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, 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.

Women’s economic empowerment is one of the key priorities for UN Women globally and in Viet Nam. Within the overall framework of UN One Plan 2012-2016 and UN Women’s Strategic Plan for 2014-2016, UN Women programmes focus on promoting women’s ability to secure decent jobs, accumulate assets, and influence institutions and public policies determining growth and development, with the understanding that women’s economic empowerment leads to gender equality, poverty eradication and inclusive economic growth.

Primary areas of work include,

• Macroeconomic policies and social protection: UN Women supports government partners to develop and implement macroeconomic policies that are gender-responsive, drawing attention to issues such as links between women’s paid work and inclusive growth, the impacts of economic crisis, and the role of gender in agriculture and trade policy. UN Women supports building knowledge and skills, assist research and data collection, provide technical assistance and policy advice to government and civil society partners to mainstream gender into poverty reduction strategies, including social protection policies, macroeconomic, trade policies and plans to enhance protection of women’s economic security and rights.
• Employment and migration: UN Women advocates for employment policies that improve labour market conditions and advance decent work for women. It promotes women’s economic leadership, whether in public decision-making or within enterprises. Through the Women’s Empowerment Principles, it promotes corporate leadership for gender equality, women’s professional development, and equal treatment of women and men at work, among other commitments. UN Women also promotes safe migration for women through development of enabling policies and mechanisms for protections from exploitation and access to essential services. 

UN Women supports the leadership and participation of particularly marginalized groups including rural and ethnic minority women, migrants, and women in the informal economy, towards shaping laws, strategies, policies and programmes on all issues that affect their lives. The aims are higher incomes, better access to and control over resources, and greater security, including protection from violence.

UN Women coordinates UN’s work on gender as convener of the Joint Programming Group on Gender. Empowerment of women in the informal economy has been identified by the Gender Joint Programming Group also as a UN priority, among others. UN Women is also an active member of the JPG on Economic Growth and Decent Work and JPG on Social Protection, contributing gender equality perspectives in the joint programming process for these two important focus areas of the UN One Plan 2012-2016.

Under the supervision of the UN Women Viet Nam Programme Specialist, the National Programme Officer on Women’s Economic Empowerment will be responsible for the successful development and implementation of programmes and projects that support women’s economic empowerment.

The National Programme Officer is expected to analyze political, social and economic trends, lead formulation, management and evaluation of programme and project activities and provide policy advisory services to partners on economic security and rights of women.

In managing the programmes/projects, s/he will work as part of the UN Women Viet Nam Country Office team. S/he will closely collaborate with programme staff in other UN agencies, Government officials, PSPMO (Political, Social, Professional and Mass organizations) and development partners ensuring successful implementation of the programmes and projects that s/he is responsible for. S/he will have access to technical advice from relevant regional Policy Advisors in the UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, and actively engage with colleagues across the region in knowledge sharing and peer support.

Summary of Key Functions:

• Management of women’s economic empowerment programmes and projects in line with the Viet Nam Country Strategy and One Plan 2012-2016.
• Strategic partnerships building
• Provision of top quality policy advice to partners on women’s economic empowerment.
• Facilitation of knowledge building and management
• Inter-agency coordination support

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Ensures effective management of the programmes and projects in the area of Women’s Economic Empowerment focusing on quality control from formulation to implementation of the programmes/projects achieving the following results

• Thorough analysis of political, social, economic situations in the country and preparation of substantive inputs to country strategy documents, project proposals, Annual Workplans and other documents for UN Women’s Economic Empowerment programmes/projects in Viet Nam.
• Manage the design and formulation of programme activities, translating the priorities of the One Plan 2012-2016 and Country Strategy in the area of Women’s Economic Empowerment into local interventions.  Coordination of programme implementation with implementing agencies
• Effective application of RMB tools, providing guidance to partners on establishment of performance indicators, and monitoring achievement of results. 
• Substantive monitoring of the programme activities, including tracking use of financial resources, identification of operational and financial problems, development of solutions.
• Reporting requirements fulfilled in a timely manner focusing on outputs, and outcomes.

2. Ensures creation of strategic partnerships focusing on the following results:

• Facilitate consultation with stakeholders for strategic selection of programme activities and partners based on the results framework of the programmes and projects, national priorities, partner capacity assessments.
• Development of partnerships with UN agencies, government institutions, private sector, civil society, etc. for policy advocacy and programme/project implementation.

3. Ensures provision of top quality advisory services to the government, PSPMO and other development partners, and facilitation of knowledge building and sharing in the areas of women’s economic security and rights, social protection and decent work, women’s human rights and gender equality focusing on the following results. 

• Identification of key economic security and rights issues and challenges for women. Identification and synthesis of best practices and lessons learned directly linked to policy goals, leading to the formulation of substantive policy advice.
• Support development of policies and institutional capacity that will address the country problems and needs in collaboration with the Government, civil society organizations and other strategic partners
• Active participation and contribution of UN Women perspectives to relevant conferences, fora and meetings addressing women’s economic security and rights, inclusive growth and government accountability issues.
• Active mobilization of UN Women colleagues across the region as knowledge resources, soliciting advice, good practice information, and reciprocating through contribution of knowledge for UN Women.

4. Support to One UN Coordination

• Participation in One UN initiatives, especially the JPG on Economic Growth and Decent Work and JPG on Social Protection as well as its related working groups. 
• Lead the coordination of joint programming and policy advocacy on women’s economic empowerment from the Gender JPG, including development of UN policy advocacy briefs and research products related to women’s economic empowerment.
• Contribution to documentation and sharing of good practices identified by the JPGs.

5. Other tasks assigned by UN Women Country Representative and Programme Specialist.

Functional Competencies:    

Advocacy/Advancing A Policy-Oriented Agenda

Level 1.2: Preparing information for advocacy

• Identifies and communicates relevant information for a variety of audiences for advocating UN Women’s mandate

Results-Based Programme Development and Management

Level 1.2: 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

Building Strategic Partnerships

Level 1.2:  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

Innovation and Marketing New Approaches

Level 1.2: 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

Resource Mobilization (Field Duty Stations)

Level 1.2:  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

Promoting Organizational Learning and Knowledge Sharing

Level 1.2: 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

Job Knowledge/Technical Expertise

Level 1.2: 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

Global Leadership and Advocacy for UN Women’s Goals
Level 1.2: Preparing information for global advocacy

• Identifies and communicates relevant information for advocacy for UN Women’s goals for a variety of audiences
• Identifies and takes advantage of opportunities for advocating for UN Women’s mandate

Client Orientation

Level 1.2: 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

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
• Demonstrates commitment to UN Women's mission, vision and values.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Economics, Sociology, Gender and Development or related fields

Experience:

• At least 2 years of relevant experience at the national or international level in providing management advisory services and hands on experience in designing, implementing and monitoring development projects with a focus on policy change in the field of women’s economic security and rights in Viet Nam.
• Familiarity of civil society organizations and networks in Viet Nam working to advance gender equality.
• Good knowledge of policies and programmes and the architecture of the government to advance gender equality
• A good understanding of women’s economic security and rights and social protection issues and practical experience in programme and policy development in this field would be an advantage.
• Familiarity with the UN and its coordination mechanism would be an advantage
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills, including an ability to prepare succinct analytical documents and briefs in English.
• Experience in the use of computers and office software packages.
• Familiarity with the UN system and its coordination mechanisms would be an advantage.
• Prior experience in the UN System and the region will be an asset.

Languague Requirements:

• Fluency in spoken and written English and Vietnamese

Others:

• Vietnamese national
• Ability to work with colleagues and collaborators of different nations and cultural background