Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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 will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of national priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with government, civil society and other relevant actors.

In Nepal, UN Women focuses on strengthening women’s voice, agency and leadership across sectors to advance women’s rights, provide space for women’s meaningful participation and to demonstrate tangible differences in their lives. The agency’s programme adopts a holistic and integrated approach across UN Women’s five thematic priorities. It is guided by Nepal’s stated priorities (including those from the Approach Paper to the Three-Year Plan 2013-2016) and its commitments to relevant normative frameworks, the country’s United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) 2013-2017, the CEDAW Concluding Observations (2011) and UN Women’s Corporate Strategic Plan 2014-2017. The programme promotes national ownership, capacity development and institutionalization, inclusiveness, coordination and partnerships, and knowledge generation and management, and seeks to prioritize engagement with and support to key duty bearers who are responsible for advancing women’s human rights and with rights holders so they can exercise voice and agency.

UN Women Nepal continues its work to strengthen the peace and security agenda by supporting the implementation of important normative frameworks and international standards for women’s human rights, including the CEDAW, BPfA, the MDGs and UNSCRs 1325 and 1820. It aims to expand and strengthen its support in the area of women’s leadership and participation, ending violence against women (EVAW), economic empowerment, peace and security and governance and national planning through a number of initiatives that focus on community, district as well as national level interventions. Harnessing the agreed conclusions reached at the 57^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) 2013, UN Women’s efforts towards ending violence against women and girls include support to the implementation and monitoring of the government’s commitments, and through initiatives to challenge prevailing patriarchal norms, masculinities and traditional, harmful stereotypes fuelling different forms of violence. These efforts will build on findings from UN Women’s recent partnership with UNICEF and UNFPA in the joint programme supported by the UN Trust Fund to EVAW (UNTF EVAW) and will contribute to the UN Secretary General’s UNiTE campaign. Anticipated results include implementation of the government’s CSW follow-up action plan (building on the government’s COMMIT pledge), strengthened data and evidence, costing frameworks for the implementation of EVAWG-related legislation, strengthened partnerships with media (harnessing the Right to Information Act), and a network of male leaders.

In order to reinforce the ongoing efforts with regard to the implementation of the NAP on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820, UN Women Nepal is implementing the project “Strengthening Implementation of the Women, Peace and Security Agenda in Nepal (SIWPSAN): Towards Implementation of National Action Plan on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820” funded by the Government of Finland. The overall goal of the project is to strengthen the local level implementation of NAP on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 through innovative strategies that promote women’s participation in peace, security and governance processes. The specific objectives of the project are: (i) to enhance the collective capability of national and local level government and other relevant stakeholders to implement and monitor the NAP on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820; (ii) to economically and socially empower conflict affected women, former combatants and other vulnerable women in three districts through comprehensive assessment of their needs and their operating environment, and innovative programmes; and (iii) to enhance the leadership and participation of women in key decision-making structures in the project districts. The project covers three districts (Bajhang, Doti and Kailali) of Far Western region of Nepal and five Village Development Committees (VDCs) in each district.

The project is being implemented by the Ministry of Women, Children and Social Welfare (MOWCSW), three local level NGOs, namely Dalit Help Society (DHS) for Bajhang, Creative Development Society (CDS) Nepal for Doti and Backward Society Education (BASE) for Kailali, and Training Centre Nepal (a technical institution). UN Women has been providing financial support for the implementation of the project activities, and technical expertise to the MOWCSW and NGOs. At the national level, UN Women is working closely with the MoWCSW and the Department of Women and Children (DWC) to facilitate and monitor the implementation of the project activities. At the local level, the project is working with Women and Children Offices (WCOs) and local NGOs to implement the district and VDC level activities.

