UN WOMEN Jobs - 49807- Local Consultant- Implementation of the UN Women K

Local Consultant- Implementation of the UN Women Kenya Country HIV Programme

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Nairobi, KENYA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

01-Oct-2014

Application Deadline :

22-Sep-14 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

6 months

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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

The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN-Women) was established by General Assembly resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence, with the mandate to assist countries and the United Nations system itself to progress more effectively and efficiently toward the goal of achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment and upholding women’s rights. This strategic plan, developed pursuant to paragraph 77 of resolution 64/2892 is the first such plan created by UN-Women. The plan lays out the organization’s priorities for achieving this goal up to 2017, and which it will assess and revise in 2013, in order to align it with the planning cycles of other United Nations agencies.

The UN-Women vision is a world where societies are free of gender-based discrimination, where women and men have equal opportunities, where the comprehensive economic and social development of women and girls is ensured so that they can lead the change that they want to see, where gender equality and women’s empowerment are achieved, and women’s rights are upheld in all efforts to further development, human rights, peace and security.

The mission statement of UN-Women was set out in the proposal of the Secretary- General as follows: “Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, the composite entity will work 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 center of all its efforts, the composite entity will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.”

To operationalize the global strategy at the national level, UN Women Kenya has developed the country programme document for 2014 – 2017. To date, the current country programme aims to strengthen the promotion of and respect for women’s rights as well as promoting women’s participation and enhancing gender responsiveness in democratic governance in Kenya.

The HIV and AIDS program at UN Women Kenya Country Program is focused on promoting the leadership and participation of HIV positive women’s organizations and women affected by HIV in shaping policies, programmes and resource allocations that address the HIV epidemic as well as developing core capacities of national AIDS coordinating mechanisms to promote human rights and gender equality in the HIV response. The program that had received financial support through global UN women programs has been evaluated and the evaluation that highlights the good practices, lessons learnt as well as gaps will be used to inform the development of this new program document. The current strategic plan does have an output on HIV that will have activities building on the previous program as well as on the cross cutting issues.

The establishment of UN Women, whose mandate is to provide, through its normative support functions and operational activities, guidance and technical support to all Member States, across all levels of development and in all regions, at their request on gender equality, the empowerment and the rights of women on gender mainstreaming , and to conduct its work in ways that lead to more effective coordination, coherence and gender mainstreaming across the United Nations system, requires a change of strategy at global, regional and country levels.

Guided by its mandate as well as regional and global inter-governmental agreements, such as CEDAW, the Beijing Platform for Action, Security Council Resolution 1325, 1820 and others, and the Millennium Development Goals, UN Women allows for more influence at policy and programming levels without taking away the responsibility of other UN Agencies to deliver on gender equality and women’s empowerment. It is therefore imperative that the program be implemented with this in mind.

Duties and Responsibilities

Identify and priorities from the key high level activities in the UN Women Country Programme Document 2014-2018 and the 2014 work plan to Kenya and This will include consultations with the UN Women HIV Policy Advisor in NY. These key high level activities will be included in the KASF;
Provide program management to the ongoing HIV programs including partner management of HIV program partners who will be engaging in this process as well as providing technical support to ongoing processes on HIV including in the UN Joint team on HIV and AIDS and to the ongoing UN Women Country Programme team activities on HIV including management of ongoing consultancies;

Facilitate consultative validation meetings with stakeholders towards the development of a gender transformative KASF.

With donor community;
With Government and civil society – specifically networks of WLHIV;
With other UN Agencies.

Competencies

Mature judgment and initiative;
Ability to think out-of-the-box;
Ability to present complex issues in a simple and clear manner;
Cultural, gender, religion and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Ability to work under pressure and deliver high quality results on time;
Initiative and independence.

Required Skills and Experience

Academic

Master’s Degree in a relevant field with at least five years’ experience in research, programme development, monitoring and evaluation.

Experience

Hands-on experience working on women’s issues in the context of Health, HIV and Human Rights at global, regional and national levels would be desirable;
Previous experience with UNIFEM/UN Women / UNAIDS and/or with other UN Agencies especially in programme development and implementation will be an added advantage;
Excellent writing and presentation skills will be a high priority requirement.

Language Requirment

Fluency in spoken and written English.