Background
The scope of work of the UN Women Representative (UNW Representative) requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender equality and women's empowerment issues, as well as sound management and programming expertise, to translate UN Women's strategic plans into effective development initiatives and results. It also requires developing mutually reinforcing partnerships with relevant Government counterparts, UN organizations, CSOs, and with bilateral and non-traditional donors in order to promote inter-agency partnerships, support for UN reform, and mobilization of visibility and resources to advance gender equality and women's empowerment.
Despite some real achievements in reducing income and non-income poverty, Bangladesh is still one of the poorest countries of the world, ranking 140 among 177 countries as per the UNDP Human Development Report 2007/2008. While the Constitution of Bangladesh guarantees equal rights to all citizens in matters of public life, a complete range of its implementation and impact is yet to take place. Women continue to face domestic and public violence and considerable discrimination in matters of home and family life pertaining to marriage, divorce, custody, maintenance, and inheritance laws.
UN Women set up its office in 2006 at the invitation of the Government of Bangladesh and since then has been running various programs. Some of the specific programme areas in which UN Women is involved in Bangladesh include: supporting the government institutions in strengthening the national structures and mechanisms for gender mainstreaming in all relevant government programmes; projects, policies, actions and budgets; ensuring safe migration of women; supporting efforts for the elimination of violence against women and combating HIV/AIDS; CEDAW learning and sharing both at national and regional levels; promoting economic security for women; supporting excluded women's network; and taking the Beijing biennial review process forward.
It is expected that the key themes of the current programme of UN Women in Bangladesh will continue under the new Annual Work Plan 2012-2013 with the aim to build the capacity and provide support in the following areas:
- Women in Politics and Decision-Making: ensuring women's contribution to politics and decision-making by strengthening support and capacity building for current and future women leaders at the national and local levels;
- Gender Equality on all agendas: supporting ministries and State Secretariats, Parliament, national and local institutions, and civil society to advocate for and mainstream gender equality, to develop gender-sensitive programmes, laws, policies and budgets, and to monitor their implementation;
- Women, Peace and Security: supporting community-led initiatives (including working with male networks in Bangladesh ) to strengthen women's security and voice in peace building at community, national and international levels as part of mainstreaming SCR 1325 in the security and other sectors;
- Women's Economic Empowerment: supporting gender equality advocates and organizations in assisting vulnerable women to reduce poverty and strengthen their economic rights and participation by facilitating their access to micro-finance, markets and skills development.
- CEDAW implementation: increasing awareness of women's human rights and CEDAW by the State and civil society, strengthening the capacity of governments and civil society organizations to promote women's human rights and stop violence against women under CEDAW, and engaging stronger political will and commitment to CEDAW implementation by developing women's knowledge and capacity to claim their rights.
Duties and Responsibilities
- Strategic Programme Development and Advocacy
- Strategic support to and leadership within the UN System
- Country Programme Management and Oversight
- Representation and Partnership Building
- Knowledge Management, Reporting and Capacity Building
1. Strategic Programme Development and Advocacy
- Proactively assess trends and identify emerging issues at the national level of relevance to the mandate of UN Women;
- Lead the implementation of the UN Women Country Programme Strategy based on the Corporate Strategic Plan (SP) in support of gender equality and women's empowerment;
- Identify strategic programme opportunities, approaches and modalities to strengthen UN Women country presence;
- Support, monitor and assure quality control in the formulation of high quality, results-based, rights-based and relevant country programmes and projects and oversee the appraisal and approval of UN Women programmes in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies;
- Participate actively as a member of the UN Country Team (UNCT) to ensure that gender equality and women's empowerment issues are well integrated into UN programming processes such as CCA/UNDAF, Country Programmes, etc.
- Assist the Resident Coordinator (RC) System to secure expertise that will ensure commitment, quality control and resources for gender equality outcomes, and actively participate in country level United Nations programming processes ensuring that the UN Women is strategically placed within UN planning processes, joint programmes and other inter-agency initiatives;
- Advocate on behalf of UN Women and its mandate to help raise awareness and stimulate action to advance gender equality and women's rights and form strategic partnerships with government, UN agencies, NGOs, academia, media and the private sector;
- Carry out ongoing advocacy to ensure that UN support towards realization of the national plans and priorities are done in a gender responsive manner, and within agreed regional and international frameworks that promote and protect gender equality.
