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.

The Peace, Security and Resilience Section leads UN Women’s work to fulfill its mandate in the area of peace, security and disaster risk reduction, as well as UN system efforts towards improved implementation, and monitoring and reporting of global commitments on women and peace and security, including as set out in the Beijing Platform for Action and in Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), 2467 (2019) and 2493 (2019), relevant Statements by the President of the Security Council, and related accountability frameworks established by the UN system.

As part of the Peace, Security, Humanitarian and Resilience (PSHR) Section, UN Women hosts the Secretariat of the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund. The Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund (WPHF) is a partnership between the United Nations, Member States, and the civil society, which supports women led and women’s rights organizations working to build peace and provide humanitarian response throughout the world. Since the end of 2016, the WPHF has supported over 1,200 civil society organizations and is present over 40 countries.

The WPHF Secretariat provides support to the Funding Board, mobilizes resources from Governments, companies, foundations and individuals, designs and manages global funding windows and mechanisms, provides day to day support to Country Offices implementing WPHF programmes, ensures timely and quality monitoring and reporting. The Secretariat’s mandate is also to strengthen stakeholders’ knowledge of and engagement with women, peace and security issues through proper internal and external communications, advocacy and outreach. Finally, the Secretariat provides knowledge management services for the WPHF, and manages Community of Practice (CoP) for WPHF partners and grantees.

Reporting to the Head of the WPHF Secretariat, the Deputy is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Secretariat. The incumbent is responsible for substantially contributing to the design, implementation, management and oversight of the WPHF programmes and funding windows, and to the operations supporting its implementation to ensure effective and efficient delivery of results as planned in WPHF’s Strategic Plan and Operations Manual.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the supervision of the Head of the WPHF Secretariat and in close coordination with the team, the Deputy Head will undertake the following duties:

1.     Manage the programme and operations team

  • Manage the day-to-day work of the programme and operations teams, including finalizing the team’s annual workplan;
  • Manage the process of programme conceptualization, planning, implementing and monitoring; and the management of material and financial resources; and identifying areas for Head of Secretariat’s action and/or decision;
  • Lead on the Operations Manual revisions and organize meetings with UN Management Entities headquarters relevant teams when needed for effective implementation of programmes.

2.    Provide advisory and specialized technical support on the strategic direction of the WPHF

  • Advise and guide the Head of Secretariat on strategic areas;
  • Provide specialized technical and strategic support in managing all aspects of the programme design and related activities and for ensuring compliance and accountability in programme monitoring, reporting and evaluation;
  • Develop policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/materials for use in the development and presentation of innovative and coherent policy and programmatic positions;
  • Serve as a senior member of the management team.

 3.    Provide technical support in creation of strategic partnerships and resource mobilization strategies

  • Provide substantive research and inputs in the formulation and implementation of the WPHF resource mobilization strategy;
  • Contribute to establishing and maintaining relations with government, partners, stakeholders and donors to achieve active collaboration, cooperation and alliances on programme development and implementation and resource mobilization.

4.    Represent WPHF and support advocacy strategies

  • Represent and advocate for WPHF in organizational, regional, global, public information/ relations events and key meetings, as delegated;
  • Develop and implement advocacy and public communication strategies.

5.    Manage Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation and Facilitate knowledge management, innovation and capacity building

  • Oversee the WPHF Learning Hub activities and review products of WPHF to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders;
  • Manage the Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation team, including reviewing tools and ensuring processes in place are aligned with the WPHF mandate and Operations Manual.

6.    Manage personnel under supervision

  • Manage the performance of personnel under supervision; provide managerial direction, guidance and leadership to staff and provide performance feedback and coaching to personnel supervision;
  • Act as Officer -in-charge in the absence of the Head of the Secretariat.

Competencies

Core Values:

  • Respect for Diversity
  • Integrity
  • Professionalism

Core Competencies:

  • Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
  • Accountability
  • Creative Problem Solving
  • Effective Communication
  • Inclusive Collaboration
  • Stakeholder Engagement
  • Leading by Example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values 

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

  • Excellent programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
  • Strong knowledge of gender related issues including in recovery, crisis, peacebuilding, fragile contexts and humanitarian crises;
  • Strong analytical, writing and communication skills;
  • Strong knowledge of results based management principles and approaches;
  • Strong leadership skills, ability to create and enabling work environment
  • Strong knowledge of the UN system
  • Strong negotiation skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

  • Master’s degree in international development, public policy or other relevant social science fields is required.
  • A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

  • At least 7 years of progressively responsible professional experience in programme and policy with a strong focus in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment, including in managing multi-country Funds or multi-country Programmes related to peace and security, human rights or humanitarian.
  • Experience in leading a team, including working with multi-cultural teams.
  • Experience with UN Women is desirable.

Languages:

  • Fluency in English and French or Spanish is required.
  • Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.