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.

The Democratic Republic of Congo, the largest country in sub-Saharan Africa, is experiencing one of the worst humanitarian, human rights and security crises of the 21st century. The country is currently experiencing the largest displacement crisis in Africa. Despite the establishment of an elected government in 2019, the country is still struggling to consolidate peace throughout its territory and the eastern region of the DRC is experiencing high levels of insecurity and repeated incidences of violence, conflict and armed attacks. In this situation, women are the main victims of the conflicts in eastern DRC where systematic rape is used as a tactic of war, and the atrocities of the crimes perpetrated have a negative impact on communities, particularly on women and girls who are exposed to sexual violence.

This turbulent situation has been exacerbated by the Covid 19 pandemic and, for North Kivu, by the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano in Goma, whose lava destroyed several houses and plantations, and forced people to flee and take refuge in other parts of the country, as well as in neighboring Rwanda.

In the civil society space, there are women's organizations that are very active in the area of peace and women's security and humanitarian issues. However, these organizations need to be technically strengthened to help them play a full role in integrating gender into the humanitarian response.

The inter-cluster mission conducted from March 29 to April 5, 2021 under the leadership of OCHA revealed that women do not participate in the urban security council, have little input into the humanitarian response process, and therefore cannot influence decisions. Similarly, women do not have a forum to share their experiences and to ensure that humanitarian actors organizing conflict resolution efforts are fully engaged with women.

All of this information shows that women's representation in humanitarian work remains very low. Although there is no comprehensive data on women's involvement in humanitarian work, the general perception is that women are underrepresented in humanitarian management. In addition, several humanitarian planning processes have not been subject to any consultation with local women's civil society and the humanitarian action plan is not sufficiently gender sensitive. This reflects a lack of understanding of gender in humanitarian action.

Understanding the differences, inequalities, and capacities between men and women, as well as responding to different humanitarian needs, will help to improve the effectiveness of humanitarian actions and increase accountability to affected populations. The successful provision of humanitarian support requires that it be inclusive and gender specific.

In light of the above, UN Women will need to hire a gender and humanitarian action specialist who will support gender mainstreaming in the humanitarian response.

UN Women has conducted several trainings on gender and humanitarian assistance and will continue to support trainings for humanitarian actors and capacity building for different groups. In addition, the DRC is facing a new humanitarian architecture in which we must ensure full gender mainstreaming. In addition, UN Women is committed to supporting

capacity building of humanitarian actors and different clusters in mainstreaming gender in their operational documents. The presence of the gender and Humanitarian action Specialist will help support this commitment and position us to mobilize funds and ensure that we capitalize on all the achievements made with the Humanitarian Gender Specialist. The office has recruited a national humanitarian project officer who will work closely with the advisor to follow through on all achievements.

Reporting to the Country Representative, the gender and Humanitarian action Specialist will oversee the development of Humanitarian programs, provide capacity building to DRC country office, establish and strengthen partnerships, and develop relevant knowledge products on humanitarian action

Oversee the development of programs on Humanitarian to DRC Country office 

• Oversee the development of country program documents on humanitarian action.
• Provide technical inputs to program proposals from country office.
• Oversee the technical aspects of the implementation and coordination of humanitarian programs, (localization, LEAP Provide advice on contextualizing/ localizing program documents, country strategies, and knowledge products.
• Coordinate proper monitoring and reporting for humanitarian action in collaboration with program teams.
• Provide strategic direction, leadership and overall technical management of humanitarian programming in country in line with the Strategic Action Plan outcomes.
• Ensure that all interventions follow local laws as well as relevant international laws including Humanitarian law.
• Liaise regularly with the relevant humanitarian regional and HQ technical units.

Provide technical and capacity building support to DRC Country Office.

• Provide substantive technical and policy support to country office, teams in developing and strengthening projects/ programs.
• Develop, implement, and monitor capacity building initiatives.
• Provide technical support to partners on implementation of humanitarian action.
• Support the implementation of a gender working group in DRC.
• Support clusters in integrating gender in their strategic and actions plans coordination mechanism.
• Conduct a gender analysis assessment to inform the Humanitarian Response Plan.
• Train Humanitarian actors in gender and humanitarian action.
• Support the constitution of a data base of CSOs working on humanitarian actions.
• Support and provide technical support to the local women organization member of the humanitarian working group coordination
• Develop an analysis of the situation of gender in humanitarian action in DRC and draft a programme for resource mobilisation.

Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with stakeholders, regional/ international actors, and development partners.

• Build and maintain alliances and strategic partnerships for the advancement of humanitarian action.
• Build and maintain close liaisons with relevant donors and other actors supporting efforts towards humanitarian action.
• Produce periodic updates and briefs on country development situation to be used by stakeholders, CO and HQ.
• Maintain close contact with relevant staff in UN Women RO and HQ.

Manage the resource mobilization strategy for humanitarian action in the DRC Country office

• Participate in the implementation, monitoring and periodic updating of the resource mobilization strategy on humanitarian action in the CO;
• Provide technical support to field based presences in the region in mobilizing resources for the implementation of humanitarian action;
• Research and analyze information on donors; prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation.
• Oversee the delivery of high quality technical proposals and reports, in line with donor requirements.
• Work in close collaboration with UNWOMEN grants and finance staff to finalize proposals and respond to any requests for additional information ;
• Manage grant/program implementation including staff recruitment and training, work plan development, procurement and inventory planning, and budget management

Oversee the design of humanitarian action in the DRC Country office and the development of relevant knowledge products

• Provide policy recommendations and guidance to strategic planning and positioning on humanitarian action.
• Research, develop and present analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, correspondence, and knowledge products on gender and humanitarian. 
• Identify promising practices, technical expertise, and strategic opportunities in gender and humanitarian

Oversee the advocacy of humanitarian action through inter-agency coordination.

• Work closely with and provide advice to national bodies and interagency groups that influence national policies related to humanitarian action and where necessary represent UN Women;
• Lead UN Women’s role in the Humanitarian country team, and coordination groups
• Lead specific efforts in mainstreaming gender and protection in disaster preparedness, response and recovery efforts of other clusters and relevant working groups, including inclusion and participation of under-represented groups in accordance with Commitments on Accountability to Affected Populations;
• Advocate for the engagement and participation of local organizations and civil society networks in humanitarian coordination mechanisms.
• Build capacities of local women organization Provide technical support to local women organization to integrate gender in humanitarian action

Oversee advocacy and communication of humanitarian action

• During emergency response, develop and implement communication and advocacy messages and strategies on key gender and protection concerns;
• Develop information, education and communication (IEC) materials, press releases, situation reports, alerts and contribute gender and protection-related inputs to documents prepared by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Oversee knowledge building and sharing for humanitarian action

• Identify and disseminate lessons learnt and good practices in collaboration with country office
• Ensure technical skills and knowledge are shared within and among country teams, and coordination groupe

Key performance indicators

• Timely and quality technical advice and support
• Leadership in area of expertise in the region
• Quality reports and other strategic documents drafted and submitted in a timely manner
• Strong relationships with various partners and stakeholders
• UN Women is well represented in important meetings on topics related to expertise
• Contributions to resource mobilization
• Timely and quality knowledge products

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

• Substantive knowledge and experience related to current policies and practices in the fields of gender equality, protection and humanitarian action, including humanitarian coordination; 
• Strong knowledge of the region
• Excellent networking skills
• Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
• Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice
• Excellent analytical skills;
• Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings;
• Strong knowledge of program development, implementation, results based management and reporting

Education

• Master’s degree or equivalent in human rights, gender, international relations, international development, international law or other social science fields 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/programs management certification (such as PMP®, PRINCE2®, or MSP®) would be an added advantage.

Experience

• 7 years’ experience in designing and managing humanitarian programs, with a particular focus on gender and protection in emergencies;
• Experience in designing and drafting policies and strategies.
• Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field;
• Experience in conducting gender assessment in the humanitarian action surveys and Ability to deliver interactive and engaging webinar-based training with case study and other learning methods which allow for exchanges on issues and good practices.
• Experience in delivering gender equality and gender analysis training to humanitarian entities in the UN System including senior managers, technical and operational staff.
• Ability to design workshop series which builds on existing modules and targets needs of senior managers and a TOT version for Gender Focal Points.
• A working knowledge of UN Women’s mandate/role and humanitarian coordination is desirable.
• A good knowledge of DRC humanitarian context is desirable.

Language

• Fluency in English and French is required.

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.