National Gender Expert, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Liberia, Monrovia, Liberia, SSA

Description

I. 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.

In Liberia, UN Women’s work under the 2026–2030 Strategic Note is focused on advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment so that women and girls can realize their rights and full potential in a peaceful, democratic, and equitable society. Within this framework, UN Women prioritizes support to human capital development and governance, peace and security, including strengthening gender-responsive institutions, enhancing women’s leadership, and supporting public systems to become more inclusive, accountable, and rights-based. In this context, support to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) represents a strategic entry point for advancing institutional transformation, strengthening women’s leadership in diplomacy, and embedding gender equality more systematically across Liberia’s national and international engagement.

A key area of engagement in 2025–2026 is UN Women’s support to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to advance a Gender-Responsive Foreign Policy (GRFP). This agenda seeks to ensure that equality, inclusion, women’s rights, and human rights principles are reflected not only in Liberia’s external relations and diplomatic engagements, but also in the Ministry’s internal systems, staffing architecture, planning processes, and accountability mechanisms. In this regard, the 2025 Gender Equality Assessment of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs constitutes an important institutional milestone. It demonstrates both the Ministry’s commitment and its readiness to take forward a more systematic and results-oriented gender equality agenda.

The assessment confirms, however, that important structural and operational constraints continue to limit progress. These include the underrepresentation of women, particularly in senior leadership and foreign service roles; limited in-house technical capacity for sustained gender mainstreaming; weak institutionalization of gender-responsive planning and budgeting; limited gender-disaggregated data for decision-making; and the absence of adequately resourced mechanisms, including a fully operational Gender Desk, to coordinate implementation and accountability. At the same time, the assessment identifies a set of high-impact priorities capable of accelerating reform, including strengthening institutional gender capacity, operationalizing gender-responsive planning and budgeting tools, establishing accountability and reporting mechanisms, advancing women’s leadership and mentorship pathways, and finalizing the GRFP framework and implementation roadmap.

Against this backdrop, UN Women and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have agreed to advance a coherent package of institutional priorities, including capacity strengthening of internal and external MFA personnel, finalization and operationalization of the GRFP framework, development of a gender marker, strengthening of the Gender Desk, establishment of a Women and Diplomacy Network, support to the Young Diplomats Programme, and increased engagement on women, peace and security and other international policy platforms. These priorities require sustained technical engagement, strategic coordination, and implementation support.

Reporting to the Partnerships and Coordination Specialist and working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Gender Expert will provide high-level technical, strategic, and coordination support to advance this institutional reform agenda. The overall objective of the consultancy is to strengthen the Ministry’s capacity to mainstream gender equality across its policies, systems, staffing, planning, budgeting, and diplomatic practice, while supporting implementation of the Gender Equality Assessment recommendations and laying the institutional foundations for Liberia’s Gender-Responsive Foreign Policy.

II. Detailed Responsibilities

1.Strategic Advisory and Institutional Gender Mainstreaming

• Provide high-level technical and advisory support to MFA leadership and the Gender Desk to position gender equality as a core institutional reform and governance priority.
• Strengthen internal coordination and implementation follow-up across relevant departments, missions, and units of the Ministry.
• Support alignment of MFA institutional priorities, systems, and processes with national gender equality frameworks, international commitments, and UN Women strategic priorities.
• Support the finalization, validation, and early operationalization of Liberia’s Gender-Responsive Foreign Policy (GRFP) framework and related implementation priorities.
• Ensure that GRFP commitments are integrated into broader Ministry reform processes, diplomatic practice, and institutional accountability mechanisms.
• Provide strategic technical inputs for national, regional, and global policy engagements related to feminist foreign policy, women in diplomacy, and inclusive governance.

2. Gender-Responsive Foreign Policy and Institutional Reform

• Support the finalization, validation, and early operationalization of Liberia’s Gender-Responsive Foreign Policy (GRFP) framework and related implementation priorities.
• Ensure that GRFP commitments are integrated into broader Ministry reform processes, diplomatic practice, and institutional accountability mechanisms.
• Provide strategic technical inputs for national, regional, and global policy engagements related to feminist foreign policy, women in diplomacy, and inclusive governance.

3. Institutional Capacity Development, Gender-Responsive Planning and Budgeting 

• Lead the design and implementation of a structured institutional capacity development approach for MFA personnel on gender equality, GRFP, women’s leadership, and prevention of sexual harassment, sexual exploitation, and abuse.
• Strengthen systems for continuous learning, organizational change, and practical application of gender-responsive approaches across the Ministry.
• Support the integration of gender equality content into induction, professional development, foreign service preparation, and relevant diplomatic training initiatives, including the Diplomats Programme.
• Strengthen institutional systems and tools for gender-responsive planning, budgeting, and resource tracking, including support to the operationalization of a gender marker.

4. Women’s Leadership, Diplomacy, and Strategic Engagement

• Advance strategic initiatives that promote women’s leadership, representation, and visibility in Liberia’s diplomatic and foreign service structures.
• Support the establishment and strengthening of institutional platforms, networks, and partnerships, including initiatives such as the Women and Diplomacy Network, to promote mentorship, peer exchange, and advocacy.
• Provide technical support to the Ministry’s engagement on Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and other international policy platforms (e.g FFP +Group), ensuring that women’s leadership and gender equality priorities are reflected in Liberia’s regional and global engagements.

Duration of the Work

The duration of this assignment will be from mid-May 2026 to 31 December 2026. 

Consultant’s Workplace and Official Travel

This is an office-based consultancy, Monrovia, Liberia.  The consultant will be located at Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Any required travel will be discussed and approved in advance by UN Women and shall be governed by UN Women Duty Travel Policies and Procedures. 

Performance Evaluation 

 The Consultant’s performance will be evaluated based on timeliness, responsibility, initiative, communication, accuracy, and quality of the products delivered. 

 Financial Arrangements  

Payments will be disbursed to the consultant monthly, upon submission and approval of major outputs or functions set forth in Section “Description of Responsibilities/Scope of Work” above, timesheets with actual days worked and certification by UN Women’s Partnerships and Coordination Specialist that the services have been satisfactorily performed. 

III. 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:

• Timely and quality implementation of program activities against set work plans, timelines and budgets
• Quality and timely reporting
• Strong relations with partners and stakeholders
• Regular and timely monitoring of activities 
• Timely and quality implementation of advocacy events in line with work plan
• Enhanced best practices and lessons learned documented and circulated 

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.