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 center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system’s efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Assess national social development trends and identify emerging issues of relevance to the mandate of UN Women to identify opportunities for development planning to advance UN Women goals and objectives in the country.
• In close consultation/collaboration with national development stakeholders and partners, identify strategic programme opportunities, approaches and modalities to strengthen UN Women country presence and relevance.
• Lead the formulation, planning and preparation of the Country Strategic Plan based on UN Women's Strategic Plan and regional and national priorities, in collaboration/consultation with government, civil society, UN partners and stakeholders and the RPD [to change to Director, Regional Center] and Director, Programme Division HQ.
• Manage and ensure the completion of high quality, results-based and rights-based country programmes and projects.
• Oversee the appraisal and approval of UN Women programmes in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies.

• Establish the Country Office (CO) annual work plans in collaboration and discussion with the team and set objectives, performance measurements, standards and expected results.
• Ensure regular programme monitoring and evaluate progress for timely action and intervention to achieve results.
• Set performance plans and evaluation standards and regularly conduct performance assessments, provide feedback and guidance to ensure optimum performance and accountability according to UN Women standards of integrity, ethics and accountability framework.
• Oversee, monitor and ensure quality control in the implementation of high quality, results-based and rights-based country programmes and projects in line with corporate policies, guidelines and strategies.
• Establish CO security strategy, plan and measures that are in full compliance with UN security policies, procedures and requirements, to ensure the protection and well-being of staff and their dependents as well as to minimize risks in programme planning and operations.
• Lead and manage the country budget preparation and submission processes to ensure budget proposals are correctly presented and submitted in a timely manner.
• Monitor the utilization of allocated funds to ensure transparency and compliance with UN Women financial policies and accountability framework. Decide on the optimum and appropriate allocation and management of CO resources.
• Lead and manage the preparation of UN Women mandated country reports and submit timely reports ensuring relevance, quality and appropriateness of content and presentation.
• Contribute to regular assessments of the regional and country strategic plans and implementation plans and identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to underpin consistently improved programming and future Strategic Plan development.
• Plan and manage monitoring and evaluation of programmes and projects. Evaluate results and take appropriate action.

• Participate actively as a member of the UN Country Team (UNCT) to ensure that gender equality and women's empowerment issues are fully integrated into UN programming processes
• Provide leadership and guidance to the UNCT in supporting enhanced response to national partners in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment and UN Reform.
• Support the coordination and promotion of accountability within the UN Resident Coordinator System to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and UN Reform.
• Advise the UNCT on the implementation of key policy commitments to gender and women's rights.
• Partner with UN system and agencies to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and joint ideas to influence agenda and priority setting.
• Actively seek out the participation of UN Women in the UN system thematic and other working groups to establish effective networks and to keep abreast of ongoing debates and thinking on development, facilitate joint programming and promote UN Women competencies to advance gender equality and women's human rights.

• Represent UN Women in intergovernmental forums and other key meetings and events, as designated/appropriate to speak on policy issues, participate in policy dialogue, discuss policy initiatives, report on progress achieved and/or present policy papers/ideas to influence setting of agenda and promote UN Women competencies and mandate.
• Represent UN Women in the UNCT to contribute to the mainstreaming of UN Women’s policies in joint programming and initiatives, under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator.
• Participate in regional, country and other critical meetings and events to evaluate the impact and efficacy of UN Women’s policies and programmes and provide input to strategic discussions and technical advice on policies and programmes.
• Advocate on behalf of UN Women to help raise awareness and stimulate action to advance gender equality and women's rights.
• Carry out ongoing advocacy to ensure that UN support towards realization of the national plans and priorities is done in a gender responsive manner, and within agreed international frameworks that promote and protect gender equality.

• The successful performance of the UN Women Representative of her/his key functions directly results in effective and strategic development, implementation and management of high quality country programmes and projects and the achievement of quality results, which in turn directly impacts the credibility and image of UN Women as an effective and efficient partner and as the leading knowledge-based technical and advocacy organization for gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Competencies

• Demonstrate and promote ethics and integrity by creating organizational precedents

• Build support for the organization and ensure political acumen

• Support staff development, and contribute to an environment of creativity and innovation

• Build and promote effective teams.
• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi-ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds. 

• Create and promote an environment for open and effective communication

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and ensure consistent behavior towards others

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards mutually acceptable solutions

• Share knowledge across the organization and build a culture of knowledge sharing and learning

• Ensure fair and transparent decision-making processes and manage risk

• Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision drawn from a spectrum of development experience
• Proven ability to manage resources of UN Women (human, financial and programmatic resources) effectively with leadership qualities
• Strong negotiation, advocacy and interpersonal skills
• Proven expertise in writing cogent and convincing documents
• Strong communications and public speaking skills
• Proven analytical and problem solving skills
• Good planning, goal-setting and prioritization skills
• Effectiveness in establishing and fostering good relations with government counterparts, UN agencies, donors, and NGO partners
• Effectiveness in strengthening accountability and results-based management in support of organizational priorities, policy and decision-making processes

Required Skills and Experience

• Master's degree or equivalent in development related disciplines, economics or public policy or other social science fields

• A minimum of 10 years of extensive development experience that combines strategic and managerial leadership in aid development cooperation at the international level, some in gender and women’s issues programming, preferably in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds or Programmes or UN Missions

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.

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

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.