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. 

UN Women South Africa Multi-Country Office (SAMCO) is based in Pretoria, South Africa and serves five countries: South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, and ESwatini.

UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action at national, regional, and global levels. In the East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR), UN Women provide strong and coherent leadership in supporting Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with development partners, civil society and the private sector to ensure that women ang girls achieve and enjoy their rights. It is present in 13 countries comprising Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, and South Africa Multi-Country Office (MCO). The South Africa MCO covers the Southern Africa Customs Union countries (i.e., Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Eswatini). UN Women also works closely with Non-Resident Agencies across the region.

Field offices across these 13 countries are managed by Country Representatives, their Deputies, and Operations Managers who work in complementarity with one another to ensure that their teams benefit from the most effective leadership to enable them to deliver on the organizational mandate. To that effect, UN Women avails different platforms to enhance leadership and managerial capacities but also peer-to-peer learning and experience sharing, which contributes to further strengthening the unity and coherence across the globe.

UN Women East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR) is holding a Deputy Representatives retreat from July 3-7, 2023. This retreat will concretize the monthly virtual meetings that the Deputy Representatives hold in East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR) to discuss several issues and new developments pertaining to their roles and need-based regional topical focus presentations, particularly from the Regional Office.

Considering that 2023 has witnessed several rollouts of new developments, including a new ERP System, Training of Trainers on systems and project management (e.g., Quantum, talent management, leadership), and given the limited timeframe as well as the shift in the geopolitics and development aid, the focus of this retreat will be largely on strategic partnerships for resource mobilization with a potential of including external resources as discussants and UNW’s role within the humanitarian architecture. Accordingly, the ESAR Deputies Retreat will focus on the following topics in no particular order:

• People/talent management and wellness
• Resource mobilization and cross-country collaboration
• Strengthening Transformational Leadership in ESAR
• Private Sector/IFI engagement
• Operations/Programmes/Reporting Harmony in Quantum

Objectives of the assignment:

To facilitate and moderate the East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR) Deputies Retreat sessions. The sessions should be very engaging, participatory, and creatively organized in a culturally sensitive manner to help the Deputies in reflecting on the progress of 2023 and chatting the best strategies for 2024.

Scope of Work:

The facilitator will be expected to develop a practical approach for facilitating the retreat, ensuring that sessions are interactive, engaging, participatory, and creatively organized in a culturally sensitive manner. The facilitation will be done in person at the retreat venue in Durban. The exact venue will be communicated later on.

Duties and Responsibilities

The duties and responsibilities include:

1. Design the overall methodology for the 2023 ESAR Deputies Retreat;
2. In collaboration with the organizing committee, develop and finalize the methodology and agenda incorporating feedback from the Retreat Organizing committee and Deputy Regional Director to ensure that the retreat achieves intended objectives and results considering the regional contexts;
3. Facilitate and moderate the key sessions of the retreat, ensuring maximum participation of the participants and achieving the objectives and expected results;
4. In consultations with the Retreat Organizing Committee, produce key summaries of sessions that will feed into daily recaps and the overall workshop/consultation report;
5. Produce a technical meeting report highlighting the retreat with clear outcomes, recommendations, and action points;
6. Ensure effective moderation of the retreat.

Deliverables:

1. A Methodology for Facilitating the Retreat;
2. Effective facilitation of the retreat;
3. Daily Summaries of key deliberations and Action Points;
4. A Final Report of the ESAR 2023 Deputies Retreat.

Work Schedule:

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;

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:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
• Ability to work in a team and develop synergies;
• Good communication and interpersonal skills, ability to foster networks and partnerships;
• Ability to complete complex assignments in a timely manner and deliver quality results;
• Demonstrate respect for culture, gender, religion, and nationality;
• Demonstrated pedagogical experience, subject knowledge, sound judgment, and advanced skills in transformational leadership skills training and staff development;
• Flexible nature and ability to adapt to changing directions/thinking that may occur during sessions.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s in international development Human Rights, Law or related field, with strong expertise in Gender and Governance.

Experience:

• At least 10 years of experience facilitating retreats, team-building and leadership workshops;
• Strong experience working with teams in the United Nations;
• Experience in the development sector, preferably in Women’s Rights and Gender Equality;
• Strong understanding of policy and legal frameworks on gender equality, human rights and gender-responsive Peace & Security programming;
• Experience reporting and analytical skills.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in oral and written English is required;
• Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset.

Please 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 fromhttps://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc

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.

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, colour, 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. 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, colour, 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.

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.)