Local Consultancy- Senior Expert on Strengthening Women-led Businesses and CSOs, BiH CO

Sarajevo

  • Organization: UNFPA - United Nations Population Fund
  • Location: Sarajevo
  • Grade: Consultancy - Consultant - Contractors Agreement
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Women's Empowerment and Gender Mainstreaming
    • Civil Society and Local governance
  • Closing Date: 2025-08-06

The Position:

National Consultant- Senior Expert on Strengthening Women-led Businesses and CSOs

You will report to WPS Project Manager
 

How you can make a difference:

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled.  UNFPA’s strategic plan (2022-2025), reaffirms the relevance of the current strategic direction of UNFPA and focuses on three transformative results: to end preventable maternal deaths; end unmet need for family planning; and end gender-based violence and harmful practices. These results capture our strategic commitments on accelerating progress towards realizing the ICPD and SDGs in the Decade of Action leading up to 2030. Our strategic plan calls upon UN Member States, organizations and individuals to “build forward better”, while addressing the negative impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on women’s and girls’ access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights, recover lost gains and realize our goals.

In a world where fundamental human rights are at risk, we need principled and ethical staff, who embody these international norms and standards, and who will defend them courageously and with full conviction.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results.


Job Purpose:

UNFPA, as part of the joint UN project “Women lead the way towards peace and security in Bosnia and Herzegovina,” is launching a targeted intervention to strengthen the institutional resilience and financial sustainability of civil society organizations (CSOs) who are working with conflict-affected and marginalized women, including survivors of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). Recognizing the critical frontline role played by CSOs in ensuring access to rights-based services, such as psychosocial support, legal aid, and sexual and reproductive health, the initiative seeks to equip them with the tools to build alternative income streams, enhance their strategic positioning, and reduce dependency on short-term donor funding.
Despite their essential role in ensuring access to rights-based services, many CSOs remain under-resourced and excluded from institutional partnerships. This initiative aims to address these barriers by piloting social enterprise models, enhancing strategic visibility and advocacy, and supporting the development of sustainable income streams aligned with the WPS agenda.
To achieve this, UNFPA will engage a national consultant, senior expert with demonstrated experience in gender equality, including social inclusion, economic empowerment and/or sustainable development. The consultant will lead the implementation of activities focused on women’s economic empowerment, enhancing access to public funding opportunities, improving CSOs’ outreach and engagement with public institutions, and building strategic advocacy and communication capacities. This includes co-designing the workplan and training programme, co-facilitation of targeted trainings, mentoring of selected organizations, and technical support for the design of sustainable, community-based initiatives. The Consultant will work together with a junior expert who he/she will supervise jointly with UNFPA.

You would be responsible for:

The National Consultant will be responsible for the following:


Task 1: Development of Workplan and Technical Preparation
● In collaboration with the UNFPA programmatic team, lead development of a detailed implementation plan for the initiative, including sequencing of activities, thematic framing, and expected outputs.
● Support the evaluation and selection of CSOs to participate in the training programme, based on agreed criteria and methodology.
● In consultation with UNFPA, develop pre and post evaluation.
● Develop detailed training agendas for the two capacity-building workshops:
○ Training I: Business Planning and Financial Sustainability of CSOs.
○Training II: Access to Public Funding and Grants, Advocacy and Visibility

Task 2: Delivery of Training Programme
● Lead delivery of two two-days long training, aligned with approved workplan.
● Lead development of post-training reports. This will include documentation of session content and methods, key feedback and learning from participants, recommendations for follow-up mentoring or adaptation

Task 3: Mentoring of CSOs
● Provide tailored mentoring to CSOs between the two training cycles, focusing on public funding access, storytelling and outreach, and institutional positioning.
● Lead delivery of online one-on-one or small group mentoring sessions based on CSO needs and readiness.
● Lead development and/or adaptation of individual CSO business and advocacy plans based on feedback and feasibility.
● Deliver key conclusions and summary after mentoring sessions to participants and UNFPA.

Qualifications and Experience: 

Education:  

● Advanced university degree in Social Sciences, Economy, Gender Studies, or related fields.
 

Knowledge and Experience: 

● At least 5 years of professional experience in gender equality, social inclusion, economic empowerment, or sustainable development.
● Demonstrated experience in designing and delivering capacity-building programmes, particularly in areas of financial sustainability, business planning, public financing, or institutional advocacy.
● Knowledge of institutional funding mechanisms in Bosnia and Herzegovina, including public and donor-funded grants.
● Experience in developing or evaluating project proposals, concept notes, or business plans in the context of gender equality.
● Excellent consultation and involvement skills;
● Strong analytical skills;
● Strong report writing skills;
● Excellent communication skills and teamwork skills.
 

Languages: 

● Fluency in Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and proficiency in English (spoken and written) is required.
 

Required Competencies: 

Values:

    Exemplifying integrity, 

    Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system, 

    Embracing cultural diversity, 

   Embracing change
 

Core Competencies: 

   Achieving results,

   Being accountable,

   Developing and applying professional expertise/business acumen,

   Thinking analytically and strategically,

   Working in teams/managing ourselves and our relationships,

Functional Competencies:

● Strong facilitation and mentoring skills, with demonstrated ability to tailor approaches to diverse organisational capacities.
● Excellent analytical and strategic planning skills.
● Strong report writing skills, including ability to produce concise and action-oriented documentation.
● Knowledge of gender-sensitive and survivor-centred approaches is highly desirable.

Compensation and Benefits: 

UNFPA reserves the right to offer to the selected candidate the rate in accordance with UNFPA consultant rates and UNFPA available budget. Payment for contractors will not exceed average UNFPA rates for national consultants.

UNFPA Work Environment:

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA's workforce - click here to learn more.

Disclaimer:

Selection and appointment may be subject to background and reference checks, medical clearance, visa issuance and other administrative requirements. 

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts. 

Applicants for positions in the international Professional and higher categories, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.

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Before applying, please make sure that you have read the requirements for the position and that you qualify.
Applications from non-qualifying applicants will most likely be discarded by the recruiting manager.
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