National Junior Consultants on EU Accession, Gender Mainstreaming and Policy Alignment to support Central and Local Authorities (multiple positions)

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.

Placing women's rights at the center 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. 

The Republic of Moldova has entered a new stage of its European integration journey. Following the granting of EU candidate status in June 2022, the country has intensified efforts to align its national policies, legal framework, and institutional practices with the acquis communautaire and the Copenhagen criteria. In December 2023, the European Council decided to open accession negotiations with Moldova, marking a historic opportunity for the country to advance its reforms, strengthen democratic governance, and consolidate the rule of law. Following Moldova's progress, in March 2024 EU leaders invited the Council to swiftly adopt the draft negotiation framework. The EU adopted also a Growth Plan for the Republic of Moldova and is underpinned by a Reform and Growth Facility for the period 2025-2027. Moldova successfully completed the EU screening process in September 2025 – a key step towards opening and closing negotiation chapters. This phase requires alignment with the EU Gender Equality Acquis, including directives on equal treatment, equal pay, non-discrimination, combating gender-based violence, and gender mainstreaming across all sectors of governance.

The integration process requires continuous adaptation across public institutions, as well as enhanced understanding of the EU acquis, negotiation chapters, and sectoral policies. Ensuring that government staff and institutional partners are regularly updated and trained on EU standards, procedures, and best practices is essential to accelerate the pace of reforms and guarantee effective preparation for accession. Particularly this phase requires alignment with the EU Gender Equality Acquis, including directives on equal treatment, equal pay, non-discrimination, combating gender-based violence, and gender mainstreaming across all sectors of governance.

UN Women is uniquely placed to support the Country Offices in the European Union enlargement process, providing methodologies and frameworks for engagement with governments and other stakeholders in accession countries.

UN Women Moldova supports the Government in aligning with EU Gender Equality provisions under Chapter 19, focusing on work, employment, and women’s participation in the labour market. It also strengthens institutional capacities on gender mainstreaming in policies, budgets, and SDG monitoring to align with EU accession requirements as well as contributes to other correlated chapters. 

In this framework, UN Women Moldova within the Women in Leadership and Governance Area seeks to contract a consultant, or a team of Consultants (here and after “The Consultant”) to support the National Specialist Consultants on EU Accession, Gender Mainstreaming and Policy Alignment to support Central and Local authorities that will work with the State Chancellery and line ministries to identify priorities for gender mainstreaming within accession clusters and chapters and ensure synergies among existing interventions and UN Women staff and personnel who are dealing with project development and coordination on last updates in the terms of EU integration processes. 

The interventions will contribute to the implementation of UN Women Moldova - Strategic Priorities 2023-2027 and the national priorities set the National Programme for the Accession of the Republic of Moldova to the EU, National Government Programme on Gender Equality (2023-2027), The RoadMap for Economic Empowerment of Women, the National Programme on Ending Violence against Women (2023-2027) and the activity of the newly established Parliamentary Standing committee on European Integration.

The consultant or team of consultants will collaborate closely with the National Specialist Consultants on EU Accession, Gender Mainstreaming, and Policy Ali