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 leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Country Representative is responsible for translating the UN Women's Strategic Plan (SP), in line with regional and national priorities, into development initiatives and results by developing, implementing and managing programs and projects; and developing effective partnerships with Government counterparts, UN system agencies and organizations, CSOs, and with bilateral and non-traditional donors in order to promote inter-agency partnerships, support for UN reform, and mobilization of visibility and resources to advance gender equality and women's empowerment.

The Deputy Representative reports to the Country Office Representative who provides strategic guidance and direction. The Deputy Representative supports the Representative in the overall management of the CO and is responsible for contributing to the strategic development of the programme portfolio, innovation in responding to the changing environment and emerging developments on women’s human rights in Papua New Guinea and for the management and oversight of programme implementation to ensure effective and efficient delivery of results as planned in UN Women’s Strategic Plan and the  Papua New Guinea Country Office’s plans. The Deputy works closely with the Operations Manager to ensure compliance in programming with UN Women policies and regulations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

Advisory and Specialized Technical support
  • As Deputy Representative, serves as key advisor to the Representative and as a senior member of his/her management team in the CO strategic discussions and formulation of programs and management operations, including work planning.
  • Provide specialized technical and strategic support in managing all aspects of CO programme design and management of related activities and for ensuring accountability in programme monitoring, reporting and evaluation
  • Support, guide and provide input to assure quality control in the formulation of relevant, high quality, results-based and rights-based country programmes and to ensure programme coherence, technical integrity, inter-unit programme cooperation and coordination.
  • Provide strategic and specialized technical advice to the Representative on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to improve/enhance programme planning, implementation, monitoring and timely progress reporting.
  • Draft policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/materials for use in the development and presentation of innovative and coherent policy and programmatic positions in support of national development priorities and commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment, incorporating regional and global perspectives and contributing to regional and global strategies.
  • Review and evaluate proposals submitted to the country office. Oversee the preparation of donor proposals and reports to ensure quality, timeliness, compliance with requirements as per established rules, regulations, including the commitments under relevant UNDAFs and the UN Women Global Strategic Plan to facilitate the review and approval of proposals and reports by the Representative. Take timely action to take any corrective action to meet standards for submissions.
  • Regularly assess the country level annual work plans, monitor progress on the achievement of goals and targets, and present the Representative with recommendations to assist in development planning .

Programme Management, Monitoring and Oversight:

  • Recommend and establish program monitoring standards, criteria and other indicators for measuring and assessing progress/results.
  • Monitor the progress on mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators and take timely support, action and/or decisions as required.
  • Lead the processes of gathering information and preparing reports on progress of programme implementation, assessing results and identifying areas for the Representative’s action and/or decision to ensure achievement of results as planned and in accordance with UN Women’s goals and objectives and accountability framework.
  • Identify areas that may require improvement and capture best practices/lessons learned, using corporate monitoring tools, such as the Balance Score Card, Atlas Snapshot and Dashboard, Staff Surveys, Audits and other corporate reports. Take action to improve areas of weakness.
  • In close consultation with the Operations Manager, manage the timely allocation of funds to programmes. Monitor and ensure the appropriate utilization of resources approved and allocated to programmes that are managed by the country office.
  • Ensure substantive and good quality proposals following the established rules, and regulations, and adhering to the Strategic Plan and Annual Work plans.
  • Establish and/or support the development of sustainable and solid relations with counterparts, for effective advocacy and partnerships resulting in the achievement of UN Women goals and objectives in the country, and consequently in the enhanced reputation and credibility of UN Women in delivering results on gender equality and women’s rights.
  • Work collaboratively with the Operations Manager in preparing and providing guidance to the country office on the whole process of review and accountability exercises, overseeing the collection and verification of accurate and complete relevant documentation, advising on the preparation of responses, and monitoring the timely and full implementation of recommendations and required actions.

Knowledge Management and Capacity Building:

  • Identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to guide programme improvements and future strategic development planning.
  • Manage the process of collecting and sharing lessons learned on gender equality and women’s empowerment to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders.
  • Design and implement capacity building training activities to enhance skills and knowledge in results based management; results based reporting and budgeting, and systematic quality assurance.
  • Oversee cutting-edge research and knowledge generation to inform and advise national development priorities and commitments for gender equality and women’s empowerment, ensuring the integration of regional and global contexts and developments.
  • Contribute to the development and maintenance of global and regional programme knowledge networks and practices, and development of knowledge products.

Integration of Programmes and Operations:

  • In collaboration with the Operations Manager, ensure the integration and coordination of the programming and operations functions of the office to maximize efficiency and promote teamwork in achieving the CO goals and objectives.
  • Promote the effective and efficient use of the office’s resources towards the delivery of planned results.
  • Ensure compliance of activities according to rules, regulations, processes and procedures and UN Women’s accountability framework. 
Impact of Results:

The effective support provided by the Deputy Representative to the strategic development and management of programmes, to their effective and efficient integration with operations in the country office, and the technical support provided to UN Women’s coordination mandate, directly impact the quality of UN Women’s programme development, implementation and results and the quality of its technical expertise, which in turn directly impact the credibility and image of UN Women as an effective and efficient partner and as the leading  knowledge-based technical and advocacy organization for gender equality and the empowerment of women
.

Competencies

Core values/guiding principles

Integrity:

  • Demonstrate the values of United Nations and UN Women, act without consideration of personal gain, resist undue political pressure in decision-making, no abuse of power or authority, stand by decisions in the organization’s interest, and take action in cases of unprofessional or unethical behavior.
Professionalism:
  • Show pride in work and achievements, demonstrate professional competence and mastery of subject matter, conscientious and efficient in meeting commitments and achieving results, motivated by professional rather than personal concerns, show persistence when faced with challenges, and remain calm in stressful situations.
Respect for Diversity:
  • Work effectively with people from all backgrounds, treat all people with dignity and respect, treat men and women equally, show respect for and understand diverse opinions by examining own biases and behaviors to avoid stereotypical responses, and do not discriminate against any individual or group.
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:
  • Demonstrated theoretical, intellectual and technical skills in aid development/programming particularly those that are pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues and women’s rights.
  • Demonstrated political acumen and technical capacity in representing the organization effectively in national and international fora to advocate and to promote organizational priorities, initiatives and a better understanding of the organizational strategic agenda.
  • Proven ability to lead a practice area and to drive results
  • Ability to establish and maintain broad strategic networks and partnerships with UN agencies and other international partners to promote partnership and build alliances to advance organizational interests and competencies
  • Ability to go beyond established procedures and practices, introduce new approaches and strategic innovations
  • Good knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Advanced university degree in international development, public administration, public policy or other relevant social science fields.

Experience:
  • A minimum of seven years of relevant  professional  experience that combines intellectual, strategic and managerial leadership in development programmes with a strong focus in the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment at the international level, preferably in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds or Programmes.

Language:

  • Fluency in written and spoken English.
  • Knowledge of another UN working language is desirable.

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.
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.