Consultant WEPs implementation and policy development

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.

Despite the volatility and war inside Ukraine, UN Women remains committed to delivering results across strategic priorities, exercising its triple mandate and building key partnerships. With the war in Ukraine having dramatically shifted the immediate priorities, it remains all the more essential that the rights of women and girls remain at the centre of the humanitarian response. Aligning with the UN priorities, UN Women’s future operations in the country will focus on amplifying the localization agenda and strengthening the local women‑led gender‑responsive humanitarian response and ensuring the experiences of displaced, at risk and vulnerable women and girls are central during the recovery process.

In the 2025‑2029 Strategic Note, UN Women Ukraine CO determined three main pillars for the strategic interventions:
Peace, Justice & Strong Institutions;
Inclusive Economic Growth;
Humanitarian Assistance & Coordination. In line with the UN Women Ukraine Country Office Strategic Note 2025‑2029, UN Women applies transformative approaches to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment by addressing the root causes, structural barriers, and restrictive social norms that sustain gender inequalities.

Under Outcome 2 – Inclusive Economic Growth, the Country Office focuses on strengthening women’s economic empowerment as a key driver of Ukraine’s inclusive and sustainable recovery. UN Women works simultaneously with government institutions, women’s organizations, and the private sector to foster an enabling environment for equal opportunities, inclusive labour markets, and gender‑responsive business practices. This comprehensive approach aims to ensure that women and men have equal access to economic resources, decision‑making, and opportunities to contribute to and benefit from Ukraine’s recovery and growth.

Gender stereotypes remain a significant factor preventing the achievement of gender equality in all spheres of life despite Ukraine’s accession to international agreements and adoption of national legislation on equal rights and opportunities for women and men. Since 2006, Ukraine’s ranking in economic participation and opportunity in the Gender Gap Index has fallen from 24th to 63rd place in 2024. Gender segregation and discriminatory attitudes towards women permeate the workplace.

Employed women have less access to finances than men: the gender pay gap between women and men in Ukraine is 41.4 percent.

In 2020, women’s employment rates were lower than men (51 percent versus 62 percent). The socioeconomic impact of the crisis since 2014 has affected women and men’s access to paid work, increasing unemployment by 30 percent. For internally displaced persons, the gap was even higher. The full‑scale war will impact unemployment rates among all categories of the population and will most likely continue pushing women into the unprotected informal sectors of the economy.

To contribute to the women’s economic empowerment during the full‑scale Russian invasion, UN Women has supported services on raising awareness, providing training and aid to the women and girls affected by the full‑scale war to improve their economic opportunities in Ukraine and abroad (with a special focus on IT and tech industries), as well as enhancing capacities of the private sector to respond to unemployment and career disruption of women in Ukraine caused by displacement and economic crisis.

Support of private companies on women economic empowerment during the full‑fledged war in Ukraine is one of the key areas of UN Women’s interventions.

UN Women is seeking a National Consultant to support private companies and business associations, including current and potential WEPs signatories, in advancing the implementation of the Women’s Empowerment Principles. The…