Background
UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations, dedicated to advancing women's rights and achieving gender equality. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies that foster women's empowerment. UNIFEM works on the premise that it is the fundamental right of every woman to live a life free from discrimination and violence, and that gender equality is essential to achieving development and to building just societies.Women in WEST AFRICA represent the most deprived slice of the population in spite of their paramount social and economic role in the community and in the family. They have little access to, and virtually no control over available resources, as the result of unfair social, cultural and economic norms.
The vision of UNIFEM's 2008-2011 strategic plan in West Africa is 'enabling a more secure world for African women'. The plan has adopted a national and sub-regional approach to advancing gender equality and women empowerment, and committed -among other strategies- to:
- Advancing gender mainstreaming into national strategies, policies, institutions, development finance, national budgets and statistics,
- Strengthening capacity of relevant actors in order to bridge gaps between normative advances and the limited 'know how' within governmental and non-governmental structures;
- Engendering PRS and national budgets to address feminized poverty, and support efforts towards women economic empowerment;
- Within the UN System, playing a leading role in Gender Theme Groups and Donor Gender Groups, and supporting UNDAF processes with a focus on human rights, governance, institutional frameworks, and domestication of international conventions and other relevant instruments that promote gender equity and equality.
Duties and Responsibilities
Programme Specialist will work under the direct supervision and guidance of the UNIFEM West African Regional Office Deputy Regional Programme Director (D/RPD) and in close consultation with the UNIFEM Programme Specialists with the overall aim to support UNIFEM Women Economic Security Rights & Gender Budgeting programmes in line with 2008-2011 Sub-regional Strategy (SRS) and donor commitments.More specifically, the Programme Specialist will perform the following tasks:
Strategic Leadership, Oversight and Reporting:
- Overall, effectively assume strategic and substantive leadership for the integration of UNIFEM' strategies and values in women's economic empowerment & gender responsive budgeting programmes throughout the sub-region. This covers supporting fundraising, communication and partnership-building, evaluation and knowledge management; and ensuring information flow and team-building across the diverse network of partners and stakeholders involved in various ESR/GRB programmes, including Gender Responsive Budgeting, Resource Based Initiatives, etc;
- Facilitate quality assurance of all ESR/GRB programmes and undertake technical assistance and monitoring missions to the project sites;
- Support the recruitment, monitoring and quality assessment of the technical assistance services retained to accompany the ESR/GRB programmes;
- Identify capacity development needs and develop adequate solutions to ensure effective programme implementation;
- Monitor the development of, and provide substantive guidance and technical inputs, to ensure the quality of products and capacity development tools commissioned by country teams with emphasis on ensuring evidence-based approaches (e.g. training materials, training workshops, tools, knowledge-sharing publications and outreach materials developed);
- Work with RM Specialist to develop and drive donor outreach and fundraising plans to mobilize additional resources for the programmes
- Ensure high-quality, results-oriented reporting on the ESR/GRB programmes, for internal and external audiences.
- Support UNIFEM' efforts in the sub-region to engage national level macroeconomic processes such as PRSPs, Gender Budgeting, AID modalities, etc;
- Gather relevant information on above processes and share them with staff involved in ESR/GRB programmes in the sub-region;
- Ensure that information from the grassroots (e.g. on women's economic needs and priorities) are presented in a way that can inform macroeconomic processes;
- Work with GELD coordinators in selected countries (e.g. Senegal, Sierra Leone & Mali) to support national level advocacy for decentralized partners;
- Support capacity building initiatives to allow staff and partners to understand and maintain the strategic link between national strategies and processes and local women and their economic activities.
Evaluation and Learning:
- Ensure oversight and communication related to monitoring and evaluation, including facilitating coordination among evaluation experts, UNIFEM SRO, and the UNIFEM HQ Evaluation Unit;
- Ensure timely and quality delivery of baseline, monitoring and evaluation plans for ESR/GRB programmes;
- Develop and oversee wide strategic distribution of ESR/GRB programmes' findings and knowledge-related publications, inclusive of select case studies, good practices and lessons learned;
- Document, and analyze lessons learned that might be useful for the UN system at large and UNIFEM in particular for global institutional learning;
- Work in partnership with key communications and media actors to promote WEE, GRB & GELD messages;
- Support staff for the development and implementation of communications and advocacy plans, and to identify and seize strategic advocacy opportunities on an ongoing basis;
- Ensure maintenance of a calendar of the most relevant international/regional fora relevant to ESR/GRB programmes, facilitate access to that information by partners and relevant UNIFEM staff, and coordinate UNIFEM participation; .
- Strengthen and enhance partnership/co-operation/consultation/coordination with, where appropriate, national and local state actors, national and international civil society actors, especially, women's organizations, bilateral institutions, UN, World Bank, donors, academia, private sector and private foundations for more effective and coordinated ESR/GRB programme implementation;
- Utilize effectively ongoing coordination mechanism to ensure coherence of the programme with other country-level processes including national development policy-making, UN programming and coordination processes (UNDAF, UN Gender Theme Group, etc.), donors' council work, etc.;
- Ensure effective partnership, networking and coordination between other ongoing UNIFEM programmes, projects and activities in the sub-region for a more holistic and coherent approach to SRS implementation.
Competencies
Corporate Competencies:- Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standard;
- Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UNDP/UNIFEM;
- Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability;
- Treats all people fairly without favouritism.
Management and Leadership
- Proven ability to lead and manage "smart" business solutions in challenging environments;
- Builds strong client relationships, focuses on impact and results for the client;
- Establishes and maintains relationships with a broad range of people to understand needs, gain support, and is proactive in developing solutions;
- Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
- Monitors progress against milestones and deadlines;
- Demonstrates openness to change, flexibility, and ability to manage complexities;
- Ability to work under pressure and with multi-disciplinary and multicultural teams and possess excellent inter-personal skills;
- Demonstrates strong written and oral communication skills;
- Remains calm, in control, and good humoured even under pressure;
- Proven networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills;
- Ability to establish priorities for self and others, and to work independently.
- Proven ability to problem-solve and think creatively to develop and implement smart business solutions in a challenging socio-economic environment;
- Proven ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them for development results.
- Possesses in-depth knowledge of the issues of women's rights and gender equality;
- Knowledge and experience with programming, monitoring and evaluation;
- Experience in developing advocacy strategies and public speaking highly desirable;
- Promotes knowledge management and a learning environment in the office and among local partners through leadership and personal example;
- Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
- Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside of UNIFEM.
Required Skills and Experience
Education- Masters degree or equivalent in development related field.
- 5 years of relevant experience for programming geared to support women's empowerment and rights, with particular experience in complex and multi-component programmes;
- A proven track record in managing and monitoring results-based and rights-based national programming is required, including in-depth knowledge of results-based management approaches;
- Demonstrated knowledge of programming issues within the field of social protection, employment, service provision;
- Experience writing project documents, fundraising proposals and project reports;
- Fundraising experience highly desirable;
- International development experience and multi-cultural exposure.
- Fluency in English and French.