Background

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women) was created by the United Nations General Assembly in July 2010 to accelerate the United Nations goals on gender equality and women’s empowerment. It is grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and 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 centre of all its efforts, the UN Women is mandated to lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It is also mandated to provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The UN Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme (WEE) in Tanzania targets women, in both rural and urban areas, who have entrepreneurial potential but who lack assets, the requisite skills, or access financial services in order to productively access and engage in economic opportunities. It also aims to accelerate women’s effective engagement in and benefits from the extractive industry sector. The overall objective of the Programme is the attainment of an inclusive access and effective participation of marginalised women in economic and leadership opportunities, by addressing barriers that limit their access and engagement. Strategies include both upstream interventions (such as evidence collection and policy dialogue) and downstream, including working with women and their groups and service provider to accelerate women’s access to services, opportunities and markets.

 

The specific objectives of the Programme are:

  • To enable women to attain economic security through increased access to economic and financial resources and services;
  • To promote women entrepreneurs as leaders in  trade, energy and extractive industries within both domestic, regional and international markets;
  • To address structural, systemic and policy-related bottlenecks to women’s economic empowerment and leadership;
  • To upscale a women’s economic empowerment approach that builds positive gender relations at household, community and societal levels;
  • Establish platforms for knowledge and experience-sharing on WEE innovations and women's economic rights.

Under the overall guidance and direction of the Deputy Representative, the Programme Coordinator will assist the Country Office in taking responsibility for coordinating, planning, implementing, and managing UN Women interventions in Women’s Economic Empowerment. She/he works in close collaboration with the Programme and operations team at CO, UN Women HQ staff, Government officials, multi and bi-lateral donors and civil society ensuring successful UN Women Programme implementation under the Women’s Economic Empowerment portfolio.     

UN Women’s Programmatic interventions on Women’s Economic Empowerment in Tanzania are integrated in the Annual Work Plans of the UN Delivering as One Programme Working Groups on Economic Growth and Environment in the context of Delivering As One modalities that guide UN inter-agency Programmatic work in Tanzania under the UN Development Action Plan (UNDAP) for the period 2011-2016.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

  • Technical Advisory Support on Programme Management on Women’s Economic Empowerment;
  • Programme Planning, Results Based Reporting, Monitoring and Evaluation, including in relation to interagency coordination on WEE and UNDAP planning, reporting and monitoring processes;
  • Knowledge Management and Communications;
  • Partnership Development and Resource Mobilization;
  • Staff Management and Capacity Development.

 

Technical Advisory Support on Programme Coordination and Management on Women’s Economic Empowerment.

  • Establish, maintain and expand partnerships and alliances with various strategic partners from development organizations, private sector and civil society to ensure active participation and promotion of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme;
  • Provide technical support directly or through the provision of experts to the Programme partners implementing the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme, with a particular focus on Extractive Industries, financial services, agriculture and trade;
  • Provide oversight and coordination of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme activities;
  • Ensure the development/duplication, integration and application of gender sensitive tools to all Programme activities.

 

Programme Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Results Based Reporting including in relation to UNDAP planning, reporting and monitoring processes.

  • Ensure individual project interventions are developed within the overall Programme document contributing to the achievements of both the immediate and overall Women’s Economic Empowerment Plan;
  • Manage the women’s economic empowerment portfolio for on-going and future Programmes in the country;
  • Ensure overall Programme and individual work plans and budgets are developed and implementation modalities agreed upon;
  • Initiate and lead capacity building Programmes for Women’s Economic Empowerment Partners.
  • Oversee, monitor and assure quality control in the implementation of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme;
  • Supervise and assess work in progress to ensure compliance and delivery of high quality results and achievements of overall Programme objectives. This will include financial management, provision of overall guidance and problem solving, and identifying and utilization of lessons learned and best practices to ensure consistently improved Programming;
  • Ensure that Programme reviews are undertaken and all reporting requirements are met in a timely manner;
  • Represent UN Women in the One UN Programme Working Groups on Economic Growth and Environment and provide substantive inputs in the development of the Annual Work Plans and Regular Reports of these Groups in the context of UNDAP implementation.

