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, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. UN Women is mandated to lead, coordinate, and promote accountability for the implementation of gender equality commitments across the UN System. 

 Across Asia and the Pacific, UN Women promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment. UN Women implements programs (including normative and advocacy) in 41 Member States in the region, including Australia, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nauru, Nepal, New Zealand, Niue, Pakistan, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, and Viet Nam, through direct implementation as well as implementing partners, which include government entities, non-governmental organizations, the private sector, UN agencies, and non-UN intergovernmental organizations. 

At the global level, the Paris Agreement, Sendai Framework, and the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda all recognize the commitment needed to address climate change and disasters in a manner that upholds human rights, gender equality, and the empowerment of women in all their diversity. These frameworks also recognize that combating, adapting to, and responding to climate change and disasters needs to be achieved while respecting and promoting human rights as well as gender equality and the empowerment of women. The submission of NDC 3.0, with a significant proportion of Asia-Pacific submissions including explicit gender commitments alongside the adoption of the new UNFCCC Gender Action Plan (2025–2035) at COP30, and evolving commitments on climate finance, technology transfer, just transitions, loss and damage, and adaptation planning create new opportunities and obligations for governments and regional institutions to strengthen gender-responsive climate action. 

In addition, UN Women launched its first Climate and Environment Strategy at COP 30, reaffirming the organization’s commitment to supporting Member States in integrating gender equality into climate governance, climate finance architecture, environmental policy, and resilience-building efforts. The Strategy identifies priority pathways to strengthen women’s leadership, enhance inclusive means of implementation (finance, technology, capacity building), and ensure climate policies and investments benefit women, girls, Indigenous Peoples, youth, persons living with disabilities, and other marginalized groups.

To respond effectively to these global and regional developments, UN Women supports national governments and partners in ensuring that climate and disaster risk reduction (DRR) policies, investments, and governance systems are gender-responsive and grounded in human rights. UN Women’s climate change and DRR programming in the region is shaped by ongoing analysis of progress, institutional capacities, and identified gaps. Current initiatives are implemented at both regional and country levels, including in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, the Pacific region, and Viet Nam. This portfolio includes the joint UN Women- UNEP programme, EmPower: Women for Climate-Resilient Societies in Asia and the Pacific (2023-2027).

UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) seeks to expand its existing pool of experts and seeks to engage senior strategic expert consultant under a retainer contract to ensure consistent, high-quality technical advisory support on gender-responsive climate change, disaster risk reduction, and environmental governance. The consultant will serve as an on-call strategic and technical resource to the Regional Office, Multi-Country Offices, and Country Offices, supporting normative processes, regional coordination mechanisms, analysis and knowledge production, and high impact strategic programmatic initiatives.

UN Women appreciates flexible and timely access to specialized expertise. The retainer modality enables UN Women to request technical support as needed, through work orders that define specific assignments, deliverables, and timelines. While the consultant will be a key resource in advancing the organization’s climate and environment agenda, the retainer contract does not guarantee a minimum volume of work, and the consultant may decline assignments depending on their availability and expertise.

Objective of the consultancy 

The objective of this consultancy is to provide authoritative and strategic normative, coordination, and technical advisory support to strengthen gender-responsive climate and environmental governance in Asia and the Pacific, with a particular focus on supporting both the development and driving the effective implementation and scale-up of gender-responsive climate policies and commitments. The consultant will assist and strategically advise UN Women, Member States, and regional institutions in advancing and operationalizing gender mandates embedded in NDC 3.0, the UNFCCC Gender Action Plan (2025–2035), regional strategies, and national adaptation, mitigation, and climate finance frameworks.

The consultancy will therefore contribute to:

  • Advancing gender equality and women’s leadership across climate policy development and implementation processes through high-level advocacy and strategic engagement; 
  • Strengthening institutional capacity to implement gender-responsive climate and environmental actions at scale; 
  • Enhancing strategic regional coordination and partnerships across UN system entities, intergovernmental bodies, and civil society; 
  • Supporting and shaping UN Women’s strategic engagement, preparations, and follow-up of the Rio Conventions (Conferences of the Parties (COPs) on climate, desertification, and biodiversity); and 
  • Generating strategic, policy-relevant evidence and tools to support country-level delivery and regional policy coherence.

Description of Responsibilities /Scope of Work

Under the overall strategic guidance of Regional Programme Coordinator on Gender and Climate and/or regional specialists on disaster risk reduction and climate, and/or disaster risk reduction focal points/specialists, and/or deputy representatives in MCO/Country Offices, this retainer pool seeks high-level expertise in climate-resilient agriculture, gender-responsive climate finance, disaster risk management, sustainable development, environmental sustainability, community resilience building and more. 

