Research Support for a Gender-Responsive LED Course for Municipalities

UNDP Regional Bureau for Europe and the CIS (RBEC) works with 18 country offices in Europe and Central Asia. Istanbul Regional Hub (IRH) is UNDP’s main knowledge and advisory hub for the Europe and CIS Region (ECIS). It aims to connect the region to a global network of development experts, to build knowledge and capacity, and to forge partnerships to meet the development challenges of a large and diverse region. Website: https://www.undp.org/eurasia

Inclusive and sustainable local economic development (LED) requires the full participation of women and men. Yet municipalities often implement LED policies without an explicit gender lens, which can leave structural barriers unaddressed and limit local prosperity. UNDP’s Istanbul Regional Hub (IRH) is developing a practical training course to help municipal staff and local economic development actors apply gender-responsive approaches—so they can identify gender gaps and translate them into more equitable policies, programmes and results.

The online volunteer will support the development of a practical training course on gender-responsive Local Economic Development (LED) for municipalities. This includes helping to research and curate relevant examples, supporting the drafting and structuring of course modules, and contributing to the preparation and quality review of training materials (e.g., slides and exercises) in line with UNDP guidance. The online volunteer will: - Contribute to the development of course content (e.g., learning objectives, session outlines, key messages and suggested readings) and help ensure logical flow and consistent terminology. - Identify and compile good practice examples, tools and case studies on gender-responsive LED with a focus on municipal responsibilities and levers. - Support liaison and coordination with the M4EG team and gender specialists at IRH and relevant UNDP Country Offices (Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) to gather inputs and examples. - Support quality assurance of the final package (clarity, accessibility, coherence and consistency across modules) and help prepare materials for delivery.