Local consultant for the development of the Local Women’s Caucuses (LWCs) Toolkit: Practical Guidance for Establishment, Functioning and Advocacy_ (SSA)

Background:

In line with its mandate and OSCE commitments, the OSCE Mission in Kosovo (the Mission) supports democratic governance, inclusive public participation, and gender equality, including through efforts to strengthen women’s political participation at the local level. Within this framework, the Mission has for more than a decade supported the re-establishment, operationalization, and impact of Local Women’s Caucuses (LWCs) across Kosovo as informal mechanisms that facilitate cross-party co-operation among elected women representatives and support gender-responsive local governance.
Through capacity-building, facilitation, peer exchange, and support to LWC-led initiatives, the Mission has contributed to strengthening LWCs as impact-generating platforms for dialogue, co-operation, and joint advocacy among women political and public representatives. In practice, LWCs have contributed to concrete outcomes such as advocating for gender-responsive municipal budget allocations, influencing the establishment of social services (e.g. kindergarten in Dragash/Dragaš), supporting measures for women’s economic empowerment, and promoting women’s participation in local security structures.
At the same time, regular Mission monitoring indicates that the establishment, functioning, and sustainability of LWCs vary significantly across municipalities. While some caucuses have developed into active and credible platforms in the previous mandate, others have struggled to maintain continuity and consistent engagement. These differences are largely linked to changes in municipal assembly composition, limited institutional anchoring, insufficient practical guidance, and varying levels of political or administrative support. As a result, only 18 of the 38 municipalities had LWCs that remained active during the 2021-2025 municipal mandate, with varying degrees of functionality.
As LWCs are not legally mandated structures, their effectiveness and sustainability depend to a large extent on the initiative of elected women representatives, support from municipal leadership and political actors, and the availability of practical guidance on their organization, functioning, and advocacy role.
 

Objective of Assignment: 

The objective of this assignment is to support the OSCE Mission in Kosovo in developing a practical Toolkit on the LWCs’ establishment, functioning and advocacy, grounded in field-based evidence, the Mission’s experience, and relevant legal and policy frameworks. The Toolkit will also draw on the work and good practices of local and international organizations, comparative experiences from similar mechanisms in other contexts, and lessons learned from existing initiatives aimed at strengthening women’s political participation and cross-party cooperation at the local level. The Toolkit is intended as a flexible and user-oriented operational resource that can be adapted to different municipal contexts, levels of political support, and stages of LWC development.
More specifically, the assignment aims to:

• gather practical insights from current and former LWC members, relevant municipal and civic stakeholders on the establishment, functioning, challenges and good practices of LWCs;
• analyse findings and synthesize them into practical guidance and user-oriented tools;
• draft the Toolkit that can be used by municipal stakeholders to establish, strengthen and sustain LWCs;
• validate findings and draft content with selected stakeholders prior to finalization;
• identify practical and adaptable tools, templates and approaches that can support the operational sustainability, advocacy and public engagement role of LWCs across different municipal contexts; and
• integrate comparative lessons learned and practical approaches drawn from Mission experience, the EmPOWER Local Women Politicians network, and other relevant local or international practices related to women’s political participation and cross-party co-operation mechanisms.
   

A local expert is required to support this process through a Special Service Agreement (SSA). The external expert will bring dedicated technical capacity to conduct consultations with relevant stakeholders, collect and analyse evidence, identify practical lessons and good practices, and contribute to the drafting and validation of the Toolkit. 
This assignment falls under the Public Participation Section (PPS) project ‘Enhancing Skills, Competences and Capacities for Inclusive and Meaningful Public Participation (Phase II)’ (Project No. 2101276), specifically under Activity 1.1: EmPOWER – supporting Local Women Politicians to meaningfully contribute to local politics.
 

Duration of Assignment:

The Consultant will be hired for 20  working days.

Tasks and Responsibilities:

• Phase 1: Prepare the inception note and conduct the desk review. 
• Phase 2: Conduct consultations and qualitative data collection with relevant stakeholders
• Phase 3: Drafting the Local Women’s Caucuses Toolkit
• Phase 4: Validation
• Phase 5: Finalization and submission of final deliverables
   

Deliverables:

Within one week of contract signature:

• Develop and submit an inception note outlining the proposed methodology, municipal sampling framwork, consultation plan, indicative stakeholders, data collection tools, workplan, and timeline for implementation. Ensure that the proposed methodology reflects different levels of LWC functionality, institutional support, and municipal realities across Kosovo, including municipalities with active, partially active, inactive, and newly re-established LWCs.
• Conduct an initial desk review of relevant background materials, including applicable international, OSCE and domestic legal and policy frameworks, Mission documentation related to LWCs, relevant municipal and LWC documentation (e.g. internal rules, workplaces, records of activates) as well as lessons learned for PPS and RCs. The review should also include relevant practical guidance materials, comparative practices related to women’s political participation, local governance, and cross-party co-operation mechanisms, where relevant, in order to support the development of a credible and context-grounded methodology and implementation approach.
• Following review by the PPS Activity Manager, revise and finalize the inception note by incorporating comments and feedback received from PPS Activity Manager.
   

The inception phase, including the desk reveiew and the inception note is expected to require approximately 3 working days.
 

