Background

Gender Equality is a core objective of UNDP that is implemented throughout the organization with a two-pronged approach: (i) mainstreaming gender in all programmes and projects; and, (ii) dedicated interventions that empower women and promote gender equality. UNDP’s work on gender is guided by the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA), Convention of the Elimination of

All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the frameworks provided by the Millennium Declaration and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as well as the relevant Security Council’s Resolutions (SC 1325 and 1820).
The different crisis and conflicts that have affected DRC have considerably weakened the entire social fabric and rendered women’s position more precarious with a progressive breakdown of both traditional and post-colonial systems over the past decades.

Eastern DRC and particularly North and South Kivu have paid a heavy price to the political and military crisis that has affected the country and introduced sexual violence at large scale and rape used as a weapon of war. Despite notable progress toward peace and stability, the socioeconomic situation of communities remains extremely fragile and the restoration of security and State authority remains one major stumbling block, despite security improvements in most provinces.

The UN Country Team and MONUC, through the UN Action on Sexual violence have developed a comprehensive strategy to support the government, to strengthen prevention, protection, and response to sexual violence. The strategy will contribute to strengthening the stabilization process and civilians’ protection, particularly women and girls’ security as a matter of priority.
Within the framework of its country program 2008-2012, UNDP Country Office (CO) has integrated the gender approach in order to improve men /women equality in the new institutional scenario, particularly by proposing a specific and additional contribution to the current efforts to combat sexual and gender Based Violence (SGBV). It contributes in a significant way to the achievement) of the objectives assigned to the UN mission in Congo (MONUC), in particular regarding the establishment of a stable security environment and the consolidation of democracy.

In addition, UNDP has, through a multiannual and multi-sectoral program, integrated developed a specific contribution to the UN Action on Sexual Violence and other current efforts to combat sexual and gender Based Violence (SGBV) in line with UNDP Eight points agenda for women’s empowerment in conflict and post-conflict situation. The program started its activities through an Access to justice Project for the North and South Kivu and a second project in the same provinces is about to start on Security, Women’s Empowerment and Socioeconomic reintegration. It is mainstreamed within the two program pillars that are Governance and poverty reduction and is reflected among national priorities.

The Gender Unit is responsible for ensuring that available expertise assists the Country Office to effectively mainstream gender in its Programme which aims at contributing to the strengthening of the Rule of Law which will allow the citizens, the men and women of the RDC to completely enjoy their human rights, and at the same time will establish a better economic environment which would allow them to enhance their possibilities to dispose of appropriate sources of incomes. The need to strengthen this Unit stems from: i) the regrouping of the office gender expertise for coordination purposes, ii) the expansion of the gender portfolio to include the implementation of SGBV related programme and projects as well as those related to conflict prevention, peace building and post-conflict reconstruction.

A Senior Gender Advisor is required to support UNDP Country Office in this area and to work with UN and national partners to strengthen the Government’s leading role in ensuring gender equality as enshrined in the National Constitution, empowering and protecting women and girls against all forms of violence. He/she will report to the Country Director and work in close collaboration with the Director of Programmes, the team leaders of the pillars programmes and the Heads of Field Offices.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of functions:

1. Technical support to program design and development and coordination
2. Project planning and implementation
3. Advisory services
4. Strategic partnership and resource mobilization
5. Development of knowledge products and building knowledge and capacity

1. Supervision, Coordination and strategic positioning of the CO’s gender agenda

• Ensure strategic coordination and oversight as well as supervision of gender experts within the CO
• Provide strategic planning and technical oversight to the Gender Unit and design an integrated workplan with clear roles and responsibilities, and provide guidance to all gender experts assigned within UNDP projects and programmes
• Provide overall leadership and guidance to the Gender Management Team
• Undertake systematic analysis of gender policy and programme documents of country office reports, in collaboration with the two Poverty Reduction and Governance Team Leaders, to institutionalize gender development effectiveness and mainstreaming.
• Coordinate and collaborate with clients, partners and stakeholders to link and harmonize approaches and to promote common interests and achievement of results.
• Develop performance indicators and guidelines for effective compliance with the Strategic Plan and UNDP policy on gender equality within the Ggovernance and Ppoverty Reduction programme pillars.
• Participate to Senior management meetings and constantly engage the Team Leaders of the programme pillars as well as the Policy and Strategies Unit in applying principles related to the implementation of the global UNDP Gender , Africa Region and Gender Based Violence Strategiesy.
• Develop regular contacts, synergies and partnerships with others actors (national and international) on Rule of Law and Gender issues at the strategic, technical and operational level.
• Provide support to Areas offices’ coordination efforts to share good practices and ensure visibility of UNDP work in promoting gender equality.
• Strengthen relations with the CO’s Communication unit and contribute to the formulation of a gender sensitive communication strategy
  

