United Nations Environment Programme is looking for a Gender Specialist (Remote)

Position title: Gender specialist

Organization: United Nations Environment Programme

Location: GENEVA

Level: CON - CON

Job Family: ENV

Application Deadline: 21 April 2026 at 03:59 UTC

Job Opening Number: 26-United Nations Environment Programme-274991-Consultant

Apply via: UN Inspira Portal

Result of Service

• A revised, evidence based, and more effective global Gender Equality Action Plan for the GEF ISLANDS programme, reflecting progress to date and new gender analyses from regional projects.
• Gender focal points/specialists established and supported across ISLANDS regional child projects, with improved capacity to integrate gender responsive approaches in design, implementation, stakeholder engagement, outputs, and project management processes.
• Technical guidance and insights provided for the development or update of regional child projects’ gender action plans, aligned with GEF and UNEP gender policies and global ISLANDS priorities.
• Training sessions delivered to regional teams and stakeholders, resulting in improved understanding and practical application of gender responsive approaches in project implementation.
• CCKM global outputs (e.g., reports, campaigns, stakeholder engagement products) reviewed and improved to ensure full integration of gender sensitive and gender responsive principles.
• A documented webinar series produced and facilitated; active participation as gender expert in global events; increased knowledge sharing via the Green Forum (blogs, interviews, insights).
• A set of gender related indicators developed and included in the ISLANDS programmatic monitoring and reporting framework.
• Quarterly gender-progress updates synthesized and translated into strategic insights for the ISLANDS annual report, strengthening monitoring, reporting, and learning across the programme

Work Location

Remote

Expected duration

6 months

Duties and Responsibilities

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is the United Nations system’s designated entity for addressing environmental issues at the global and regional level. Its mandate is to coordinate the development of environmental policy consensus by keeping the global environment under review and bringing emerging issues to the attention of governments and the international community for action. UNEP leads the Green Growth Knowledge Partnership (GGKP) together with UNIDO, the World Bank, the OECD and GGGI. As an established global knowledge brokerage, GGKP brings together a global community of policy, business, and finance professionals and organizations committed to collaboratively generating, managing, and sharing knowledge on the transition to an inclusive green and circular economy. The mission of GGKP is to empower government decision makers, companies and financial institutions with evidence-based knowledge that can best support them to contribute effectively to the green and circular economy transition. GGKP is executing the Communications, Coordination, and Knowledge Management (CCKM) Child Project of the ‘Implementing Sustainable Low and Non-Chemical Development in Small Island Developing States’ (ISLANDS) Programme, a five-year initiative funded by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and designed to support 33 Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in transitioning to a safe chemical development pathway. Tailored to the unique challenges faced by SIDS, the Programme is composed of seven child projects spanning across four geographical regions: the Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. It aims to strengthen SIDS country’s capacity to manage the flow of chemicals, products, and materials into their territories while unlocking resources for the long-term and integrated management of chemicals and waste. The purpose of this consultancy is to update and support the streamlined execution of the GEF ISLANDS programmatic Gender Equality Action Plan across all GEF ISLANDS regional child projects through the provision of technical guidance and expertise on inclusive planning and implementation. The GAP serves as a foundational element for the role that CCKM plays in providing cross-cutting support to the regional child projects and takes into account interlinkages with the activities executed by all their Executing Partners. The consultant will be responsible for the following:

• Reviewing the state of implementation of the existing ISLANDS Gender Equality Action Plan (established in 2022) and assessing its effectiveness in facilitating gender mainstreaming from local to global level within the ISLANDS programme, in consultation with ISLANDS regional child projects and teams.
• Revising the ISLANDS Gender Equality Action Plan based on progress achieved so far at both global and regional levels, taking into account gender analysis and any other gender-responsive activity conducted at regional level since projects inception, in consultations with ISLANDS regional child projects and teams, in particular their gender focal point / specialist whenever possible.
• Further supporting the establishment of gender focal points and/or specialists within regional child projects and teams, providing them with regular guidance, feedback and advice to ensure analysis, strategies, including stakeholder engagement strategies, activities and outputs (e.g. knowledge resources, communications materials), as well as management actions such as those related to recruitments (ToRs) are based on gender mainstreamning principles, gender-sensitive and responsive.
• Providing guidance and technical support to the regional child projects in the development and / or update and alignment of their regional gender action plan, as well as during implementation, including through a series of recommendations aligned with the GEF and UNEP’s policy.
• Delivering training sessions to the regional child projects and ISLANDS stakeholders, as appropriate, on mainstreaming gender-responsive approaches in project design and implementation, taking into account regional specific contexts and needs.
• Providing feedback and recommendations to the CCKM team on major global activities and outputs (e.g. knowledge report, awareness-raising campaigns, stakeholder engagement) to ensure a gender mainstreaming approach is systematically adopted, activities and outputs are gender-responsive and gender-sensitive.
• Organizing, facilitating and documenting a webinar series focused on gender and priority themes identified with the regional child projects, and serve as gender expert and/or speaker during global technical webinars and other key events organized by CCKM, in close coordination with GGKP/CCKM knowledge management specialist.
• Coordinate with GGKP community engagement specialist to post expert insights on gender mainstreaming on the Green Forum ISLANDS’ communities of practice, including in the form of blogs and/or interviews.
• Identifying a series of gender-related indicators to be included in the programmatic monitoring and reporting framework to be developed by CCKM for the ISLANDS programme; collecting, analyzing and synthesizing quarterly progress updates shared by the regional child projects on gender mainstreaming; providing an analytical synthesis and strategic insights on gender mainstreaming across the GEF ISLANDS programme for the annual report prepared by CCKM.

Qualifications/special skills

Advanced university degree in the field of environmental management, social sciences or gender studies, is required A minimum of 5 years of relevant work experience in advancing gender mainstreaming in the design, implementation and monitoring of environmental technical assistance projects, in particular in relation to chemicals and waste management, is required. Strong grounding in gender analysis methodologies and proven track record of reviewing diverse types of documents (project documents, publications, communications materials) to ensure gender integration. Excellent project management skills (planning, timelines, risk management, coordination, stakeholder engagement) are required. Strong analytical skills and ability to effectively articulate and present findings in writing are required. Experience designing and delivering targeted webinars and /or trainings on gender-responsive and gender-transformative approaches for diverse audiences is an asset. Prior experience within SIDS context is desirable. Good knowledge of the GEF and UNEP’s guidelines on gender, and safeguards is an asset.

Languages

Fluency in English is required. Working knowledge of French and/or Spanish is an asset.

Additional Information

Not available.

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