UN Women : International Consultant – Institutional Mapping for Transforming Care Systems in ECOWAS

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.

UN Women supports Member States in setting and implementing global standards for achieving gender equality and coordinates gender-related work within the United Nations. UN Women's Strategic Plan 2026-2029 focuses on integrated approaches with three systemic outcomes (Norms, laws, and policies; Accountable institutions and Women’s agency and access to resources) to address the root causes of inequality and affect broader systems change, across four impact areas: Women’s leadership and decision-making; Women’s economic empowerment; Ending violence against women and girls; and Women, peace and security, and humanitarian action.

In the area of women's economic empowerment, UN Women West and Central Africa Regional Office works, among others, to recognize, reduce, and redistribute women’s unpaid care work and transform care systems by supporting the formulation and implementation of gender-and care-responsive economic policies and programmes.

Care Economy in the ECOWAS region

Care work is the backbone of households and societies, yet it often remains invisible, unpaid, and undervalued. In the ECOWAS region, women spend on average three to five times more time on unpaid care work than men, including fetching water, collecting firewood, doing laundry, preparing food, and caring for children, the sick, older persons, and people with disability. This unequal distribution of unpaid care, coupled with limited access to care infrastructure and services, poses a significant barrier to women’s economic participation. In 2023, 28.24 million women in ECOWAS who wished to work were unemployed, primarily due to unpaid care responsibilities. The lack of integration of care considerations into public policies undermines progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), costing the region an estimated 6–10% of GDP annually.

Recent evidence shows that transforming care systems represents a triple opportunity for ECOWAS: the creation of decent jobs (especially for women), economic growth and increased fiscal revenues, and the reduction of gender inequalities. In this context, there is an urgent need to strengthen and transform care systems through a regional approach. UN Women and the ECOWAS Commission, through the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (EGDC), are collaborating to support a gender-just and equal care economy in the region. In April 2025, a high-level care regional dialogue workshop was held in Dakar, Senegal, in April 2025, under the theme: “Building Inclusive and Resilient Care Systems and Ecosystems for Women’s Economic Empowerment and Economic Development in ECOWAS.” The dialogue workshop served as a platform to initiate consultation and a framework for the ECOWAS Commission on the care economy and women’s economic empowerment.

Description of Responsibilities/ Scope of Work The consultant will undertake the following tasks : Activity 1: Institutional Mapping on care

         Map ECOWAS Commission directorates, departments, agencies, and affiliated bodies (e.g., ECOWAS Female Parliamentarians Association) with mandates or programs relevant to care systems.

   Identify existing policies, strategies, or initiatives that touch on care systems or could potentially transform care systems (e.g., recognize, reduce, and redistribute women’s unpaid care work; reward and represent paid care workers; foster care entrepreneurship; invest in care services and infrastructure).

   Highlight gaps and opportunities for care economy integration. Activity 2: Entry Point Identification

•            Analyze ECOWAS policy cycles and strategic planning processes for short-, medium-, and long-term entry points.

 •            Develop an action plan with mechanisms for mainstreaming care into ECOWAS frameworks

•            Activity 3: ECOWAS Care Institutional Case

 Develop a high-level "institutional case" narrative and advocacy pitch to position the care economy as a strategic priority for ECOWAS, aligning it with ECOWAS' core mandate, values, and priorities: regional integration, economic growth, human development, and gender equality.

•            Identify actionable recommendations for UN Women and EGDC to engage ECOWAS leadership.

Methodology

The consultant is expected to follow the methodology below. 

 1. Data collection phase:

•   Desk review of existing documentation and data (including official ECOWAS documents, policy frameworks, and reports, examples of regional care processes developed by other Regional Economic Commissions across the world).
•  Online Interviews with the EGDC teams and key ECOWAS institutions identified
•   A mission to ECOWAS Commission Headquarters (Abuja, Nigeria) to conduct in-person interviews with key relevant departments and the women parliamentarians, as well as a mission to the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (Dakar, Senegal) (Estimated duration: 2 weeks).
•   Interviews with other organizations and stakeholders to capitalize on existing practices on care

 2. Data analysis, reporting, writing:

•  The consultant will gain support from the technical expertise of the UN Women Regional Office WEE Unit (leading the work on care in the region).

3. Data restitution

•   Prepare and present findings during a final virtual restitution workshop, co-organized by UN Women and EGDC, with participation from other ECOWAS Commission departments.
•      Integrate feedback from the restitution workshop into the final report.

Deliverables

The work is expected to start on 5 January 2026 and be finalized by 27 April 2026. The expected deliverables are detailed below, to be completed within a 40-day assignment.
 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. As part of this assignment, there will be a mission to the ECOWAS Commission Headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria, and to the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (Dakar, Senegal).

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

• Technical credibility in gender-responsive economic policy
• Research and Knowledge Generation
• Knowledge Facilitation
• Negotiation and Influence
• Strategic Thinking
• Collective Intelligence Design

IV. Required Qualifications

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.