UN WOMEN Jobs - 52437- UN Women: Director, Policy Division

UN Women: Director, Policy Division

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

23-Jan-15 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

D-2

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 year

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

The mission of UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, is to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment and to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and girls. Placing women's rights at the centre 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. We provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, through building effective partnerships with civil society and other actors, for a better world.

The Policy and Program Bureau provides global support to all UN entities and UN Country teams through effective and efficient programmes that implement internationally agreed goals and national priorities on gender equality and women's empowerment. All our programmes are aligned with UN Women’s strategic objectives. The Bureau provides intellectual and strategic leadership in gender policy, gender mainstreaming, design of knowledge management products and tools, and research, policy analysis and data collection. We also provide innovation, best practices and cutting edge technical guidance and expertise to support our programmes and to build technical capacity.

The Director, Policy Division reports to the Assistant Secretary-General, Policy and Program Bureau, and is responsible for providing direction, leadership and management of the Policy Division, as well as the UN Women Training Centre.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

Leadership and overall management of the Division;
Policy formulation and technical guidance;
Strategic substantive support to inter-governmental processes;
Inter-agency collaboration, representation and advocacy;
Contributing to the coherent implementation of our mandate.

Leadership and overall management of the Division:

Contributes to the overall leadership and management of UN Women's activities and operations to deliver UN Women’s mandate;
Establish the Divisional annual work plans and set objectives, performance measurements, standards, and monitor results for impact;
Assess and establish resource needs (financial, human, information, technical skills, and others) to ensure efficient implementation of Divisional goals, including identifying capacity gaps;
Partner with the Human Resources team to ensure effective workforce planning and talent management;
Manage to ensure that professional standards, efficiency, accountability, and integrity are in use in the Division at all times.

Policy formulation and technical support:

Lead the analytical work of UN Women;
Actively assess trends, and identify emerging social, political, economic and other issues relevant to the mandates of UN Women;
Consult with relevant internal stakeholders and external partners to enhance understanding of the needs and challenges of gender equality and women's empowerment;
Provide strategic advice on policy formulation across the organization;
Translate all policy mandates and directives from intergovernmental committees and foras into the strategic goals of UN Women and ensure their implementation;
Provide technical support and guidance through corporate position papers and implementation tools on emerging critical policy issues;
Drive impact and accountability of policy support for transformation.

Capacity Building:

Develop strategic partnerships with academic and research institutions to inform UN Women’s policy approach;
Manage and develop the UN Women Training Center to strengthen its capacity to serve as an effective gender resource for the UN system and other stakeholders;
Collaborate with UN training agencies such as UNSSC and UNITAR to engender learning content and approaches;
Identify "good" practices and develop efficient systems to disseminate them within UN Women, across the UN system.

Inter-agency collaboration, representation and advocacy:

Represent UN Women in intergovernmental forums and other key meetings and events, on policy issues as appropriate;
Collaborate with UN Women’s Coordination Division to build and maintain a wide range of active partnerships, including with member states, UN system, civil society organizations, regional commissions, and others, to enhance collaboration and support resource mobilization.

Management of strategic substantive support to inter-governmental processes:

Support the preparation of mandated reports and ensure high quality, timeliness, and relevance, including reports for the Commission on the Status of Women, Economic and Social Council, the General Assembly and other policy-making organs;
Develop a system for implementing inter-governmental normative guidelines and channeling lessons learned from UN Women’s operations into normative policy making processes.

Competencies

Core values and Guiding principles:

Integrity:

Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity:

Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents.

Organizational Awareness:

Building support and political acumen.

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:

Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation.

Working in Teams:

Building and promoting effective teams.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:

Creating an emotionally intelligent organization.

Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:

Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

Fair and transparent decision-making; calculated risk-taking.

Functional Competencies:

Excellent skills and substantive knowledge in gender equality and women's empowerment;
Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision from the spectrum of development experience;
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:

Masters degree (or equivalent) in gender studies, or development related disciplines, or human rights or economics or public policy or other relevant fields.

Experience:

Over 15 years of experience in development-related disciplines;
Experience working on issues of gender equality and empowerment of women that combines strategic and managerial leadership at the international level;
Strong research & background with a track record of publishing papers;
Demonstrated working knowledge of key gender related international legal instruments and resolutions, such as CEDAW and SCR1325, and experience of supporting national governments in translating these into national policies to achieve gender equality and women’s empowerment;
Demonstrated ability to communicate at all levels to deliver key messages and drive the mandate;
Proven ability to manage multicultural teams for delivery.

Language:

Excellent written and oral skills in English is required. Knowledge of another UN working knowledge is desirable.

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.