Consultant on Gender Equality and Women Economic Empowerment

Result of Service

The consultant is expected to deliver data collection tools including questionnaires and guides and tabulation of data collected, literature review reports, concepts notes for knowledge products and meetings and workshops, sections/chapters of studies, write-ups on specific issues, and presentations.

Work Location

UN House-ESCWA / Hybrid

Expected duration

4 months

Duties and Responsibilities

Background Despite strong momentum towards gender equality and considerable achievements in women’s empowerment, the Arab region continues to register one of the largest gender gaps. Arab women still lag behind in terms of political participation, labour force participation, equality and sex-based discrimination. In 2025, women’s labour force participation was 19 per cent in the Arab States, less than half the global average of 49 per cent, making it the lowest rate worldwide. Various factors can be attributed to the low economic participation of women in the Arab region, most important of which are the high involvement of women in unpaid care work and their weak involvement in entrepreneurship. In the Arab States, women carry out 80 to 90 percent of all unpaid care tasks and spend an average of 4.7 times more time than men on unpaid care tasks. If women continue to bear the brunt of unpaid care work, there is a serious risk that gender gaps widen and hard-won achievements in women’s socioeconomic empowerment are reversed. Addressing the available policies and legal frameworks is thus crucial to promote women’s economic empowerment in the region and build the resilience of women to future shocks. ESCWA supports its member States in promoting gender equality and the advancement of women at the legislative, policy and programmatic levels through the translation of global normative frameworks into region-specific actions within the areas of gender justice and the law, women, peace and security, women economic empowerment, care economy, and gender mainstreaming in national institutions. ESCWA supports member States in their efforts to reform care-related policies and develop new ones to promote women’s economic empowerment. Within the care economy workstream, ESCWA is currently working with Lebanon, Oman, Morocco and Tunisia, following an approach comprising the preparation of knowledge products and organization of capacity building workshops. ESCWA also supports several countries including Iraq, Lebanon, Mauritania and Morocco to strengthen gender mainstreaming in national institutions. Furthermore, ESCWA develops training packages and contributes to capacity-building efforts to transform knowledge, good practices and related skills into innovative online and in-person awareness-raising sessions and training programmes to support countries in developing national strategies, policies and action plans relevant to implementing and reviewing global commitments, including those under CEDAW and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Objective and methodology ESCWA seeks to hire a consultant to provide input and contributions to support the successful completion of several gender equality related outputs including: • National case studies mainly on unpaid care work and care economy; • National technical requests related to the advancement of gender equality; • National dialogues and meetings as well as capacity building workshops targeting various governmental entities in Arab States to support the reforms and development of policies; • Papers and knowledge products to explore concepts related to women’s economic empowerment in the region, gendered perspectives in recovery and reconstruction, and other women and gender-related concepts; • Regional meetings, consultations, and capacity building workshops to exchange experience and knowledge, disseminate the results and findings of prepared knowledge products and advocate for needed legal and policy reforms. Tasks and responsibilities The consultant will be responsible for the following tasks: - Desk review: Undertake necessary research and desk reviews on topics related to gender equality and women empowerment as required for the development and finalization of the gender equality related outputs; - Prepare necessary data collection tools including questionnaires for surveys and guides for interviews and focus groups; - Undertake analysis of data and other inputs; - Draft inputs following the set outlines for various outputs; - Prepare required inputs for the preparation and organization of meetings with relevant stakeholders. Supervision: The consultant will work under the direct supervision of Ms. Rouba ARJA, the Social Affairs Officer responsible for the women’s economic empowerment project, and the overall guidance of the Gender Justice, Population and Inclusive Development cluster leader.

Qualifications/special skills

A master's degree in social or economic or gender or anthropology studies or studies in related areas is required. All candidates must submit a copy of the required educational degree. Incomplete applications will not be reviewed. A minimum of 5 years of professional work experience in socio-economic issues is required. Experience in preparing and reviewing publications or reports is required. Experience in working in the Arab region is required. Experience in working on gender issues and women’s economic empowerment is required Experience in working with government entities is desirable.

Languages

English and French are the working languages of the United Nations Secretariat; and Arabic is a working language of ESCWA. For this position, fluency in English and Arabic is required. Fluency in French is desirable. Note: “Fluency” equals a rating of ‘fluent’ in all four areas (speak, read, write, and understand) and “Knowledge of” equals a rating of ‘confident’ in two of the four areas.

Additional Information

Recruitment for this position is on a local basis. The incumbent is required to have the legal right to live and work in the specified working location.

No Fee

THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.