Gender and Climate Finance Consultant, Home Based

Climate finance is increasingly important across Asia and the Pacific, a region facing rising climate risks while pursuing development, energy transition and resilience goals. Governments and other actors draw on domestic public budgets, international climate funds, development finance, private investment and financial markets to support mitigation and adaptation. However, the availability of finance does not always translate into resources reaching the countries, sectors and communities that need them most.

Barriers include limited fiscal space, gaps in project preparation and institutional capacity, difficulties accessing international funds, and challenges in mobilizing private investment for adaptation and locally led initiatives.

These challenges have gender dimensions. Women’s access to finance, assets, markets and decision-making remains unequal, while women-led enterprises and organizations often face barriers in accessing financial products and investment. Although gender equality is increasingly recognized in climate policies and funding frameworks, commitments are not always carried through into financing decisions, implementation and measurement of results. Strengthening gender-responsive climate finance therefore requires attention to the full financing cycle, from policy priorities and resource allocation to financial instruments, delivery mechanisms, participation and accountability.

To help address these gaps, UNDP, UN Women and UNEP jointly convene the Gender and Climate Finance Collective (Collective), a regional practitioners’ platform bringing together institutions working across climate finance, gender equality, financial markets, research, policy, civil society and implementation in Asia and the Pacific. The Collective, aligned with the Belem Gender Action Plan, enables members to exchange practical knowledge and good practices, identify opportunities for collaboration, and advance approaches that strengthen the design and implementation of gender-responsive climate finance.

The Collective has built an active foundation through member participation, regional webinars, bilateral consultations, case studies and an open resource hub. Consultations point to the value of a combining collective exchanges across the membership; thematic collaboration around shared financing and implementation challenges; and selective targeted support to member-led institutional, national and subnational processes. Members have also emphasized the importance of focusing on implementation, domestic and subnational financing pathways, practical peer exchange, and concise, usable knowledge products.

Building on this foundation and members’ expressed priorities, the GCFC is seeking to strengthen opportunities for practical collaboration across the network. UN Women, in coordination with UNDP and UNEP as co-chairs, therefore seeks an international consultant to serve as the Collective’s focal point and support its coordination, member engagement, thematic collaboration and knowledge-sharing.

Under the supervision of the designated co-convenors, the Consultant will serve as the focal point and support implementation of the  Member Engagement Strategy. The Consultant will coordinate the secretariat function, support member engagement and communications, facilitate thematic collaboration, and coordinate knowledge management and dissemination.

In light of this, the Consultant will perform the following tasks:

• Coordinate implementation of the annual GCFC workplan, activity calendar and engagement strategy, and the three-layer engagement model (Collective, Thematic, Targeted Bilateral).
• Se…