Gender transformative programming is crucial in ensuring gender justice and women’s rights. To truly transform gender relations that drive gender equality and justice requires engaging men and boys in our work to address how rigid and persistent gender norms impact power dynamics between men and women, but also among men. Rising conservatism and retraditionalization in the region, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, has exacerbated gender inequalities and made gender roles more narrow and constricting, burdening everyone in the society. Engaging men and boys in achieving gender justice gives everyone more options in terms of their experiences, behaviors and choices. The Regional EECA MenEngage Platform, coordinated by UNFPA EECARO and Country Offices in the region, is an alliance comprising of non-governmental organizations, civil society organizations, government representatives, academics and UN partners across 17 countries in the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. The EECA MenEngage Platform members aim to work collectively and individually to generate, disseminate and exchange knowledge and information on engaging men and boys in gender equality and addressing masculinities as an approach to gender-transformative programming, and provide a space for capacity development, and be a collective for joint actions for gender justice. Through this regional alliance, we seek to provide a collective voice on the need to challenge harmful gender norms, including through the engagement of men and boys alongside women and girls, to build and improve the field of practice around gender-transformation and advocating before policymakers at local, national and regional levels. Ultimately, the EECA MenEngage Platform contributes to scaling up gender-transformative programming by UNFPA and its partners, including working with men and boys in gender justice. The EECA MenEngage Platform complements and adds value by bringing on the lens of engaging boys and men in gender equality and addressing masculinities to the struggles and achievements of women’s rights, feminist and social justice organizations/movements in the region, through strong partnership and collaboration. Ultimately, the platform aims to become an effective and sustainable tool for a civil societyled network. In order to ensure approaches related to engaging men and boys in gender justice are inclusive, UNFPA aims to develop a report on ways to mainstream disability in such approaches.
The consultant will work as part of a team (one Masculinities Expert and one Disability Rights Experts) to undertake an analysis of issues related to disabilities and masculinities in the region and of approaches and practices around mainstream disability in men’s engagement. The overall deliverable will be a report on ways to mainstream disability in men's engagement for gender equality, with a specific focus on issues of gender transformative programming, gender-based violence, sexual reproductive health, humanitarian. The consultancy should take into account UNFPA’s mandate and programmes in the region (including, but not restricted to, gender transformative programming, ending GBV, SRH, youth, demographic resilience).
The team of consultants will jointly undertake the following activities (each contributing 11 work days): 1. Initial outline of the report
○ Develop an annotated outline for the report, co-created with UNFPA. This will be based on a series of consultations with key staff from the regional and country offices to co-create the outline.
2. Gather information to develop the report ○ Context analysis of issues related to masculinities and disabilities in the region.
○ Desk review of available publications, reports and products on mainstreaming disability within engaging men and boys for gender justice.
○ Annotated mapping of global approaches and practices used to mainstream disability in men’s engagement.
○ Consultations with key stakeholders. 3. Develop a technical brief on mainstreaming disability in men’s engagement
○ Technical brief’s exact content will be based on the initial plan from consulting with regional and country staff and the information gathered.
○ A framework/checklist for designing and implementing projects that mainstream disability within approaches to engage men and boys should be included.
4. Webinar to validate the report and present the findings for COs ○ Prepare and facilitate a webinar to present the draft report and recommendations to UNFPA country offices in the region to gather feedback before finalizing the report.
○ Prepare and facilitate a webinar to present the final report and recommendations to UNFPA country offices. The Masculinities Expert consultant will be responsible for all research, inputs, technical expertise and sections related to engaging men and boys on gender equality. The Masculinities Expert will work closely with the Disability Rights Expert to ensure issues of disability rights are mainstreamed within men’s engagement approaches.
The team of consultant is expected to deliver the following deliverables, which are to be produced and submitted to UNFPA EECARO in electronic format within the timeframe of this assignment:
● Methodology and work plan - 5 days
● Literature and desk review - 6 days
● Technical brief - 8 days
● Webinars - 3 days The team of two consultant will work in narrating and ensuring the quality of texts (structure, coherence of content, syntax, style, presentation) and will be responsible for editing of the document with a view to ensure clarity and continuity of the narration, internal consistency, including terminological accuracy, as well as general readability and accessibility to broad users.
Total number of days contributed by each team member is 11 work days.
The work of the Masculinities Expert consultant at all stages will be monitored and coordinated by the EECARO Gender Team, under the overall leadership of the Regional Gender Adviser.
Education & Experience:
● Master’s Degree in International Development, Gender Studies, Social Studies or related field
● Min 7 years of professional experience in the area of Gender, Masculinities,, Development, Economy, Political or Social Studies or related field;
● Experience of development of guidance and frameworks based on context analysis and mapping of best practices and case studies, stakeholder mapping, analytical reports;
● Experience of working on issues of masculinities, men and boys engagement and /or gender transformative programming.
● Strong analytical skills;
● Previous experience of working in the region is an asset;
● Previous experience in delivering similar assignments;
● The experience of work with the UN is an asset. Language Requirement
● Excellent spoken and written skills in English
● Knowledge of Russian is an asset Corporate Competencies
● Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
● Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
● Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
Interested candidates must submit their applications, including a CV and one-page cover letter, in an e-mail to recruitment.eecaro@unfpa.org with “Application – MenEngage Masculinities Expert” in the subject line by 30 September 2021. Due to the volume of applications, only short-listed applicants will be notified.
We are no longer accepting applications for this position.
