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 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.UN Women (UNW) is co-funding with the European Commission (EC) a regional project “Spring Forward: Regional Programme for the Economic and Political Empowerment of Women in the Southern Mediterranean Region”. The project works at multiple levels aiming at: 1) empowering women politically in order to assure women's active engagement in decision making spaces; 2) empowering women economically; 3) enhancing regional knowledge and experience-sharing on women's political and economic rights.
The regional project will be implemented in a number of countries, including Egypt, and a Project Coordinator in each programme country will be recruited to manage and oversee the respective project activities in the country. The Project Coordinator (PC) for the Egypt project will be based in Cairo and will work under the direct supervision of the UNW Country Representative in Egypt. S/he will be responsible for implementation and achievement of results under the two EC-funded projects – this Egypt regional project, and the Egypt national project “Security Rights and Improving the Livelihood of women”. More specifically, the PC will have the following responsibilities:
- Exercise overall responsibility for planning, implementation, management, monitoring and coordination aspects of the operations and personnel of the two projects;
- Assist the UNW country Representative in programme development and resource mobilization in specific thematic areas;
- Document lessons learned and produce knowledge products.
Duties and Responsibilities
Implementation of project activities:- Exercise overall responsibility for planning, implementation, management, monitoring, coordination and reporting aspects of the two projects and the two project teams;
- Manage the recruitment of the two project teams, local consultants and support staff, as well as in identifying short-term international experts;
- Coordination and supervision of the activities of the project staff, experts and consultants working as part of the technical assistance team;
- Be responsible for the timely preparation and quality control of all substantive technical reports, briefs and required documents;
- Ensure timely production and submission of all partial and/or progress reports by all team members, contractors and project partners;.
- Effective application of RBM tools and monitoring achievement of results;
- Organize PSC, project review and/or evaluation meetings. Prepare background document, briefs, issue papers, progress reports for the PSC meetings and for donor reporting. Follow-up on the implementation of PSC decisions and recommendations;
- In collaboration with the project support team, initiate procurement of goods and services including preparation of equipment specifications, ToRs and RFPs, managing process for the selection of suppliers, contractors and partners;
- Conduct field visits to supervise, coordinate and monitor field level activities of the two projects.
- Thorough analysis and research of the political, social and economic situation in the country and preparation of substantive inputs to the UNW country office programme planning;
- Identification of areas for support and interventions within the thematic/sectoral areas assigned;
- Design and formulation of project initiatives within the area of responsibility, translating UNW’s priorities into local interventions.
- Identification of sources of information related to policy-driven issues. Identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learnt directly linked to programme country policy goals;
- Support to development of policies and institutions that will address the country problems and needs in collaboration with the Government and other strategic partners;
- Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
- Organization of trainings for the operations/ projects staff on programme issues.
- Development of partnerships with the UN Agencies, IFI’s, government institutions, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors, private sector, civil society in the specific thematic areas based on strategic goals of UNDP, country needs and donors’ priorities;
- Analysis and research of information on donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for initiation of new projects, active contribution to the overall office effort in resource mobilization.
Competencies
Core competencies:Ethics and Values
- Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.
- Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
- Take charge of self-development and take initiative.
- Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
- Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication
- Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others
- Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
- Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge
- Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making
Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda
- Preparing information for advocacy;
- identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating UNW’s. mandate.
- Contributes into results through primary research and analysis;
- Assesses project performance to identify success factors and incorporates best practices into project work;
- Researches linkages across programme activities to identify critical points of integration;
- Monitors specific stages of projects/programme implementation;
- Analyzes country situation to identify opportunities for project development;
- Participates in the formulation of project proposals and ensures substantive rigor in the design; and application of proven successful approaches and drafts proposals accordingly.
- Maintaining a network of contacts;
- Maintains an established network of contacts for general information sharing and to remain up-to-date on partnership related issues;
- Analyzes and selects materials for strengthening strategic alliances with partners and stakeholders.
- Enhancing processes or products;
- Generates new ideas and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
- Documents and analyses innovative strategies/best practices/new approaches.
- Providing inputs to resource mobilization strategies;
- Analyzes information/databases on potential and actual donors;
- Develops a database of project profiles. Identifies opportunities for project proposals for presentation to donors
- Basic research and analysis;
- Generates new ideas and approaches, researches best practices and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
- Documents and analyses innovative strategies and new approaches.
- Fundamental knowledge of own discipline;
- Understands and applies fundamental concepts and principles of a professional discipline or technical specialty relating to the position;
- Possesses basic knowledge of organizational policies and procedures relating to the position and applies them consistently in work tasks;
- Strives to keep job knowledge up-to-date through self-directed study and other means of learning;
- Demonstrates good knowledge of information technology and applies it in work assignments;
- Demonstrates in-depth understanding and knowledge of the current guidelines and project management tools and utilizes these regularly in work assignments.
- Establishing effective client relationships;
- Researches potential solutions to internal and external client needs and reports back in a timely, succinct and appropriate fashion;
- Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet client needs and deadlines;
- Anticipates client needs and addresses them promptly.
Required Skills and Experience
- Master’s or Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, economics, law, public or business administration and related subjects.
- With Masters degree minimum of 5 years and with bachelor’s degree minimum of 7 years of relevant experience in project management and in the area of governance and/or private sector development;
- Prior relevant working experience in managing UN-funded or EC-funded project as well as specific experience in gender-related initiatives will be considered an asset.
- Fluent oral and written English as well as Arabic is required.