Background:

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, is dedicated to eliminating discrimination against women and girls, empowering women, and achieving gender equality as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action, and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates UN system initiatives to ensure global commitments to gender equality are translated into concrete actions. It provides strong and coherent leadership while supporting Member States’ priorities and fostering effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In line with UN Women’s Planning, Monitoring, and Reporting (PMR) Policy, Regional Offices are required to develop coherent and forward-looking Strategic Notes (SNs) aligned with the organization’s triple mandate, UN Women Strategic Plan (SP), and Results-Based Management (RBM) principles of accountability, inclusiveness, adaptive management, and learning. The SN must be informed by comprehensive regional context analysis, independent assessments, audits, evaluations, and thorough stakeholder consultations to ensure relevance and effectiveness.

The UN Women Regional Office for West and Central Africa (WCARO) provides integrated policy advice, technical assistance, and capacity development support to country offices across 10 countries (Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Mali, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Central African Republic, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Liberia). WCARO also serves as a member of UN Country Teams in four countries (Ghana, Burkina Faso, Gabon, Chad) where it operates as a Non-Resident Agency (NRA). The current four-year SN (2022–2025) provides a strategic framework for advancing gender equality and empowering all women and girls in the region. Guided by the corporate SP, it focuses on key areas such as women’s leadership and political participation, women’s economic empowerment, eliminating violence against women and girls, peace and security, humanitarian action, support to intergovernmental processes and coordination within UN Agencies.

In 2025, WCARO will develop its new SN for 2026–2029, aiming to deliver high-impact results during the final years of the SDGs. This new SN will incorporate innovative approaches such as systems thinking and forward-looking Gender Equality and Women Empowerment (GEWE) analysis to anticipate emerging challenges, risks and capitalize on new opportunities. The GEWE analysis shall incorporate trends by including signals, drivers of changes and scenario planning. The analysis shall also provide casualty analysis and role analysis to identify immediate, underlying and root causes of gender equality challenges and assess the roles and capacities of duty bearers, rights holders, UN partners, and UN Women offices in the region.

The SN will be based on extensive consultations with regional institutions/stakeholders and partners, including Member States, development partners, civil society, women’s rights organizations, youth leaders, private sector partners, and the UN system. It will also look beyond the usual suspects and reach out to uncommon people and partners who could bring new insights or perspective, help deeper understand the challenges, and adopt innovative solutions to accelerate and scale up GEWE results in the region.

The ongoing evaluation of the current regional SN will provide valuable data, evidence, and lessons learned to inform the next strategic note. Data from partner and public surveys, including input from women at greatest risk of being left behind, will provide critical evidence for setting SN priorities. This will be complemented by analysis from regional review processes such as the Beijing +30 review, SDG 5 progress evaluations, and consultations associated with CSW69 and the 25th anniversary of UN Security Council Resolution 1325. Recognizing the interconnected nature of regional challenges, the SN will align with the multidimensional agenda of the SDGs, the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks (UNSDCFs), and UN Women’s global Strategic Plan 2026–2029, applying an integrated and intersectional approach.

The SN will be accompanied by mandatory annexes detailing key operational and strategic elements, including Evaluation Plan, HR planning, a Risk Register, Social and Environmental Scanning, a Partnerships Communications and Visibility strategy, and a Knowledge Management Plan.

Given the political reconfiguration and instability in the region, including protracted conflicts, with significant financing impact and Pushback on women’s rights, the new SN will ensure that programming responds to both immediate humanitarian needs and long-term development priorities.

To support the innovative development of the regional SN, UN Women seeks the services of an International Consultant (IC). The IC will provide technical assistance to the WCARO PMR Team by compiling a comprehensive regional context analysis and facilitating the development of the 2026–2029 SN.

Scope of Work: Consultant for Strategic Note Development

Under the supervision of the Regional Strategic Planning Specialist, the consultant will provide technical expertise and support for the development of a high-quality WCA RO Strategic Note (SN) 2025–2029. The consultant will ensure alignment with global normative frameworks such as UN Charter, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the 2030 Agenda and Negotiated Outcomes, as well as with the Regional Priorities, UN Women Strategic Plan and corporate guidelines.

