UN WOMEN Jobs - 65722- Partnerships and Coordination Officer

Partnerships and Coordination Officer - Open to Kyrgyzstan Nationals Only

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Bishkek city, with regular field travel within Kyrgyzstan, KYRGYZSTAN

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Starting Date :

06-Jun-2016

Application Deadline :

01-May-16 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

SC-8

Duration of Initial Contract :

6 month

Languages Required :

English Russian

Expected Duration of Assignment :

Extension subject to performance

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 was established by GA resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence, with a mandate to assist Member States and the UN system to progress more effectively and efficiently towards the goal of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women. Since 2001 UN Women (previously as UNIFEM) in Kyrgyzstan has implemented catalytic initiatives on promoting women’s economic, political and social rights. In 2012 a full Country Office (CO) was established. In 2014 the Strategic Note (SN) for the period of 2015-17 was confirmed.

The CO recognizes the need for a strong rights-based emphasis in programming in relation to international agreements and human rights treaties that Kyrgyzstan has signed on to. In relation to gaps remaining between existing normative and policy frameworks on gender equality and women’s empowerment and their practical implementation, the CO programme focuses on the following thematic areas:

Changing societal attitudes in favor of gender equality, and in support of full participation of women at family, community and in public life, including in political and peace-building processes and in the workforce;
Strengthening national and local gender-responsive planning and budgeting;
Accelerating rural women economic empowerment.

Cross-cutting to these is a continuation and strengthening of the CO focus on girl empowerment and the related involvement of young men in this process.

CO programming includes support to Government and civil society organizations in the development and implementation of innovative approaches aimed at achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment.

UN Women supports efforts of the national partners and UN agencies in implementation of gender equality commitments in compliance with the UN human rights conventions ratified by the Kyrgyz Republic. The CO provides strong and coherent technical support of gender equality priorities relating to national and UN efforts and supports building effective partnerships between Government, civil society and other relevant actors. UN Women convenes and leads the UNiTE campaign to end violence against women and girls. The CO strengthens coordination on gender equality and women’s empowerment programming and enhances cooperation for the gender responsive Sustainable Development Goals’ implementation at the national and sub-regional levels.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions

Under the supervision of the National Programme Officer and overall guidance of the Representative, the Partnerships and Coordination Officer is responsible for strengthening partnerships with key stakeholders of the Country Office, including with Parliament, relevant Government entities, development partners, civil society, and private sector, and lead implementation of a set of activities assigned, including facilitation of implementation of UN Gender Thematic Group’s work plan aimed at improving United National Country Team accountability to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Partnerships and Coordination Officer also collaborates with project staff to support effective partnerships in their relevant sectors, leads resource mobilization and donor relations initiatives assigned; s/he mobilizes support in conjunction with intergovernmental processes, and substantively supports the communications and advocacy activities and events organized for UN Women.

Key Functions

Summary of key functions:

I. Develop and support implementation of UN Women Country Office Partnerships Strategy with a view of effectively engaging and strengthening strategic partnerships in support of UN Women’s mandate;

II. Substantively contribute to coordination of UN agencies’ in support of GEWE, including support in implementation of UNCT Gender Mainstreaming Strategy, UN System Wide Action Plan on GEWE, Gender Thematic Group’s work plan, and lead implementation of the assigned activities;

III. Lead Country Office’s engagement with private sector leaders to support advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment principles;

IV. Ensure effective management of the activities under the relevant AWP assigned by the NPO;

V. Support implementation of the Knowledge Management Strategy by substantively contributing to analyzing lessons learnt and documenting best practices;

VI. Perform any other tasks as required.

I. Develop and support implementation of UN Women Country Office Partnerships Strategy with a view of effectively engaging and strengthening strategic partnerships in support of UN Women’s mandate:

Elaborate and propose a Partnership Strategy for the Country Office, in order to facilitate follow-up and coordination of commitments made with partners, and articulate effective implementation mechanisms;
Facilitate the understanding by UN Women’s partners of the institutional expectations from working with UN Women, as well as mutually beneficial communications mechanisms, including tools for monitoring these;
Update the current UN Women’s data base of contacts/partners that can be leveraged to deliver on key objectives of the AWP when required;
Provide technical assistance and ad-hoc capacity building support to key partners to gain their buy-in, proactive support for mutually beneficial partnerships, and facilitate their effectiveness;

II. Substantively contribute to coordination of UN agencies’ in support of GEWE, including support in development of UNCT Gender Mainstreaming Strategy, Gender Thematic Group’s work plan, and lead implementation of the assigned activities:

Facilitate Gender Thematic Group’s work in conducting gender scorecard exercise, implementation of of the UNCT Gender Mainstreaming Strategy, and its annual work plans;
Support implementation of activities to realise the aforementioned strategies and plans;

III. Lead Country Office’s engagement with private sector leaders to support advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment principles:

Identify and engage with private sector leaders in joint initiatives in support of GEWE principles, resulting in MoUs, parallel funding support, or other commitments;
Develop and implement a work plan to carry out joint initiatives with the private sector partners to promote GEWE principles in their work;
Ensure extensive media coverage and dissemination of progress and results of joint initiatives with private sector, including documentation of lessons learnt and best practices.

