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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women 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.

The Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division (PPID) is responsible for providing the vision and strategic direction on UN Women’s programmes and policy initiatives globally and integrated support to regional and country offices.

Reporting to the Director of PPID, the Director of UN Women Geneva Office is responsible for overseeing management of the Geneva Office, as well as representation and strategic partnership building of UN Women in Geneva across all impact areas of UN Women’s Strategic Plan. 

As Chief of the Humanitarian Section, supported by a dedicated P5 Deputy of Humanitarian Action, this role leads and coordinates humanitarian response on behalf of UN Women, including promoting accountability in the humanitarian system to the established humanitarian normative and policy commitments, strengthening gender in global humanitarian action and their translation into concrete results for gender equality and women’s empowerment. The Chief will lead in advocating for a coordinated and coherent approach in the implementation of UN Women Humanitarian Strategy and Crisis Response Policy and Procedures Guidance, on gender mainstreaming in humanitarian action and are responsible for ensuring that specialized technical and strategic support is available to field offices where needed.  The Chief will lead UN Women’s membership in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC), as representative on the Emergency Directors Group (EDG) and the Operational and Advocacy Policy Group (OPAG), and ensuring effective corporate engagement across all IASC structures, ensuring gender equality and women’s empowerment to be at the core of the coordinated humanitarian response and partnership building efforts with humanitarian actors.

Further, as Director of UN Women’s Geneva Office, this role will oversee management of: 

• The Human Rights and Development Unit, headed by a P5 Deputy Head of Geneva Office, who will also support liaison functions of UN Women in Geneva with a specific focus on Human Rights and Development partners.

And in addition, will have a matrix manager role to the following positions:

• The Women, Peace and Humanitarian Fund, headed by a P5 Head of the WPHF Secretariat, who will report directly to Chief, Peace, Security and Resilience (PSR) D1 in NY as primary supervisor.
• The Disaster Risk Reduction unit, headed by a P5, which will report to Chief, Peace, Security and Resilience (PSR) D1 in NY, as primary supervisor. 

The Director of Geneva Office will be a member of the PPID Leadership Team and will work in close collaboration across all Policy and Programme Functions of PPID. 

Lead and manage UN Women’s strategy and policy on Humanitarian Action:

• Lead the organization’s strategy, policy and programmatic design on humanitarian response, while the Chief, Peace, Security and Resilience will lead on disaster risk reduction and resilience.
• Oversee the implementation of UN Women’s Humanitarian Strategy.
• Lead UN Women’s engagement as a fully-fledged member of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) including relevant global structures.
• Oversee support to field offices on UN Women’s role and objectives in humanitarian response, including on UN inter-agency coordination and normative processes and programming using the nexus approach crisis contexts.
• Identify strategic approaches and modalities that provide value added for UN and UN Women in the humanitarian area both at HQ level and in the field.

Oversee strategic and technical support to Country and Regional Offices on humanitarian actions:

• Lead in ensuring policy, procedures and systems are in place for UN Women’s rapid support to field offices for crisis response and gender equality programming during and after emergencies, including UN Women’s participation in needs assessments.
• Lead the organization and implementation of Standard Operating Procedures for UN Women’s engagement in OCHA Flash Appeals
• Lead in supporting the organization of Situation Rooms and Co-chair Crisis Response Task Team meetings and ensure coordination of crisis response including surge support to Country Offices.
• Lead the implementation of strategic framework for UN Women Internal Surge Roster, including partnership with Standby Partners on provision of surge technical support to Country and Regional Offices on gender sensitive humanitarian response.
• Oversee analyses of needs and capacities of Country and Regional Offices in collaboration with Regional Peace, Security and Humanitarian Advisers and Country Representatives, at the onset of emergencies.
• Proactively assess trends and identify emerging issues in humanitarian area at the national, regional or international level that are of relevance to UN Women’s mandate as well as regional and country programming on humanitarian issues.

Lead Coordination and Partnership Building for the Office:

• Lead UN Women’s engagement with the UN global humanitarian system and response in support of mainstreaming gender equality and women’s empowerment concerns into humanitarian action.
• Contribute to strategic thinking and policy decisions on mainstreaming gender into humanitarian action and influence agenda and priority setting in relevant UN system-wide inter-agency tasks forces.
• Work in close partnership with Member States and non-governmental partners for key programming initiatives to build synergies for effective gender equality programming and advocacy.
• Oversee the development and implementation of resource mobilization strategies, plans and efforts for the Geneva Office and forge strategic partnerships and alliances at the global level to promote gender equality and women's advancement.

