International Consultant – Gender Lens Investment and Financing

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; women’s empowerment; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action, and peace and security. UN Women is leading and coordinating the United Nations System to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It is providing strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with the private sector, civil society, government and other relevant actors.

With 10 years to go to the end date of gender inequality in 2030, UN Women is calling for enhanced and sustained actions to deliver on our collective global commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment as they are reflected across the Sustainable Development Goals including in SDG 5 and in the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action which celebrated 25 years in 2020. Evidence demonstrates that without adequate financing, the promise of the SDGs will not be met. In the wake of the global Covid-19 pandemic, extreme poverty is on the rise and it is feminized. Progress towards many SDG targets has sharply decelerated – widening inequalities within and between countries, and disproportionately impacting vulnerable groups. Women and girls have been especially, and adversely impacted.

UN Women is at the?forefront of innovative financing for gender equality, partnering with?Multilateral Development Banks and private financial institutions to catalyze Financing for Development (FFD)for governments’ own funding needs for SDG 5.

UN Women’s Key Objectives on innovative financing for gender equality include

• Integrate UN Women in the Financing for Development discourse
• Play an active role in growing SDG 5 financing?
• Build partnerships with IFIs and DFIs to influence their approach, financing and programming

UN Women is working to scale up and engage much more systematically with the IFIs and with Ministries of Finance to drive impact through programming.?A series of high-level dialogues with IFIs have focused on the need to ensure a gender lens in IFIs’ response and strengthening collaboration with UN Women. Discussions with Ministries of Finance have focused on the need to ensure gender responsive fiscal stimulus in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

UN Women Nordic Liaison Office will recruit a consultant to identify innovative financing mechanisms, for example gender lens investment, and new instruments, such as gender bonds, and support in taking UN Women’s work in this area forward. UN Women’s goal is to work closer with financing institutions in the Nordic countries to scale-up and sustain investments needed for gender equality. The Nordic Liaison Office will consider options for coordinated and collective action, as well as plan and prepare a roundtable, hosted by UN Women, which will seek to bring together the financial institutions in the Nordic countries. This roundtable will set out concrete actions to ensure women and girls are at the heart of long-term strategies and investments, including fiscal stimulus packages, for sustainable recovery to build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Under the leadership of the Director of the Nordic Liaison Office, and in close collaboration with the teams in UN Women HQ working on innovative financing, UN Women is looking to recruit a consultant to identify entry points and to conduct a mapping exercise of, and when possible establish, key relations with financial institutions, development funds, and other relevant actors in the Nordic countries to ensure that gender equality and inclusion is a high priority for financial institutions and ?is a key component of financing packages. The consultant will also create a detailed action plan for engagement and collaboration to drive this agenda forward, including conducting the necessary preparations to set up a Nordic Roundtable on Innovative Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

Location: Copenhagen with office space in UN City (with opportunity to work remotely)

Purpose and Objective of the Consultancy

The objective of the consultancy is two fold:

(1) Identify potential new partnerships and collaboration opportunities with the Nordic financial institutions, development funds, and other relevant institutions by considering collaboration on mobilizing financing for gender equality. This includes (i) the identification and mapping of specific entry points for engagement with the identified partners to enhance investment in gender equality, and (ii) to align the overall objectives with the outcomes in the Declaration of 2020 Finance in Common Summit, and the annexed Paris Development Banks’ Statement on Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment, to which UN Women have contributed, and (iii) to draft a detailed and elaborated action plan that outlines a strategy for initiating, facilitating, and implementing the proposed collaboration, differentiated between actors.

2) Conduct the necessary planning and preparations to organize a roundtable that brings together key financial institutions in the Nordic Countries, with the intention to encourage concrete actions at the highest level and collaboration with UN Women to ensure women and girls are at the heart of response plans and long-term strategies, including fiscal stimulus packages.

