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.
Through the General Assembly Resolutions 75/233 on the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR) and 72/279 on UN repositioning, the United Nations Development System (UNDS) is presented with a mandate to transform in order to respond to the ambition of the 2030 Agenda. The 2020 QCPR places strong emphasis on the fundamental importance of promoting gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, noting the multiplier effect for achieving sustained and inclusive economic growth, poverty eradication and sustainable development. It calls upon all entities of the UNDS to continue to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality by enhancing and accelerating gender mainstreaming through the full implementation of the UNCT performance indicators for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) (the “UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard”) and calls on UN entities to draw on gender expertise, including in UN Women, to assist with gender mainstreaming in the preparation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Strategic Framework. As also recognized by the UNSDG Guidance for the Transitional Engagement Framework (TEF), gender equality and women’s empowerment should be mainstreamed through UN programming, and it is identified as a priority for the Decade of Action.
Against this backdrop, the imperative underscored by UN repositioning processes and the 2020 QCPR is for the UNDS to accelerate joint efforts to support the implementation and advancement of GEWE commitments across the SDGs, particularly at the country level where it matters the most, with the TEF providing a vehicle to drive collective UN support to achieving the 2030 Agenda, and the new generation of UNCTs and re-invigorated Resident Coordinator Office (RCO) system providing opportunities to ensure coherent and accountable joint planning and programming in support of gender equality priorities. The inclusion of performance indicators relating to GEWE in the performance assessment system of Resident Coordinators under the Mutual Accountability Framework (MAF) provides further opportunities to drive accountability for GEWE under the RC system.
The criticality of ensuring gender equality commitments across the UNCT priorities remains imperative in Afghanistan. It is also an imperative for donors, notably the European Union and its Member States, providing basic human needs aid to the country. Following the takeover by Taliban in August 2021, Afghanistan has emerged as one of the world’s most pressing women’s rights crisis and the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Afghan people are grappling with the impact of conflict, poverty, economic decline, and natural disasters. In this context, Afghan women and girls face unique vulnerabilities and require urgent support as gender inequality is interwoven with conflict dynamics and humanitarian needs. It is essential
that Afghan women and girls can continue to shape the development of their country, and that their gains are protected across the full spectrum of UN operations in country.
It is in this context that the RCO is seeking a Gender Equality Coordinator to ensure that GEWE is mainstreamed throughout all UN systems planning and programming processes, including work related to Inter-Agency Standing Committee, basic human needs, the TEF – and that an enabling environment for gender parity within the UNCT is promoted. This function is part of UN Development Coordination Office’s (DCO) efforts, in collaboration with UN Women, to ensure senior level gender expertise and coordination support is available to the UNCT, in order to support coherent gender mainstreaming efforts and progress on gender equality across the SDGs and in alignment with humanitarian-development-peace nexus. The Gender Equality Coordinator will also play a key support function in relation to the Afghanistan Coordination Group (ACG) and in particular donors involved in basic human needs assistance to Afghanistan.
The Gender Equality Coordinator will provide technical leadership in support of inclusive resource mobilization efforts to ensure that gender interventions in the country are funded sufficiently, ensuring coherence across different financial pipelines and the monitoring frameworks established by inter-agency mechanisms. She/He will also lead efforts to ensure that ACG donors, regional organizations, the UNCT, civil society, the private sector, the media and other relevant actors comprehensively take gender concerns into account, by facilitating the coordination of the advocacy efforts of relevant partners and organizations. This includes ensuring effective engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs), especially women-led and gender focused CSOs, in the design, development and implementation of UN’s Transitional Engagement Framework and the ACG mid-term strategic framework. The Gender Equality Coordinator shall also ensure coherence and accountability across planning frameworks, including reporting e.g., humanitarian response plans and the basic humans needs, to ensure alignment with the humanitarian donors “Guiding Principles and Donor’s Expectations’ (adopted on 14 February 2023) and the complementary Basic Human Needs (BHN) principles approved by ACG donors and EU Member states on 5 April 2023.
Reporting to UN Women Special Representative for Afghanistan, and under direct supervision and guidance of the Resident Coordinator (RC)/Humanitarian Coordinator (HC). The Gender Equality Coordinator will support the development and strengthening of a strategic vision for gender mainstreaming for UN joint programming and provide coordination and technical and policy advisory support on women’s rights and gender equality to the RC/HC, the UNCT and the ACG. The Gender Equality Coordinator will manage and coordinate all aspects of technical support to gender programming in Afghanistan as required, including programme development to be managed and implemented by UNCT, as well as continued monitoring of implementation and reporting, including for the ACG, IASC and Basic Human Needs frameworks. The Gender Equality Coordinator will work in close collaboration with Head of RCO and UN agencies, technical advisors and experts, partners of the ACG and civil society.
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