UN WOMEN Jobs - 62920- National Project Coordinator

National Project Coordinator – Markets for Change / M4C Project

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Honiara, SOLOMON ISLANDS

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Starting Date :

01-Apr-2016

Application Deadline :

05-Feb-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

SB-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

One (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

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. In doing so, UN Member States took an historic step in accelerating the Organization’s goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women.

In support of this goal, UN Women works in the following thematic areas:

1. Expanding women’s voice, leadership and participation;
2. Enhancing women’s economic empowerment;
3. Ending violence against women and girls;
4. Strengthening implementation of the women, peace and security agenda; and
5. Making gender equality priorities central to national and local planning and budgeting.

The Markets for Change - Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu Project (hereinafter referred to as the M4C PROJECT) is a six year initiative aimed at ensuring that marketplaces in rural and urban areas in Fiji, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu are safe, inclusive and non-discriminatory environments, promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The M4C Project aims to promote the gender, social and economic empowerment of market vendors, with specific attention to the needs and aspirations of women market vendors. Through the creation of representative groups in marketplaces, a focus on economic security, the strengthening of local government institutions, procedures and development approach, and the design and building of gender-responsive infrastructure, market vendors will be able to influence decision-making on market management and resource allocation, supporting the economic and social empowerment of market vendors, and the advancement of women market vendors. In Solomon Islands, a total of two markets will be reached over the course of the Project. Evidence to date underlines support by local government and market management.

Markets for Change (M4C) Project will use a multi-sectoral approach to build on previous work done by UN Women, and other UN agencies and partners, to strengthen the present network of market vendors, empower women market vendors and create an enabling environment for their growth. M4C will also support gender-responsive infrastructure regarding market extensions and refurbishment.

For the Markets for Change project in Solomon Islands, UN Women will act as the Implementing Agent and UNDP will be a Responsible Party for the delivery of Outcome 2 of the project as part of the programming for Women’s Economic Empowerment.

Under the technical guidance and supervision of the Project Manager for Market for Change Project, the NPC-M4C will ensure that UN Women’s M4C initiatives are aligned with the National Priorities and contribute to the implementation of the National Strategy on Economic Empowerment of Women and Girls of Solomon Islands.

The NPC-M4C will support the Project Manager-M4C to establish and maintain effective partnerships with national and local Government, multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors and will assist with the preparation of project related reports and documentations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

Provides advice and support to UN Women management, programmes and projects;
Provides policy advice and options to counterparts and facilitation of knowledge building and management;
Ensures creation of strategic partnerships and support to resource mobilization;
Provides advocacy and promotion of awareness of UN Women mandate and mission;
Facilitate implementation of the M4C project at national level.

Provides advice and support to UN Women management, programmes and projects focusing on achievement of the following results:

Ensure that the Country Programme Coordinator (CPC) and relevant stakeholders are regularly updated on the implementation of the M4C project;
Ensure that the goal and objectives of the UN Women PIM project and the underlying gender analysis are adequately reflected in country level UNDAFs, UN Joint Programmes, UN Women Annual Work plans, reports;
Contribute to the development of project progress reports;
Represent UN Women’s M4C project in relevant working groups at national and local policy and programme related meetings;
Facilitate effective linkages between other UN Women projects and programmes.

Provides policy advice and options to counterparts and facilitation of knowledge building and management focusing on achievement of the following results:

High quality and accurate project briefs, particularly from Gender and pro-poor perspectives, on national and local economic development;
Quality contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice through identification of best practices and lessons learned, especially through UN Women’s own programmes;
Key information on the gender dimensions of national and local economic policies and their impact on poverty reduction, growth and equity distilled from studies, reports, and analyses and shared with UN Women staff and partners, local and national governments and institutions.

Ensures creation of strategic partnerships and support to resource mobilization focusing on achievement of the following results:

Effective partnerships with the UN Agencies, IFI’s, government institutions, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors, private sector, civil society areas based on strategic goals of UN Women in the area of economic empowerment, countries needs and donors’ priorities;
Analysis and research of information on donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation;
Production of periodic updates and briefs on national and local development situation to be used by stakeholders, SRO, CO and HQ;
Facilitate quality gender analysis, studies/research on emerging economic development concerns that feed into government/development partners processes.