 

Knowledge Management and Communications

  • Collect, and share best practices and lessons learned from the country Programmes and in particularly on gender equality and women’s empowerment strategies for the purpose of scale-up and replication;
  • Lead in the development and implementation of the communications strategy in line with the UN Women corporate communications guidelines that promotes the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme;
  • Ensure effective documentation of best practices and the lessons learnt;
  • Produce knowledge products based on the implementation experiences and interactions with various stakeholders and players;
  • Liaise with HQ and Regional Office on the identification and showcasing of good practices on promoting women’s economic empowerment in Tanzania (including providing inputs and background documents for the Global and Regional Gateway on Women’s Economic Empowerment);
  • Provide inputs in knowledge products and communication materials on issues related to Women’s Economic Empowerment coordinated by the relevant Programme Working Groups, Resident Coordinator’s Office and the UN Communication Group.

 

Support Partnerships and Resource Mobilization.

  • Develop and maintain effective partnerships with various stakeholders at regional, national and local levels, for delivery of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme;
  • Identify and follow-up opportunities for resource mobilization for women’s economic empowerment;
  • Manage activities and other promotional events to engage bilateral and multilateral institutions/donors, private sector and civil society to expand and/or sustain interest and resources for the women’s economic empowerment;
  • Represent the Programme in stakeholders forums and other key partnership meetings and events;
  • Represent UN Women and provide technical inputs in inter-agency discussions on the Youth Employment Programme and other relevant resource mobilisation efforts;
  • Identify and follow up opportunities for partnerships with other UN agencies and development partners on issues related to women’s economic empowerment, gender and energy and gender and extractive industries;
  • Perform any other duties as may be requested by the UN Women Country Representative.

 

Staff Management and Capacity Development

  • Supervise and monitor the work of WEE Programme staff, interns and consultants including performance evaluations and appraisals;
  • Lead and guide Programme implementation and foster collaboration within the team entrenching a client-oriented approach;
  • Promote team work to ensure harmonization, linkages, collaboration and synergy and ensure staff members are provided with sufficient information, guidance and support to perform optimally and deliver results according to corporate and professional standards of efficiency, accountability and integrity;
  • Provide capacity development interventions such as training, technical assistance, development of resources and accessibility of information, among others;
  • Build entrepreneurial skills and competencies for a critical mass of women and youth;
  • Provide close guidance to Programme staff, who perform adjunct operations functions, ensuring that such staff are knowledgeable of rules and procedures governing Programme finances, donor reporting, and personnel.

Impact of Results

The work of the WEE manager will impact on the success of the implementation of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Programme, as well as initiatives in the Region to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Competencies

CORE VALUES / GUIDING PRINCIPLES

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

CORE COMPETENCIES

  • Ethics and Values: Demonstrates and safeguards ethics and integrity;
  • Organizational Awareness: Demonstrates corporate knowledge and sound judgment;
  • Development and Innovation: Takes charge of self-development and takes initiative;
  • Work in teams: Demonstrates ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds;
  • Communicating and Information Sharing: Facilitates and encourages open communication and strives for effective communication;
  • Self-management and Emotional Intelligence: Stays composed and positive even in difficult moments, handles tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and has a consistent behaviour towards others; 
  • Conflict Management: Surfaces conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution;
  • Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Encourages learning and sharing of knowledge;
  • Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Demonstrates informed and transparent decision making.

SKILLS/EXPERIENCE

  • Substantive experience and record of accomplishment in the area of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment;
  • Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision from the spectrum of development to experience;
  • Ability to lead strategic planning, Programme development and implementation, results-based management and reporting;
  • Ability to formulate and manage budgets, manage contributions and investments, manage transactions, conduct financial analysis, reporting and cost control;
  • Ability to fully assist in formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects;
  • Ability to substantially support strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
  • Leads teams effectively and shows conflict resolution skills;
  • Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback;
  • Ability to develop and maintain strong partnership and resource mobilization;
  • Demonstrated negotiating, cultural sensitivity and diplomatic skills;
  • Well-developed people management skills;
  • Provides information, tools, resources to support work achievement;
  • Effectiveness orientation and pro-activity;
  • Ability to leverage information technology, executive information systems, management techniques and tools for optimal office performance;
  • Strong interpersonal, communication and presentation skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree (or equivalent) in International Development, Economics, international relations or in other related Social Sciences.

 

Experience:

  • At least 5 years of progressively responsible development experience in development cooperation, including in programme management and advisory capacity;
  • Previous experience with multilateral or bilateral development cooperation in Tanzania and the development landscape and guiding national policy;
  • Familiarity with global, regional and national economic development frameworks, institutions and strategies;
  • Documented work experience in the area of gender equality and the empowerment of women.

 

Language Requirements:

Fluency in written and oral English and Swahili.