Background

The Fund for Gender Equality (FGE) is a $76 million, multi-donor initiative designed to advance innovative, high-impact programmes that focus on women’s economic and political empowerment at local and national levels, in line with national development plans and priorities. Launched in December 2008 with an initial contribution from the Government of Spain, and subsequently joined by the governments of Norway, Mexico, the Netherlands, Germany and Switzerland for a total income is $76 million dollars, the Fund for Gender Equality provides grants on a competitive basis to civil society and governmental partners in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, the Arab States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia (ECA). The Fund is unique in its focus on supporting partners to turn local and national laws and policies into tangible gains for women’s rights.

From 2010 to date, the Fund has invested USD $56.5 million in support of 96 grantee partners in 72 countries. The total Africa portfolio is composed of 25 programmes for the amount of US$14.1 M. Today, 19 programmes are active in both areas of Women’s Economic and Political Empowerment.

The UN Women’s Fund for Gender Equality’s management structure includes:

• A Steering Committee composed of donors, UN and other multilateral agencies and civil society organizations' representatives, which provides policy guidance to the Fund and ratifies selected grantees at the end of each Cycle;
• A Secretariat in UN Women HQ, responsible for managing the Fund, running the grantmaking cyclesand providing technical and operational guidance and oversight to grantees. Knowledge management, communication, and monitoring and evaluation are central to the Fund’s operation;
• Day-to-day monitoring, and technical assistance for effective and efficient programme implemention and reporting is done by 4 Regional Programme Monitoring and Reporting Specialists based in UNW Regional Offices, together with UN Women Focal Points at country level.

The Programme Monitoring and Reporting Specialist will be responsible for the management of a grants portfolio of approximately 19 grants from the African Region, and will be based at the UN WOMEN Regional Office in Senegal.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Serve as liaison between Un Women Regional Office (RO), Multi-Country (MCO) and Country Offices (CO), thematic sections, and Fund for Gender Equality Secretariat at HQ;
• Provide technical assistance to grantees in the region including TA in the design of grantees’ Performance Monitoring Frameworks (PMFs) or Logical Frameworks. Assist them in clarifying proposed programmes’ outcomes, outputs, indicators of success, methods of baseline and data collection, activities and budgets;
• Provide technical feedback and backstopping support to FGE grantees in the development of programme design, baseline, and monitoring systems and plans;
• Assess quality and methodological issues of FGE grantee annual and final reports and prepare periodic technical assessment updates and recommendations for improvements and future guidance on the development and follow up of monitoring plans;
• Monitor and assess progress towards overall results based on results framework and monitoring schedules and in alignment with UN Women strategic plan;
• Review progress reports and provide feedback to grantees as needed to ensure results-based reports and analysis and capturing of data. Validate reports of the grantees before submission;
• Responsible for reviewing financial reports and liaising with FGE finance associate at HQ before final approval for grants and subsequent disbursements;
• Review audit reports prior to submission and support the coordination of grantee programme audits as required by the Fund and by UN Women;
• Undertake monitoring missions and provide ongoing technical accompaniment for FGE Fund grantees
• Participate in the bi-annual process of technical appraisal FGE applications at sub-regional levels, as requested and needed;
• Provide lead technical and managerial assistance when evaluations of programmes and projects are commissioned;
• Assess quality and methodological issues of FGE grantee evaluation reports and prepare periodic technical assessment updates and recommendations for improvements and future guidance on the development and follow up of monitoring and evaluation plans;
• Review FGE Grantees response to evaluation findings/recommendations and support UN Women FGE focal points to follow up the implementation of evaluation action plans;
• Participate and contribute actively in Monitoring and Evaluation meetings in coordination with UN Women’s Evaluation Unit and focal points (Task Forces, United Nations Monitoring and Evaluation work group.

Reporting and Knowledge Management Services:

• Prepare substantive reports and written contributions for various purposes, including inputs for the FGE annual donor reports, speeches and newsletters, fund raising efforts and other needs, reporting;
• Contribute to tracking and synthesizing, on an ongoing basis, cutting-edge developments, tools and emerging or good practices in the field on women’s economic and political empowerment of programs in the respective sub-region, including capturing findings and lessons learned from evaluations;
• Work with relevant RO programme staff to contribute to continue learning between FGE programmes and other UN Women initiatives, including governance and economic empowerment programmes.
• Liaise closely with the FGE Secretariat and UN Women focal points in Country/Multi-Country/Regional Offices (CO/MCO/RO) to identify and provide select written contributions and knowledge products. This includes writing select case studies and related products for wider dissemination in partnership and consultation with implementing partners;
• Support the FGE Fund Management team in extracting critical lessons learned and good practices from final evaluation reports, including as relates to monitoring and evaluation;
• Carry out or support research on specific topics, when needed, aimed to knowledge sharing;
• Update and maintain FGE Grantmaking and Knowledge Management Tracking database with relevant grantee information.
  

