Background

The 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, peace, and security.

UN Women’s goal in Liberia is to promote women’s human rights and gender equality which are key in sustaining and furthering achievements in stability, inclusion, and sustainable development.  In this regard, it’s programming in the Country is connected to four corporate priority areas: women’s leadership and political participation and gender responsive budgeting; enhancing women’s economic empowerment (WEE); engaging women in all aspects of women, peace, and security (WPS) processes; and advancing women’s rights to live free from violence. UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in Liberia including the government, civil society and women’s organizations, youth, UN agencies and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment. Gender inequality remains a pervasive issue in Liberian society, entrenched by cultural norms and reinforced by several factors. This inequality manifests significantly within the financial sector, where the absence of gender-responsive policies and practices restricts women’s access to services and opportunities, perpetuating social disparities. Beyond finance, Liberia’s development trajectory is hindered by weak governance, institutional limitations, and corruption. This complex scenario demands gender-balanced policies, budgets, and programs to improve accountability, strengthen institutions, and create an enabling environment for inclusive and sustainable development.

Despite some progress, Liberia’s ranking on various indices highlights the urgency of addressing gender inequality. Its score of 0.871 on the Gender Development Index and 158th place out of 161 countries on the SDG Gender Index is the lowest in the world. Socio-cultural norms and perceptions often limit women’s participation in various spheres, leading to challenges like limited access to justice, violence, female genital mutilation, child marriage, and low representation in leadership. These inequalities impede inclusive growth and development.

Against this backdrop, the Government of Liberia and partners are conducting the Drivers of Sustainable and Inclusive Development (DoD) study. This study follows the expiration of the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development and prepares for the upcoming SDGs Summit. This study reflects the commitment of stakeholders to change Liberia’s development narrative and identify catalytic solutions for achieving sustainable development.

With a dedicated focus on gender, the DoD study aims to inform the next development plan, national vision, and other frameworks. To ensure gender mainstreaming in these processes, UN Women seeks to hire a national consultant to serve as a gender and development advisor. This individual will work with the GOL, United Nations particularly UN Women and UNDP and partners to integrate gender considerations into policies, budgets, programs, and plans at national and sub-national levels.

Together with PADP sectoral portfolio review, PADP final evaluation, DoD study will inform the next national development agenda, National Vision, Agenda 2063/SDGs, and other development Frameworks- UNSDCF, CAS, etc.  It is therefore imperative to ensure that gender is mainstreamed in this and other related processes, including the preparation for the SDGs summit for which Government of Liberia is developing the SDGs transformation Roadmap (strategy for transformation in Liberia over the next 7 years)

In producing the SDGs transformation roadmap, as well as in conducting DoD study, the government and partners are expected to conduct inclusive consultations and national validation. Such a process will therefore entail consolidation, coordination, and working with different thematic chapter focal points/consultants, and technical teams to ensure gender mainstreaming.

In this context, UN Women Liberia seeks to hire a national consultant who will serve as a gender and development advisor to ensure gender is mainstreamed/integrated into policies, budgets, programs, and plans at the national and sub-national levels.   The International Consultant will work with other consultants hired by UNDP for the DoD Study and with the government of Liberia to support other gender sensitive research, policy, plans and strategy developments processes.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the Country Representative and direct matrixed supervision, and in close consultation with the Gender-Responsive Budgeting Programme Specialist and the Ministry of Gender Children and Social Protection (MGCSP), the national Consultant will accomplish the following tasks:

Technical Support including supporting gender-informed studies to drive sustainable and inclusive transformation and development.

• Serve as the gender technical focal point for both the GoL and the UN Women regarding the conduct of gender analysis for the DoD studies and other strategy development processes for which gender mainstreaming may be imperative.
• Validate or co-create gender analysis frameworks for gender mainstreaming studies such as the DoD study jointly with consultants/stakeholders supported by specific tools to gather and analyze gender-focused information.
• Provide, as a member of the technical team, gender-responsive inputs into the drafting of the drivers for development study and support the MFDP with gender analysis of the national budget