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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
UN Women in Bangladesh supports the government to implement commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. UN Women’s strategic engagement in Bangladesh is guided by the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) 2022-2026, launched in 2021, and the corresponding UN Women Bangladesh Strategic Note (SN) 2022-2026. The country strategy focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans, and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s access to decent and safe work; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as other threats to peace and security.
The Outcome 1.2 of the SN: by 2026, ecosystems are healthier, and all people, in particular the most vulnerable and marginalized in both rural and urban settings, benefit from and contribute to, in a gender responsive manner, a cleaner environment, an enriched natural resource base, low carbon development, and are more resilient to climate change, shocks and disasters. This has three Outputs- 1.2.1: Women, in particular the most vulnerable to climate change, natural disasters and environmental hazards, have the required knowledge and skills to lead and influence climate action, and have increased access to the relevant resources (i.e. resilient infrastructure and basic services, information, finance, capacity and technology) needed to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change and related disasters; 1.2.2: National and local-level government institutions, CSOs and private sector actors are capacitated and supported with the necessary skills, knowledge and evidence to address GEWE and promote women’s leadership in DRR, CCA and resilience building; and 1.2.3: Multi-stakeholder, inter-sectoral and multi-level coordination groups, platforms, networks, and forums are supported and/or strengthened to effectively coordinate and oversee gender-responsive DRR and humanitarian actions.
To actualize the Outputs UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in Bangladesh including the government, civil society, women’s organizations, youth, UN agencies, and development partners to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment across the spectrum of DRR, climate change and humanitarian actions. Women Led Organization (WLOs)/ Women’s Rights Organizations (WROs) are the primary agent for grass root women’s empowerment. They are a major stakeholder in DRR and humanitarian programming of UN Women. They co-chair GiHA working group chapters at District level.
II. Objective:
UN Women is seeking a consultant to provide technical and coordination support for implementation of two key projects namely Women’s Resilience to Climate Change’ and ‘Enhancing DRR capacity of the government and other stakeholders’ under Outcome 1.2. In addition to that he/she will be supporting knowledge management, capacity building, and resource mobilization.
III. Scope of Work/Duties and Responsibilities:
Under the supervision of the Programme Specialist (DRR/CC/HA), the consultant is expected to work with the DRR/CCA/HA programme team of UN Women Bangladesh Country Office.
The consultant will be responsible for the following, and more as emerge:
Support knowledge building and related studies on following issues: Prepare an assessment report on the barriers of women and girls in shifting and using shelters in disaster affected areas Support annual After Action Review from gender lens Conduct background research and prepare briefing materials/talking points as required.
2. Provide technical and coordination support for implementation of the two projects: Women’s Resilience to Climate Change, and strengthening DRR through capacity building of government and other stakeholders
Coordinate with relevant government Ministries and their Departments (7 ministries), partner organizations, and other relevant stakeholders for smooth implementation of the project, which includes, regular coordination meetings, organizing Project Steering Committee and Project Implementation Committee meetings, maintaining working relationship with target Ministries and Departments. Provide technical support to and coordinate with partner organizations (Responsible Partners (RP) for the timely submission of narrative and financial report on a quarterly basis. Identify areas for synergy with the regional project of UN Women, Empower and provide technical and capacity development support to RPs as required . Provide technical inputs to finalize various knowledge products, tools, and reports being produced by the project partners and consultants Provide support to design and organize capacity building initiatives of and with partner organizations, including on RBM; Provide inputs to periodic internal, external, partner, and donor reports Convene regular progress monitoring meetings with the RPs/implementing partners Support with drafting Concept Notes/proposals, presentations, short briefings as requested
3. Enhance capacities to monitor and produce donor report and result reporting:
Provide technical support to develop partner specific performance monitoring framework and support monitoring activities , Undertake regular field monitoring visits, and follow up the findings and action points from the monitoring mission. Provide technical inputs to periodic internal, and donor reports as well as partner reports; Maintain the monitoring schedule of each partner of the DRR/CCA/HA teamIV. Duration of the assignment:
The assignment will be from July 2025 to December 2026, with maximum 20 days of engagement per month.