The objective of the recruitment of the Gender and Peace Coordination Officer is to provide technical support to the MoWCSW and its Gender Unit, DWC, and other government bodies including WCOs and District Coordination Committee (DCC) for the implementation of the normative frameworks and international standards on women’s human rights and national commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Gender and Peace Coordination Officer will be partially based at UN Women and the MoWCSW, and will work under the overall guidance of Joint Secretary of MoWCSW-Women Development Section and UN Women Deputy Representative under the direct supervision of Unit Manager (Peace and Security). S/he will provide technical support to the MoWCSW and its Gender Unit, DWC, and other select ministries and government bodies, including district based actors such as WCOs and DCCs in strengthening implementation of important normative frameworks, international standards for women’s human rights, including the CEDAW, BPfA, the MDGs, UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 and the CSW agreed conclusions into the planning, design, implementation and monitoring of their programmes.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

• Provide technical advice to the MoWCSW and its Gender Unit, DWC and other relevant agencies to effectively implement the normative frameworks and international standards for women’s human rights, including CEDAW, BPfA, the MDGs, UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 commitments reflected in the NAP on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820, and CSW agreed conclusions;
• Support implementation of UN Women’s programmes/initiatives on VAW/G;
• Document lessons learned and best practices for knowledge management and sharing and enhance coordination;
• Support procurement, administration and financial management related of the project.

Description of Key Functions:

Provide technical advice and strengthen capacity of the MoWCSW and its Gender Unit, DWC to effectively implement the normative frameworks and international standards for women’s human rights, including the CEDAW, BPfA, the MDGs, UNSCRs 1325 and 1820, and CSW agreed conclusions:

• Support the strengthening of the gender unit at MOWCSW
• Provide required technical guidance to the MoWCSW, DWC, WCOs  in three district on CEDAW, BPfA, the MDGs and UNSCRs 1325 and 1820, NAP implementation Support the development and implementation of the forthcoming national women’s empowerment and gender equality policy.
• Support  the CSW related activities, including in the implementation of the Government’s CSW57 follow-up action plan and it’s alignment with the UNiTE campaign.
• Facilitate a series of capacity strengthening activities with regard to institutional development through provision of orientations, training and coaching to the staff of MoWCSW and DWC, Support the ongoing monitoring of NAP on UNSCRs 1325 and 1820 implementation by MoWCSW and DWC.
  

Document lessons learned and best practices for knowledge management and sharing and enhance coordination:

• Provide technical support to MOWCSW to strengthen the data and evidence base on women, peace and security and violence against women.
• Provide technical support to MOWCSW to document case studies and best practices on women, peace and security and violence against women.
• Work as liaison between UN Women and the MoWCSW to coordinate the implementation and monitoring of the national commitments on women, peace and security and violence against women.
• Coordinate with Government, civil society, UN and development partners to facilitate collaboration on women, peace and security, ending violence against women and girls initiatives, including the CSW agreed conclusions follow up actions.

Support procurement, administration and financial management related to the project:

• Ensure effective and transparent management of resources provided for the project. Ensure full compliance of operations with UN Women rules, regulations and policies. Monitor budget expenditure of partner NGOs.
• Support timely completion and submission of narrative and financial reports.
  
• Support audit exercise related activities and follow up of the audit recommendations.
  
• Support budget revision processes and annual work planning.

Competencies

• Shares knowledge and experience through promotion of participatory learning process;
• Works actively towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas; and acts on learning plans and applies newly acquired skills;
• Demonstrated team management and coordination skills;
• Experiences of managing similar projects at the district level will be an asset;
• Result oriented, forward thinking and problem solving skills;
• Ability to deliver results in a complex and hardship environment.
  

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree in social sciences, political,  international affairs or management (e.g. international development studies, law, gender/women's studies or human rights) .

• At least five years of professional experience in the field of project management with a focus on gender equality programming;
• Knowledge of ending violence against women and girls, and women, peace and security issues;
• Good knowledge of the human rights-;based approach with strong technical know-how in results-based management and reporting
• Knowledge and experience in gender responsive budgeting, and costing of legislative frameworks;
• A proven ability to liaise with the Government and development partners;
• Experience of working in UN coordination would be an advantage.

Language:

• Fluency in both written and spoken English and Nepali.

• 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;
• 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;
• Previous applicants need not reapply as their previous submissions will be considered.

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.