UN Women, Gender in Climate Change & Environmental Senior Expert, Home based, International Retainer Consultant

Job Description

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, thr Apply tot his job Apply To this Job