Advocacy and promotion of awareness of UN Women mandate and mission focusing on achievement of the following results:

Support to public and policy advocacy for the Sustainable Development Goals, and implementation of CEDAW (in particular, Article 14);
Support with the Management of strategic public events and publications on Women’s Economic Empowerment.

Facilitate implementation of the M4C project at national level by contributing to the achievement of the following results:

Effective monitoring, measuring the impact of the M4C project and evaluation. Constant monitoring and analysis of the programme environment, timely readjustment of programme to key feedback and lessons learned;
Aggregate reports on activities, outputs and outcomes. Preparation of both interim and final donor reports;
Support to Planning, budgeting, implementing and monitoring of the programme, tracking use of financial resources in accordance with UN Women rules and regulations;
Support with the preparation and certification payment requisitions for all M4C project requests.

Impact of Results

The key results of the post include facilitating progress on effective country level M4C project implementation. The post also increases the substantive contributions and visibility of UN Women in the national and local discourse on gender, livelihoods and poverty reduction.

Competencies

Functional Competencies:

Advocacy/Advancing a Policy-Oriented Agenda:

Synthesises UN Women data and reports and current political situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of UN responses;
Identifies and uses strategic opportunities and events to introduce and disseminate UN WOMEN’s PIM knowledge products and policy materials for advocacy and capacity building work.

Building Strategic Partnerships:

Effectively networks with partners seizing opportunities to build strategic alliances relevant to UN Women’s mandate and strategic agenda;
Develops positive ties with civil society to build/strengthen UN Women’s mandate;
Identifies needs and interventions for capacity building of counterparts, clients and potential partners;
Participates effectively in relevant thematic UN and broader inter-agency meetings , by fulfilling UN Women’s mandate to provide technical leadership on Gender and by sharing new knowledge, capacity development strategies and tools.

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

Makes the case for innovative ideas documenting successes and building them into the design of new approaches;
Identifies new approaches and strategies that promote the use of tools and mechanisms.

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise:

Understands more advanced aspects of primary area of specialization as well as the fundamental concepts of related disciplines;
Serves as knowledge provider in the area of expertise and shares knowledge with staff;
Keeps abreast of new developments and discourse in gender and economics and develops him/herself professionally;
Demonstrates comprehensive knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments.

Creating Visibility for UN WOMEN/Supporting UN WOMEN’s Capacity to Advocate:

Identifies and develops activities to enhance the visibility of UN Women;
Develops promotional activities based on monitoring/evaluation information identifying areas requiring higher visibility;
Reviews documents and materials intended for use within and outside the organization in order to ensure consistency and validity of messages.

Global Leadership and Advocacy for UN WOMEN’s Goals:

Facilitates quality gender analysis of economic situations and scenarios, and contributes to the formulation of UN WOMEN/UN responses.

Conceptual Innovation in the Provision of Technical Expertise:

Develops innovative and creative approaches to meet programme and capacity development objectives;
Participates in dialogue about conceptual innovation in PIM at the national and local levels.

Client Orientation:

Anticipates client needs;
Works towards creating an enabling environment for a smooth relationship between the clients and service provider;
Demonstrates understanding of client’s perspective.

Core Competencies:

Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents;
Building support and political acumen;
Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
Building and promoting effective teams;
Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
Leveraging conflict in the interests of UN WOMEN and setting standards;
Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member;
Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Masters’ Degree or equivalent in Gender, Economics, Social Work, International Relations, Management, Development, Public Administration, political or social sciences or related field;
And/or: Bachelors’ Degree or equivalent in Gender, Economics, Social Work, International Relations, Management, Development, Public Administration, political or social sciences or related field.

Experience:

Masters’ Degree or Higher + years of experience requirement - Up to 2 years at the national or regional level. Sound knowledge and practical experience in economics, gender analysis, gender mainstreaming of gender in sectoral policy, planning, budgeting and programming. Some experience of research and policy-level analysis, partnership building and management, resource mobilization and designing, formulating and evaluation of programmes and projects is required;
And/or: Bachelors’ Degree + years of experience requirement - Up to 4 years at the national or regional level. Sound knowledge and practical experience in economics, gender analysis, gender mainstreaming of gender in sectoral policy, planning, budgeting and programming. Some experience of research and policy-level analysis, partnership building and management, resource mobilization and designing, formulating and evaluation of programmes and projects is required;
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems.

Language:

Fluency in the UN and national language of the duty station.