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 supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to implement these standards. It stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: increasing women’s leadership and participation; ending violence against women; engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality. In East and Southern Africa, UN Women covers 25 countries through twelve country offices, a programme presence and a multi-country office, and supports the UN Country Team where it is not present and has a Liaison Office to the African Union, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is the most pervasive human rights violation globally and the East and Southern Africa region remains off-course from reaching the 2030 SDG 5 targets. It occurs in various forms across settings and takes place in both physical and virtual spaces. Decades of advocacy and other efforts by feminist and women’s rights organizations and networks have elevated public attention and increased State commitments to address the issue, with actions identified to counter the immediate and long-term consequences and costs of VAWG. This includes the adoption of dedicated laws and policies for ending VAWG, greater investments in VAWG prevalence and administrative data, as well as prevention interventions and multi-sectoral services for survivors of VAWG.
However, many women and girls continue to experience violence, across all stages of their lives, which are exacerbated in the context of the poly-crises of recent years (related to COVID-19, economic shocks, conflict and climate change). Prevalence estimates show that 20% of ever-married/partnered women aged 15–49 in Sub-Saharan Africa have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence (IPV) in the past 12 months, the highest compared to other regions, while 33% have experienced violence in their lifetime, also higher than the global estimate of 27%.Tolerance for domestic violence against women and girls also remains high, is linked to the alarming situation of femicide, where Africa recorded 21,700 intimate partner/family member femicide victims in 2023– the highest among other regions.
At the sub-regional level, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) has made considerable efforts to address VAWG among other forms of GBV through its Gender Policy, Gender and Development Protocol, its SADC Strategy and Framework of Action to address GBV (2018-2030) and SADC Annual GBV reporting framework (2023). A Mid-Term Review of the SADC Strategy and reporting processes is underway to assess progress of its member states in implementing these commitments.
Considering this context, UN Women East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) works to close the implementation gap and enhancing accountability for ending VAWG by supporting regional bodies such as SADC and national institutions to implement their commitments on the issue. This entails advancing capacities in evidence-based policymaking and programming with attention to preventing violence before it begins and enhancing access to quality essential services for survivors, promoting increased investments on the issue, and strengthening multi-stakeholder partnerships, and supporting collaboration toward the delivery of impactful, context-specific and transformative interventions across the region. UN Women also seeks to transform the EVAWG ecosystem through intentional efforts to promote feminist leadership principles in action. This leverages EVAWG expertise in the region and follows the decades of progress made by Pan-African women’s movements, while centering the experiences of diverse women and girls through intersectional analysis and inclusive processes of engagement. In support of SADC efforts to implement its GBV Strategy and Annual Reporting Framework, UN Women ESARO is collaborating with the SADC Gender Unit and GIZ’s Partnerships for Prevention of GBV in Southern Africa Programme to enhance the capacity of SADC member states to operationalize data for monitoring and reporting on the SADC GBV Strategy.
In this regard, UN Women ESARO as part of our work in support of the Partnership for Prevention project, seeks to hire an EVAWG Financing Consultant to consolidate financing data related to domestic allocations, development assistance and other investments for ending VAWG in East and Southern Africa (including SADC Member States) and prepare in a format accessible for a general audience. This will provide a snapshot of trends and considerations for strengthening sustainable resourcing of EVAWG.
Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work
The Consultant will be reporting to the Regional Policy Specialist for Ending Violence against Women and will be supported by the Programme Associate for Ending Violence against Women, who will be the point of contact on the contract and payment. The consultant is responsible for the following:
Deliverables
Work Schedule: Deliverables Timelines Allocated Percentage Consolidation of data from ODA, domestic financing and other allocations toward gender equality broadly and EVAWG specifically from 2015-present (Excel File) Mid August 2025 50%
Summary of data and trends across funding sources, key challenges and promising practices for improving resourcing for EVAWG in the region (10-12 pages)
End August 2025 30% Slide deck (PowerPoint) of analysis for presentation to general audiences, with references to original sources 15 September 2025 20%Consultant’s Workplace
This is a home-based consultancy.
Competencies :
Core Values:
Core Competencies:
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:
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Required Qualifications
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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:
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