Background

The United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) was established through the UN General Assembly Resolution 50/166 with UN Women as its Administrator on behalf of the UN system. The UN Trust Fund is a global multi-lateral mechanism supporting national efforts to end violence against women, one of the most widespread human rights violations in the world.

The UN Trust Fund provides technical assistance and funding to advance the development of innovative models and strategic interventions in the area of ending violence against women. It focuses on supporting the implementation of national laws and plans of action on ending violence against women, calling for greater attention to implementation of existing human rights standards; multi-sector approaches; strengthened partnerships among national governments, civil society and women’s groups; UN agencies and other key stakeholders; stronger institutional mechanisms at the national and sub national levels; and strengthened efforts for upscaling and sustainability. By 2013, the UN Trust Fund had supported 368 programmes in 132 countries and territories with USD 95 million. The current active portfolio of the UN Trust Fund is USD 58 million for 84 organizations in the 73 Countries. In response to its 2009 external evaluation and 2014 audit recommendations for stronger monitoring and management of funded projects, the UN Trust Fund requires the position of the Programme Specialist for small grants to provide dedicated capacity development support to funded projects as well as enhanced monitoring and portfolio management to its small grants portfolio.

Under the supervision and guidance of the Chief of UN Trust Fund to End Violence against Women, the Programme Specialist will be responsible for coordinating and monitoring the portfolio of Small UN Trust Fund grants ($50K -$100K).

Duties and Responsibilities

Monitoring and Grant-management:

  • Manage and oversee all operational processes related to the small grants life-cycle, including budget revisions and disbursements in collaboration with Finance colleagues, processing of programme modifications and no-cost extensions, and processing grant closure. This includes keeping information on internal and external Focal Points up-to-date for each active grant;
  • Lead the coordination for grants management between UN Trust Fund Finance team, UN Women Regional, Multi/Country Offices and other teams as necessary to ensure the efficient oversight of the portfolio. This includes liaising with external stakeholders to ensure required documentation is received according to timeline agreed upon and the same files are stored in the UNTF shared drive. This also involves consolidating UNTF feedback to the grantee in all aspects of the project;
  • Provide technical assistance to grantees including in the design of their Results and Resources Frameworks (RRFs), in collaboration with the Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist. Assist grantees in clarifying proposed programmes outcomes, outputs, indicators of success, methods of baseline and data collection, activities and budgets;
  • Provide tailored technical support throughout the programme life-cycle, including in design of grantee baseline and end-line data and support in undertaking the final evaluation;
  • Review progress reports and provide feedback to grantees as needed to ensure results-based reports and analysis and capturing of data;
  • Review financial reports and liaise with UNTF finance analyst at HQ before final approval for grants and subsequent disbursements;
  • Monitor and assess progress towards overall results based on results framework and monitoring schedules;
  • Undertake monitoring missions and finalize mission reports in accordance with mission report template, summarizing key findings and recommendations;
  • Review and provide technical feedback to grantees to ensure results-based analysis and capturing of data, with the effective use of Grants Management System. This includes provision of technical support and feedback on draft Terms of Reference (TOR) and report of grantee final external evaluation provided in a timely manner, ensuring finalization and submission of TOR and final report in accordance with the requirements specified in the UN Trust Fund evaluation guidelines;
  • Monitor Audit Recommendations and update Action Plans in the system, in coordination with the Finance Analyst, where applicable;
  • Perform a basic review of Financial Statements and flag inconsistencies between financial spending and project implementation.

Grant-making:

  • Participate in annual grantee selection processes including through review and substantive analysis of concept notes and full-fledged proposals, accompanying budgets and monitoring and evaluation frameworks submitted to the UN Trust Fund;
  • Prepare application feedback letters and summaries for all shortlisted applicants and grantees for the region and systematically update these summaries based on progress reports and monitoring missions;
  • Provide administrative support to ROs and grantees to ensure adherence to UN WOMEN policies, administrative and financial procedures;
  • Review and lead finalization of project documents and Results Resources Frameworks through dialogue with grantees on submitted documents;
  • Review implementing partner assessment forms and grant agreements prior to grantee selection and signature.

