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. In Nigeria, UN Women works to support the Government’s national development agenda, which prioritizes the empowerment of women and girls and their contribution to all areas of economic, political and social development.

Women’s leadership and political participation is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work as mandated in its inception, recognizing the integral role of women in strong and stable democratic processes. Through its Leadership and Governance pillar, UN Women’s programmes are guided by a history of international commitments to women’s representation. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women upholds women’s right to participate in public life, while the Beijing Platform for Action calls for removing barriers to equal participation. The Millennium Development Goals measure progress towards gender equality in part by the proportion of women in parliamentary seats.

In the area of Women’s Political Empowerment, Nigeria has ratified most of the international and regional instruments on women’s rights. However, critical challenges remain in the application and domestication of these frameworks, causing Nigerian women to be underrepresented and marginalised from political decision-making processes. Currently, women’s political representation in Nigeria is abysmally low in the legislative, executive and judicial powers due to different gendered social norms. Young women in particular experience a double jeopardy as a result of gender and because young people are equally marginalized in politics. 

Under the funding of the Government of Canada, UN Women will implement a programme to the women’s political leadership and participation, as well as gender-sensitive reforms to ensure that affected communities, especially marginalized women and persons with disabilities are fully-engaged to advocate and participate in the development of policies/legislations, in elections and other political processes affecting them. Priority areas of the programme include:

1. Legal Frameworks/Policies and Institutional Reform with a view to influence gender-responsive legislations that will create an enabling environment for women aspiring for political offices.
2.  Women’s Participation and Leadership through supporting capacity-building trainings for women candidates to boost their campaign strategies, including training and mentoring young women
3. Coordination among partners and engagement with key stakeholders by building on the Working Group on Women’s Political Empowerment and engaging communities on advocacy for gender transformation as well as preventing violence among women in politics.

Reporting to Deputy Country Representative, the Project Technical and Coordination Specialist is responsible for coordinating the Women Political Participation portfolio which includes coordinating relationships with national partners and stakeholders, and the monitoring and reporting, and the finances and personnel of the portfolio. 

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Lead the coordination of the Women Political Empowerment Portfolio

• Coordinate the overall Portfolio work plan development and implementation according to Strategic Note/ programme document;
• Liaise with the Programme Boards, national counterparts, donors, UN Women and partners to ensure the Programme results are achieved and resources are managed;
• Prepare and present work-plans, periodic narrative progress reports and expenditures status reports to the Programme Board and UN Women and other stakeholders as necessary;
• Establish systems for project planning, implementation and monitoring in collaboration with partners;
• Record and maintain documents on relevant Programme activities, issues, and risks.

1. Provide strategic design and oversight of programme development advisory services and develop programmes in the area of leadership and women political participation

• Oversee and manage the design and formulation of programme proposals and initiatives; identify programmatic areas for support and interventions within the women’s political participation work stream;
• Finalize country strategy documents, programme/ project proposals, briefs, policy dialogue and other documents related to leadership and women’s political participation; 
• Organize periodic consultations with key stakeholders, women leaders, human rights experts and UN partners to gather inputs on programme design, as necessary

1. Manage technical assistance and capacity development to project/programme partners

• Provide technical advice to partners; oversee the provision of technical guidance by the team;
• Build, manage, and expand relationships with national partners to support implementation and expansion of the leadership and women political participation programme;
• Respond to any potential problems,?serve as an expert resource to partners on leadership and women political participation;
• Implement and oversee capacity building opportunities and initiatives;
• Provide partners with advanced technical assistance, training and capacity development initiatives.

1. Manage coordination with national partners and other stakeholders

• Manage relationships with national implementing partners to support implementation of the Women Political Empowerment Programme/Portfolios, raise potential problems and provide solutions;
• Provide substantial guidance to partners on establishment of performance indicators, and monitoring achievement of results;
• Identify capacity building needs and support partners through technical assistance, mentoring, training, and cross partner learning and sharing, and capacity development initiatives; develop training materials and workshops, as necessary.

1. Oversee the monitoring and reporting on the Women Political Empowerment Portfolios

• Oversee the gathering and compilation of all information necessary for monitoring and reporting on programmes and projects from the planning to the evaluation stages;
• Monitor the implementation of activities and the expenditure of funds by partners; oversee regular monitoring visits;
• Finalize annual and quarterly reports; finalize the submission of implementing partner financial and narrative reports;
• Provide inputs from Women Political Empowerment programme activities and results to Country Office reporting;
• Ensure the delivery of baseline, monitoring, evaluation plans and reports (flash, progress and final) based on information compiled from colleagues and stakeholders

1. Manage financial resources and supervise personnel
2. Supervise and manage a team of professional and administrative personnel, review performance and mentor/ coach staff;
3. Develop and prepare of financial resources of the programme including budgeting and budget revisions, and expenditure tracking and reporting;
4. Oversee and monitor the allocation and disbursement of funds to participating partners;

• Ensure appropriate actions are taken to optimize use of programme funds.

1. Build partnerships and support in developing resource mobilization strategies
2. Coordinate the development of partnerships and resource mobilization strategies;
3. Determine programmatic areas of cooperation, based on strategic goals of UN Women, country needs and donors’ priorities and develop the relevant partnerships;

• Participate in on-going coordination mechanisms to ensure coherence of the programme with other country-level processes.

1. Advocate and facilitate knowledge building and management and communication

• Finalize briefs on programme achievements;
• Ensure documentation of the programme implementation process and products produced are in accordance with UN Women guidelines;
• Coordinate exchange of information and knowledge products internally and externally of the programme;
• Organize major advocacy campaigns, events, trainings, workshops and knowledge products

Key performance indicators

• Timely and quality implementation of Portfolio activities against set workplans, timelines and budgets, in line with the Strategic Note
• Quality and timely reporting
• Excellent relations with partners and stakeholders
• Regular and timely monitoring of activities 
• Enhanced best practices and lessons learned documented and circulated
• Increase in resources mobilized
• Performance of Staff members
• Increase awareness of UN Women in the Country

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• Excellent programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Excellent knowledge of Results Based Management
• Ability to lead the development of detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them for development results
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making
• Excellent analytical skills
• Strong knowledge of UN programme management systems

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree or equivalent in public administration, law, human rights, gender equality, management, social sciences or other related areas is required.
• 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

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in managing complex and multi-component programme interventions with national partners, preferably related to Women Political Empowerment;
• Experience in coordinating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating development programmes and projects; specifically with different UN agencies;
• Previous experience working in the UN system is an advantage.

Language

• Fluency in English is required;
• Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset (French);