UN Women: Policy Specialist (Gender Responsive Peacebuilding)



Advertised on behalf of :

Location : New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Application Deadline :09-Aug-13 (Midnight New York, USA)
Type of Contract :FTA International
Post Level :P-3
Languages Required :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.

UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.


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.

The Policy Division develops and implements the UN Women program of work on analysis, research and knowledge management that provides the evidence base for the advice and guidance UN Women provides to the intergovernmental process, the UN system, and to UN Women staff working at country and regional level on issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment. It identifies emerging issues and trends, and develops and proposes new strategies for achieving the agreed goals through innovative approaches and lessons learned about what works in practice. It also designs and oversees the training and capacity development programs of UN Women, working closely with the UN Women training facility in Santo Domingo.

The Policy Division staff is organized in Thematic Sections, bringing together technical experts who undertake issues-based research; analyze data on country, regional or global trends, build a knowledge base on policy commitments and their implementation, propose evidence-based options for global policy, norms and standards and for UN Women global programme strategies, and contribute substantive inputs to policy advocacy and technical cooperation programmes.

Under the supervision of the Policy Specialist (Peace building and Recovery), the Policy Specialist is responsible for contributing to the development and implementation of the organization policies in the area of gender-responsive peace building to achieve gender equality and advancement of women. Under the guidance and supervision of the Policy Specialist, the incumbent provides technical, policy and programme support for coordination, policy development, policy advocacy, and for the development and implementation of global programme strategies.


Duties and Responsibilities
Summary of key functions:
  • Technical Guidance and Support;
  • Policy Development and Support;
  • Partnership Building and Advocacy;
  • Knowledge Management.
Technical Guidance and Support:
  • With the PBSO (Peace Building Specialist Office), identify cross-regional needs and provide (where available) capacity building support for peace building priorities and the implementation of the Secretary-General’s Seven Point Action Plan on Gender-Responsive Peace building;
  • Under the guidance of the supervisor, ensure high-quality, results-oriented reporting on the the Seven Point Action plan, for internal and external audiences (e.g. UN, donors), including providing guidance to UN Women Country and Regional Offices and partners in the submission of timely, quality reports and contributions;
  • Backstop gender and peace building processes managed by the Peace building Contact Group and the Senior Peace building Group through preparation for meetings, research, and preparations of post-2014 and post 2015 forward actions in this area including researching viable targets for the next iteration of system planning on gender and peace building and for the post 2015 agenda;
  • Under the guidance of the supervisor, establish systems for documenting and analyzing the conditions enabling successful implementation of the Seven Point Action Plan (including contracting consultants for commissioned research). Regular field missions are an essential part of this. Ensure information flow between field and HQ on lessons learned, promising approaches, and good practice.
Policy Development and Support:
  • Maintain an on-going watching brief of policy developments in the fields of peace building, state building, fragile state governance, public service delivery, including via monitoring of debates in the Security Council, PBC, regional organizations and other relevant forums;
  • Under the guidance of the supervisor, develop guidance and knowledge on public service delivery, fragile state governance and related issues;
  • In partnership with the PBSO, manage the working level coordination of the implementation of the Secretary-General’s action plan for gender-responsive peace building (October 2010, A/65/866-S/2010/466), and provide the secretariat for the UN Women/PBSO senior Steering Committee on Gender-Responsive Peace building;
  • Support UN Women COs as well as UN Missions and select UNCTs in implementing the 7 point action plan via the targeted provision of short-term technical assistance (including through personal missions), commissioned research, networking and exchanges, conferences, training, and other relevant forms of support;
  • Maintain a rolling calendar of major peace building opportunities for women in conflict and post-conflict situations, such as peace talks and national dialogues, constitutional debates, donor conferences, post conflict needs assessments, PRSPs, etc. Negotiate with relevant partners support for women’s direct input to these processes or for the provision of gender analysis and expertise;
  • Support UN, Government and CSO partners with technical support on gender-responsive peace building, as requested;
  • Organize expert preparatory meetings, panels and other interactive events on gender and peace building as
  • requested by the supervisor and in close coordination with Section Colleagues;
  • Support the public and internal communication of results and good practices of Seven Point Action plan and related results, including preparation of briefs, managing production of knowledge products, participation in appropriate global knowledge events.
Partnership Building and Advocacy:
  • Under the guidance of the supervisor, maintain and strengthen UN Women’s partnership with the Peace building Support Office and other relevant UN partners such as the Civilian Capacity unit and the UNDG/DOCO;
  • Develop and implement partnerships with key UN Partners in the areas of post-crisis governance and basic service delivery and keep supervisor informed;
  • Strengthen partnerships with other UN agencies and international policy making forums to highlight and reinforce accountability mechanisms for the implementation of the Seven Point Action Plan; support inter-agency work and processes pertaining to gender, conflict prevention, transitions and peace building within the UN system, as requested;
  • Contribute to the development of strategic approaches to policy dialogue, resource mobilization, partnerships, and outreach;
  • Establish and nurture relationship with academia, research institutes, civil society and experts in women and peace building to expand and share knowledge, exchange views on latest findings, incorporate cutting-edge thinking in UN work on gender-responsive peace building.
Knowledge management:
  • Support the development of policy and knowledge, as appropriate and under the guidance of the Policy Specialist and overall direction of Section Chief;
  • Under the supervision of the Policy Specialist (Peace building and Recovery), monitor and provide substantive guidance and technical inputs to ensure the quality of knowledge products and capacity development tools;
  • Provide feedback to UN Women offices on case studies and other related knowledge products and publications as requested and needed;
  • Under the oversight of the supervision, identify knowledge gaps and recruit, monitor and assess performance of consultants and other service providers hired to design and develop  knowledge products related to the ‘Building Back Better’ programme;
  • Under the oversight of the supervisor, produce knowledge products to meet UN Women needs and standards of quality;
  • Support training of UN Women staff and UN partners in gender-responsive peace building as requested by the supervisor.

