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. Placing women’s rights at the centre 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 Strategic Partnerships Division (SPD) works to strengthen UN Women’s position as a partner of choice for gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) among governments and inter-governmental actors around the world. The division is doing this by positioning GEWE in the intergovernmental and multilateral fora and engaging with governments and public institutions as policy, programme and resource partners. A key premise for SPD is that engagement with countries should be holistic based on multiple aspects of partnerships, including policy advocacy and resource mobilization.
Under the supervision of the Partnerships and Resource Mobilization Specialist and guided by the new UN Women Strategy for Public Partnerships and Resource Mobilization (2023-2025), the Consultant will manage external relations and the overall partnership portfolio of an assigned group of countries.
Duties and Responsibilities
- In line with the new UN Women Strategy for Public Partnerships and Resource Mobilization, implement and support targeted approaches and actions to advance strategic collaboration between UN Women and an increased number of assigned Government funding partners, in coordination with different UN Women divisions, and Regional and Country Offices;
- Manage relationships with assigned Government funding partners, including through ensuring consistent engagement at technical and senior/director levels with assigned funding partners to promote, mobilize and deepen cooperation with UN Women and ensure their continued/increased support and financial contributions.
- Support and strengthen donor partners’ integration of gender in their policies and programmes through identifying opportunities for and facilitating UN Women’s technical and substantive input to donors’ development and related policies and strategies.
- Contribute to UN Women’s implementation of its Strategy for Public Partnerships and Resource Mobilization (2023-2025), including activities aimed at increasing unrestricted Regular Resources and flexible and predictable earmarked, through ensuring effective stewardship of partnerships with assigned donors.
- Monitor global trends in development cooperation and aid and partner development policies, budgets, systems and procedures; analyse and synthesize findings/information including to update partnership and resource mobilization strategies and activities for assigned partners, take appropriate action and/or advise UN Women senior management as needed.
- Capture, analyse and utilise real-time intelligence on partner policies and priorities including for dissemination and use by Regional and Country offices, to support UN Women’s “pivot to the field” and facilitate and contribute to their strategic and informed engagement with partners in portfolio.
- Prepare comprehensive and substantive briefs, reports, statistics, revenue projections and requirements for senior management meetings with minister-level counterparts, senior funding government officials, and senior parliamentarians.
- Contribute to the identification, development and implementation of new strategic partnership development and management tools, including in relation to providing increased visibility for partner contributions. Closely interface with Finance Division, including to ensure accurate funding forecasts for assigned partners, and identify and resolve any pending financial issues on current or past projects funded by assigned partners.
- Drive content development and coordination for high-level bilateral annual consultations with assigned Government donors in line with UN Women and partner priorities; Work collaboratively with UN Funds and Programmes to design sessions for the semi-annual joint HLCs.
- Deliverables:
- Lead/facilitate/support implementation of and compliance with the agreed outcomes and UN Women commitments from the 2023 high-level annual consultations with Australia and New Zealand, in particular those related to UN Women’s Child Protection framework.
- Support the Partnerships and RM Specialist with the additional donor (Japan) responsibility as part of the donor engagement cluster.
- Lead/support development of tailored, corporate strategy for UN Women engagement with China in coordination with China Country Office, Asia Pacific Regional Office and the Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division.
- Contribute to the preparation and coordination for high-level mission to donor capital and consultation for 2024 including logistics, substantive briefs and presentations, and targeted communication materials; provide follow-up as needed.
- Liaise with Permanent Mission and Ministry counterparts for assigned portfolio to enhance support for UN Women Gender Equality Accelerators and Generation Equality Forum and Action Coalitions.
- Arrange and support preparation of technical-level discussions with Ministry counterparts and relevant UN Women colleagues on the margins of the UN Women Executive Board Annual Session and the Second Regular Session as well as the General Assembly-related engagements and other relevant meetings.
- Advance and support partner recognition and visibility initiatives for assigned donor portfolio, in coordination with donors and relevant UN Women divisions and offices.
- Working in tandem with specific portfolio cluster lead, ensure business continuity and support to institutional and donor-led exercises, to advance implementation the corporate Strategy for Public Partnerships and Resource Mobilization and increase the value and quality of donor funds to UN Women.
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
Required Skills and Experience
Required Qualifications, Experience and Skills:
- Experience in gender equality and women's empowerment;
- Experience in writing, editing and developing content for a range of documents and internal and external written products;
- Experience in donor relations and partnership building.
- Capabilities in collating, analyzing and disseminating varied information to different audiences;
- Experience in the UN Common System required and familiarity with intergovernmental processes is preferable;
- A minimum of five years of experience in programme and/or project support, resource mobilization, business development and/or planning and operations in a large
Qualifications:
- Master's degree or equivalent in social sciences, business management, public administration, international relations, communications, women's studies or a related field is required.
- Language:
- Fluency in oral and written English is required.
- Knowledge of another official United Nations language is desirable.