UN Women: National Consultant - Capacity Development for Beitunia Emergency Shelter, Home-Based, West Bank, State of Palestine

Background/Context

UN Women (UNW), 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 centre of all its efforts, the 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. It 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’s triple mandate, along with its global network and deep policy and programming expertise, continues to endow the Entity with a unique capacity to: (i) support Member States to strengthen global norms and standards for gender equality and women’s empowerment, and mainstream gender perspectives in other thematic areas; (ii) promote coordination and coherence across the UN system to enhance accountability and results for gender equality and women’s empowerment; and (iii) undertake operational activities to support Member States, upon their request, in translating global norms and standards into legislation, policies and strategies at country level. 

UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the State of Palestine since its inception in 1997 (as UNIFEM). In line with the national priorities, the work of UN Women for the period 2023-2025 is aligned with three of the Palestine United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework’s (UNSDCF) outcomes:

• Palestinians have greater access to economic opportunities that are inclusive, resilient, and sustainable, including decent employment and livelihoods opportunities in an empowered private sector.
• Palestinians, including the most vulnerable, have equal access to sustainable, inclusive, gender responsive and quality social services, social protection, and affordable utilities.
• Palestinian governance institutions, processes, and mechanisms at all levels are more democratic, rights-based, inclusive, and accountable.

Its three-year Strategic Note supports the efforts to achieve measurable results in country in terms of four UN Women global Strategic Plan impacts (2022-2025): (SP Impact 1). Governance and participation in public life; (SP Impact 2). Women’s Economic Empowerment; (SP Impact 3). Ending Violence Against Women and Girls and; SP Impact 4. Women peace and security, Humanitarian & Disaster Risk Reduction. 

In line with the Palestinian Government’s commitment to achieve gender equality and combat violence against women (VAW), and in full partnership with the Ministry of Women’s  Affairs,  the Ministry of Social Development (MoSD), the Ministry of Health (MoH), and civil society organizations, (CSOs) in Gaza and the West Bank, UN Women within its programme “Strengthening the Protection and Leadership of the Furthest Left Behind Women and Girls Survivors of Violence (Shaml): A Pathway to Peace and Security” is working with partner institutions to empower the most marginalized groups of Palestinian women, including women with disabilities, women sex workers and women users of drugs amongst other groups.

Under this framework, UN Women delivers targeted, high- impact technical support to these institutions to strengthen protection and reintegration systems and services for the most marginalized groups of women. This includes strengthening the availability and quality of safe shelters, comprehensive legal aid, integrated psychosocial and medical services, gender-responsive referral pathways, and robust case management frameworks—alongside tailored rehabilitation and reintegration programmes that enable sustainable recovery and social inclusion.

Leveraging UN Women’s ongoing efforts in supporting the operationalization of Beitunia Emergency Shelter and capitalizing on the achievements of the previous phase, which included the establishment and the launch of the shelter and the development of the functional plan and the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), efforts will continue to improve the quality, consistency and responsiveness of services provided to women victims and survivors of violence beneficiaries of services

 Against this background, UN Women and in close cooperation with (MoSD) and Beitunia Emergency Shelter’s management plans to recruit a qualified national consultant to provide specialized capacity-building training to the shelter’s staff and women social counsellors on the efficient and responsive implementation of the shelter’s SoPs, and the efficient and responsive management of cases of women associated with attempts of committing suicide.