UN Women: National Consultant - Financing and Partnerships, Manila (Home-Based), Philippines

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.

In the Philippines, it has played an important role in supporting critical agencies in aligning mandates and their articulated commitments to the global normative standard of human rights, gender equality and empowerment of women and including important international conventions particularly the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, the Beijing Platform for Action and UN Security Council Resolution 1325. With the continued work and strengthened resolve to deliver on its normative, coordination and operations mandate as articulated and further committed through its new Strategic Plan for 2026 – 2029, UN Women is furthering its work and readiness to jointly deliver on various actions through joint programming.

With new opportunities presenting, UN Women is implementing the joint programme Zero Hunger Accelerator: Catalysing Local Investments for Food System Transformation and Green Transition (JP ZHA), with World Food Programme and Food and Agriculture Organization. Funded by the Joint SDG Fund, to strengthen inclusive, climate-resilient food systems in the Philippines by mobilizing innovative local and blended financing. In identified target areas it intends to address long-standing barriers faced by smallholder famers, fisherfolk, cooperatives and women-led enterprises, including limited access to capital, rigid procurement systems and fragmented local planning. The joint programme blends public funds, concessional finance and private investment, anchored in institutional markets such as school meals and social protection programmes. Core mechanisms will include nano credit tailored to smallholder farmers and fisherfolks, bundled climate-responsive insurance and a first-loss guarantee designed to de-risk rural investments and attract domestic and international capital.

Alongside financial solutions, the joint programme strengthens national and local systems to create the enabling environment needed for sustained transformation by supporting the local government units to align climate, disaster risk, gender and development and agricultural budgets with food systems investments, making institutional feeding programmes accessible to local food producers and co-creating investable pipelines such as food fortification facilities, community kitchens, cold storage and developing women-led agricultural enterprises. Through coordinated action across national, subnational and local level mechanisms and institutions, the joint programme aims to mobilize at least US$24 million, reach 6,500 smallholder households (50-60% women) and indirectly benefit 3.3 million people, ultimately creating a scalable model for gender-responsive, climate resilient and locally driven food systems transformation.

Furthermore, with the increasing constraints on global development financing and the limited expansion of international support portfolios, UN Women recognizes the imperative of tapping into and leveraging domestic resources to sustain and scale impact. Strengthening local financing ecosystems and mobilizing national and subnational investments are critical to ensuring inclusive and gender-responsive access to capital, markets, and enabling infrastructure to support women’s economic empowerment. By aligning domestic resources with global commitments, UN Women seeks to maximize the reach and sustainability of interventions, reinforcing women’s leadership in social transformation and embedding gender-responsive financing within national development priorities.

The consultant will be reporting to the Country Programme Coordinator, and will be supported by the Operations Associate, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment issues.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work

Deliverables

The Financing and Partnerships Consultant will perform and deliver on the following:

• Strategic review and model development: support the identification and articulation of 2-3 viable financing models to support women food producers and agricultural workers in pilot area/s
• Evidence gathering: conduct desk reviews and interviews with targeted financial institutions to assess feasibility, alignment and potential for scaling
• Conceptual design: draft and prepare concept note/s for a proposed Hub that integrates financing, training, learning and marketplace functions with detailed costing and operationalization pathways
• Stakeholder engagement: convene a roundtable discussion with identified promising partners to validate concepts, secure commitments and refine partnership modalities
• Partnership formalization: develop memoranda of understanding (MOU) among financing partners and deliver a partnership model for piloting and sustaining the initiatives
• Strategic communication: prepare presentation decks tailored for strategic government offices and potential investors to promote the Hub and mobilize support
• Any other requests within their functional profile, as guided by the supervisor

Deliverable Expected completion time (due day) Payment Schedule 1 Inception report, with workplan, list of activities and stakeholders and annotated bibliography/references 15 August 2026 25 August 2026 2 Collated/developed 2-3 financing models for JP ZHA and draft concept note for a proposed Hub 15 September 2026 25 September 2026 3 Presentation and validation of financing models and the Hub via roundtable discussion and dialogue with stakeholders 20 October 2026 30 October 2026 4

• Updated/revised models and concept note
• Developed MOU/s and TOR/s for financing partners and stakeholders keen to be part of the pilot