National Consultant to Support Gender Audit at the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity and Other State Institutions, Kyiv, Ukraine, SSA

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 Ukraine, by 2029, UN Women aims to ensure that more women and girls, including those at the greatest risk of being left behind, lead, influence, and benefit from inclusive gender-responsive humanitarian action, governance, recovery, rights, and economic growth.

One of the priorities of UN Women’s work in Ukraine focuses on enhancing national and local capacities of government, women’s rights organizations (WROs), and women activists to drive gender-responsive governance, advance the EU accession process, and implement the Women, Peace and Security Agenda while safeguarding the rule of law, human rights and gender equality.

UN Women supported the governmental institutions with the development and update of the State Strategy on Equal Rights and Opportunities of Women and Men till 2030 and its respective Action Plans. It’s a comprehensive strategic document which defines priority consolidated actions of the central executive bodies and local authorities, CSOs and other stakeholders for advancing gender equality in the Ukrainian society. 

In accordance with Activity 4, Task 3 (Strategic and Operational Objective 1) of the Operational Plan for the implementation of the State Strategy on Ensuring Equal Rights and Opportunities for Women and Men for the period up to 2030, for the years 2025–2027, state authorities, local self-government bodies, and other institutions and organizations are obliged to conduct gender audits in their institutions.

To implement this and other national gender equality commitments, in 2026, the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine and other state institutions are planning to conduct a gender audit.

A gender audit is a tool that helps analyze how the principles of ensuring equal rights and opportunities for women and men are considered in the activities of state authorities, local self-government bodies, institutions, and organizations, as well as to provide recommendations for better integration of a gender perspective.

To support the efforts of the Ministry and other state institutions (as per their requests), UN Women is now seeking a National Consultant to Support Gender Audit at the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine and Other State Institutions.

The gender audit (GA) will be carried out on the basis of the Methodological Recommendations for Conducting Gender Audits by Enterprises, Institutions, and Organizations, approved by Order of the Ministry of Social Policy of Ukraine No. 448 of August 9, 2021 (Methodological Recommendations) and a Step-by-Step Guide “Gender Audit: Roadmap and Practical Advice” developed by UN Women in cooperation with the Apparatus of the Government Commissioner for Gender Equality Policy and the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine with financial support from Sweden.

The Consultant will be reporting to Programme Management Specialist, and will be supported by Programme Analyst, who will be the point of contact on UN Women’s side.

The Consultant will work in pair with a lead Gender Audit Practitioner, providing support to the Ministry for Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine and other state institutions in coordination with UN Women.

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work

The assignment will include but not be limited to the following tasks developed in coordination with the Ministry of Social Policy, Family and Unity of Ukraine, other state institutions, where gender audit support is needed, and UN Women: 

• Support the development of a GA Methodology (including list of desk review materials, survey questionnaire, interview/focus group guides etc.) based on the Methodological Recommendations and based on the agreed distribution of tasks with the lead Gender Audit Practitioner.
• Support the organization of the validation session with the Ministry’s/other state institutions’ gender audit working groups (WG) and finalization of the Methodology based on the comments received from the WG members.
• Provide inputs during expert discussions, consultations, and technical meetings of the Ministry’s/other state institutions’ Working Group during various stages of GA. 
• Knowledge sharing, support organization and facilitation of gender audit related training sessions, other events for the Ministry’s working group/other stakeholders.
• To support desk review of existing organizational and regulatory documents, materials, and data required for conducting a gender audit