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.
The Arab States region remains one of the most conflict-affected regions in the world, with multiple protracted and emerging crises, including in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Palestine, Lebanon, and Iraq, generating profound humanitarian, political, economic, and developmental consequences. These crises unfold in contexts where the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda remains critically under-implemented, and where the gap between WPS commitments and action continues to widen. Women and girls bear a disproportionate burden of conflict, facing heightened risks of gender-based violence, displacement, loss of livelihoods, and systematic exclusion from peace negotiations, political transitions, and recovery processes. Yet women in the region have not been only victims of conflict, they have been active peacebuilders, community leaders, and agents of resilience and recovery.
The relationship between conflict and gender inequality is complex, context-specific, and mutually reinforcing. Conflict erodes institutional protections, discriminately reshapes social norms, and frequently deepens pre-existing gender inequalities, curtailing women's rights and shrinking civic space. Conversely, entrenched gender inequality fuels conflict dynamics through the accumulation of grievances, unequal access to resources and decision-making, and the exclusion of women from political and social processes. Advancing the WPS agenda, with its four pillars of participation, prevention, protection, and relief and recovery, requires a rigorous understanding of these interlocking dynamics as the foundation for effective advocacy, programming, and policy engagement.
UN Women's Regional Office for the Arab States recognizes the urgent need for a rigorous, evidence-based, and gender-responsive conflict analysis that captures the differentiated experiences of women and men across the region's diverse conflict contexts, examines the structural drivers that sustain both conflict and gender inequality, and identifies concrete entry points for advancing the WPS agenda at national and regional levels. Such an analysis will strengthen UN Women's advocacy and policy engagement with Member States, UN system partners, regional bodies, and civil society, and contribute to more gender-responsive conflict prevention, peacebuilding, protection, and humanitarian response across the Arab States region. In addition the analysis will inform and strengthen UN Women’s programmatic engagement on WPS, including support to Country Offices in the region, and in particular programmatic interventions related to peacebuilding and conflict prevention in the region.
The consultancy will be managed by the UN Women Regional Office for the Arab States, under the direct supervision of the Regional WPS-HA Advisor. The consultant will maintain regular communication with the WPS team throughout the assignment, providing progress updates and flagging any methodological or contextual challenges in a timely manner. All key deliverables will be subject to review and approval by UN Women task manager prior to finalization.
Critical considerations:
The analysis should be explicitly situated within the current regional context, examining how major events such as October 7 and the regional escalation (Iran and US/Isarel conflict) and their aftermath have reshaped conflict dynamics, gender relations, and the WPS landscape across the Arab States region.
The analysis should resist broad regional generalizations and instead outline the distinct conflict typologies across the region, including conflict-affected fragile settings, post-conflict contexts, and countries in political transition, recognizing that each typology carries a distinct gender and WPS risk profile, shapes women's rights and protection differently, and requires differentiated analytical entry points and programmatic responses.
Components of the Gender-Responsive Conflict Analysis:
In line with UN Women and DPPA guidance on gender-responsive conflict analysis, and anchored in the four pillars of the Women, Peace and Security agenda, the research is structured around four core analytical components:
Component 1: Analysis of Actors and Context Analyzes the roles, relationships, and capacities of diverse actors, state and non-state, CSOs including women-led organizations and women peacebuilders, regional and global entities, in shaping conflict, peace and post conflict dynamics. It examines how power, social norms, and patriarchal structures influence conflict trajectories and constrain or enable women's participation and leadership in peace processes and post conflict recovery/reconstruction processes. It also provides a contextual overview of key conflict dynamics across the region, highlighting timelines and turning points with explicit WPS implications.
Component 2: Analysis of Causes, Evolving Dynamics, and Manifestations of Conflict Examines the gendered root causes, drivers, and triggers of conflict, including how gender-based inequalities and exclusions contribute to fragility and undermine sustainable peace. Consistent with the WPS prevention pillar, it analyzes how conflict reshapes women's rights, protection risks, and civic space, and identifies structural barriers to women's participation in early warning, mediation, and conflict prevention.
Component 3: Analysis of Gender Dimensions of Key Thematic Issue Areas Examines how gender dynamics shape and are shaped by issues central to sustainable conflict resolution. The methodology should prioritize key issue areas for deeper analysis that may include legal reform, security sector governance, transitional justice, political participation, humanitarian response, climate change, and economic recovery. Each area is assessed against WPS commitments and relevant Security Council resolutions, identifying entry points for gender-responsive and gender-transformative approaches.
