UN Women: Consultancy to prepare the ‘’Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals for the Arab States Region: The Gender Snapshot, 2026’’ - International Consultancy - Home Based

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.

The UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States (ROAS), located in Cairo, Egypt provides support and oversight to country offices in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, the State of Palestine, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. ROAS also provides technical assistance to Kuwait and Bahrain as a non-resident agency and works closely with the UN Women liaison office in the UAE.

Since 2022, UN Women ROAS has been implementing a regional component of the Flagship Programme Initiative Making Every Woman and Girl Count: Supporting the monitoring and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through better production and use of gender statistics (Women Count), developed by UN Women Headquarters (HQ). The Women Count programme aims to affect a radical shift in the production, availability, accessibility and use of quality data and statistics on key aspects of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

As one of the key activities, UN Women regional office in partnership with UN ESCWA aim to produce ‘’Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals in Arab States: The Gender Snapshot’’. This publication will present the latest evidence on all the 54 SDG specific gender equality indicators across all 17 Goals, calling out the long road ahead to achieve gender equality in the context of the region. It will emphasize the interlinkages among the goals, the pivotal force gender equality plays in driving progress across the SDGs, and women and girls’ central role in leading the way forward in the local context. As gender is one of its focus areas to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment and providing gender statistics and other disaggregated data by sex towards leaving no one behind, ESCWA will be among the main data source for producing this report. Moreover, the production of this report goes beyond data collection alone. It should be situated as a document to encourage relevant stakeholders in the region such as National Statistical Offices, Women’s Machineries, and policy makers, to utilize gender data for their decision-making to advance their progress to achieve SDGs.

By the production and dissemination of this report, UN Women regional office and ESCWA aim to foster a culture of data-driven decision-making that empowers policymakers and advocates to design more targeted and impactful interventions, ultimately contributing to the advancement of gender equality and women's empowerment at country and regional levels.

Objective of the Assignment:

Under the direct supervision of the Regional Gender Statistics Specialist at UN Women ROAS and guidance of Head of the Statistical Policies and Coordination Unit at ESCWA, the consultant will lead the production of the “Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals for the Arab States: The Gender Snapshot, 2026.” The report will assess progress and remaining gaps in achieving the SDGs from a gender perspective across the Arab States region.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work:

The Consultant will be responsible for the implementation of the following tasks:

Assess the progress made to achieve SDGs in the region so far and identify the remaining gaps from the gender perspective by:

• Conduct desktop research on the achievement status for gender-related SDGs indicators in the Arab states;
• Collect the national available data on the gender-related SDGs indicators using the most recent country data;
• Consult with relevant national stakeholders such as National Statistics Office and women’s machineries in the region to learn about their focus and current status of SDGs progress;
• Assess the availability of data on gender related SDG indicators.

Develop the “Progress on the Sustainable Development Goals in the Arab States: The Gender Snapshot” by

• Compiling the research results made through desktop research, data analysis, data aggregation in a report format;
• Produce a regional aggregate for each gender related SDG indicators in an Excel file;
• Consider ROAS and ESCWA guidance for producing the report;
• Make the required changes and amendments based on ROAS and ESCWA review of the draft report;
• Providing support for visualization of data, final edit, and lay-out of the printable version of the report in collaboration with the Communications Team of ROAS and ESCWA.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel:

This is a home-based consultancy with no travel required.

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 strategic planning, goal-setting and prioritization skills;
• Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision;
• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Strong data analysis and visualization skills including advanced skills in the use IT tools
• Strong interpersonal skills;
• Strong writing and communication skills.

Required Qualifications:

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Statistics, Demography, Econometrics, gender studies, social science and/or a related field;
• 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 7 years of experience in designing and executing gender data research projects, preferably related to SDGs and/or any other related field;
• Experience in leading or (co)leading at least regional-level gender data research initiatives and documenting them for potential replication is desirable;
• Experience in producing high-quality research publications, preferably in the area of gender data is desirable;
• Experience working with UN agencies is desirable;
• Experience working in Arab States Region is desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in English and Arabic is required;
• Working knowledge of French is desirable.

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.