By 30 July 2026, and in close coordination with the PPS Activity Manager, conduct qualitative and quantitative data collection and stakeholder consultations to inform the development of the Toolkit. This phase includes:

• Conduct at least 15 structured interviews (60-90 minutes) with current and former LWC members, women Municipal Assembly members, municipal gender equality officers, municipal assembly leadership, and other relevant stakeholders.
• Facilitate and support five hybrid focus group discussions, each expected to involve approximately 6-12 people, including where feasible, through regional LWC meetings and relevant EmPOWER network activities.
• Develop, in coordination with PPS Activity Manager, a structured questionnaire to be distributed to relevant stakeholders across Kosovo as an additional consultation and data collection tool. The questionnaire should complement the interviews and focus group discussions by enabling broader participation and capturing written inputs, practical experiences, identified challenges, and recommendations from municipalities and stakeholders that may not be directly engaged through in-person consultations. 
• Provide a qualitative thematic analysis and descriptive synthesis of the information collected through interviews, focus group discussions, questionnaire responses, and desk review findings, identifying recurring operational challenges, capacity gaps, support needs, enabling factors, and effective practices related to the establishment, functioning, sustainability, and advocacy role of LWCs. The analysis should also highlight patterns across different municipal contexts and levels of LWC functionality, and inform the development of practical and adaptable guidance within the Toolkit.
• Maintain standardized consultation notes and supporting documentation in order to ensure traceability of findings used in the development of the Toolkit.
   

The consultation phase, including stakeholder consultations, interviews, focus group discussions, development and dissemination of the questionnaire, documentation of findings, and analysis of collected data, is expected to require approximately 8 working days.
 

By 20 September 2026, submit:

• A complete first draft of the Toolkit in line with the structure agreed with PPS Activity Manager. Ensure that the Toolkit reflects practical and adaptable approaches that can support the operational sustainability, advocacy, and public engagement role of LWCs across different municipal contexts.
• Practical and adaptable templates and tools for inclusion in the Toolkit, including sample workplans, meeting agendas, stakeholder mapping tools, advocacy planning templates, and communication/outreach checklists.
• Revise the draft Toolkit and accompanying materials by incorporating feedback provided by the PPS Activity Manager in order to ensure consistency, relevance, and alignment with the intended practical scope of the assignment before broader stakeholder consultations are conducted.
   

This phase, including the drafting of the Toolkit, development of accompanying practical tools and templates, and incorporation of initial feedback, is expected to require approximately 5 working days.
 

By 30 October:

• Support validation of the draft Toolkit and accompanying materials through two validation workshops coordinated with the Mission and involving relevant target stakeholders. The workshops should serve to present and test the draft Toolkit, assess its practical applicability, relevance, user-friendliness, and responsiveness to the needs and expectations of the target audience, and collect targeted feedback for further refinement of the final product.
• By 30 October 2026, submit a revised draft reflecting feedback received through the validation process.
  This phase, including participation in validation activities, is expected to require approximately 3 working days.
   

By 15 November 2026: 

• Submit the final version of the Toolkit revised in line with comments and recommendations received from PPS Activity Manager and stakeholders.
• Submit all final deliverables in clean and editable format suitable for internal clearance, editing, translation, and publication.

This phase, including revision of the draft Toolkit, incorporation of feedback, and finalization of deliverables, is expected to require approximately 1 working day
 

Necessary Qualifications:

• Advanced university degree in political science, public administration, gender studies, law, sociology, or another relevant field;
• At least five (5) years of professional experience in governance, gender equality, women’s political participation, public policy, democratic participation, or related areas;
• Demonstrated experience in conducting qualitative research, consultations, assessments, or analytical work related to gender equality, women’s political participation, and cross-party co-operation mechanisms;
• Demonstrated experience in drafting reports, publications, knowledge products, practical guidance materials, policy-oriented and advocacy material;
• Excellent understanding of the Kosovo institutional, municipal governance, and political context, particularily in relation to gender equality,
• women’s political participation, and inclusive governance approaches;
• Strong analytical, drafting, facilitation, and communication skills;
• Fluency in English and Albanian is required; knowledge of Serbian is considered an added value.
• The following will be considered an advantage:
• Prior experience working with municipalities, elected representatives, public institutions, or international organizations;
• Familiarity with OSCE commitments and approaches related to gender equality and democratic participation.
   

Remuneration Package:

Remuneration will be based on the selected consultant's/expert's qualifications, experience, the tasks and deliverables for this
position and in accordance with the OSCE established rates.
 

In order to apply for this position, you must complete the OSCE's online application form, found under OSCE Careers- Jobs. Applicants are encouraged to use the online recruitment and only fully completed OSCE applications will be accepted. However, if you have technical difficulties with the system, you may use the offline application form found at Offline application form | OSCE Employment and forward the completed form quoting the vacancy number by email to: consultancy.omik@osce.org. In line with your qualifications please indicate a preference for one or more fields of expertise listed above (while using the online application the field of expertise preference can be indicated in the cover letter part). Kindly note that applications received after the deadline, submitted in different formats than the OSCE Application Form or other languages than the English language would not be considered. The OSCE is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce and encourages qualified female and male candidates from all national, religious, ethnic, and social backgrounds to apply.