Historique

About UN Women Liberia

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), grounded on 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 at various levels; 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, the 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.

 With lessons learned from the recent Ebola outbreak, particularly on services delivery at the community level the Ministry of Internal Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Proection are accelerating the implementation of the Decentralization/Deconcentration Strategy, with an Act yet to be tabled in the parliament soon. As lead to this process, the President launched the platform for advancing this process early this year, and ever since then, there have been a series of consultations and dialogues at various levels. UN Women’s contribution – as requested by the government, is to provide technical assistance on gender aspects. This support is anchored on lessons learned from the Ebola outbreak, mainly on its impact on women and girls in accessing basic services – especially health.

 It is from the above background that the Ministry has further requested for a technical tailored technical assistance to contribute to the achievement of the overreaching objectives below:

• Gender sensitive national policies/strategies/legislation on decentralization for a common understanding among decision-making level of the Government on the role and contribution of women for improved service delivery and local socio-economic development;
• Gender responsive national and local government officials and other stakeholders for women’s inclusion and participation in local governance and political systems for equitable distribution of resources and the promotion of democratic governance as well as participatory accountability;
• Institutionalization of a gender sensitive and participatory monitoring and evaluation (M&E) system to assess the impact of the different interventions for sustainability.

Devoirs et responsabilités

Summary of Key Functions:

• Provide policy and strategic technical advise to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other relevant ministries in the area gender and women empowerment as central for rolling out the decentralization strategy;
• Provide technical support for integrating gender in the decentralization process – including through the implementation and monitoring of policy and legal frameworks;
• Capacity development for the Ministry of Internal Affairs (as a lead agency on decentralization) on gender, targeting the heads of divisions and deputy/Assistant Ministers.

Provide policy and strategic technical advise to the Ministry of Internal Affairs  other relevant ministries in the area gender and women empowerment as central for rolling out the decentralization strategy:

• Initiate and support discussions on gender aspects of the decentralized service delivery,  and capacity development;
• Create innovative solutions to the challenges of decentralization, fiscal management, development and management of the capacity development at local and national levels with wider application and replication in all the Counties in Liberia;
• Contribute at a senior level to government’s debate on decentralization, capacity and local development funding and evidence based policy and institutional development;
• Organize forums and workshops to support the implementation of decentralization activities as approved by the Ministry at local and national level, including the design and delivery of targeted capacity development;
• Develop the capacity of national UNVs who are placed in Ministry of Internal Affairs on gender dimensions of the decentralization;
• Generate lessons on good practices and ensure their incorporation into national policies, institutions, frameworks, systems and processes.

Provide technical support for integrating gender in the decentralization process – including through the implementation and monitoring of policy and legal frameworks:

• Provide technical assistance for the development and implementation of the national and local capacity programmes to support relevant ministries and stakeholders on gender dimensions of decentralization;
• Ensure technical leadership within the Ministry of Internal affairs for capacity development to support women participation on the decentralization process at the subnational level;
• Support the establishment of gender sensitive monitoring frameworks for implementation of the decentralization strategy at national and subnational levels, as well as provide ongoing feedback and technical backstopping, and regularly monitor progress towards the identified indicators;
• Provide technical support to all decentralizing ministries and responsible parties to ensure progressive implementation of gender sensitive workplans on decentralization;
• Develop gender tools and guidelines that facilitate the achievement of the anticipated outcomes with respect to decentralization at all levels;
• Support to women groups to “think-outside-the box” on mechanisms to increase their participation and representation at the subnational levels;
• Develop mechanism for linking Women Peace Huts to County Peace councils and ensuring that the technical expert works closely with the council and Peace Huts on this programme;
• Support the Ministry and UN Women in the preparation of reports for technical requirements as requested.

Capacity development for the Ministry of Internal Affairs (as a lead agency on decentralization)  in regards to gender, targeting the heads of divisions and deputy/Assistant Ministers:

• Provide programmatic guidance on gender concerns and ensure that heads of departments have it integrated in all aspects of the their implementation of programmes;
• Provide tailored technical assistance and outreach initiatives to promote increased advocacy and understanding of gender within the local governance perspectives;
• Identify potential openings for gender inclusion and design and implement solutions that promote gender sensitive programmes
• Work closely with the staff in the Ministry of Internal Affairs to build their understanding of gender issues; including facilitating sessions on gender inclusion techniques;
• Participate in the design of gender sensitive performance indicators and in work planning process

Deliverable(s):

• The Decentralization Strategy Rolled out and gender tools developed to support the process;
• Gender sensitive monitoring and evaluation frameworks developed to support the process of tracking progress for the implementation of the Decentralization Strategy;
• Capacity development plan  for the Ministry developed ( On gender dimensions of decentralization) and implemented- including through a series of sessions for staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs);
• Develop a series of knowledge products to support the advocacy on gender aspects of decentralization and local governance in the context of Liberia;
• Facilitate a series of capacity development sessions for relevant government ministries, departments and institutions on gender and decentralization;
• Convene and facilitate dialogues with potential women leaders at the subnational level including through the already established Peace Huts/Infrastructures.

Compétences

Core values and Guiding principles:

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

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:

• Advocacy/Advancing a Policy-Oriented Agenda: Preparing information for advocacy: Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences in advocating for UN Women's mandate within the broader context of Communicating;
• Builds Strategic Partnerships: Analyzes and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders; Establishes and nurtures positive communication with partner;
• Promoting organizational learning and knowledge sharing: Generates new ideas and approaches, researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
• Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
• Creating Visibility for UN Women/Supporting UN Women's Capacity to Advocate.

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, development, gender or related field.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years’ experience strategic gender planning, gender analysis, gender budgeting, preparing/conducting gender assessments, and gender mainstreaming/integration in decentralization process;
• Ability to develop and interpret gender-sensitive indicators;
• Knowledge of best practices and lessons learned in designing and implementing gender approaches in specific sector work;
• Experience with civil society and governance structures at the county or local level;
• Good IT skills, including databases and office software packages;
• Familiarity with gender issues. Familiarity with UN Women and UN system is an asset.

Language:

• Fluent in English.

Note:

Shortlisted candidates may be requested to provide samples of their previous work.