2. Technical support to programme development, projects’ implementation and monitoring activities

• ULead and/or undertake research, compilation, analysis and evaluation of social and gender issues and advise the Country Director, colleagues and other partners and clients on the design and development of policy and programme interventions.
• Provide technical advice and guidance in the collection and use of sex- disaggregated statistical data and gender analysis for development of engendered MDG reporting across all 8 MDG goals, in collaboration with the two Poverty Reduction and Governance Team Leaders.
• In collaboration with the Sexual Violence, Gender and rule of Law units at MONUC and other relevant UN agencies, participate in developing projects aiming at implementing the Comprehensive Strategy on Sexual Violence as agreed with the referred units.
• Provide technical and advisory support to the Ministry of Gender and other line ministries involved in justice and security sector reform, particularly the relevant UNDP’s projects and the stabilization program ‘STAREC´ to ensure that gender and SGBV are mainstreamed in the different components as appropriate. 
• Provide technical advice and support to ensuring gender mainstreaming in the justice reform process, particularly with regard to both the formal and traditional justice systems and sensitize community-based customary law/traditional conflict resolution mechanisms to basicin compliance  with  human rights and gender equality, .
• Support local authorities in establishing legitimate mechanisms to improvefor  the physical security of the female civilian population , and promote women and girls’ and their access to justice access to justice.
• Support civil society organisations in monitoring and evaluation of public policies with gender lenses.
• Provide sound technical inputs to implementation of project activities based on critical analysis of the political, social and economic trends in the country.
• Organize baseline information and ensure high quality reporting on project activities.
• Perform quality control function of project activities, including gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation, assessing impact and effectiveness, tracking outputs and results, and ensure timely and efficient delivery of project outputs through a client-satisfaction approach.
• Collaborate with internal and external partners and stakeholders to map critical interventions, linkages and coordination of project activities to meet the desired outcomes.
• Identify and address problems relating to implementation as they arise, including issues related to the programmatic capacities of implementing partners, and to support the revision of programs as necessary.
• Identify project risk factors for ERBM, establish success indicators, monitor and oversee the different project activities and progress and take decisions and timely actions to ensure results are achieved.
• Prepare required and other project reports (progress, financial, procurement, etc) for management information, oversight and action.

3. Advisory services

• Provide authoritative advice and technical guidance on the direction and strategies throughout the different stages of programming from planning to delivery of results.
•  Initiate and/or contribute to strategic discussions with senior level partners, stakeholders and internal colleagues on gender program identification, discussion and policy formulation in line with the implementation of the National Gender Policy and the National strategy on Gender Based Violence.
• Prepare strategic policy proposals, position papers and/or documents for internal and external strategic discussions, consideration, policy formulation and assessment and/or approval.
• Assess program impact and oversee the appropriateness and accuracy of methods used to verify progress and results.
   

Organize baseline information and ensure high quality reporting on project activities.
 Perform quality control function of project activities, including gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation, assessing impact and effectiveness, tracking outputs and results, and ensure timely and efficient delivery of project outputs through a client-satisfaction approach.

• Develop innovative improvements to enhance performance.
• Contribute to the preparation and finalization of UNDPs annual reports on gender mainstreaming and contribute to UN Secretary-General’s reports on the implementation of UN resolutions. 

4. Strategic partnership and resource mobilization

• Maintain dialogue with partners and stakeholders to advocate, promote and advance gender issues, priorities, interests and competencies.
• Promote national ownership by supporting the government in its leadership role and engaging keys government officials in strengthening their involvement in attaining gender related results as per the country’s commitments.
• Contribute to the development of a strategy and plan of action for resource mobilization to achieve optimum interests and funding.
• Works closely with the UNCT, Government and other operational actors to ensure that issues of vulnerability, early recovery and stigma and discrimination of vulnerable women concerns are taken into consideration at both strategic and implementation levels within the framework of the UNSSSS.
• Contribute to the establishment of relevant SGBV early warning and prevention mechanisms at local level and support the involvement of community leaders, men’s groups and women networks in an integrated consultations frameworks
• Develop close working relations and partnerships with MONUC Sexual Violence Unit, UNFPA, UNIFEM and other participating UN and bilateral agencies in order to ensure coherence in support to national ownership and institutional strengthening in preventing and responding to SGBV.
• Organise, in consultation with other gender experts within the UN system, particularly with UNIFEM and relevant MONUC sections, joint advocacy activities and campaigns on SGBV and women’s rights and empowerment.
• In collaboration with UNFPA, develop and strengthen capacities of provincial committees and mechanisms to collect information on SGBV and follow up with relevant authorities for action to be taken as appropriate
• Represent or designate other gender experts to represent UNDP CO in relevant fora to promote, advocate and speak for the organiszationnal on strategic and common issues.

