Programme Officer, Women's Resilience and Participation

Host entity: UNWomen

Volunteer type: International

Areas of expertise: Humanitarian affairs, protection, Project management, programme development, strategy, Community development

Application deadline: 07/09/2026

Mission and objectives

UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.

UN Women supports UN Member States as they set global standards for achieving gender equality, and works with governments and civil society to design laws, policies, programmes and services needed to ensure that the standards are effectively implemented and truly benefit women and girls worldwide. It works globally to make the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals a reality for women and girls and stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on four strategic priorities:

• Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems
• Women have income security, decent work and economic autonomy
• All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence
• Women and girls contribute to and have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience, and benefit equally from the prevention of natural disasters and conflicts and humanitarian action.

UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality, and in all deliberations and agreements linked to the 2030 Agenda. The entity works to position gender equality as fundamental to the Sustainable Development Goals, and a more inclusive world.

Assignment context

UN Women in Bangladesh supports the government to implement commitments to international normative standards on gender equality and women’s human rights. The UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for 2022-2027 and the corresponding UN Women Bangladesh Strategy Note (2022-2027), define UN Women’s strategic engagement in Bangladesh. The country strategy focuses on strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in policies, plans and budgets; supporting efforts to prevent and eliminate violence against women; promoting women’s access to decent and safe work; promoting policies and government investment in women’s empowerment and resilience building in the context of climate change, humanitarian crisis as well as other threats to peace and security. UN Women works with a range of stakeholders in Bangladesh including the government, civil society and women’s organisations, youth, UN agencies and donors, to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Sub-Office in Cox’s Bazar was established in January 2018 for UN Women’s Rohingya response in Cox’s Bazar district. UN Women has developed a response programme in partnership with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to meet the specific needs of the most vulnerable and marginalized Rohingya refugee women and girls, and the women and girls in the host communities affected by the refugee influx in Cox’s Bazar. The objective of UN Women’s engagement is to ensure protection, resilience, and meaningful participation of Rohingya and host community women and girls by ensuring equal, safe and effective access to humanitarian and development assistance and support, while enabling women to actively influence decisions that affect their lives and communities. The programme promotes women’s participation and leadership as cross-cutting priorities that underpin resilience, community safety, social cohesion, and longer-term peace, including through women’s active roles in community protection and peacebuilding. It also supports women’s livelihoods and education and addressing gender-based violence. UN Women is supporting six Multi-Purpose Women’s Centers (MPWCs) in the camps and two in the host communities, which are one-stop hubs for women and adolescent girls to access multi-sectoral services, including protection/GBV and livelihoods and skills development training and support. The MPWCs are managed in partnership with UN Women’s responsible partners, with a structured approach to progressively strengthening the leadership and management capacity of Rohingya women-led networks to enable future co-management of MPWC services.

In parallel, UN Women strengthens the gender-mainstreaming capacities of humanitarian actors by working closely with all sectors, through the local Gender in Humanitarian Action Chapter (GiHA Chapter) of which UN Women is the chair, to promote gender-responsive humanitarian action.

Task description

The Rohingya refugee response is in its ninth year, and strengthening the leadership, resilience and meaningful participation of women and girls in refugee camps and host communities is critical to advancing community safety, social cohesion, and durable solutions. In parallel, strengthening local women-led organizations as first responders and agents of peace and resilience, and promoting inclusive, locally driven engagement, supports social cohesion between refugees and host communities and contributes to longer-term peace, resilience, and stability.

This assignment is part of UN Women’s Rohingya response programme and flagship initiatives on women’s resilience and participation in Cox’s Bazar. Under the direct supervision of Head of Sub-Office, and in close collaboration with the programmatic staff within the UN Women Sub-Office in Cox’s Bazar, and the Women, Peace and Security Programme Analyst in Dhaka. the UN Volunteer will undertake the following tasks:

1.Technical support to strengthen programme quality on women’s resilience and participation:

• Provide technical support to the design and implementation of programmatic approaches that increase the resilience and participation of Rohingya and host community women in their humanitarian service delivery and within their communities, contributing to the roll out of the Sub-Office’s Women’s Leadership Strategy.
• Support programme quality assurance, contributing to the development or update of standards, procedures, guidelines, checklists, and templates for programme activities related to women’s resilience and participation, drawing on global good practices as relevant.
• Contribute to monitoring and analysis to assess how programmatic approaches strengthen women’s resilience and participation, informing adaptive management and continuous quality improvement.

