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.
The Peace and Security Section of the Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division supports UN Women to fulfill its mandate in the area of peace and security and UN system efforts to promote improved implementation, and monitoring and reporting of global commitments on women and peace and security (WPS) in contexts impacted by terrorism and counter-terrorism. UN Security Council Resolution 2242 (2015) encouraged Member States and the United Nations to ensure greater integration of their agendas of Women, Peace and Security (WPS), Counter Terrorism and Countering Violent Extremism which could be conducive to terrorism and emphasized the importance of women leadership and participation in counter terrorism strategies[1]. As such, UN Women within its mandate, leverages its expertise, capacities, partnerships and platforms to support the UN system and Member States implement commitments enshrined in the WPS agenda as part of efforts to counter terrorism and preventing violent extremism.
Furthermore, UN Women works in close partnership with the UN Office of Counter Terrorism to integrate gender sensitive approaches in UN efforts supporting Member States implement the UN Global Counter Terrorism Strategy[2], where in several of its iterations has recognized the important role of women in countering terrorism and preventing violent extremism, as and when conducive to terrorism, and encouraged Member States and UN entities and international, regional and sub-regional organizations to ensure the participation and leadership of women in efforts to prevent terrorism and violent extremism conducive to terrorism and to regularly consult with women’s organizations to inform this work. UN Women is also an integral party to the UN Global Counter Terrorism Compact – Gender Working Group[3].
UN Women’s contribution to the UN Counter Terrorism efforts is conceived and developed within the framework of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and the UN priority agenda on prevention and sustaining peace (GA resolution 262/70, and the SCR 2282). UN Women’s engagement also directly contributes to SDG 5 and SDG 16, and is aligned to the Pact of the Future, Action 19 on accelerating the implementation of commitments on women, peace and security, and Action 23 on commitment to pursue a future free from terrorism[4].
In 2025, it will be the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) and 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. These two anniversaries will take place against the backdrop of the first anniversary of the Pact of the Future. As such, UN Women is currently revising its strategy in supporting the accelerations of WPS commitments in the context of the UN Counter Terrorism agenda, and in contexts impacted by terrorism and counter terrorism. This is with the view to better align its offer considering the global political context, regional and local dynamics to ensure agility and better leverage its mandate in support of Member States and other stakeholders. As such, UN Women is seeking a consultancy to support developing and finalizing its strategy outlining its support to accelerating WPS in counter terrorism engagement, and to deliver specific tasks as outlined below: |