V. Deliverables linked with payment:
The consultant will be expected to submit a monthly work plan at the beginning of each month with an indicative list of tasks and deliverables to be completed. The deliverables will include the following (it’s not exhaustive): Sl Deliverable(s) Deadline(s) Required Number of Day Instalments 1.
Monthly detail work plan; Monthly delivery report with specific deliverables Evidence of coordination and monitoring, i.e. events conducted (including but not limited to meeting minutes, reports). Monitoring Frameworks for RPs developed Monitoring reports produced No of Briefing materials and TPs developed Number of Training modules developed and reports of training programme organised at national and districts level for achieving the targets of the projects Progress reports from implementation partners/RPs Technical support e.g. background notes, meeting minutes and proceeding reports, Concept notes, justification notes etc. Project monitoring plans and support the partner monitoring with monitoring meeting note and field visit reports Technical inputs to quarterly and annual reports, donor reports, and partner reports; Evidence of resource mobilization support provided (including but not limited to project proposals, concept notes). July 2025 to 30 December 2026 20 days of each month total 360 days5.56% payment for each month of total amount shall be paid upon submission of deliverables of 1 along with monthly working report and upon acceptance and certification by UN Women Bangladesh Contract Administrator
Payments will be made on a monthly basis on the submission of a monthly report with all the completed deliverables and the total number of days worked. All deliverables and documents will be reviewed by UN Women before processing payment.
VI. Supervision & Performance evaluation:
The national consultant will work under the supervision of the Programme Specialist DRR/CC/HA of UN Women Bangladesh. Performance of the consultant will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the services delivered.
VII. Duty Station(s): Dhaka, with field visit as needed. The consultant will work from home three days and at office two days a week.
Travel and DSA: No DSA will be paid at the duty station(s) – For this consultancy, the duty station is considered Dhaka. Travel outside the duty station, upon prior agreement/approval, shall be UN Women’s expenses and the individual contractor shall receive a per-diem not exceeding United Nations daily subsistence allowance rate in location(s) of the destination.
VIII. Core Values
Respect for Diversity Integrity ProfessionalismIX. Core Competencies:
Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues – Fulfils all obligations to gender sensitivity and zero tolerance for sexual harassment. Communication – Facilitates and encourages open and effective communication. Inclusive Collaboration and Stakeholder Engagement – Demonstrates ability to collaborate and work effectively with stakeholders of different backgrounds, especially with government ministries and departments. Accountability – Takes ownership of all responsibilities and delivers outputs in accordance with agreed time, costs, and quality standards. Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.X. Functional Competencies:
Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment; Knowledge on Disaster Risk Reduction and climate change both global and national context; Training need assessment, formulation of training materials; Knowledge of humanitarian issues; Partnership building with government and non-government organizations; Skills on project planning, monitoring, and evaluation; Strong monitoring skills and experience; Strong result based report writing skills; Experience of working with government would be an added advantageXI. Eligibility Criteria or Required Experience and Qualification:
Education:
Advanced university degree (At least Master’s) in Disaster Risk Management, Gender/Women Studies, Development Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, or any other relevant discipline of social science.Experience:
At least 3 years of experience in related fields Demonstrable experience working on GEWE, especially gender responsive DRR, climate change policy context in Bangladesh Demonstrable experience of planning and conducting capacity building training programmes Proven experience in developing high quality analytical reports, and background papers. Experience in partnership management (both at Government and Non Government level) Excellent English and Bangla communication and writing skills (samples of previous work is required as part of the application).Language:
Fluency in English
XII. Evaluation criteria:
Initially, individual consultants will be short-listed based on the following minimum qualification criteria:
Master’s degree or equivalent in Disaster Risk Management, Gender/Women Studies, Development Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, or other relevant disciplines. At least 3 years of experience in the field of gender responsive DRR, humanitarian actions.Technical evaluation of shortlisted candidates will be done through desk review of applications on the basis of responsiveness to the Terms of Reference (TOR) as per table below.
Interviews and/or written tests will be organized, depending on the short-listed candidates’ qualifications.
Technical Evaluation Table: Technical Evaluation Criteria Obtainable Score Education qualification 15 Proven experiences working in the fields of gender equality, especially, DRR, humanitarian action in Bangladesh 15