UN WOMEN Jobs - 53058- UN Women: Policy Specialist (Research and Data Sec

UN Women: Policy Specialist (Research and Data Section)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

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

Post Level :

P-3

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

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 centre 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 Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Policy Division develops and implements the UN Women corporate programme of work on analysis, research and knowledge management that provides the evidence base for the advice and guidance UN Women provides to the intergovernmental process, the UN system, and to UN Women staff working at country and regional level on issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Division identifies emerging issues and trends, and develops and proposes new strategies for achieving the agreed goals through innovative approaches and lessons learned about what works in practice. It also designs and oversees the training and capacity development programs of UN Women, through the training facility in Santo Domingo.

Based on UN legislative mandates and UN Women Strategic Programme Plan, the Policy Division undertakes and/or coordinates global or sectoral research and data analysis; advises on norms, policies and strategies for achieving the internationally agreed goals related to gender equality and women’s empowerment issues. It acts as a knowledge hub, collecting evidence on progress and emerging issues, identifying trends in implementation of global commitments; and sharing knowledge on innovative approaches and lessons learned in implementation. It designs tools for inter-regional capabilities building and institutional development programmes and fosters strategic substantive partnerships with academia and other UN partners, in close collaboration with the Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnership Bureau, the Programme Division and UN Women Training Center (Santo Domingo).

To successfully perform its mission/mandate, the Policy Division is organized into Sections, bringing together technical experts who undertake issues-based research; analyze data on country, regional or global trends; build a knowledge base on policy commitments and their implementation; propose evidence-based options for global policy, norms and standards and for UN Women global programme strategies; and contribute substantive inputs to policy advocacy and technical cooperation programmes.

The Research and Data (R&D) Section in the Policy Division is responsible for leading UN Women’s research and data agenda and for positioning UN Women as a global knowledge broker on gender equality and women’s empowerment. It produces knowledge products including UN Women flagship publications such as Progress of the World’s Women and The Survey of the Role of Women in Development and conducts other policy-related search relevant to gender equality and women’s rights. In collaboration with other sections in UN Women, the R&D section also works on other corporate priorities including the post-2015 development agenda and sustainable development goals.

The Policy Specialist is expected to contribute to the implementation of UN Women’s Research and Data strategy, in particular by contributing actively to the research and production of flagship reports and other research publications and in relation to work on data and statistics that the R&D section is responsible for.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

Work with the R&D Section to contribute to the production of UN Women’s flagship reports that the R&D Section is responsible for, including working with the R&D Section to carry out extensive policy research on gender equality and women’s rights, both to inform the flagship reports and other policy-related research, but also to inform the process of commissioning background papers and other statistical research;
With the other Policy Specialist (Data and Statistics), lead on developing the data analysis for UN Women’s flagship reports and other publications;
Contribute to the statistical work that the R&D section is responsible for, including where necessary supporting the implementation of the Evidence and Data for Gender Equality project and other statistical work performed by the R&D section;
Contribute to communication and outreach activities.

Contribute to the production of UN Women’s flagship reports, with the following results:

Thematic analysis on gender equality and women’s rights, as identified by the section Chief, is undertaken;
Participation in brainstorming meetings and in-house discussions on various aspects of the reports’ production, including honing of the theme and structure of the reports, with particular reference to research and data;
Background cross-national and country specific research is carried out, including literature reviews related to the reports’ themes;
Contribution of draft text, including case studies, for inclusion in chapters of the reports;
Identification of potential authors of background papers and other research materials for the analytical parts of the reports; assist in commissioning and coordinating their work where requested and comment on their draft papers;
Participation in proof-reading, data-checking and providing comments on draft chapters and sections of the reports as required, including, if possible, proof-reading of translated text in languages other than English.

With the other Policy Specialist (Data and Statistics), lead on developing the data analysis for UN Women’s flagship reports and other publications, focusing on the achievement of the following results:

Development of partnerships with UN agencies and other data collecting organizations in order to present a wide range of relevant data on gender equality and women’s rights in the flagship reports and other publications and other associated communications materials;
Sources of relevant data are researched, collected and assessed;
Background research and analysis is conducted, including using statistical modeling and other quantitative techniques;
Provide quality research and data relevant to the various publications, including the statistical annexes (including technical notes, statistical references, definitions and so on);
Working with the R&D section to ensure that data are presented in ways that are accessible and attractive to non-technical audiences in all publications.

Working with the research and Data Specialist (Statistics), contribute to the statistical work that the R&D section is responsible for, including where necessary supporting the implementation of the Evidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) project and other data and statistical work performed by the R&D section, with the following results:

Where necessary, support the implementation of the Evidence and Data for Gender Equality (EDGE) Project;
Keep abreast of emerging development issues to galvanize UN Women’s analytical capacity to respond, particularly in the area of gender statistics;
Identify strategic opportunities to strengthen the availability and quality of gender statistics, and develop and manage the partnerships needed to deliver them, including for example with the UN Statistics Division, regional commissions, OECD and others;
Represent UN Women in inter-agency working groups and fora on research and data, including for example the inter-agency working group on statistics and the inter-agency expert group on MDG indicators.

Contribute to communication and outreach activities, with the following results:

Assistance is provided in the design and preparation of materials for the launch of Progress and ongoing advocacy efforts, including country fact sheets and other presentation materials, especially related to data and statistics;
Statistics and data analyses are presented at Progress launches and other events;
Provision of media interviews and briefings as requested;
Responses are provided to media, government, UN, UN Women country offices and other external requests around the time of the launch of Progress and on an on-going basis.

Impact of Results:

Since statistical data and research are a key component of the work of the Research and Data Section, the key results will contribute substantially to the timely to the implementation of UN Women’s Research and Data strategy.

These results will specifically contribute to the following deliverables in the UN Women 2013-2017 Strategic Plan:

Operational effectiveness and efficiency results output cluster 2: a strong culture of results-based management, reporting, knowledge management and evaluation;
UN-Women is a recognized hub of knowledge for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment around the world.

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:

Proven excellent research skills;
Proven experience in gathering and presenting data and statistics;
Very strong analytical skills;
Creativity in performing quantitative and qualitative analysis in areas where such quantitative data is limited and scarce;
Familiarity with the internet and the use of web based information systems;
Excellent understanding of gender equality and women’s empowerment and its policy implications;
Ample knowledge and use of computer office tools (word, database, spreadsheets, web content production, filing);
Understanding of statistical research and data analysis is necessary;
Experience working with international data and actual knowledge of quantitative analysis and related software (i.e. EXCEL, Stata) is required. Mastery of excel is a strong asset;
Background in statistical analysis and econometrics is required;
Previous experience working on gender issues and/or major institutional reports an asset;
Outstanding research and excellent writing skills. Ability to conduct literature reviews, compile analytical bibliographies, and write cogent summaries of reports or analytical documents;
Capacity to self-organize research work and to plan, prioritize and deliver tasks on time. Ability to set priorities; work under pressure with colleagues at all levels.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

A Master’s degree (or equivalent) in gender/women's studies, economics, social sciences, human rights, international development or a related field with a strong quantitative focus.

Experience:

At least five years of relevant work experience, with a demonstrable ability to conduct high quality statistical research.

Languages:

Written and oral proficiency in English is required;
Knowledge of another UN language is highly desirable but not a requirement.

Application:

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, please scan all your documents into one single file to upload. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.
Previous applicants will be reconsidered and do not have to resubmit new application.

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.