Scope of Work and Responsibilities

Identify potential partners in the Nordic countries for UN Women outreach to promote investment in gender equality

1. Conduct research on behalf of the Nordic Liaison Office to identify relevant financial institutions, development funds, and identify options for innovative financing for GEWE in the Nordic countries and other relevant actors in the Nordic countries with whom UN Women can collaborate on mobilizing financing for UN Women’s gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) mandate. The consultant will map the entry points for UN Women to collaborate with identified partners as well as produce an action plan on strategies for further collaboration, including on SDG5, for example, through

1. identifying suitable financial instruments to promote gender lens investing and the possibility of developing Gender Bond markets in the Nordic countries, including?facilitating further understanding the functioning and financial gains of such a market.
2. expanding sustainable financing principles to include guidance on gender through governments, corporate and private sector partners.
3. Identify the options for linking gender and the climate in innovative financing and financing mechanisms in the Nordics.
4. Identify ways of engaging with the Nordic governments on recovery packages, making use of existing research carried out by UN Women Nordic Liaison Office on the fiscal stimulus packages in the Nordics, as well as available policy documents and guidelines.

Define ways UN Women can engage with identified partners: Develop entry points

1. Define entry points for initial discussions to attract financial institutions to engage in dialogues on financing for GEWE. These entry points should be built on analysis of the financial institutions policies and strategies, and funding portfolio, as well as the relevant government’s policies and strategies as potential reference points for financing decisions. These entry points should also refer to specific divisions/units/people as entry points. This could focus on commercial and development banks and funds, governments, donors, private sector and to mobilise increased financing for SDG5.
2. Define senior-level contacts and build a strategy for outreach with each identified partner.
3. Propose tangible ways in which to collaborate with identified partners, including background research, development of strategy and approach, and liaise with relevant units in UN Women on shared value of stakeholder partnerships.
4. Define the scope of a roundtable on ‘Financing for Gender Equality’, with the identified partners, to take place in 2021, building on experiences from and complementing the existing annual Gender Diversity Roundtable.

Action plan to establish and develop collaboration with identified partners, through conducting the necessary planning and preparation a Nordic Roundtable on Innovative Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

1. Prepare an action plan for how UN Women can engage and collaborate with identified partners, including relevant business proposition and partnership models, development of strategy and approach, timeline and resources needed.
2. Plan and prepare a roundtable to be hosted by UN Women, bringing together the financial institutions in the Nordic countries. This Roundtable will seek to set out concrete actions at the highest level to ensure women and girls are at the heart of response plans and long-term strategies, including fiscal stimulus packages, for sustainable recovery to build back better after the COVID-19 pandemic.
   • Write a concept note that will set out the way forward for the work on Innovative Financing in the Nordics, building on the Global framework, which will serve as the framework for the roundtable.
   • Prepare a tentative agenda for the Roundtable, building on previous roundtables on the same topic, including Prepare invitations, building on previous roundtables on the same topic.
   • Liaise with key potential speakers and a moderator.

DELIVERABLES:

Identify partners for UN Women’s engagement on financing for gender equality in the Nordics (10 days)

1. Identify, and connect with, relevant partners in the Nordic countries that UN Women can engage with to promote financing for gender equality and women’s empowerment identified, including the outlining of innovative financing options for GEWE, as outlined above.

Define ways UN Women can engage with the identified partners in the Nordics (8 days)

1. Develop relevant entry points for initial discussions to attract each if these proposed financial institutions to engage in dialogues on financing for GEWE, identified. 
2. Produce options for UN Women engagement with identified partners to encourage gender mainstreaming and increased investment in GEWE identified, including options to engage these partners in a roundtable on ‘Financing for Gender Equality’.
3. Outline key persons for outreach identified and initial outreach conducted through a process agreed to with UN Women for each stakeholder.
4. Create an overview of themes and areas on which to base the discussion with potential partners identified and outlined.

Produce Action Plan for engagement and collaboration with identified partners, and prepare a Nordic Roundtable on Innovative Financing for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (7 days)

1. Produce an action plan for how UN Women can engage and collaborate with identified partners, including relevant business proposition and partnership models, development of strategy and approach, timeline and resources needed produced, as detailed above.

Functional Competencies

• Proven ability to design and implement relevant and targeted initiatives for collaboration.
• Ability to identify and develop strong partnerships with a variety of stakeholders.

Integrity

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.