Background

The duration of the assignment is until 31 December 2023.  Whereas an external candidate will be offered a temporary appointment; subject to release agreements, staff members in UN Women may be administered as a temporary assignment and staff members in the UN Common system may be administered under a loan arrangement.

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.

The Humanitarian Action Section within PPID leads UN Women’s effective engagement in humanitarian action from development to operationalization of its strategy and accompanying policy and procedures as well as various guidance and instruments necessary for UN Women to effectively respond to the needs of women and girls in situations of crisis and fragility. It leads UN Women’s membership in the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) and its normative contribution to 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 to be at the core of the coordinated humanitarian response, and partnership building efforts with humanitarian actors. Working closely with Regional Offices, it supports Regional and Country Offices with the humanitarian response in line with the Crisis Response Policy and Humanitarian Strategy through activation of surge deployments and operational support for effective engagement with Humanitarian Country Teams and the humanitarian clusters.  

Reporting to the Chief of Humanitarian Action, the Deputy Chief of Humanitarian Action supports the Chief specifically on leading UN Women’s Humanitarian Action. The Head of Humanitarian Action coordinates the implementation of UN Women’s Humanitarian Strategy and oversees support to the humanitarian response of country and regional offices, including the development of institutional policies and procedures and capacities to rapidly respond to humanitarian emergencies. The Head of Humanitarian Action also supports the Chief with management of human and financial resources of the Humanitarian Unit.  

Duties and Responsibilities

1.     Provide advisory and specialized strategic support on Humanitarian Action to the Chief of Humanitarian Action

• Advise, guide, and provide substantive inputs to the Humanitarian Strategy and its implementation in line with the UN Women Strategic Plan;
• Prepare policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/materials to support the coherent implementation the humanitarian strategy;

• Assess the country level and regional level Strategic Note and work plans and make recommendations and conclusions to assist in planning;
• Lead preparation of the Humanitarian Unit annual workplan, budget, annual report inputs and submission process.

• Serve as a member of the Geneva Office senior management team.

2.     Oversee development, management and monitoring of global projects coordinated by the Humanitarian Section

• Oversee the development and implementation of global projects;
• Manage the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support effective project planning, implementation, monitoring and timely progress reporting; Finalize reports on progress of project implementation;
• Lead the monitoring of progress on mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators and timely action/decision and/or provide timely support; Identify areas that may require improvement and capture best practices/lessons learned;
• Manage the timely allocation of funds to offices participating in global projects.  Monitor and ensure the appropriate utilization of resources approved and allocated to field offices;

3.     Coordinate support to Country and Regional Offices on humanitarian crisis response

• Support the organization of Situation Rooms and Crisis Response Task Team meetings on crisis onset.
• Support the capacity needs assessment of the crisis affected office and deployment of surge support to effectively engage in humanitarian response planning and programming.
• Provide technical support for humanitarian response and early recovering planning and programming.
• Review policy, procedures and systems for UN Women’s humanitarian crisis response in consultation with field offices on an ongoing basis and coordinate revisions for improvements.

4.     Advocate for UN Women’s mandate and support UN Inter-Agency coordination and intergovernmental normative processes

• Prepare inputs for UN Women’s engagement in inter-governmental bodies such as the Commission on the Status of Women, Economic and Social Council, the General Assembly, the Grand Bargain and other policy-making organs;
• Represent UN Women in IASC Task Teams, Grand Bargain workstreams and other humanitarian fora.
• Provide technical inputs and support to Regional Directors and Country Representatives in establishing and maintaining effective consultations with governments, partners, stakeholders and donors to achieve active collaboration, cooperation and alliances in addressing gender in humanitarian planning, project development and implementation, resource mobilization and sustained partnerships;
• Represent the Chief of Humanitarian Action when requested.

5.     Provide strategic partnership building and resource mobilization strategies support to the Chief of Humanitarian Action

• Provide strategic support to the development of a resource mobilization strategy and support resource mobilization efforts for humanitarian action at global, regional and country level;
• Develop strategic partnerships to advance the integration of gender equality and women’s empowerment perspectives in humanitarian action and collaborate with inter-agency partners on humanitarian planning of programming.
• Review donor reports of the Humanitarian Unit for quality assurance and compliance with commitment met and accountability framework established and to ensure that donors are duly informed on a timely basis.

6.     Participate in knowledge management and capacity building efforts

• Ensure regular assessments of implementation of the Humanitarian Strategy. Identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to guide programme improvements and future strategic development plan;
• Manage the process of engaging with country and regional offices in collecting and sharing global lessons learned on gender in humanitarian action to build knowledge and capacity within UN Women and of partners and stakeholders;
• Lead the design and implementation of capacity building training activities to enhance skills and knowledge on humanitarian coordination, gender in humanitarian action, Results Based Management, results-based budgeting, and project management.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Timely achievement of programme results in line with Humanitarian Strategy and UN Women Strategic Plan
• Quality and timely advice to the Chief of Humanitarian Action
• Timely and effective support to Regional Directors and Country Representatives on humanitarian crisis onset
• Timely and effective programme planning, implementation, monitoring and timely progress reporting
• Performance of staff
• Operations performance against set plans and standards, and issues are reported in a timely manner
• Timely and quality reporting
• Timely, regular and quality knowledge management initiatives initiation and information dissemination.

Competencies

Core values

• Integrity
• Professionalism
• Respect for Diversity

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

• Excellent programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Excellent knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches
• Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them
• Demonstrated political acumen and technical capacity in representing the organization effectively in national and international fora to advocate and to promote organizational priorities, initiatives
• Knowledge of UN system

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Master's degree (or equivalent) in Humanitarian development, International Relations, 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.
• A project/programme management certification (such as PMP®, PRINCE2®, or MSP®) would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of progressively responsible experience in humanitarian work, including specific experience in work on gender equality in humanitarian action;
• Experience with managing, supporting and overseeing policy-making and analysis, programme and operations management, resource mobilization and partnership creation in humanitarian contexts is required;
• Experience in inter-agency coordination and advocacy is required;
• Experience in managing a team is required.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language 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.