5. Building knowledge and capacity

• Introduce innovative on and best practices, access to knowledge and expertise and promote its application and mainstreaming.
• Develop methodologies and guidelines for promoting effective gender mainstreaming across all programmes and projects.
• Organise capacity strengthening exercises for UNDP programme and project staff in order to improve their ability to mainstream SGBV and human rights issues in their approach and activities
• Develop knowledge products to strengthen organizational capacity to provide technical backstopping on gender issues and to establish conceptual clarity on gender mainstreaming and research on emerging gender issues
• Work closely with the ASRO I and II Community of Practice (Cop) to Aaccess organizational worldwide and regional knowledge, best practices and lessons learnedand , distil best practices and ensure their its dissemination for organizational and stakeholders learning and sharing.
• Engage in capacity- and confidence-building exercices intended to local authorities in with the purpose of establishing legitimate mechanisms to improve the physical security of the female civilian population and promote women and girls’ access to justice. Strengthen their capacity to play this role. their access to justice
• Perform quality control function of project activities, including gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation, assessing impact and effectiveness, tracking outputs and results, and ensure timely and efficient delivery of project outputs through a client-satisfaction approach.
• Organize baseline information and ensure high quality reporting on project activities.
• Prepare the narrative and consolidate financial information on expenditures for the programme.
• Identify and address problems relating to implementation as they arise, including issues related to the programmatic capacities of implementing partners, and to support the revision of programs as necessary.
• Organise, in consultation with other gender experts within the UN system, particularly with UNIFEM and relevant MONUC sections,  joint advocacy activities and campaigns on SGBV and women’s rights and empowerment.
• In collaboration with UNFPA, develop and strengthen capacities of provincial committees and mechanisms to collect information on SGBV and follow up with relevant authorities for action to be taken as appropriate
• Undertake any other tasks as required by the Country Office.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

• Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s values and ethical standards.
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
• Treats all people fairly without favouritism.
  

Functional Competencies:

• Very good knowledge of gender and human rights issues in post-conflicts situations, including the inter-agency joint programming principles.
• Ability to work and act under pressure in a politically and psychologically difficult environment, with a minimum of comfort and in dangerous security conditions.
• Good knowledge of the country/or the region of assignment, including the its  political, economic and social dimensions, and their relation to the main engines of instability and conflict
• Sound knowledge and exposure to a wide range of post-conflict, peace building, good governance, human rights and development-related issues
• Ability  to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting
• Sound political judgment, impartiality, diplomacy and discretion.
• Proven expertise in area of assignment; in-depth understanding of and an ability to evaluate international political situations in that area
• Experience in bilateral and multilateral negotiations.
• Proven ability to provide effective technical advice and knowledge to staff at all levels and from different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Proven effective supervisory skills; ability to mentor staff and provide guidance and support.
• Proven ability to establish priorities and to plan, organize, coordinate and monitor own work plan and provide advice and guidance to others; in-depth understanding of SGBV program’s strategic direction; resourcefulness, sound judgment and decision-making skills.
• Demonstrated sound judgment in resolving issues/problems; ability to proactively seek and recommend sound policy initiatives to meet clients needs.
• Ability to actively seek to improve programmes/services, offer new and different options to solve problems/meet client needs.
• Excellent and effective communication (verbal and written) skills, including ability to prepare reports and conduct presentations to senior officials by clearly formulating positions on issues, articulating options concisely, making and defending recommendations; diplomacy and tact; ability to convey difficult issues and positions to senior officials;
• Excellent interpersonal skills; ability to establish and maintain effective working relations with people in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity.
  

Required Skills and Experience

Education : 

Advanced University degree (Masters degree or equivalent) in gender studies, political sciences, international relations, or law, preferably with specialization in human rights. A relevant combination of university degree, professional training and experience may be considered in lieu of the advanced degree.

Experience : 

• Minimum of seven years experience with issues in conflict and post-conflict countries and substantial direct experience and commitment to combating sexual and gender based violence
• Strategic vision, strong technical and analytical capabilities and good political judgment.
• Experience with protection of civilians, Rule of Law and human rights
• Experience of working in gender sensitive programming in Africa, particularly in crisis and post-crisis contexts
• Familiarity with research on gender programming, monitoring and evaluation
• Ability to handle effectively multiple tasks without compromising quality, team spirit and positive working relationships.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.
• Proven experience in successful host government relations and development of government capacity.
• Good knowledge of the UNDP’s procedures and operational activities for development.
• Previous experience in Africa most desirable.

Required languages : 

Fluency in oral and written English and French