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. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative approaches aimed at fostering women's empowerment and gender equality at global, national, regional, and sub-national levels.

Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. Through a set of tested approaches, UN Women proposes to build synergies over the humanitarian-development continuum by strengthening women’s agency, leadership, and participation to rebuild the lives of women and girls in crisis and conflict, and disaster contexts. This will contribute to Goal 4 of UN Women’s Strategic Plan: peace and security, humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction are shaped by women leadership and participation.

The peace and security and humanitarian context in Mozambique is becoming increasingly complex and protracted, with significant long-term impacts. War, violent conflict, terrorism, and violent extremism have differential and devastating consequences for women and girls. Intersectional vulnerabilities can further determine how people are affected, among others, women with disabilities, women head of households, adolescent girls, and older women. Pre-existing gender-based discrimination and inequalities exacerbate the impact of the crisis on women and girls and reduce their likelihood to receiving the humanitarian services they need to survive and recover. Gender inequality tends to worsen in the insecure and violent contexts. In the face of this, women have the capacity and are leading movements for peace and to rebuild communities. In fact, there is strong evidence suggesting that women’s participation in peace processes contributes to longer, more resilient peace after conflict. Yet, despite this, women remain largely invisible to, and excluded from, peace processes and negotiations. With the support from the Government of the Kingdom of Norway, UN Women and partners are working to strengthen the capacity of women and girls affected by conflict (internally displaced, residents in host communities, and female ex-combatants as well as the wives, widows, and dependents of ex-combatants) to contribute to and to have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience, and to benefit equally from the prevention of conflicts and disasters in Mozambique. More especially the project will seek to: (1) Empower women and gender equality advocates to have greater influence in decision-making in political, peace and security processes, contribute to crisis response, and create resilience; (2) Build the capacity of the Government of Mozambique to implement Women, Peace and Security (WPS) commitments and ensure monitoring and accountability frameworks are emplaced at national, regional and provincial levels; (3) Foster greater coordination of the implementation of WPS commitments; and (4) Facilitate the access to sustainable livelihoods and socioeconomic opportunities to women affected by conflict.

Under the overall guidance and direction of the Head of Programmes/Programme Specialist and direct supervision of the Programme Officer on Women, Peace and Security, the Project Officer will work closely with the programme and operations team, Local Government, UN Agencies, and civil society organizations to ensure the technical direction and implementation of the project is maintained and key outputs are achieved in a cost effective and timely manner. The Project Officer will be responsible for coordination and achievement of expected results of the project in Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Sofala and Manica of the entitled “Promoting the participation and leadership of women in peace, security and recovery processes in Mozambique” which includes coordinating relationships with partners and stakeholders (also including technical assistance, capacity building and advocacy to relevant stakeholders), monitoring and reporting, and UN Women representation in the Northern Region of Mozambique.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

•  Lead project implementation at provincial level
•  Monitoring and knowledge management
•  Support with office coordination activities
•  Other/administrative support 

Lead Project Implementation in Northern Region of Mozambique

• Ensures timely and effective implementation of the project’s activities in accordance with the annual work plan and towards achieving the project outputs and outcomes;
•  Ensures regular follow up with national experts/consultants and civil society groups/think tanks involved in the implementation of project activities, including revision of their deliverables and results;
•  Maintaining regular communication and extend technical support to women, peace and security initiatives conducted by women and gender-equality organizations;
• Provide guidance and support to UN Women implementing partners/responsible parties, carrying specific activities within the project;
• Serve as UN Women focal person in the provinces;
• Give inputs to quarterly progress reports and contribute to the drafting of Annual and Final project report;

Monitoring and Knowledge Production & Management 

• Conducts systematic monitoring and reporting on project implementation in the 3 provinces
• Contributes to the preparation and consolidation of quarterly progress and financial reports;
• Maintains close communication with project beneficiaries, consultants, responsible partners, and institutional contractors to monitor the project implementation against the baseline and targets;
• Contributes to synthesizing, documenting, and developing project activities, success stories and lessons learned.
• Contributes to and participate in the project evaluations in collaboration with local partners and relevant stakeholders

Support coordination activities

• Coordinates with the Programme Officer and Programme Specialist on implementation of the country component of the women, peace, and security (and other relevant UN Women priority areas).
• Ensure continuous coordination with all project parties and partners involved in project implementation
• Participate at the meetings of the UN Result group on gender equality and humanitarian action and prepare minutes, including preparation of background documents for the meetings. 

Organizes key advocacy/awareness raising events in coordination with relevant colleagues at the country office

Competencies

CORE VALUES / 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

• Development/programming skills particularly those that are pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues and women’s rights
• Ability to support formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects
• Knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches
• Ability to maintain networks and partnerships with UN agencies and other international partners to promote partnership and build alliances to advance organizational interests and competencies  
• Demonstrated good oral and written communication skills
• Knowledge of and experience in gender mainstreaming is an asset
• Experience in working and collaborating with governments
• Initiative and strong leadership skills
• Result and client-orientations
• Willingness to travel as appropriate

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in in Peace and Security, Gender and Human Rights, Political Science, Social Sciences, or related fields.

• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage

Experience:

• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience at the national and/or international level with development programmes and projects

• Relevant experience working peace and security and gender related issues such as women’s political participation, ending violence against women, economic empowerment or similar

• Experience of working with multiple stakeholders from government and other development actors preferably on issues related to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Working Experience with the UN an asset

• Solid understanding of results-based management approaches

• Knowledge of policy frameworks related to gender equality and women’s empowerment

• Good knowledge programme/project related monitoring and reporting.

• Experience developing programme/project related knowledge products, including project briefs, success stories, human-interest stories, etc.

Language Requirements:

Portuguese and English (written and spoken) is required.

Knowledge of local languages spoken is an asset.

Please attach a completed P11 to your application. Kindly note that applications without a completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

UN Women Personal History form (P-11) can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment .

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need. 

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application. 

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)