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.

UN Women Ukraine implements its Country Strategy for 2018-2022, covering the following thematic areas:

• Making gender equality priorities central to national reforms, governance, planning and budgeting;
• Ending violence against women and girls; and
• Strengthening implementation of the Women, Peace and Security agenda

One of the key priorities for UN Women in Ukraine is to ensure that the national reforms, policies and public institutions respond equally to the rights and needs of women and men, and to address the deficit of women’s participation in the implementation and monitoring of the reforms. Decentralization reform is one of the key reforms in the national reform agenda. It is led by the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine and has been ongoing since 2014. The reform implementation in general, and in the conflict-affected regions, neglects gender equality and women’s needs. Analysis of vulnerabilities of women and men in the context of decentralization in the conflict-affected areas of Ukraine (VA) revealed that women and men from vulnerable groups such as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), persons with disabilities, people living with HIV, single heads of households, and the older people, face challenges to participation in and equally benefitting from local development. The decisions on decentralization are rarely consulted with women from the communities, thus, neglecting their concerns, needs and opportunities, while implementation of the reforms, particularly in the context of on-going conflict requires recognition of, and response to, differentiated needs of women and men, especially vulnerable, gender and human rights analysis and measures across all reform interventions.

UN Women is successfully applying community mobilization for empowerment methodology to mobilize women in the communities of the eastern conflict-affected oblasts to build their human rights awareness, as well as capacity to effectively advocate for their needs in local recovery, decentralized development planning and budgeting. UN Women also works with local and regional authorities on gender-responsive planning and budgeting and support them to analyse budgets and conduct public consultations regarding funding allocations with the local women’s groups and broader communities. This is in turn leads to increase of the allocations of local funds for gender priorities.

UN Women works closely with the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction of Ukraine to ensure that the decentralization reform is compliant with international standards on gender equality and is informed by the results of the described above gender-responsive regional and local initiatives. In January 2018, the Ministry endorsed a Code of Equal Opportunities that aims to protect all the Ministry’s employees from discrimination and unequal treatment. It also aims to support a working environment ensuring equal opportunities for women and men-employees of the Ministry in realization of their potential. In order to further support the Ministry of Regional Development in conducting a gender analysis and providing legal advice to ensure that the normative acts, released by the Ministry, are in accordance with the rights of women under the Constitution and the state commitments (including CEDAW, UNSCR 1325 and SDGs), UN Women seeks to hire a National Consultant (lawyer) to serve in the role of a Legal Advisor on Gender Equality and Non-discrimination to the Ministry of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services of Ukraine.

Scope of Work/Duties and Responsibilities        

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Country Programme Manager/Head of Office, in close collaboration with the UN Women Project Coordinator, under direct supervision of a designated supervisor at the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction, in cooperation with Director of a Legal Department of the Ministry and in coordination with the Deputy Minister of Regional Development and Construction, the consultant will implement a set of tasks, including, but not limited to:

• Ensure day-to-day legal support and legal advice to the Ministry of Regional Development and Construction in gender-related activities to ensure gender-responsive decentralization reform;

• Conduct a gender analysis of legislation / legal acts related, developed by the Ministry of Regional Development, with a specific focus on anti-discrimination aspects and legislative and policy areas of the on-going decentralization reform . The exact laws / legal acts for review will be identified together with responsible staff of the Ministry; gender neutral laws included in the national reforms that fail to protect or promote the rights of women may be of special interest;

• In close coordination and collaboration with the Office of the Vice-Prime Minister on EU and Euro-Atlantic Integration and the Commissioner of Gender Equality Policy, as well as the Ministry of Justice,to develop a manual/guidance on gender and anti-discrimination legal analysis for the Ministry of Regional Development;

• Participate in multi-stakeholder, multi-sectoral and inter-ministerial meetings, consultations and interviews with the institutions of the national mechanism on gender equality, such as Office of the Vice-Prime Minister on EU and Euro-Atlantic Integration, Ministry of Social Policy, the Ministry of Justice, and other line ministries, Ombudsperson and Parliamentary Caucus on Equal Opportunities and the Commissioner on Gender Equality, with sectoral/legal experts and gender focal points, as well as oblast and local authorities, development agencies and civil society organizations in order to jointly analyze gaps and collect information on needed changes in the legal framework to ensure gender-responsive decentralization reform;

• Provide a series of recommendations for legislative and policy reform and harmonization, including explicit provisions for gender equality and/or to remove previously existing discriminatory provisions to ensure Ukrainian legislation on decentralization is in accordance with the rights of women under the Constitution and the state commitments (including CEDAW and SDGs).