Responsibilities:

1. Desk Review and Methodology Development

1.1. Conduct a comprehensive desk review of UN Women corporate guidelines and WCARO’s work on the development of the current SN.

1.2. Develop a detailed methodology and work plan with clearly defined tasks, timelines, and deliverables for WCARO approval.

1.3. Review materials from Headquarters (HQ) on the future direction of the next Strategic Plan (SP) to align and enhance synergies between the Global SP and the Regional SN.

1.4. Compile an early regional gender context analysis by reviewing regional gender data, analytical reports, and inputs from the WCARO Programme and Policy Team.

1.5. Address comments on the early regional gender context analysis to ensure accuracy and agreement on gaps to be addressed through the consultations

2. Stakeholder Consultations 

2.1. Provide technical support in organizing WCARO’s both internal and external stakeholders’ consultations, including drafting agendas, preparing questionnaire or presentations, and documenting meeting notes on discussions, key decisions and action points.

2.2. Document in particular from discussions, emerging opportunities, challenges, and strategic focus of the upcoming SN, and start building on the characteristics of a desired future for UN Women in the region, with a range of Outcome.

3. Comprehensive Regional Gender Context Analysis 

3.1. Prepare and submit a comprehensive context analysis report on GEWE in the region, incorporating forward-looking trends by including signals, drivers of changes and scenario planning.

3.2. Address comments on the regional context analysis on GEWE to ensure completeness and alignment with data quality requirements and the SN objectives

4. Strategic Prioritization Workshop.

4.1. Design and facilitate a strategic prioritization workshop using systems-thinking and forward-looking analysis methods, based on findings from the regional context analysis, stakeholder consultations, and the Regional SN 2022–2025 rapid review.

4.2 Assist preparing the workshop presentations and documenting notes on discussions, key decisions and action points.

4.3 Prepare the draft strategic prioritization workshop report in both word and PowerPoint formats, highlighting key priorities adopted from the Workshop.

5. Development of Regional SN Package and Annexes

5.1. Review inputs from various discussions, the strategic prioritization workshop, Heads of Offices Strategic Retreat and WCARO SN Joint strategic discussion to ensure alignment with UN Women RBM principles and corporate standards.

5.2. Produce the Regional SN package, including the following mandatory annexes:

– SN Narrative

– SN Results and Resources Framework (RRF)

– SN Evaluation Plan 

– Partnerships, communications and visibility plan,

– HR Planning

– Risk Register

– Social and Environmental Scan Annex

– SN review checklist

– context analysis on GEWE in the region

5.3. Provide final editing support for clarity and consistency in the Regional SN 2025–2029.

6. Reporting and Documentation

6.1 Submit a final consultancy report summarizing achievements, challenges, and recommendations for improving future SN development processes.

List of Key Reference Documents

The following documents will be provided by UN Women to the consultant for the assignment (including but not limited to):

1. UN Women Planning, Monitoring, and Reporting Policy
2. Regional Programme Planning, Monitoring, and Reporting Procedure
3. Regional Office Strategic Notes Guidance.
4. Documentation (reviews, assessments, reports, evaluations) related to the current Regional Strategic Note.

Deliverables

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy with one 5-days mission to Dakar, Senegal.

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:

• Excellent analytical, writing and synthesis skills;
• Demonstrated experience in planning, results-based management and/or evaluation;
• Demonstrate responsiveness, objectivity, organization and have a good methodology in carrying out the work;
• Demonstrate an ability to produce quality results on time and to work under pressure;

Required Qualifications:

Education:

• A minimum master’s degree in international relations, gender, sociology, business administration, economics, law or other related disciplines.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of international experience in analytical work, strategic planning, and results-based management in the areas of human rights and gender equality.
• Proven expertise in working with gender data and conducting complex gender analyses across various thematic areas.
• Demonstrated experience in producing high-quality analytical reports and strategic documents for international organizations, meeting UN quality standards.
• Previous experience with UN Women or the UN system; experience in the Europe and Central Asia region is considered an asset.
• Excellent facilitation skills to lead diverse teams in forward-looking strategic planning and innovation processes, ensuring inclusive and collaborative engagement.

Languages:

English fluency and French working knowledge, both required.

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.