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.

With the creation of UN Women, the adoption of a global strategic plan and the articulation of regional and annual work plans, there is the need to reposition UN Women, West and Central Africa Regional Center to function more effectively in its new role within the UN and with strategic partners. This is particularly important given the mandate of UN Women in contributing to the UN system’s effectiveness in advancing gender equality and empowerment of women. 

Physical and sexual violence accelerates the AIDS epidemic, it is a serious threat for African women’s health. Economic and moral violence increase women’s exposure to risky behaviors and affect women’s health during pregnancy and childbirth, and induce the “3 delays”:

  • The denial of the right to the decision that delays the departure of the woman for the health structure;
  • The denial of resources which deprives women of economic means for access to health care, adequate nutrition and the means of transport in the event of complications;
  • The denial of adequate budgetary resources for women affects the provision of care in terms of staff and products for neonatal emergency care.
The EVAW & Health Unit articulate and plan for breaking the vicious cycle of VAW, HIV, & Maternal mortality/morbidity. The Regional EVAW Coordinator supports UNW’s response in these areas, within several partnerships including Muskoka, H4+, HHA and UNAIDS Joint (national & regional) Teams.

The Regional Coordinator EVAW, Health & HIV will be based in UNWOMEN West and Africa Regional Office and, as member of the Regional Policy Team, report directly to the Regional Director. S/he will closely cooperate with UN Women Programme Specialists & Adviser to provide substance to UNW work in this specific area.

The EVAW & Health Unit covers all of the relevant funded activities, initiatives and campaigns planned for the sub-region, including supporting the capacity building of providers of Domestic Violence protection services, and leading the VAW “UNiTE” Campaign for the sub-region. The EVAW Health & HIV Coordinator will also serve as a UN Women Focal Point for the UN VAW Trust Fund (UNTF). He/she ensures effective implementation of the sub-regional project on EVAW and provides advice to the implementing partners as per his/her job description, and overall acts in line with UN rules and regulations in the light of the above.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:
  • Programme Development, Management and Implementation;
  • Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning;
  • Communications and Advocacy;
  • Developing Partnerships and Networks.

Programme Development, Management and Implementation:

  • Manage UN Women’s programme Unit and portfolio on EVAW, Health and HIV in the West and Central Africa Region;
  • Coordinate implementation of the corporate VAW policy and Regional Strategy;
  • Formulate and implement relevant results-based programme strategies, focusing on achieving results, including TF grant management and reporting schedules, with support from the Deputy Director and Operations Manager;
  • Facilitate quality assurance of all EVAW, Health and HIV  programmes and undertake technical assistance and monitoring missions to the projects sites;
  • Identify capacity development needs and develop adequate solutions to ensure effective programme implementation;
  • Monitor the development of, and provide substantive guidance and technical inputs, to ensure the quality of products and tools commissioned by country teams in the context of the EVAW, Health and HIV programme;
  • Contribute to high-quality, results-oriented reporting on EVAW, Health and HIV programmes, for internal and external audiences contributing substantively to monthly, six monthly and annual reports;
  • Oversee donor reporting and accountability schedule ensuring production of quality reports .

Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning:
  • Coordinate the monitoring and evaluation of UN Women’s EVAW, Health and HIV programmes and projects;
  • Develop and oversee wide strategic dissemination of EVAW, Health and HIV  programme findings and knowledge-related publications, inclusive of select case studies, good practices and lessons learned;
  • Document, and analyze lessons learned in the area of EVAW, Health and HIV, both for the UN system at large and UN Women in particular to stimulate global institutional learning and future programming;
  • Serve as resource person on capacity development activities on EVAW, Health, HIV and other gender responsive issues as required.

Communications and Advocacy:
  • Support staff for the development and implementation of communications and advocacy strategies as well as identify and seize strategic advocacy opportunities on an on-going basis, on EVAW, Women’s right to health and HIV;
  • Identification, synthesis and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned linked to programme outcomes on EVAW, women’s health and HIV;
  • Prepare briefings for internal and external audiences at all levels, ensuring consistency of messaging and quality of materials on EVAW, Health and HIV;
  • Coordinate in collaboration with UN Women Communications staff advocacy materials, publications, working and briefing papers on the programme;
  • Provide information on a timely basis on important political and institutional issues of interest for UN Women, and on potential opportunities for engagement in country;
  • Ensure learning mechanisms are established and that resulting good practices are widely disseminated
  • Prepare briefings, talking points and presentation materials and make sound contributions to knowledge networks.
Developing Partnerships and Networks:
  • Strengthen and enhance partnerships/ co-operation/ consultation/ coordination with a wide range of actors, for more effective and coordinated EVAW, Women’s Health, HIV program implementation as appropriate including UN Women partnerships with UNAIDS, etc.;
  • Participate in  on-going coordination mechanisms to ensure coherence of the programme with other country-level processes including national development policy frameworks, UN programming and coordination processes;
  • Contribute to effective partnership, networking and coordination between other on-going UN Women programmes, projects and activities in the sub-region;
  • Maintain a database of development partners in the sector and contribute to result-oriented resource mobilization actions;
  • Work with the Communications Team, the Planning & Coordination Specialist, and the Regional Director to manage the substantive dimension of the UNDG VAW Working Group.

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:
  • Strong planning, goal setting and prioritization skills;
  • Results based management and quality delivery of outputs in accordance with time and budget;
  • Ability to work in a multicultural environment;
  • Good knowledge of the reality of the region and the ability to work in difficult conditions.
  • Good knowledge of the priority areas of UN Women, UNFPA, WHO, UNICEF and UNAIDS co-sponsors will be a considerable asset;
  • Ability to lead and mobilize staff and partners towards shared goals;
  • Ability to build and maintain strong relationships with partners at all levels;
  • Strong interpersonal and diplomatic skills;
  • Proven analytic and problem solving skills and capacity to write clearly and concisely.
  • Good application skills of IT tools and management systems;
  • Familiarity with UN Women and broad knowledge and understanding of the UN System .

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Master's degree ( or equivalent) in social sciences, political, legal or related fields, or other relevant social sciences.

Experience:

  • Proven experience of a minimum of seven years in development, management, evaluation of development programmes in Africa, in the area of gender, health, HIV, VAW;
  • Experience in EVAW issues relating to maternal health, HIV in the West and Central Africa Region;
  • Experience in working in UN Agencies an asset.

Language:

  • Fluency in French and English.
Application:
  • 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;
  • Previous applicants need not reapply as their previous submissions will be considered.
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.