Background

The 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, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action. . 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 Special Assistant reports to the Director, Programme Division who provides direction and leadership to the Division which is responsible for the following key areas of work:

  • Provide technical and strategic guidance, support and oversight to, ensure quality control, of UNW activities at the country and regional level, covering all aspects of the UNCT programming process;
  • Provide guidance and support to UNW’s coordination function at regional and country level;
  • Manage the  Multi-donor Trust Funds.
Provide rapid technical support including in humanitarian crisis to UN Women field offices.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions:

The Programme Specialist (Special Assistant) to the Director will provide timely analytical information, coherent policy advice and will have a proven ability to work and act under pressure and with discretion in a sensitive and challenging environment.  He/She has to have excellent communication and organization skills to manage the substantive and normative agenda.

The Special Assistant  will be responsible for the following duties:
  • Provide assistance to the Director in the strategic management of the Division, liaising closely with in-house Divisions, sections and field offices as well as key partners and stakeholders;
  • Support the Director in the performance of his/ her functions, including by the provision of sound policy inputs on issues as appropriate, to facilitate his/ her representation with UN Women staff and external partners;
  • Provide specialized technical support to the Director in his/ her interactions with other UN entities by working closely with liaison staff of senior officials of those entities;
  • Identify, research, analyze, prepare and/or organize information and briefing materials for the Director to facilitate decision-making and leadership in management strategic planning/review;
  • processes and/or to prepare the Director’s participation in meetings and missions/key events;
  • Manage the Director’s agenda; evaluating and keeping track of important events and, meeting and advising of priorities and critical meetings requiring his/ her presence and making necessary arrangements for his/ her participation including the preparation of background papers;
  • Draft speeches and/or design presentation materials (including multi-media) for delivery by the Director in key events, meetings and other external fora ensuring that UNW thinking, goals, objectives, strategies and/or policies on gender issues and UNW programs are appropriately reflected in these materials;
  • Participate with the Director in official engagements such as signatures/ceremonies ensuring that liaison has been maintained within all the different sections in UN Women, determine if adequate representation is present and ensure all protocol arrangements are in place;
  • Assist in the follow-up to meetings and corporate initiatives, including the preparation of relevant notes as appropriate;
  •  Establish a system for the timely monitoring and analysis of feedback and synthesize results highlighting critical issues for the Director’s review and management action in a timely manner;
  • Coordinate efforts and in meeting deadlines related to organizational reports including   for intergovernmental bodies ensuring the required quality standards are observed;
  • Provide support to the Senior Management Team (SMT) meetings and retreats, including preparation of agenda and minutes, ensuring the timely submission and circulation of relevant background documents and reports;
  • Ensure the timely follow-up to the Division’s directives, including the effective dissemination of pertinent information to senior management and other relevant staff at Headquarters and in other offices;
  • Manage the planning and organization of the Director’s official travel, including the timely preparation of official travel files and background documents by the relevant divisions and units as well as prepare or ensure the preparation of official travel reports;
  •  Work closely with the Director’s Administrative Associate to ensure high-quality and rapid response to e-mail, telephone and written correspondence and an effective and efficient file management system;
  • Perform other official duties and special assignments which may be requested by the Director.
Impact of Results:

The Key Results have an impact on the overall efficiency and success of Programme Directorate, UN Women.   In particular, the key results will ensure overall coordination and will have an impact on the delivery of services.  Results will contribute to ensure a coherent team, timely and effective delivery of UN Women activities.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles:
Integrity
  • Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity
  • Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
  • Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.  
Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:
  • Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity.
Organizational Awareness
  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:
  • Self-development, initiative-taking
Working in Teams
  • Acting as a team player and facilitating team work.
Communicating Information and Ideas
  • Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively.
Self-management and Emotional intelligence
  • Creating synergies through self-control.
Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements
  • Managing conflict.
Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:
  • Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of other.
Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making
  •  Informed and transparent decision making.
Functional Competencies:
  • Good planning, goal-setting and prioritization;
  • Strong communication skills, both written and oral. excellent drafting skills with the ability to edit and clear reports, speeches and correspondences;
  • Strong analytical and problem solving skills;
  • Strong inter-personal skills, communicate effectively with staff at all level of the organization;
  • Demonstrate sensitivity, tact and diplomacy, comfortable with handling external relationships at all level;
  • Work in a highly pressured environment;
  • Strong sense of responsibility, confidentiality and accountability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 
  • Master’s degree (or equivalent) in one of the following disciplines: social sciences, political science, international relations, business administration or management, public administration, or other related fields.   
Experience: 
  • Minimum 7 years of progressively varied responsible experience with international and/or corporate organizations preferably in the United Nations system and its organizations.  
Language: 
  • Written and oral proficiency in English is required;
  • Knowledge of another UN working language is highly.

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.