UN Women: Consultant for Advancing Gender-Responsive Civil-Military Engagement in Humanitarian Action, Home-Based, Jakarta, National Consultant

**Background:** 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 Indonesia is currently implementing BRIDGES 4 PEACE project, a two\-year regional initiative (2026–2028\) across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Timor\-Leste and Vietnam, with support from the Government of Canada through the Canada's Military Training and Cooperation Program (MTCP). The project aims to advance the Women, Peace and Security (WPS) agenda within defense institutions by strengthening its relevance to emerging security challenges and fostering greater civil\-military engagement across the region. A critical pillar of the project specifically seeks to strengthen the understanding and operationalization of the WPS agenda within defense institutions and armed forces. A key area of work focuses on enhancing civil\-military engagement, particularly in humanitarian settings where effective collaboration among civil society organizations (CSOs), government institutions, and military actors is essential to delivering life\-saving assistance to crisis\-affected populations. Civil\-military coordination in humanitarian action refers to the structured interaction between civilian humanitarian actors and military institutions to ensure that humanitarian assistance is delivered effectively, safely, and in accordance with humanitarian principles. Crises and disasters are not gender neutral. Women, girls, men, and boys may experience different risks, responsibilities, barriers, and access to humanitarian assistance due to pre\-existing gender inequalities and intersecting factors such as age, disability, displacement status, location, socioeconomic status, and other forms of exclusion. Women and girls may face heightened risks of gender\-based violence, sexual exploitation and abuse, disrupted access to sexual and reproductive health services, loss of livelihoods, and exclusion from information and decision\-making. At the same time, women play essential roles in preparedness, response, recovery, community engagement, and social cohesion. For UN Women, military engagement in humanitarian action should adhere to appropriate safeguards to uphold the independence of humanitarian action and preserve the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence. Such engagement must also ensure the safety and security of humanitarian personnel and affected populations, protect humanitarian access and freedom of movement, and safeguard women’s and girls’ meaningful participation in decision\-making, while minimizing their exposure to gender\-based violence (GBV). A gender\-responsive and protection\-centered approach is therefore essential. In civilian–m