Capacity Development:

• Play a key role in the production of capacity development tools, including training materials and packages, programme guidance notes and other related support in association with to programme baseline, monitoring and reporting;
• Participate in the provision of orientation and training sessions on evidence-based approaches to programming in the field of women’s economic and political empowerment to FGE Fund grantees, national counterparts, UN Women staff and other external stakeholders.
  

Managerial and Organizational Tasks:

• Liaise and consult with UN Women Thematic Advisors, CO/MCO/ROs, as well as with leading practitioners from women’s groups, civil society and UN sister agencies, for the achievement of the above and related tasks.
• Liaise with UN WOMEN administrative and support staff for the contracting of services, including by providing terms of reference for technical assistance subcontracts and in ensuring timely submission of reports from implementing partners.

• Tracking and monitoring capacities and processes are used by UN Women and FGE partners to improve performance of programmes;
• Enhanced technical assistance services provided by UN Women FGE to grantees on monitoring and reporting.
• Increased frequency and quality of technical accompaniment and monitoring support to UN WOMEN FGE grantees and their initiatives. Increased number and quality of knowledge products produced and disseminated globally on women’s economic and political empowerment;
• Enhanced technical assistance services provided by UN Women FGE to grantees on monitoring and reporting.
• Increased frequency and quality of technical accompaniment and monitoring support to UN Women FGE grantees and their initiatives;
• Increased number and quality of knowledge products produced and disseminated globally on women’s economic and political empowerment.
  

Competencies

• Demonstrates integrity by upholding the United Nations’ values and ethical standards;
• Promotes UN Women vision, mission and strategic goals;
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age-based sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

• Strong knowledge of planning and monitoring and related development policy and programming issues, including knowledge of results-based management, familiarity with log frames and understanding of baseline data collection and monitoring methodologies;
• Knowledge of women’s organizations and governmental agencies working on women’s empowerment and gender equality in the sub-region;
• Familiarity with UN Women procedures, particularly with regard to project management and more specifically in relation to the development of work plans, budgets, monitoring and reporting plans, purchasing plans and the identification of indicators.

• Ability to manage for results: translate strategy into achievable plans, with established priorities, monitor them, making periodic adjustments as required;
• Ability to effectively represent UN Women in, and contribute to United Nations inter-agency programming monitoring and reporting initiatives;
• Outstanding networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills;
• Capacity to work with diverse partners including governments, civil society and women's groups;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
• Ability to work under pressure and meet strict deadlines.

• Good interpersonal and diplomacy skills;
• Ability to use critical thinking, conceptualize ideas, and articulate relevant subject matter in a clear and concise way.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills in English and French;
• Working knowledge in national languages spoken in the region is highly desirable;
• Ability to communicate effectively with and relate to people of different cultures, demonstrating an ability to see issues from other perspectives.

Computer Skills:

• Proficiency in Microsoft Office software;
• Proficiency with Online communication, including Skype, etc.

Required Skills and Experience

• Advanced University degree or equivalent in Political Science, International Development Studies, Gender/Women’s Studies, Economics or Sociology;
  
• Advanced University degree in Monitoring and Results Based Management considered an asset.

• Minimum of five years of relevant national/international working experience in international development, in gender equality and women’s empowerment issues;
• Knowledge and experience working on women’s economic and political empowerment highly desirable;
• Experience with databases and data management a plus;
• Experience in monitoring and reporting on programmes related to gender equality. Experience in monitoring of grant programmes is highly desired;
• Experience in knowledge management and communication – supporting collection and dissemination of lessons learned/best practices;
• Experience as a trainer and facilitator on monitoring issues, and in developing user-friendly practical guidance and tools conducive to learning.
• In-depth knowledge of programming on women’s human rights and gender equality;
• Minimum of five years of experience working in monitoring and reporting including: Proven track-record in the successful design and implementation of comprehensive monitoring systems;
• Experience working in the field of monitoring: developing plans, tracking results, reporting to different constituencies;
• Monitoring experience in the UN Women context highly desirable;
• Experience in results-based management (RBM);
• RBM experience as specifically applied in the UN Women context an asset;
• Knowledge management and communications experience – supporting collection and dissemination of lessons learned/best practice;
• Prior training and experience as a facilitator highly desirable;
• Experience in the United Nations, a governmental, other multilateral or civil society organization in a developed or developing country highly desirable .

Language:

• Fluency in English and French;
  
• Fluency in national languages spoken in the region will be considered 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.

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment.