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 Programme Division (PD) sets the standards, assures the quality of program design, and provides guidance to country level program work of UN Women, as well as supports the coordination role of UN Women at regional and country level. It supports the effective use of results based management and reporting across the organization. It also manages global Trust funds, and Global Programs, and it provides technical capacity to countries on request, including a humanitarian response capacity.

The Programme Team makes possible the oversight function of the Programme Directorate for UN Women’s programmes and activities in the field. It supports corporate planning and the oversight of planning processes. It leads UN Women’s corporate analysis of developments and trends at the country and regional level, ensuring UN Women’s senior management receives timely advice and recommendations. It supports UN Women’s field based presences, specifically Regional Offices including on operational matters, and connects them appropriately to other parts of headquarters as required. It also helps identify recurrent capacity gaps across regions and works with Regional Offices to ensure that they are addressed. The Programme Team’s members represent UN Women in interagency fora, and provide support to UN Women normative work in intergovernmental processes, as well as contributing to resource mobilization and partnership building more broadly at headquarters level. 

Under the general supervision of the Programme Advisor, the Programme Management Specialist is responsible for providing programme management support to the Directorate of PD, Regional Offices (RO), Multi Country Offices (MCO) and Country Offices (CO) in the region. The Programme Management Specialist provides substantive technical support in the areas of: programme management; preparation of briefing materials; financial and operational management; the development and implementation of program standards and tools to support and develop capacity on results based management, quality of program design and adherence to UN Women’s Strategic Plan (SP) and commitments on gender equality and women’s human rights in UN Women programs/ projects as well as standards of accountability framework.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Support the Programme Advisor for Africa in his/her functions to oversee the overall delivery of the programme in an effective and efficient manner, working closely with HQ units, Regional Office, and where need be Country Offices in the region, UN agencies and entities, and donors/development partners and other actors as appropriate;
• Contribute substantively to the review of the regional and country program performance and progress reports, to assess impact and compliance with development goals and results-based performance indicators and to help assess future programme orientation;
• Closely monitor the delivery status and prepare periodic written progress updates - both narrative and financial - in relation to the agreed work plan and implementation strategy;
• Support analysis of UN Women’s capacity in the Africa regions and make recommendations on approaches for addressing them;
• Contribute substantively to t the periodic review of annual work plans, , in line with the programme outputs and objectives;
• Provide expert technical advice on programme-related issues;
• Contribute to  resource mobilization efforts in PD and/or on behalf the regional and country offices in the region through liaison with donor agencies and support to funding activities/events;
• Providesupport in advancing thematic coordination, including by identifying programmatic entry points and by ensuring consistency and complementarity in relation to other UN Women programmes;
• Review proposals for programs and operations that are above the regional approval threshold and submit recommendations for approval by the Programme Directorate;
• Ensure the integration of cross-cutting issues into the design, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation of all programme activities;
• Manage staff within the Programme Team where required including, interns and consultants, to ensure satisfactory performance, and supervising and assessing performance. 
  

Financial and Operational Management Support:

• Provides continuous analysis and monitoring of the financial situation in the region, to ensure adherence to delivery rates and utilization of resources to meet agreed upon targets and results;
• Contributes to the quality of regional and country level planning instruments, promoting application of good practice in the development, design, monitoring and reporting of results;
• Provides operational guidance and support to ROs/MCO/COs for timely and efficient delivery of results agreed with management through work plans;
• Monitors and analyses performance and financial delivery related data, periodically produced by HQ units, both within and outside the Programme Division field and advises and/or supports the implementation of course correction strategies as appropriate;
• Supports the process of ensuring the integrity of the financial and administrative procedures as well as a consistent application of UN Women procedures, rules and regulations;
• Provide expert technical advice on finance and operations management related issues;
• Coordinate audit preparation as well as monitors and follow up implementation of audit recommendations.

Analysis and Reporting on Ongoing Development Trends in the Region:

• Contribute to regular assessments of the regional and country offices’ strategic and implementation plans. Identify lessons learned to guide program improvements and future strategic development planning;
• Prepare briefing materials for the Senior Management’s missions and participation in meetings and international events based on reports and other materials submitted from regional and country offices;
• Support corporate reporting, in particular with regard to collation of country-level inputs for corporate reports;
• Under the guidance of the supervisor, facilitate the flow of information to the Policy Division and Inter-governmental Divisions on thematic trends, from the regions/countries so that policy direction and guidelines respond appropriately to demand from the countries.

Support to UN Inter-Agency Coordination and Normative Processes:

• Liaise, as required, with HQ based inter-agency task forces, committees and initiatives to ensure that UN Women issues are taken into account in development planning and formulation;
• Under the guidance of the supervisor, support UN Women positions in IATFs, ITFS, HQ-based inter-agency coordination and crisis mechanisms thematic trends, from the respective regions/countries so that policy direction and guidelines respond appropriately to demand from the countries;
• Under the guidance of the supervisor, support the Directorate on issues related to normative processes as required including attendance in meetings and other events and preparing reports/results of participation and following up on actions and commitments taken;
• Establish partnerships with UN system agencies at HQ to collaborate on joint projects and interagency efforts to promote/advocate UN Women interests and commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment and to maximize results and achievements.

Knowledge Management and Capacity Building:

• Work with UN Women Units to identify and share best programme and managemtn practices.'
• Contribute to the design and implementation of capacity building training activities with RO/MCOs/COs to enahce skills and knowledge in Results Based management, corporate programming requirements, and other key management and quality assurance skills;
• Contribute to development and maintenance of global and regional programme knowledge networks and practices, and developement of knowledge products.

Impact of Results:

The key results directly impact on the overall effectiveness of Program Director to lead, manage, monitor and oversee UN Women’s programs and operations at the regional and country level leading to enhanced visibility and image of UN women as an effective leader on gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:

• Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
• Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work;
•  Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

•  Demonstrate and promote ethics and integrity by creating organizational precedents.

Organizational Awareness:

• Build support for the organization and ensure political acumen.

Development and Innovation:

• Support staff competence development, and contribute to an environment of creativity and innovation;
• Build and promote effective teams;
•  Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.    

Communication and Information Sharing:  

• Work in teams: Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
• Create and promote an environment for open and effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Share knowledge across the organization and build a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Ensure fair and transparent decision making processes and manage risk.

Functional Competencies:

• Demonstrated development/programme management skills particularly those that are pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues and women’s rights;
• Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects;
• Ability to lead formulation and moniroting of management projects;
• Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them for development results;
• Solid knowledge of financial and operational management tools;
• Good knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches;
• Ability to establish and maintain broad strategic networks and partnerships with UN agencies and other international partners to promote partnership and build alliances to advance organizational interests and competencies;
• Ability to prepare written materials quickly, to high quality and to deadline.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, economics or public policy or other social science fields.

Experience:

• Over  7 years of extensive development programs experience some of which should be in the area of gender equality and women’s rights at the international level, preferably in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds or Programs;
  
• Country-level experience with a UNDG agency is an asset;
  
• Knowledge/experience of the region is an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in English;
  
• Working knowledge of French would be an asset .

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.