitments into implementation. The review should also assess how foreign policy is being linked in practice with WPS, humanitarian action, and development cooperation in a coherent and measurable manner. The findings will further inform the next international exchange under this workstream, supporting comparative learning among participating countries and partners. This will include identifying practical approaches to strengthening implementation frameworks, improving policy coherence, and highlighting scalable models for institutional reform in gender-responsive foreign policies.
3. Develop a methodology for the regional scoping study, including qualitative and quantitative data collection tools and analytical frameworks. The methodology should account for variations in terminology and approaches based on national contexts (e.g., FFP vs. gender-responsive foreign policy) and ensure the integration of WPS indicators and benchmarks where relevant.
4. Undertake in-depth regional analysis to identify best practices and transformative approaches in feminist and gender-responsive foreign policies that advance women’s leadership and participation, including as diplomats, ambassadors, negotiators, and experts in international affairs. The analysis should be aligned with the 3 pillars that underpin UN Women’s global work on Gender Responsive Foreign Policies (GRFP): i) Data ii) an enabling environment for women in diplomacy; and iii) gender mainstreaming across all domains of foreign policy. It should also assess how country/ies with established FFP approaches are operationalizing and aligning these with WPS commitments, including prevention, participation, protection, and relief and recovery pillars. In parallel, examine persistent gaps, backlash-driven regressions, and implementation barriers, particularly regarding intersectional inclusion, protection of women human rights defenders, and accountability to global and regional gender equality frameworks. The review should specifically assess how gender equality is integrated across these policy areas, how intersectional and feminist principles are translated into practice, and how coherence is ensured between FFP, other GRFP frameworks and WPS commitments, including prevention, participation, protection, and relief and recovery pillars. It should build on and draw from existing UN Women global syntheses, policy briefs, and analytical work on GRFPs, ensuring continuity with established evidence and avoiding duplication of prior research. Particular attention should be given to identifying institutional mechanisms, financing models, accountability systems, and policy coherence tools that enable effective implementation and scaling of FFP commitments across government structures.
5. Organize and facilitate stakeholder consultations with government representatives, civil society organizations, women-led organizations, and international partners to gather qualitative and quantitative data. Ensure inclusion of actors engaged in both foreign policy and WPS implementation to capture synergies and gaps between these agendas.
6. Articulate/develop a forward-looking strategic vision for advancing gender-responsive and feminist foreign policies in the region, aligned with the Pact for the Future and Beijing+30 commitments (CSW69 Political Declaration) and CEDAW, with attention to Article 8 which obliges Member States to ensure that women can represent their governments abroad and participated in the affairs of international organizations; and relevant CEDAW General Recommendations. This should outline pathways for strengthening coherence between foreign policy, WPP and WPS agendas, particularly in countries with strong perspectives for FFP commitments, to elevate women’s leadership in peace and security, conflict prevention, mediation, and post-conflict recovery, while addressing and mitigating risks of gender backlash.
7. Lead the organization of an expert group meeting (EGM) to present and validate findings, and to strengthen stakeholder ownership of the regional study. The meeting should also serve as a platform to advance dialogue on integrating WPS priorities within foreign policy frameworks and to promote regional exchange of good practices.
8. Summarize and integrate findings of the EGM into the regional strategic visionary document and present to UN Women ECARO.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy.

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:

• Strong knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment, GEWE intergovernmental processes and foreign policy platforms.
• At least 7 years’ experience in research and analysis on gender responsive foreign policy 
• Strong analytical skills, including strong qualitative and quantitate data collection skills.
• Excellent writing, communication and advocacy skills.
• Effective stakeholder engagement skills.

Required Qualifications

Education:

• Advanced degree in gender studies, international relations, public policy, or a related field is required.

Experience:

• At least 7 years’ experience in conducting research and analysis on gender responsive foreign policy is required.
• Familiarity with the regional context and relevant stakeholders is required.

• Experience with UN Women or UN Agencies is preferred.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required. Another UN language/s used in the region preferred.

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.