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.

In undertaking its mandate to support “existing coordination mechanisms to generate a more effective United Nations system-wide humanitarian response to respond to the specific needs of women and girls…” UN Women seeks to complement and enhance the capacity of other UN entities to serve their respective mandates and deliver on gender equality and women’s empowerment. 

Based on UN Women’s Humanitarian Strategy, the Regional Humanitarian Advisor develops and implements the program of work on research, analysis and knowledge management and provides   guidance, technical and strategic support to intergovernmental processes, the UN System and to UN Women staff working at country and regional level on issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment in disaster risk reduction/preparedness, emergency response and recovery. Furthermore, the Regional Humanitarian Advisor leads capacity development, coordination and advocacy efforts for a coherent approach on gender mainstreaming in humanitarian action and its linkage and synergy with sustainable development.

The scope of work of the Regional Humanitarian Advisor requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, as well as expertise on humanitarian issues, ideally in Africa. It also requires developing mutually reinforcing partnerships with member states, civil society, regional institutions and the international humanitarian system, including relevant UN entities and bilateral donors to enhance awareness, commitment, visibility and resources to advance gender equality and women's empowerment within the region.

The Regional Humanitarian Advisor reports to the UN Women Regional Director, Dakar, Senegal who provides the strategic leadership, guidance and oversight of the Regional Office and the formulation and execution of its programmes and operations. Under the overall guidance of the Regional Director and in close coordination with the Humanitarian Advisor/Unit at Headquarters, the Regional Humanitarian Advisor will provide technical and advisory support to the humanitarian system, the UN system as well as UN Women country offices in the region.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:
  • Technical advisory support;
  • Coordination, partnership and resource mobilization support;
  • Programme support and results based management;
  • Capacity-building, coordination, and advocacy.
Technical  Advisory Support:
  • Support UN Women country offices in the region, through direct or remote technical and programmatic advice, on gender equality programming in humanitarian action, including disaster risk reduction, disaster preparedness and early recovery activities;
  • In coordination with the Gender and Humanitarian Action Advisor at UN Women headquarters, develop formulation of policy guidance and practice notes on humanitarian action as required by the Regional and Country Offices;
  • Develop and implement tools in the region with the guidance of the Gender and Humanitarian Action Advisor and capacity-building training activities to enhance staff’s skill and knowledge of humanitarian system on gender mainstreaming in disaster preparedness, humanitarian response and early recovery;
  • Contribute to and support the facilitation of regular reviews and assessments of programming by the Regional and Country Offices on humanitarian issues;
  • Advise the Regional Office and Country Offices on facilitating the inclusion of gender dimensions into needs assessment frameworks, including rapid assessments.
Coordination, Partnership and Resource Mobilization Support:
  • Support and develop UN Women’s engagement in existing inter-agency regional coordination mechanisms and enhance coherence of UN system in promoting gender equality concerns in humanitarian response in the region;
  • As designated, participate in and support relevant regional inter-agency and inter-governmental forums and UN system-wide inter-agency tasks forces in the region;
  • Support the development of partnerships with member states and non-governmental partners in the region for key programming initiatives and build synergies for effective gender equality programming and advocacy;
  • Support the identification and development of strategic partnerships and alliances at the country and regional levels to promote gender equality and women's advancement through joint projects and interagency efforts;
  • As designated, in consultation with Strategic Partnership Division, contribute to fund-raising including development of new project proposals for use in resource generation for the region.
 Programme Support and Results Based Management:
  • Guide as required the implementation of programmes in the region within the disaster preparedness and humanitarian response and recovery context, analyze progress on achievement of the objectives and results, proposing adjustments and solutions where necessary;
  • Draft input for intergovernmental and UN reports at the regional and country level on disaster preparedness, humanitarian response and recovery;
  • Support the development and implementation of specific flagship technical projects in the region as appropriate to the UN Women's Humanitarian Strategy;
  • Support the development and implementation of programme approaches and modalities in the region in line with the UN Women’s Humanitarian Strategy;
  • Advise country sectors/clusters in setting up or adapting existing systems to monitor the progress in gender mainstreaming by using inter alia the framework and checklists in the IASC Gender Handbook (2006) and GBV Guidelines (2005; currently under review).  
 Capacity-building, coordination, and advocacy:
  • Provide training/orientation on Humanitarian Action and the IASC Guidelines for Gender-Based Violence Interventions in Humanitarian Settings in clusters of affected countries in collaboration with the GBV sub-cluster and in support of any GenCap Advisers who are deployed to the same country;
  • Advise Regional Office and Country Offices on how to ensure proper monitoring and reporting systems to facilitate progress monitoring of gender mainstreaming at regional level;
  • Support inter-agency cooperation and coordination on the Sahel crisis and build strong partnership with UN Agencies, bilateral and multi-lateral Donors, civil society, etc. as well as regional institutions including ECOWAS, CILSS, UEMOA, which already have initiatives in place to address the problem of food and nutrition insecurity in the Sahel;
  • Work with GenCap and other gender advisers, gender focal points, GBV Programme Specialist of the WACARO region, and GBV managers/focal points in other agencies and organisations (including governments, UN, INGOs, local NGOs, community and women’s groups), and other key actors at country and regional level;
  • Build strategic alliances with other key actors at country and regional level to advocate for gender sensitive programming in humanitarian action, disaster preparedness;
  • Provide technical support to and identify opportunities for the development of relevant advocacy and communication/information materials at the regional level to address gender (in) equality issues, including support to HC/RC advocacy efforts;
  • Represent UN Women at senior level discussions at the regional level including inter-sectorial discussions on the Sahel crisis at the country level and strengthen UN Women’s partnerships with key humanitarian, development and national stakeholders in West & Central Africa region.

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.
Work in teams:
  • 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:
  • 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:
  • Strong planning, goal setting and prioritization skills;
  • Results based management and quality delivery of outputs in accordance with time and budget;
  • Ability to lead and mobilize staff and partners towards shared goals;
  • Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with partners at all levels;
  • Strong interpersonal and diplomatic skills;
  • Proven analytic and problem solving skills and capacity to write clearly and concisely;
  • Good application skills of IT tools and management systems;
  • Familiarity with UN Women and broad knowledge and understanding of the UN System.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Master’s degree in Political Science, Law, International Development, International Relations, Sociology, Gender studies, or other relevant social sciences.
Experience:
  • Minimum 10 years of progressive professional experience, including experience working in humanitarian settings;
  • Experience working in the UN system at country level is an asset;
  • Experience managing programmes in a humanitarian context;
  • Experience working in the Africa region is an asset;
  • Experience in gender and project management and administration.
Language:
  • Fluency in written and spoken French and English;
  • Knowledge of another UN language is an asset.
Important Application Information:
  • 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;
  • UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.
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.