A. Normative and Policy Support
  • Provide authoritative technical and strategic inputs to integrate gender equality into regional climate frameworks and other relevant intergovernmental initiatives.
  • Empower Member States in both formulating and driving the implementation of gender-responsive climate commitments within NDC 3.0, National Adaptation Plans (NAPs), Long-Term Strategies (LTS), sectoral climate policies, and just transition frameworks.
  • Develop high-quality, policy-oriented guidance, analytical notes, gender assessments, and forward-looking technical recommendations on climate governance, climate finance, MRV systems, technology transfer, loss and damage, and nature-based solutions.
  • Provide strategic and authoritative advice to UN Women country offices to support complex and emerging requests linked to policy implementation, institutional reforms, and climate and environment governance needs.
  • Assist governments in translating policy commitments into scalable and sustainable implementation plans, including institutional strengthening plans, costing approaches, budgeting and tagging systems, and gender-responsive investment frameworks.
B. Regional Coordination and Multi-Stakeholder Engagement
  • Guide and ensure effective coordination of UN Women’s engagement across UN system entities and regional mechanisms related to climate change and environmental governance.
  • Lead the strategic design and delivery of regional policy dialogues, technical meetings, consultation processes, and cross-country learning exchanges

C. Support to UNFCCC Processes and Global Climate Governance

  • Provide technical analysis and strategic briefings on UNFCCC negotiation tracks and global climate policy developments relevant to gender equality, including climate finance, adaptation, the Global Goal on Adaptation, Article 6, just transitions, technology mechanisms, and loss and damage.
  • Lead the development of technical notes, briefing materials, talking points, and background papers to inform and position UN Women’s contributions to engagement in Rio Conventions, including, but not limited to UNFCCC bodies, negotiations, subsidiary meetings (SBs), and intersessional processes.
  • Guide and ensure effective UN Women engagement in Rio Conventions, including, but not limited to, providing strategic technical inputs to global climate and environment fora, UNFCCC events, high-level dialogues, regional climate dialogues, and intergovernmental consultations, and coordinating contributions as required.
  • Develop strategic, policy-relevant post-session or post-negotiation analysis highlighting implications for Asia-Pacific, opportunities for gender-responsive implementation, and forward-looking recommended follow-up actions for UN Women, governments, and regional institutions.
  • Provide high-level, on-demand strategic advisory support to Member States and UN Women offices in interpreting and implementing decisions of the UNFCCC, including the new Gender Action Plan (2025–2035) and commitments under NDCs, NAPs, and other national reporting frameworks.
D. Knowledge Management and Capacity Development
  • Lead and oversee the development of or provide strategic contributions to knowledge products, case studies, guidance notes, and technical tools that support the implementation and scale-up of gender-responsive climate, DRR and environment policies.
  • Design and lead the delivery of strategic capacity-building initiatives (training, coaching, workshops) for governments, UN entities, civil society, and regional institutions on gender-responsive climate governance, climate finance, climate budgeting, MRV, and policy implementation.
  • Synthesize and distill lessons learned, promising practices, and implementation pathways to support institutional learning, policy uptake, and cross-country exchange at scale.
  • Lead and facilitate learning sessions and technical dialogues to strengthen capacity for effective policy execution, monitoring, and accountability.

*Note: The service will be rendered on “on call” basis.  UN Women does not warrant that the maximum of contract amount will be purchased during the term of the Agreement. While on retainer, there is no guarantee of work, and selected consultants retain the right to decline assignments based on their availability and expertise.

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is a home-based consultancy. As part of this assignment, there might be travel within the Asia-Pacific region as required. The travel will be arranged by UN Women following UN Women’s Travel Policy.

Competencies

Core Values:

  • Respect for Diversity 
  • Integrity 
  • Professionalism 
  • Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues 
  • Accountability 
  • Creative Problem Solving 
  • Effective Communication 
  • Inclusive Collaboration 
  • Stakeholder Engagement 
  • Leading by Example 
Core Competencies:  Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies:   https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES: 
  • Technical expertise in the field of climate change/environmental governance
  • Excellent programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills at strategic level 
  • Excellent analytical skills with strong strategic orientation 
  • Excellent communication and negotiation skills at senior level 
  • Strong coordination and partnership-building skills across complex stakeholder environments 
  • Ability to lead formulation of strategies and their implementation at regional and/or global level 
  • Strong networking and partnership building skills with high-level stakeholders

Required Qualifications

Education and Certification:

  • Master’s degree in Gender and Development, Climate Change, Environmental Policy, Environmental science, Public Policy, Sustainable Development or other relevant disciplines. A first-level university degree in combination with additional qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree

Experience:

  • Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible and relevant experience in climate change, environmental governance, disaster risk reduction, or related fields, with demonstrated integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment in policy and strategic programmatic work.
  • Demonstrated experience providing high-level normative and policy advisory support to governments, regional institutions, or intergovernmental bodies, such as integrating gender equality into climate governance, NDCs/NAPs, climate finance frameworks, just transition strategies, DRR policies, or environmental action plans, particularly in the Asia and Pacific region.
  • Proven experience engaging with and contributing to UNFCCC processes, COP preparations, negotiation tracks, or climate policy analysis at regional or global level is a strong asset.
  • Experience in designing and leading capacity development initiatives, such as workshops, trainings, or technical sessions, on gender and climate, gender-responsive climate finance, climate governance, or DRR is required.
  • Experience working with UN agencies, bilateral and multilateral donors, private sector actors, and philanthropic institutions in complex, multi-stakeholder environments is an asset.
  • Experience working within the UN system, multilateral agreements (e.g., UNFCCC), or other international organizations engaged in climate risk governance at regional or global level is an asset.

Languages

  • Fluency in English is required.
  • Knowledge of other languages spoken in the Asia-Pacific region, or any UN official language is an asset.
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