UN WOMEN Jobs - 53014- Community Development Specialist

Community Development Specialist - (Open to Kyrgyzstan Nationals Only)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Bishkek city, KYRGYZSTAN

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Starting Date :

01-Feb-2015

Application Deadline :

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

Post Level :

SC-7

Duration of Initial Contract :

12 month

Languages Required :

Russian

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Extension subject to performance and funds availability

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

As part of a 5-year global joint initiative launched by the Executive Heads of UN Women, FAO, IFAD, and WFP in October 2012,the project ” Acceleration of Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment ” (ARWEE) will focus on rural women’s economic empowerment in the Kyrgyz Republic. The Programme will use a Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) modality to ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency.

Together, this partnership between UN Women, FAO, and WFP is expected to generate synergies that capitalize on each agency’s mandate, comparative advantage and institutional strength to generate more lasting and wider scale results. ARWEE aims to promote rural women’s economic empowerment in the Kyrgyz Republic correspond with the Global Programme goal to secure rural women’s livelihoods and rights in the context of sustainable development and the post-MDGs agenda. Programme is designed around the following three outcome areas: (i) increased income opportunities and food security for rural women; (ii) enhanced leadership and participation of rural women in decision-making processes at the local and national levels; and (iii) a more gender responsive policy environment in the country. The agencies aim to provide a harmonized, political, and institutional framework for complex programme interventions aiming at overcoming deep-rooted inequalities in rural areas. The current programme will be premised on the experience of a successful partnership between UN Women, FAO and WFP from previous joint projects. Efforts will be made to build support for the programme within the UN country teams and to link it with existing relevant joint programmes.

The programme will be linked to on-going specialized large programmes on land rights, animal husbandry, seed & vegetable production, food security, pesticides management, irrigation, pasture management , agricultural value chains etc. implemented by the four participating agencies. The partnership of three UN agencies, each having a specialized mandate is premised on a successful support model provided by UN Women, FAO and WFP during their joint Delivering as One programme. This proved to be effective and mutually reinforcing. Group solidarity and membership discipline in self-help groups mobilized by UN Women ensured accurate use of seeds, fertilizers, and food, as well as consistent and systematic application of new knowledge on agricultural technologies and food security. Following this model, the programme will utilize the comparative advantages of four agencies: FAO’s policy assistance on agriculture and food security, value chain training and normative work; WFP’s food assistance innovations; and UN Women’s technical expertise on women’s economic empowerment and its mandate to promote accountability for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

With the aim to ensure effective implementation of the above mentioned programme, UN Women Kyrgyzstan office plans to contract a Community Development Specialist who will be responsible for ensuring effective and efficient delivery of programme activities at the community level. A specific focus shall also be given to feeding back findings of monitoring missions to all partners involved, development of recommendations to make use of potential synergies and complementarities between activities of different partners, as well as facilitation of lessons-learned documentation and coordination support to national implementing partners. The Community Development Specialist promotes a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations and commits to high standards of quality, productivity and timeliness in the delivery of tasks. The Project Specialist will meet and apply the highest standards of integrity and impartiality.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under direct supervision and guidance of the UN Women ARWEE Programme Manager, the Community Development Specialist will support the implementation of the ARWEE programme. The position is physically based in the UN Women Kyrgyz Republic Country Office.

Ensure substantive support and implementation of ARWEE programme focusing on achievement of programme results;
Coordinate national implementing partners towards effective and efficient cooperation on programme implementation; feed information from monitoring missions back to ARWEE partners;
Undertake regular monitoring missions to programme sites to identify and flag any implementation issues, risks and provide recommendations for addressing these in a timely manner;
Identify and provide recommendations on synergies and complementarities between activities implemented by different implementing partners;
Liaise with government stakeholders and other partners at the local and national levels to ensure proper coordination and partnership in common development efforts, present information on programme activities, as well as ensure dissemination to broader public;
Liaise with implementing partners on routine implementation of the project activities, track use of resources
Prepare drafts of project documents, work plans, budgets, and proposals required for the purposes of annual planning, resource mobilization. Collaboration with partners is essential, etc;
Ensure timely and adequate implementation of activities under the relevant AWP, monitor the budget utilization/implementation in lieu with the AWP and project log-frame
Contribute to knowledge building and sharing through synthesis of lessons learnt and best practices under the ARWEE programme;
Contribute to preparation of quarterly and annual joint programme progress reports, and any other reports as requested by the participating agencies;
Assist in preparation for National Steering Committees (NSC) meetings and follow up on the NSC meetings decisions;
Perform and other duties as requested.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standard;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional Competencies:

Knowledge Management and Learning

Shares knowledge and experience;
Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
Ability to analyse complex situations from a position of impartiality;
Ability to concisely and to the point document information and findings, targeting a specific audience.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to Results Management, including support to design, planning and implementation of the projects, managing data, reporting;
Good knowledge of Results Management Guide and Toolkit.

Leadership and Self-Management:

Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure, uses skills of diplomacy;
Ability to prioritize and manage competing priorities, grasping the situation quickly;
Ability to conduct advocacy on sensitive issues, not avoiding but processing conflict.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Postgraduate or university degree in social sciences or other relevant field;

Experience:

At least 10 years of relevant work experience implementing projects in the area of community development with a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment;
Demonstrated substantive knowledge of community mobilization theory and practice, women’s economic empowerment, and gender equality issues in general Kyrgyzstan, as well as key players both at the national and grassroots levels;
Strong interpersonal, communication and presentation skills in Kyrgyz and Russian;
Previous work experience with UN Agencies, government agencies and international development partners-highly desirable
Competent in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.).

Language:

Fluency in Russian and Kyrgyz language;
knowledge of English is an asset.

Note:

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment which must be the P11. Please group all your documents into one (1) single PDF document.

Applications without the completed P-11 form are incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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.