Job Description

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 Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS) adopted its strategic plan for 2022-2025 in March 2022. In the strategic plan, it is highlighted that one of the key priorities to achieve gender equality in the Arab States is the speedy acceleration of women’s employment throughout the region, which has hovered around 21% since the 1990s; UN Women is embarking on a large-scale multi-country program to surge women’s employment in 7 countries (3 in North Africa, 2 in the Levante and 2 in the Gulf).
The initial phase of this work was concluded in May 2022. It was dedicated to the analysis of the factors behind the stagnated levels of women’s employment in the Arab States, with a focus on not only challenges but, more specifically, on distinct opportunities that could accelerate women’s employment in the region. The analysis established the need for a multi-disciplinary approach, bringing together efforts to shift social norms, reduce the burden of care work, improve laws and policies, and strategically use social and mass media to bring about these changes. The strategy strongly emphasizes the private sector's role, focusing on three sectors, with distinct business cases. Lastly, the approach seeks to guarantee sustainable finance to deliver on this agenda through a shift to gender-responsive budgeting and blended finance.
The regional program will be implemented across several countries, with Iraq being one of them. The UN Women's Country Office for Iraq engages national stakeholders to contextualize the program to national priorities and local context. This will be done through national consultations and analytical work on relevant themes and economic sectors. To support this process, UN Women CO Iraq is In line with this is looking to engage the services of a National Consultant on Women’s Economic Empowerment to support who should work closely with the WEE consultant:
Support stakeholder mapping consultation and assist in co-creating the employment program. Contribute to developing the country's profile on women’s economic empowerment and contribute to employment projections. Assist in creating an enabling environment for women’s employment (policy and legal reforms and a shift in social norms). Contribute sector assessments to support women’s employment.
Under the overall guidance of the UN Women CO Iraq Representative, the consultant will be reporting to Program Management Specialist, as part of a regional initiative, the role will complement some activities at the UN Women ROAS. In addition, all tasks should be performed in close coordination and collaboration with the national consultant.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

Develop a national roadmap.
Contribute to developing a roadmap for contextualized employment program development and inception, following the guidelines and outlines established as part of the Surging Women’s Employment Program. Facilitate and support the organizing of a desk review and develop a country context analysis aligned to the themes and sectors of interest to complement the employment projections, particularly referring to the employment program accelerators and enablers.

Support the development of a multi-disciplinary program

Prepare and organize introductory workshops to sensitize stakeholders to the design processes and the envisaged employment program. Support developing workshop outcomes and conducting a desk review to prepare a set of baseline and target indicators for Phase 2 overall and per country. Organize and support key informant interviews, focus group discussions, and sector-level / member-based organizations workshops to consult on the design of the women’s employment program.

Data Gathering and country consultations

Facilitate the respective in-country missions and work sessions (supported by UN Women staff). Assist in preparing meeting materials, such as PowerPoint presentations, including an executive summary of the meeting discussions, results, and proposed actions. Responsible for documenting the different workshops and engagements and detailed documentation of methodologies.
The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as necessary for developing and delivering the employment strategy.

Deliverables

Activities Deliverables Expected completion time Payment Schedule Planning for the assignment.
Prepare an implementation plan outlining the methodology and overarching approach (aligned with the broad outline)
Inception report 5 Jan 2025
10% Contribute to the country context analysis (desk review). UN Women validated report 30 Jan 2025
20% Support country-level consultations.
Mapping relevant actors and designing a suitable engagement approach. Document the outcomes, agreements, and next steps taken from the stakeholder engagement. Outline emerging lessons from engagements to inform the design of a program
Endorsed mapping profile
20 Feb 2025
20%
Contribute to the drafting of a national women’s employment strategy containing:
An overview of the situation and the proposed response Aspects to incorporate include policies and laws, social norms, private sector, and blended finance, accompanied by three country-level annexes (care, STEM, and green jobs).
The progress report that includes a draft strategy 2 Mar 2025
10%
Lead the drafting of a high-quality program document in line with UN Women’s program and policy guidance.
Validated program by UN Women 23 Mar 2025
30% Support the implementation plan development and lead the rollout of program inception activities. Endorsed plan 31 Mar 2025
10%

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy/ Baghdad, Iraq. As part of this assignment, there will be a possibility to travel to governorates and all travel costs will be covered by UNW ICO in accordance with UN Women’s rules and regulations.

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 for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge of women’s economic empowerment, as well as GEWE. Knowledge of program formulation, implementation, and monitoring. Strong analytical skills. Strong networking skills. Ability to identify and analyze program management trends, opportunities, and threats. Strong knowledge of the Iraq context. Ability to facilitate and lead event management.

IV. Required Qualifications

Education and Certification:

Master’s degree or equivalent in Economics, Finance, Law, Gender, or a related field 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.

Experience:

At least 2 years of experience developing and managing a national program is required. Knowledge of Women Economic Empowerment and GEWE is required. Experience using computers, office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.), spreadsheets, and database packages, as well as handling web-based management systems, is required. Excellent verbal and written communication skills is required.

Languages:

* Fluency in Arabic and E