Lead Advocacy and Communication Initiatives:

• Engage in policy advocacy relevant to gender and humanitarian action, including participation in global knowledge events and support formulation of corporate policy guidance and practice notes.
• Advocate on behalf of UN Women and its mandate to help raise awareness and stimulate action to advance gender equality and women's rights within humanitarian and disaster contexts and form strategic partnerships with government, UN agencies, NGOs, academia, media and the private sector.
• Assist RO and COs engage with the RC/HC system to strategically place UN Women within UN humanitarian context.

Lead Capacity Building and Knowledge Management Initiatives:

• Oversee collection and dissemination of best practices on gender equality programming in humanitarian action to contribute to UN Women’s knowledge management efforts.
• Promote the development and dissemination of gender-sensitive tools and methodologies for humanitarian action at the country level.
• Provide strategic guidance on the development and maintenance of global, regional and national knowledge networks and practices on mainstreaming gender into humanitarian action.
• Generate ideas for innovative capacity development initiatives and support development of new project proposals for use in resource generation.
• Oversee the design and implementation of capacity building initiatives to enhance skills and knowledge of UN Women personnel and partners on humanitarian coordination, gender in humanitarian action.

Lead the management of UN Women Geneva Office:

• Provide managerial direction, guidance and leadership. Ensure effective workforce planning and timely recruitments;
• Ensure that personnel are familiar with and follow UN Women’s regulations and rules, policies and procedures in the Policy, Procedures and Guidance Framework (PPG); Ensure personnel are aware in particular or of UN Women’s standards of conduct including but not limited to policies and procedures on preventing, reporting and addressing misconduct, Fraud and Corruption, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (SEA) Harassment, Sexual Harassment, Discrimination and abuse of authority, Protection from retaliation, and ensure mechanisms are in place to support personnel in this regard.
• Finalize and oversee the implementation of the annual workplans and annual reports of the office.
• Promote teamwork and establish a respectful and collaborative working environment that is conducive to delivery of quality results.
• Supervise, guide and oversee the work of the team to ensure the delivery of quality results according to standards and goals established in the office and PPID.
• Manage the performance of staff and ensure compliance to the performance management process.
• Oversee management and monitoring of financial resources and take responsibility for the integrity of financial systems and consistent application of the internal control framework and/or UN Women/UN rules and regulations.
• Oversee the development and implementation of strategic evaluation plans, ensure that management responses to all evaluations are completed and followed up, and that learning from evaluations is fed back into UN Women initiatives and operations.
• Establish and oversee the Geneva Office security strategy, plan, and measures to ensure the protection and security of UN Women’s staff, eligible dependents, property and operations.
• Oversee the implementation of the Security Mainstreaming & Compliance and Business Continuity Management and Organizational Resilience requirements
• Ensure all personnel are made fully aware of safety and security procedures and policies and undertake mandatory training.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Strategy and Annual Workplan implemented on time, on scope and on budget;
• Quality of advice provided to SMT, CO, ROs as based on feedback and on time and on scope;
• Achievements related to inter-agency coordination mechanisms and humanitarian programming;
• Overall management of dissemination of information;
• Performance of personnel is timely managed;
• Reports are on time and on scope.

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.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf 

Functional Competencies:

• Strong ability to oversee programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills;
• Ability to oversee detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them;
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice and interact with high level decision makers;
• Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women's empowerment;
• Strong knowledge of UN system and the Humanitarian Coordination system;
• Field based experience on gender equality in humanitarian action and response;
• Strong experience in managing teams including through matrixed reporting;
• Ability to envision and lead the strategic direction for UN Women;
• Excellent networking skills;
• Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising and develop strategies.

Education:

• Master's degree (or equivalent) in: Humanitarian development, International Relations, Communications, Public Administration, Social Sciences, or a related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience:

• A minimum of 15 years of experience in international development and humanitarian work, including specific experience in work on gender equality and in conflict, post-conflict and natural disasters’ settings;
• Programme and policy analysis, strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation and field experience in developing country contexts is required;
• Experience in the UN System is an asset;
• Substantive and technical experience in inter-agency coordination is required;
• Experience working with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally is required;
• Experience managing teams is required;
• Experience representing an organization is highly desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in English, both oral and written, is required; 
• Working knowledge of French is an asset.

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc. 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.

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.

Diversity and inclusion:

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.