2. Provide technical support to programme planning, results management, and accountability:

• Support results-based programme management (RBM) in line with UN Women management systems, including indicators, baselines, targets, and means of verification that capture progress on women’s resilience and participation, and contribute to strengthening partner and internal capacity on monitoring and financial compliance.
• Assist in refining workplans, activity sequencing, and implementation strategies to en-sure alignment with UN Women global standards, Joint Response Plan priorities, and donor commitments.
• Support results-based monitoring of partner efforts to strengthen Rohingya women-led networks’ roles in service delivery and MPWC co-management.

3. Provide technical assistance to partnerships, coordination, and localization efforts:

• Support coordination with government counterparts, including Camp-in-Charge (CiC) offices, Upazila authorities, and the local Department of Women’s Affairs (DWA), to promote inclusive, gender-responsive service delivery and strengthen community-level protection and resilience.
• Provide technical assistance to strengthen partnerships with local women-led organizations, Rohingya women’s networks, and community volunteers, in support of inclusive engagement, dialogue, and collaboration that enable women’s meaningful participation and leadership in community-based initiatives.
• Contribute to inter-agency coordination within relevant Joint Response Plan (JRP) sectors (Protection/GBV and Livelihoods and Skills Development) to enhance coherence, complementarity, and quality of women-focused interventions, and to support learning and approaches that can be adapted and scaled by other actors.

4. Facilitation of Knowledge Management, Learning, and Communication:

• Draft background papers, briefs, donor reports, presentations, and success stories related to women’s resilience and participation.
• Contribute to documentation and synthesis of lessons learned and best practices from MPWC operations and community-led initiatives.
• Support gender analyses and assessments, and evaluations across the programming portfolio, with a focus on women’s resilience, meaningful participation, and leadership outcomes.
• Assist in organizing trainings, workshops, and learning events for UN Women staff, partners, and government counterparts.
• Support donor liaison and visibility, including coordination related to Japan-funded programming and engagement with JICA and the Government of Japan, in close communication with the Country Office.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are required to:

• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for in-stance in events that mark International Volunteer Day);
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country;
• Reflect on the type and quality of voluntary action that they are undertaking, including participation in ongoing reflection activities;
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.;
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers;
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering, or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

Skills and experience

• 3 years of experience in Gender and development and/or humanitarian work.

• Gender and development and/or humanitarian work; experience in programme management/support is an asset.

• Working with the government, donor, UN or another international development or humanitarian organization.

• Have affinity with or interest in gender equality and women’s empowerment, and in volunteerism as a mechanism for durable solutions, and the UN system.

• Excellent interpersonal skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners, including grassroots community members, religious and youth organizations, and authorities at different levels; familiarity with tools and approaches of communications for development.

• Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel.

• Excellent oral and written skills; excellent drafting, formulation, reporting skills.

• Solid overall computer literacy, including proficiency in various Microsoft Office applications (Excel, Word, among others), email, and internet; familiarity with database management; and office technology equipment.

• Self-motivated, ability to work with minimum supervision; ability to work with tight deadlines.

Competencies and values

• Accountability
• Adaptability and Flexibility
• Building Trust
• Client Orientation
• Commitment and Motivation
• Commitment to Continuous Learning
• Communication
• Creativity
• Empowering Others
• Ethics and Values
• Integrity
• Judgement and Decision-making
• Knowledge Sharing
• Planning and Organizing
• Professionalism
• Respect for Diversity
• Self-Management
• Vision
• Working in Teams

Living conditions

Cox's Bazar is a coastal district of Chittagong division in Bangladesh. This city is surrounded by Chittagong Division in south-eastern Bangladesh, beside 'Myanmar (Burma)' and alongside the beach of the Bay of Bengal and the Indian ocean, having unbroken 120 Kilometre golden sand beach. It is one of the most-visited tourist destinations in Bangladesh.

The climate of Bangladesh is mostly determined by its location in the tropical monsoon region: high temperature, heavy rainfall, generally excessive humidity, and distinct seasonal variations. The climate of Cox's bazar is mostly similar to the rest of the country. It is further characterised by the location in the coastal area. Historically, Bangladesh has been a safe country for internationals, with standard security measures for UN international staff and volunteers.

The Rohingya refugee response is a unique humanitarian operation. It provides an interesting and enriching environment, but also requires a mature level of cultural awareness, as well as stamina and commitment. Therefore, flexibility and the ability and willingness to live and work in challenging conditions, involving physical hardship and little comfort, are essential.

Cox’s Bazar is categorized as a hardship station category D, and the volunteer should be prepared for limitations in freedom of movement on foot, by public transport, and to certain locations.

Full eligibility requirements, conditions of service and application instructions are available on the official UNV platform.