Regional Think Tank in Support of UN Women’s Work in Eastern and Southern Africa

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) was established by General Assembly resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence with the mandate to assist Member States and the United Nations system to progress more effectively and efficiently toward the goal of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women.

To fulfill its mandate, UN Women considers a Think Tank as one of the most important constituencies providing a dynamic source for ideas, policy perspectives, partnerships and support for the organization. Closely linked is the vital advisory role that will be played by the Think Tank in advancing shared objectives in promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women.

UN Women Eastern and Southern Africa (ESAR) plans to set up a Regional Think Tank comprised of a diverse team of high level technical experts in Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) in line with UN Women’s strategic priorities. The Regional Think Tank will help UN Women achieve the goal of ensuring women and girls benefit and attain the aspirations of the development frameworks in Africa including agenda 2030 on sustainable development- SDGs, Financing for Development, Agenda 2063, among others.

Goals for the UN Women ESAR Regional Think Tank

1. To foster strategic dialogue and engagement, with a view of addressing the root causes of gender inequalities and advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in Africa;
2. To provide a forum to enable mutually beneficial consultations between UN Women and high level technical experts and draw upon their rich and diverse expertise, experience, outreach, networks, perspectives and knowledge on a timely and effective basis for UN Women’s strategic visioning, planning, programming, resource mobilization and partnerships;
3. To serve as a consultative forum to provide inputs on regional priorities and development of appropriate strategies to drive UN Women’s interventions in Eastern and Southern Africa.

Membership

The UN Women ESAR Regional Think Tank shall comprise of nominated experts in diverse areas of programming around GEWE including but not limited to;

• Women’s economic empowerment;
• Leadership, governance and political participation;
• Women, peace and security and humanitarian action;
• Gender Based Violence;
• 2030 agenda including Sustainable Development Goals- SDGs and Finance for Development
• Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting
• ICT for development
• HIV and AIDS
• Climate action and environment
• Resource mobilization
• Knowledge generation and utilization including data and statistics
• Education including second chance education and vocational skills training

The nominated members of the Think Tank must be acknowledged thematic experts in the Africa region and must demonstrate concrete achievements in their areas of expertise. They must also show commitment towards the core values of the United Nations and to the mission of UN Women. 

Nomination process:

Applications to be nominationed to the Regional Think Tank should send their applications to the Regional Director, UN Women, Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa, UN Complex, Gigiri, Block M, P.O. Box 30218-00100, Nairobi, Kenya or to [ Click to reveal ] with the subject line; REF: REGIONAL THINK TANK FOR EASTAND SOUTHERN AFRICA

The nominations should include the following: Name, organization if any for those affiliated to organizations; a short description (less than one page) on why the nominee would be a suitable candidate for the Think Tank and a detailed CV of the nominee including major regional achievements in GEWE including research pieces, publications and awards.

The deadline for receiving nominations is 1 April 2017