2. Strategic support to and leadership within the UN System
- Within the UN RC system, support the coordination and promotion of accountability within the UN System to advance gender equality and women's empowerment;
- Provide leadership and guidance to the UNCT in supporting enhanced response to national partners in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment; and in advancing UN Reform;
- Advise the UNCT on the implementation of key policy commitments to gender and women's rights at the sub-regional, national and regional levels, implementation of CEDAW and Security Resolutions (1325 and 1820), development of gender equality policies and mechanisms and mainstreaming of gender issues in national development strategies and budgets.
- Partner with UN system and agencies to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and joint ideas to influence agenda and priority setting.
- Actively seek out participation of UN Women in UN system thematic and other working groups to establish effective network and to keep abreast of ongoing debate and thinking on development, facilitate joint programming and promote UN Women competencies to advance gender equality and women's human rights.
- Lead the management, implementation and evaluation of the country strategic plan based on UN Women's Strategic Plan (SP), and in line with regional and national priorities and in consultation with government, civil society and UN partners and stakeholders;
- Manage ongoing program activities on gender equality and women's empowerment and ensure delivery of agreed results;
- Ensure UN Women's strategic and technical support to government counterparts, non-state actors and UN agencies through direct involvement and provision of advisory services as needed;
- Oversee, monitor and assure quality control in the implementation of high quality, results-based, rights-based and relevant country programmes and projects in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies.
- Ensure that the Country Programme Office has the human and financial resources and capacities needed to respond to requests for assistance and to deliver on its commitments to support and advance gender equality and to participate effectively as a member of the UNCT and within UN Women's policies, rules and regulations; and is accountable for integrity, transparency, and equity in the management of UN resources
- Manage staff and office in an empowering and effective manner;
- Ensure safety and security of staff and operations
- Manage the Country Office resources and administration to ensure proper utilization of allocated funds and accountability;
- Use corporate monitoring and oversight tools to identify areas which need improvement;
- Contribute to regular assessments of the regional, sub-regional and country strategic plans and implementation plans and identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to underpin consistently improved programming and future Strategic Plan development.
- Represent the UN Women in UN system-wide inter-agency tasks forces to contribute to strategic and policy discussion on gender equality, and women empowerment issues in Bangladesh
- Represent UN Women at inter-agency, intergovernmental, international, regional and national conferences and meetings and advocate UN Women's policy and initiatives in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment;
- Forge strategic partnerships at the county level to promote gender equality and women's advancement through joint projects and interagency efforts;
- Maintain active relationship/partnerships with National Government Counterparts, UN System, and agency partners, inter-government and non-governmental organizations, institutes and academia on women's issue to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and share and influence agenda and priority setting;
- Forge strategic partnerships with Government, UN agencies, NGOs, academia, media and private sector to stimulate action to advance gender equality and women's rights.
- Manage the process of collecting and disseminating lessons learned on gender equality and women's empowerment strategies and contribute to UN Women's knowledge management efforts;
- Lead and manage the preparation of UN Women country reports as required, ensuring relevancy, quality and appropriateness of content and presentation;
- Work with relevant UN Women units to identify and disseminate best programme and management practices;
- Lead the development/expansion of knowledge management strategies and methodologies at the country level;
- Contribute to the development and maintenance of global, regional and national knowledge networks and practices;
- Produce knowledge products to meet UN Women needs and standards of quality.
Competencies
- Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
- Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.
- Ethics and Values: Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents
- Organizational Awareness: Building support and political acumen
- Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring: Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation
- Working in Teams: Building and promoting effective teams
- Communicating Information and Ideas: Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication
- Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating an emotionally intelligent organization
- Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements: Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards
- Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning
- Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking
- Substantive experience and record of accomplishment in the area of gender equality and women's empowerment issues;
- Demonstrated People Management Skills;
- Familiarity with women's rights organizations and networks in the region and globally;
- Good knowledge of UN Women and the UN system;
- Proven ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
- Ability to lead strategic planning, programme development and implementation, results-based management and reporting;
- Ability to develop and maintain strong partnerships and mobilize resources;
Required Skills and Experience
Education:
- Master's degree or equivalent in social sciences, economics, gender issues, or other development-related fields.
Experience:
- A Minimum of 10 years of experience on gender programming issues, including preferably 5 years field experience on gender equality and women's rights issues with an international organization.
Strong familiarity with UN inter-agency cooperation would be an asset.
Language Requirements:
- Fluency in written and spoken English; knowledge of another UN official language is an asset.