Background

UN Women (UNW), 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 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.
 
UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) since its inception in 1997. The UN Women (UNW), 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 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.
 
UN Women plays an innovative and catalytic role in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) since its inception in 1997. The UN Women Palestine office focuses its activities on one overarching goal, namely to support the implementation at the national level of existing international commitments to advance gender equality in line with the national priorities. In support of this goal and thoroughly taking into consideration the specificities of the oPt context, UN Women concentrates its efforts and interventions toward the realization of following strategic goals: engendering governance, peace and security; supporting women's economic security and rights; in addition to promoting women’s rights, protection against violence and access to justice.
 
Under the direct supervision of the Special Representative, supported by the Programme Coordinator, the Project Specialist will act as the team leader for the Women Human Rights (WHR) projects with the overall responsibility for the programme management and implementation in the Palestine office, ensuring high quality of work for programme implementation, strategic partnerships, financial and human resource management, and knowledge building.
 
The Project Specialist will adopt an approach focusing on quality and result oriented management. He/ She will work in close collaboration with UN Women Palestine’s programme and project teams as well as its Operations Unit, in addition to the UN Women Regional Office for Arab States and HQ policy/programme teams, in order to implement project activities and ensure maximization of the impact of WHR projects’ beneficiaries, and with to exchange information and ensure complementarity in service delivery with sister UN agencies and other national/international stakeholders, while ensuring consistency with the Palestine UNDAF and the Palestinian National Development Plan priorities and adequate responses to emerging challenges and opportunities.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:
  • Management of UN Women’s WHR programme/project activities in Palestine;
  • Managing the financial and human resources of UN Women’s WHR programmes/projects in Palestine; 
  • Determining the direction of UN Women’s WHR programming in Palestine; 
  • Building partnerships and supporting resource mobilization for UN Women and WHR interventions in Palestine.
Management of the WHR Programme:
  • Supervise and lead the development of project work plans, budget plans, procurement plans and operational plans with the related detailed budget allocations for project implementation;
  • Lead and supervise the development of monitoring and evaluation frameworks and other activities related to the implementation and sustainability of the projects.
  • Manage the WHR project resources and administration to ensure proper accountability for and utilization of allocated funds;
  • Continuously monitor the implementation of activities and budget expenditures and ensure that projects’ implementation is in line with agreed upon work plans and related time frames;
  • Ensure proper data collection and prepare narrative reports on projects’ progress, oversee projects’ reviews and ensure UN Women’s visibility across projects’ implementation is compliant with UN Women’s rules and regulations;
  • Work closely with governmental and local partners to ensure ownership and delivery of projects’ results.
  • Ensure that close cooperation and coordination is maintained with project partners and existing and future consultative committees for project implementation;
  • Ensure regular technical briefings for WHR project donors;
  • Oversee the procurement actions under the projects.

Direction of WHR Programming in Palestine:

  • Provide inputs into planning, monitoring and evaluation of UN Women’s work in Palestine related to women’s rights and protection, including the identification of strategic programme areas of cooperation;
  • Contribute to WHR programme strategies and other programming documents, and ensure their effective implementation;
  • Create linkages and synergies between WHR projects and other UN Women programmes and projects to maximize impact for targeted beneficiaries; 
  • Liaise with governmental and non-governmental national stakeholders to maintain discussions and ensure proper planning for addressing strategic priorities;
  • Ensure technical support and advice on issues related to women’s rights an protection is provided, as needed, to governmental counterparts and non-state actors and UN Agencies;
  • Identify and share with the office, emerging protection planning related to women’s rights issues.

Partnership and Support to Resource Mobilization:

  • Liaise, within the overall framework of UN Women Palestine women’s rights programme, with implementing bodies, governmental organizations, donor agencies, UN Agencies and NGOs in order to strengthen the network of support to women’s rights and protection-related issues and widen the potentialities of the WHR managed projects; 
  • Liaise with donors, raise and maintain interest in areas of women’s protection and rights relevant to the oPt context, including emerging areas; 
  • Support resource mobilization efforts for ensuring the sustainability of existing WHR projects and funding new ones;
  • Formulate funding proposals and prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, analyze and research information on relevant donors, and support the identification of opportunities for cost-sharing.

Ensure that the WHR Projects have the human resources and capacities needed to respond to requests for assistance and to deliver on project commitments:

  • Supervise personnel assigned to WHR projects;
  • Support WHR monthly planning of the work and regularly follow up on developments and challenges;
  • Hold regular WHR projects’ staff meetings;
  • Coordinate WHR projects’ staff participation in external coordination meetings and other activities related to WHR work;
  • Provide clear direction and monitor performance of staff working on the projects based on specific benchmarks. 
  • Support knowledge building and knowledge sharing including synthesis and dissemination of lessons learnt and best practices in procurement and operational areas; 
  • Ensure linkages are established and maintained with other UN Women programmes and projects;
  • Provide constant briefing/debriefing of senior management, staff and project teams on issues relating to area of work;
  • Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

Impact of Results:

The overall impact of the WHR Project Specialist’s portfolio will manifest in terms of: improved services for women and girls victims of violence, enhanced capacities among national stakeholders, better informed and engaged partners and donors, increased visibility and impact of the work of UN Women in the field of women’s protection and rights in Palestine.
The key results have an impact on the efficiency, effectiveness and overall quality of delivery of the WHR projects. Proper management and execution of projects in addition to provision of support to strategic and policy development will ultimately enhance the capacity of the WHR projects’ teams and programmes and promote the image of UN Women as an effective contributor to women’s rights and protection in Palestine.

Competencies

Core values and 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 safeguard ethics and integrity.
Organizational Awareness:
  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
Development and Innovation:
  • Take charge of self-development and take initiative.
Work in 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.
Communicating and Information Sharing:
  • Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for 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:
  • Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.
Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:
  • Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making. 
Functional Competencies:
  • Knowledge in women’s rights and gender issues;
  • Promotes knowledge management in UN Women and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example;
  • Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
  • Development and Operational Effectiveness;
  • Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
  • Ability to lead the formulation and monitoring of management projects;
  • Solid knowledge of financial and human resources management, contract, asset and procurement, information and communication technology, general administration;
  • Ability to lead business processes re-engineering, implementation of new systems (business side), and positively affect staff behavioral/attitudinal change Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
  • Leads teams effectively and shows mentoring as well as conflict resolution skills;
  • Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
  • Sound knowledge of financial rules and administrative policies and procedures;
  • Ability to interpret and analyze data and resolve operational problems.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree (or equivalent) in Social Science (International Development studies, Gender/ Women’s studies, Economics, Sociology and/or a closely related discipline).

Experience:

  • Minimum of 5 years of progressively responsible experience in international development work preferably focused on or strongly involving gender equality at national, regional or international levels;
  • Professional experience in project development/ management and coordination, as well as in budget preparation.
  • UN experience is considered an asset.

Languages:

  • Written and oral proficiency in English is required;
  • Knowledge of the other UN working language is desirable.
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.