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.

Papua New Guinea has one of the lowest levels of women’s political representation globally. Women hold only three of the 118 seats in the National Parliament, despite constituting approximately 52 per cent of registered voters and 53 per cent of voters in the 2022 National General Election. Discriminatory social norms, unequal access to political and campaign resources, limited support from political parties, and violence against women in elections and politics (VAWIE/P) continue to constrain women’s equal and meaningful participation as voters, candidates, elected representatives, election officials, observers, and peacebuilders.

UN Women supports women’s political leadership, gender-responsive governance, and safer and more inclusive elections through three complementary programmes: Women Make the Change: Increased Voice for Women in Political Processes (Phase 2), convened by UN Women in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP); Support to Peaceful Elections in Papua New Guinea (SPE PNG), convened by UNDP in partnership with UN Women and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR); and Strengthening Papua New Guinea’s National Women’s Machinery and Accountability Mechanisms for Advancing Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment. Together, these programmes support the development and visibility of women leaders; strengthen national women’s machinery and women’s rights institutions; and promote electoral conflict prevention, safe and inclusive political participation, gender-responsive electoral processes, and institutional accountability.

Against this background, UN Women Papua New Guinea is seeking to recruit an international consultant to provide technical assistance and coordination support to government and civil society partners engaged in the implementation of its inclusive governance and election portfolio. The consultant will report directly to the UN Women Country Representative, with day-to-day oversight and support provided by the Deputy Country Representative.

Purpose and Objective of the Consultancy:

The purpose of this consultancy is to provide senior technical, coordination, and results-management support for UN Women's assigned components of the governance project portfolio. The consultant will strengthen national ownership and institutional capacity; ensure complementarity between governance, women's political leadership and peaceful elections interventions; and support timely, high-quality planning, implementation, monitoring, reporting, and learning.

Description of Responsibilities / Scope of Work:

1. Integrated programme planning, coordination, and implementation support for the governance project portfolio
2. Technical support to partners under the governance project portfolio
3. Establishment and operationalization of the gender-responsive Elections Situation Room
4. Results-based monitoring, reporting, learning and communications
5. Plan and facilitate workshops, trainings, seminars, and meetings in the area of women’s political participation and governance
6. Build partnerships and support in developing resource mobilization strategies.

Key Results / Expected Outputs:

• An integrated and sequenced implementation plan for UN Women’s inclusive governance portfolio is developed and maintained, with clear responsibilities, milestones, evidence requirements, risk controls, and mechanisms for timely corrective action.
• The gender-responsive and women-led functions of the Peaceful Elections Situation Room (PESR) are operational within an integrated electoral early warning and response architecture, with tested protocols, trained monitors, safe and accessible reporting channels, VAWIE/P incident classification, referral pathways, and de-identified analysis.
• UN Women’s technical contributions to gender- and disability-inclusive electoral guidance and VAWIE/P prevention and response training are validated, rolled out through relevant institutions, and documented against the SPE PNG results framework.
• Women Make the Change activities assigned to UN Women are implemented with strengthened partner ownership, quality-assured curricula and mentoring arrangements, inclusive participation, evidence of capacity development, and linkages to sustainable institutional mechanisms.
• National women’s machinery and accountability mechanisms are strengthened through coordinated technical assistance to relevant government institutions and women’s rights organizations.
• Programme agreements with government and civil society partners are effectively coordinated, monitored, and documented in accordance with UN Women’s rules, regulations, and approved workplans.
• Trainings, workshops, and dialogues on gender-responsive governance, women’s political participation, and inclusive electoral processes are effectively planned, facilitated, delivered, and documented.
• Corporate, donor, and joint programme reports, and knowledge products are prepared and submitted on time, are accurate and results-based, and are supported by appropriate evidence, analysis, and lessons learned.
• Government partners are supported to successfully host and document the Triennial Conference of Pacific Women and the Meeting of Pacific Ministers for Women in Papua New Guinea, including the effective planning and delivery of UN Women-supported side events, preparation of technical and meeting materials, stakeholder coordination, documentation of proceedings, timely reporting, and follow-up on agreed recommendations and commitments.