UN WOMEN Jobs - 45887- National Officer

National Officer – Gender & HIV

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Dhaka, BANGLADESH

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Starting Date :

01-Jun-2014

Application Deadline :

03-May-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

SB-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 year

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

1 year

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UNAIDS is committed to Getting to three Zeros. Zero new HIV infections-Zero discrimination-Zero AIDS-related deaths. In order to do this, the HIV prevention programs must take into account gender-specific barriers that put women and girls at greater risk of HIV and STI infection. Subsequently, UNAIDS and UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, seek to collaborate to address entrenched gender inequality and human rights violations in Bangladesh. UNAIDS and UN Women Bangladesh consistently endeavor to further women’s rights and gender equality and collaborate on human rights based advocacy approaches to ensure that government policy and programmatic interventions acknowledge gender-related issues with a special focus on the most marginalized including key affected populations such as- FSW, MSM and transgender.

Significant progress has been made in terms of sensitization of HIV prevention and response at the policy and programmatic level, which include development of different strategic guidelines and policies, conducting a national gender assessment to recommend programs, progress in linking HIV, and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) related issues, and addressing gender based violence. Moreover, UNAIDS ensures coordination to achieve 10 high level meeting goals and a major focus is to address HIV-specific needs of women and girls, punitive laws and practices around HIV transmission, preventing gender based violence etc.

This position will be responsible for supporting national partners to integrate gender equality into national HIV and development strategies and operational plans in order to reinforce the translation of political commitments into scaled-up gender responsive actions and initiatives that address HIV-specific needs of women and girls, including gender based violence. The position will also help to ensure that issues of HIV are integrated into the work on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Through these two strategies the position will support an enabling environment for the fulfilment of women’s and girls’ human rights.

Duties and Responsibilities

Key functions include:

Integrating gender equality in national HIV/AIDS policies, strategies, plans and budgets;
Addressing issues of gender and HIV in other national laws, policies and programmes, including advocacy for change in discriminatory laws; allocate appropriate budget, integration of gender and HIV in national social protection, health care;
Ensuring the links between HIV/AIDS and inequality, and the specific needs and interests of women living with HIV/AIDS are addressed in programming on gender equality and women’s empowerment;
Supporting participation and voice of women living with HIV/AIDS and women’s rights activists more generally in decision-making processes and to influence services.

Under the overall guidance and supervision of the UNAIDS Country Coordinator and UN Women Country Representative, the National Officer- Gender and HIV will focus on strengthening strategic guidance and support to national partners to know their epidemic and response in order to effectively meet the needs of women and girls, and sexual minorities; assist in ensuring that national HIV and development strategies, operational plans address gender based needs and rights; reinforce the translation of political commitments into scaled-up gender responsive actions, address sexual and gender based violence and support in creating an enabling environment for the fulfilment of women’s and girls’ human rights and their empowerment. Critical to this position will be in-depth knowledge of and engagement with national and sub-national networks of people living with HIV and key populations, particularly in relation to attainment of the Political Declaration targets and UNAIDS vision. In particular, the incumbent will:

Collaborate with the National AIDS/ STD Programme (NASP) and other relevant actors to provide strategic guidance and insight into the midterm review of National Strategic Plan on HIV to address gender equality issues based on specific policy recommendations of gender assessment of national HIV response;
Advocacy, capacity strengthening and foster partnerships with government, development partners and civil society to carry forward the recommendations of gender assessment currently being undertaken that includes supporting the country’s application for GFATM New Funding Model;
Identify, liaise and mobilize strategic program areas of cooperation with community groups, civil society activists and leaders (People living with HIV, media, women’s rights groups, sports personalities, lawyers, parliamentarians etc.). Provide assistance to strengthen links between AIDS and VAW, and other social movements and enable them to take ownership of a new, more expanded and inclusive development paradigm, based on rights and equity;
Work towards increased political inclusion of women leaders in regional and country decision-making processes related to policy, programme development and funding mechanisms in the AIDS response- such as the Joint UN Team on AIDS, Country Coordinating Mechanism and National AIDS/ STD Program-as well as regional bodies;
Provide technical inputs in eliminating HIV and gender-related stigma and discrimination through promotion of laws and policies that ensure realization of human rights and fundamental freedom of those affected, and ensure national social protection strategy is HIV and gender sensitive and include: access to social health insurance or other transfers for those affected by HIV and those who are most vulnerable;
Assess the information needs of women networks and organizations on HIV, including but not limited to information about the local epidemic, where decision making takes place, how to influence it, funding opportunities for women-led initiatives, etc;
Work to establish a culture of inclusion in the regional and country offices, institutionalizing a space for dialogue between women networks and organizations and staff for an increased understanding of and respect for women perspectives and ideas in the AIDS response;
Provide direct assistance into the UN Joint Team on HIV/ AIDS (UNJT) and other partners for sustained and consistent capacity development of networks and organizations for effective advocacy, service delivery, programming, analysis and monitoring of rights and policies;
Ensure the principles of human rights, gender equality and the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV and key populations are adhered to in the work of the Joint Programme and its partners;
Ensure the new national and regional Joint Programs to address Violence against Women (JP-VAW) adequately reflect the gender specific needs and vulnerability within the context of HIV;
Support facilitation to link Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) & HIV at implementation level with added focus on gender rights issues;
Support in documentation as identified and prioritized by UN Women and UNAIDS;
Represent and contribute UN Women and UNAIDS is strategic networks;
Support and sustain the preparation for the 2015 International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) to highlight achievements of gender transformative HIV response;
Assist UN Women in reporting, monitoring and implementation of actions;
Perform other duties as assigned and delegated by UN Women and UNAIDS.

Competencies

Technical competences:

Demonstrated analytical and advocacy skills on gender issues and HIV;
Excellent writing, communication and analytical skills;
Excellent interpersonal skills and an ability to take initiative and be innovative;
Ability to work under matrix management in a multicultural and virtual environment;
Ability to produce quality policy options for HIV and gender programming.

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women and UNAIDS;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning:

Promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture in the office;
Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN;
Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

Strong writing ability with exceptional communication skills, both written and oral;
Strong computer skills with a knowledge of many desktop applications that will be useful for the position, such as Microsoft Word and Excel, email, and all Internet browsers;
Strong design sensibilities;
Experience with interacting with a wide range of clients.

Leadership and Self-Management:

Highly organized with a keen eye for detail;
Ability to multi task under tight deadlines;
Ability to think quickly and improvise when necessary;
Creative self-starter with an ability to work independently and also as an integral part of a team to deliver results;
Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexity.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Gender Studies, Development Studies, Human Rights, Applied Anthropology or in other related Social Sciences.

Experience:

At least 3 years of directly relevant experience, demonstrated knowledge and skills in addressing issues of HIV/AIDS, Gender Based Violence, Human Rights, women’s empowerment and leadership;
Demonstrated knowledge and sound understandings of the UN system is desirable;
Experience in organizing high level international conferences will be an added advantage.

Language:

Fluent in written and spoken Bangla;
Excellent analytical and writing skills in English.