Component 4: Actionable WPS-Anchored Recommendations Translates findings into concrete, evidence-based recommendations for UN Women's advocacy, policy, and programming, explicitly linked to WPS implementation across the region. Recommendations are tailored to key audiences including the UN system, the League of Arab States, Member States, donors, and civil society, and structured around the four WPS pillars, including opportunities to strengthen national WPS action plans and accountability mechanisms.
Beyond the four core components above, the analysis is expected to engage critically and in depth with the following interrelated thematic areas, examining how each shapes and is shaped by conflict dynamics in the Arab States region:
Social Norms and Gender Inequality The analysis should examine through an intersectional lens how conflict interacts with pre-existing patriarchal social norms, both entrenching and, in some cases, disrupting them. It should explore how norms governing women's mobility, roles, and status are instrumentalized during conflict, and how post-conflict norm reconstruction often reverses gains made during crisis periods.
Legal and Economic Barriers to Gender Equality and protection The analysis should assess the possible linkages between conflict and existing legal barriers to gender equality and the progress in implementing international normative feminist framework, with a focus on how power, exclusion and inequality shape conflict dynamics. Findings will be validated with UN Women and stakeholders prior to finalization. Where relevant, the analysis will also draw on available quantitative data sources such as the Georgetown institute for WPS’s WPS index, and UN ESCWA’s Peace tracker. The analysis should build on existing UN, including UN Women, guidance on gender-responsive conflict analysis, such as the UN Women Guidance Note: Gender-responsive conflict analysis (2022) .
The consultancy will be conducted over a period of five-six months, commencing from the date of contract signing. A detailed workplan will be agreed upon and finalized during the inception phase. The consultant will be responsible for the following deliverables:
Ethical Considerations
The consultant will be expected to adhere to UN Women's evaluation and research ethical standards throughout the assignment. This includes ensuring informed consent of all research participants, maintaining confidentiality, applying do-no-harm principles in all data collection activities, and ensuring the safety and dignity of women and girls engaged through the research process. Given the sensitive nature of some thematic areas, particularly those relating to masculinities, social norms, and gender backlash, the consultant should demonstrate particular care in how findings are framed and communicated to avoid reinforcing harmful narratives or exposing research participants to risk.
Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel:
This is a home-based consultancy. This position may include travel to Cairo, Egypt or other countries based on the need.
Competencies :
Core Values:
- Integrity;
- Professionalism;
- Respect for Diversity.
Core Competencies:
- Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
- Accountability;
- Creative Problem Solving;
- Effective Communication;
- Inclusive Collaboration;
- Stakeholder Engagement;
- Leading by Example.
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:
Functional Competencies:
- Technical credibility in qualitative research and working with women actors in sensitive, conflict or humanitarian settings;
- Ability to gather, analyze, and interpret qualitative data into actionable recommendations;
- Strong ability to work independently;
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills;
- Strong planning, prioritization, and time-management skills.
Required Qualifications:
Education:
- Master’s degree or equivalent in gender studies, political science, international relations, conflict studies, development studies, and/or any related field;
- A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;
- Advanced university degree in gender studies, political science, international relations, conflict studies, development studies, and/or any related field.
Experience
- At least 7 years of relevant professional experience in conflict analysis, gender research, or peacebuilding, with a strong focus on the Arab States region and/or any related field;
- Demonstrated expertise in gender-responsive conflict analysis research methodologies, including qualitative and quantitative approaches is required;
- Strong knowledge of the Women, Peace and Security agenda and relevant international normative frameworks is desirable;
- Demonstrated familiarity with feminist political economy, masculinities studies, and social norms change frameworks, and the ability to apply these analytically in conflict-affected contexts is desirable;
- Proven experience engaging with UN system processes, regional intergovernmental bodies, and civil society in conflict-affected contexts is desirable;
- Excellent analytical and writing skills in English; proficiency in Arabic is desirable;
- Prior experience working with or for UN Women or other UN agencies is desirable.
Languages:
- Fluency in English is required;
- Knowledge of Arabic is desirable.
Statements :
In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.
Diversity and inclusion:
At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.
If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.
UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)
Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process .