IV. Ensure effective management of the activities under the relevant AWP assigned by the NPO:

Ensure timely implementation of activities under the relevant AWP, their monitoring and evaluation as per RBM principles;
Monitor budget utilization/implementation in the ERP including budget administration and revisions as required;
Ensure that all progress reports, pertaining to coordination and partnership activities, are prepared in a timely manner and that their quality and details are up to standard
Draft concept notes in consultation with programme colleagues to implement activities in support of partnership strategy;
Establish relations with potential donors, and lead resource mobilization efforts to secure funding for the projects proposed, including the development of full proposals;

V. Support implementation of the Knowledge Management and Communications and Advocacy Strategy by substantively contributing to analyzing lessons learnt and documenting best practices:

Document best practices and lessons learnt in the course of building partnerships with key stakeholders;
Based on the lessons learnt and best practices produce communications materials in a manner that can be shared and disseminated to target audiences in coordination with the Communications Specialist
Produce content for information materials for key government partners using reader-friendly and innovative communication tools;
Proactively support UN Women’s advocacy and communications campaigns by contributing to their design and implementation.

Impact of Results

The effective support provided to the Representative and the Country Office programme team directly impacts on the quality, relevance, and effectiveness of the UN Women Country Office. The post impacts on the development, implementation of results that in turn directly impact on the credibility and image of UN Women as an effective partner for national partner organizations and as a competent knowledge based organization on gender equity and women’s rights issues.

Competencies

Core Competencies

Ethics and Values: Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.
Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
Development and Innovation: Take charge of self-development and take initiative.
Work in teams: Demonstrate 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: facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.
Self-management and Emotional Intelligence: Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others.
Conflict Management: Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.
Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies

Excellent communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies;
Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy;
Proven networking skills, and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate;
Strong initiative-taker;
Very effective at multi-tasking;
Focuses on impact and results for the client;
Interacts effectively with all levels of the organization, including senior management;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Identifies opportunities and builds strong relationships with clients and partners;
Ability to remain calm, in control and good humoured even under pressure and tight deadlines;
Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: demonstrates an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff and demonstrates an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Management and Leadership

Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
Leads teams effectively and shows mentoring as well as conflict resolution skills.

Knowledge Management and Learning

Promotes knowledge management in UN Women and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example;
Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness

Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
Ability to lead the formulation and monitoring of management projects;
Solid knowledge of financial and human resources management, contract, asset and procurement, information and communication technology, general administration;
Ability to lead business processes re-engineering, implementation of new systems (business side), and positively affect staff behavioral/attitudinal change;
Sound knowledge of gender and development issues.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

Master’s degree in Social Sciences, gender studies, human rights, international development, or other relevant social science fields.

Experience

Minimum of five years of relevant experience in Kyrgyzstan;
The minimum years of work experience must be for substantive work, including at least three years of managing projects, with a focus on either partnership development, or gender equality promotion, or women empowerment;
Work experience must include coordination of multi-stakeholder initiatives and projects, ideally involving either government or civil society counterparts;
Good understanding of how government in the Kyrgyz Republic functions, and policy is developed is required; experience of providing technical assistance to government institutions is a strong asset;
Demonstrated substantive knowledge in the thematic area of gender equality and/or women’s social, political or economic empowerment;
Proven experience in writing project documents or project reports; strong analytical skills; previous experience of analysis of socio-economic issues and related policy matters is an asset;
Experience of private sector engagement is an asset;
Familiarity with UN system and UN Women is an asset;
Competent in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.).

Language requirements

Fluency in English, Russian. Working knowledge of Kyrgyz.

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.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted! Candidates can only be shortlisted if they profess to meet all the mandatory requirements in the Job Description. All online applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women, UNDP or UN Personal History form (P11) in English which can easily be found via web search http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment .

Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment which must be the P11. Please upload P.11 form instead of CV and combine all your documents into one (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.

Please carefully respond to the requirements of the Job Description in the P11 that you submit.

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