Impact of Results:

  • UN Women demonstrates global leadership on gender-responsive peace building and women’s participation in transitions and improves the responsiveness of the UN’s peace building efforts to engage women and respond to their needs. High quality technical assistance on gender and peace building  is made available via knowledge products and hands-on advice to UN Women COs/MCOs/ROs. The incumbent contributes to the smooth and successful implementation of peace building priority interventions that support the 7 point Action Plan. The greatest error the incumbent of this post would impact negatively on the Peace and Security Section but not on the Organizaiton as a whole as the post is supervised by a Policy Specialist and a Chief of Section both of whom would be accountable for allowing errors such a magnitude to happen.


Competencies
Core Values/ Guiding Principles:
Integrity:
  • Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
Professionalism:
  • Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work;
Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:
  • Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.
Core Competencies:
Ethics and Values:
  • Demonstrate and promote ethics and integrity by creating organizational precedents.
Organizational Awareness:
  • Build support for the organization and ensure political acumen.
Development and Innovation:
  • Support staff competence development, and contribute to an environment of creativity and innovation.
Work in teams:
  • 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.
Communication and Information Sharing:
  • Create and promote an environment for open and effective communication.
Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:
  • Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others.
Conflict Management:
  • Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:
  • Share knowledge across the organization and build a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.
Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:
  • Ensure fair and transparent decision making processes and manage risk.
Functional Competencies:
  • Good knowledge of gender related issues including in peace building, state building and transitions;
  • Ability to undertake policy research and prepare quantitative studies, utilizing statistical methodologies, knowledge of database applications for statistical analysis;
  • Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
  • Ability to handle a large volume of work under time constraints;
  • Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective;
  • Ability to draft policy papers, speeches, briefings etc.;
  • Ability to develop and maintain roster of experts, and a databank of research institutes, academics, civil society experts, etc. of direct relevance to the Focus Area.


Required Skills and Experience
Education:

  • Master’s degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, gender issues, economics, political science,  human rights, law or other social science fields, of direct relevance to women peace and security.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 5 years of increasingly responsible professional experience in gender and peace building/state building, policy research and gender analysis and at country and international international level. Experience working on gender equality programming in peacekeeping or peace building contexts is highly desirable.

Language Requirements:

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

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.

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.
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