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.

As the UN agency with the mandate to work on gender equality, UN Women is responsible for leading and coordinating United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world and at the country level. UN Women is also expected to provide strong and coherent leadership in support of countries’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society, the nodal government agency, private sector, and other relevant actors.

Preliminary findings from a study on socio economic impacts of COVID 19 on women and girls in India reveal that the pandemic has resulted in exacerbating the already existing gendered nature of unpaid work at home. While both urban and rural respondents suffered an income drop resulting in livelihood uncertainty especially among the marginalised sections, women and girls given the informality of their labour are disproportionately impacted.

Additionally, the pandemic has strained even the most advanced health systems in the world. In Asia and the Pacific, 60 per cent of women report facing more barriers to seeing a doctor as a result of the pandemic. Given the prevalent socio-cultural norms, unequal power relations in intimate partner relationships, early evidence indicates an adverse gender impact including unwanted pregnancies.

While rates of all other crimes have gone down during the COVID-19 lockdown period, crimes against women have continued to be reported, including domestic violence. As per the latest National Crime Records Bureau data, Assam continues to report the highest rate of crime against women. In Assam, 32 percent (National Family Health Survey 5, 2019-20) of ever-married women in the age 18-49 years have ever experienced spousal violence, which is close to the global data of 1 in 3 women experiencing intimate partner violence. Women and girls who experience gender-based violence struggle to access healthcare and essential support services owing to restrictions on movement, closed clinics, and fear of contracting coronavirus.

The most marginalized women and girls may be excluded from critical, life-saving measures. Of particular concern to the COVID-19 pandemic are at-risk populations in vulnerable settings such as migrant women, women with disabilities, and rural women which are already underserved by services, and where information and strategies such as testing, handwashing, self-isolation and quarantine will be particularly difficult –if not impossible -due to lack of space, resources and services.

There is a critical need for targeted approaches to reach all social groups with COVID-19 prevention information and health services, as well as other critical essential services information (considering gender, age, disability, culturally aware approaches education, indigenous languages, LBTIQI identity, and migration status)

UN Women is currently implementing a programme to forge and strengthen multi-sectoral partnerships in Assam, India (Tea) to effectively respond to the COVID-19 and pandemic through targeted interventions to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic and enhance women workers’ health, wellness, and safety in the tea sector, by focusing on the following Outcome and Outputs 1, 2 and 3 to generate best practices and lessons learned to inform a gender-responsive COVID-19 recovery:

Outcome: Locally owned women’s health, wellness and safety solutions identified and implemented

Output 1: Capacity of partners enhanced on women’s health and wellbeing and on measures to respond to escalating risks related to VAWG during COVID 19.

Output 2: Multi-stakeholder partnership platforms strengthened to identify and implement women’s health, wellness and safety solutions

Output 3: Local data available on the impact of COVID 19 on women and girls in the tea sector in selected intervention areas in Assam

Theory of Change (TOC): IF:

  • Leaders in the range of sector (workers in tea/government/producers/managers and other civil society groups including women health workers) have increased aces to information to enable women and girls’ fullest role in COVID-19 response, with a priority focus on women’s health, wellness, and safety;
  • Women have increased access to health care and other essential services in the tea sector in Assam;
  • Important synergies are strengthened with other producer initiatives to improve the safety, health and wellbeing of women and girls as part of ensuring sustainability of agricultural value chains in India.

Then: Women and girls are socially, economically, and politically empowered in rural spaces where are free from sexual harassment and other forms of violence against women and girls.

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Project Manager, COVID-19 and Ensuring Women’s Health, Wellness and Safety in Rural Spaces in the Tea Sector in Assam, the State Coordinator is responsible to support the coordination and implementation of programme activities within his/her portfolio in the state of Assam

The State Coordinator will work in close collaboration with the Project Manager of the project, operations team, programme staff in other UN Agencies, UN WOMEN staff and Government officials, technical advisors and experts, multilateral and bilateral donors and civil society ensuring successful implementation of specific components of the programme.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of the Key Functions:

  • Project implementation;
  • Facilitation of Knowledge Building and Knowledge Sharing;
  • Any other duties assigned by the UN Women office.

Project Implementation:

  • Support implementation of project activities and develop a mechanism to monitor implementation of planned activities and budgets.
  • Under the guidance of the supervisor, support the establishment of advocacy networks at state level.
  • Support strategic partnerships by participating in workshops and public information events.
  • Support the Programme Team in the financial management of programmes.
  • Provide guidance to the executing agencies on routine implementation of projects.
  • Support relevant, high-impact advocacy activities and campaigns and other key partners.
  • Coordinate key meetings, conferences, and training under the project, and prepare proceedings report/meeting minutes.
  • Manage project activities and evaluation according to results-based management requirements.
  • Maintain project related reports/files and extend support preparation of quarterly narrative reports.

Facilitation of Knowledge Building and Knowledge Sharing:

  • Support synthesis of lessons learnt, and best practices related to programme management.
  • Support synthesis of lessons learned from the project.
  • Support in documenting good practices and updates from the programme, for website and quarterly reporting;
  • Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
  • Support organization of training for the office staff and partners on programme and operations related issues.
  • Support in the coordination and maintaining database of partners.
  • Support to build evidence on existing policies and new labour laws and legal frameworks, including but not limited to Industrial Relations Code Bill 2020, the Code on Social Security Bill 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Working Conditions, 2020, specially on women in the tea sector.

Apart from the above the State Coordinator-Assam will also be required to execute other duties and assignments entrusted by UN Women as relevant to the implementation of the project.

Any other duties assigned by the UN Women office.

Key Result Indicators:

  • Timely and accurate support to events, workshops, and missions;
  • Full compliance of administrative activities with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and procedures;
  • Timely recording of overall programme unit finances;
  • Timely and accurate tracking of data for CO management and donor purposes;
  • Quality maintenance of internal systems.

Competencies

Core Values:

  • Respect for Diversity
  • Integrity
  • Professionalism

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

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:

  • Ability to perform a broad range of specialized activities aimed at effective and efficient functioning of the Programme unit including logistical support.
  • Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities.
  • Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints.
  • Ability to manage data, documents, correspondence and reports information and workflow.

Technical Knowledge:

  • Familiarity with the development context and challenges regarding inclusive growth, human development, and disadvantaged groups in Assam, especially related to the tea sector, with reference to Ending Violence Against Women and Girls.
  • Knowledge of programmes, laws, and schemes relevant to women and girls in the context of violence at home, workplace, and public spaces.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Minimum Secondary education. University degree in Social Sciences/ Social Work/Rural Development/Gender Studies/ Policy or related fields will be an asset.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 4 years of relevant experience at the national/state level working with development projects including hand-on experience of design, implementation and monitoring of projects preferably in the area of violence against women and Women’s Rights.

Language Requirements:

  • Fluency in English, Hindi and Assamese is required.
  • Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Application Information: Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

  • All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
  • 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;
  • UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.

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.