Reporting and Knowledge Management:

  • Maintain centralized portfolio matrix of small grants, and provide quarterly portfolio updates to the UN Trust Fund Chief;
  • Prepare written contributions for various purposes, including inputs for the report for the Commission on Status of Women, UNTF annual donor reports, newsletters, fund raising efforts and other reporting needs;
  • Contribute to tracking and synthesizing, on an ongoing basis, developments, tools, emerging or good practices in the field of ending violence against women and girls, including capturing findings and lessons learned from evaluations;
  • Update and maintain UNTF Grant-making and Knowledge Management Tracking database with relevant grantee information.
  • Support the Fund’s Communication Specialist and Report Writer through direct engagement with grant recipients to gather information about the achievements and impact of the grant, knowledge products, media, etc. and ensure communications accurately reflect grant programmes;
  • Keep systematic track of noteworthy grantee achievements and communicate to colleagues for possible visibility, such as special features on the website;
  • Support and organize knowledge sharing events and identify good and promising models that can be shared widely across grantees and other key stakeholders;
  • Identify challenges and lessons learned across the small grants, and contribute to a process of institutional learning through documenting lessons learned and contribution to modification of strategies and programmes.

Capacity Development:

  • Play a key role in the production of capacity development tools, including training materials and packages, programme guidance notes and other related support specifically as it relates to monitoring and reporting for small grants;
  • Support, organize and participate in knowledge sharing and capacity development events for grantees, including organizing a capacity development workshop for new grantees on monitoring and evaluation, in liaison with the M&E Specialist.

Impact of Results:

The key results have an impact on the overall quality of the grants supported as well as efficiency and effectiveness in implementation of the UN Trust Fund’s programme strategies.  Accurate analysis, monitoring and oversight of grants enhances the UN Trust Fund’s reputation as a strategic funder of initiatives to address violence against women as well as UN Women’s position as a strong development partner.

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: 

  • Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents.

Organizational Awareness:  

  • Building support and political acumen.

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring: 

  • Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation.

Working in Teams: 

  • Building and promoting effective teams.

Communicating Information and Ideas: 

  • Creating and promoting an enabling environment for open communication.

Self-management and Emotional intelligence: 

  • Creating an emotionally intelligent organization.

Conflict Management /Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements: 

  • Leveraging conflict in the interest of the organization and setting standards.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: 

  • Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

  • Fair and transparent decision-making; calculated risk-taking.

Functional Competencies:

Monitoring, Reporting and Knowledge Management:

  • Strong knowledge of planning and monitoring and related development policy and programming issues, including knowledge of results-based management, familiarity with log frames and understanding of baseline data collection and monitoring methodologies;
  • Knowledge of women’s organizations and governmental agencies working on women’s empowerment and gender equality in the sub-region;
  • Familiarity with UN Women procedures, particularly with regard to project management and more specifically in relation to the development of work plans, budgets, monitoring and reporting plans, purchasing plans and the identification of indicators.

Management and Leadership:

  • Ability to manage for results: translate strategy into achievable plans, with established priorities, monitor them, making periodic adjustments as required;
  • Able to effectively represent UN Women in, and contribute to, United Nations inter-agency programming initiatives related to ending violence against women;
  • Builds strong relationships with, and focuses on results for clients and partners, responds positively to feedback;
  • Capacity to work with diverse partners including governments, civil society and women's groups;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
  • Experienced in working in a global multi-cultural setting respecting gender equality and an ability to contribute to team work and provide conceptual leadership;
  • Ability to work under pressure and meet strict deadlines.

Communication:

  • Excellent  interpersonal and diplomacy skills;
  • Ability to use critical thinking, conceptualize ideas, and articulate relevant subject matter in a clear and concise way;
  • Ability to communicate effectively with and relate to people of different cultures, demonstrating an ability to see issues from other perspectives.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Advanced university degree or equivalent in Political Science, International Development Studies, Gender/Women’s Studies or other relevant field.

Experience:

  • Minimum of five years of relevant national/international working experience in international development, human rights, gender equality and women’s empowerment issues;
  • Knowledge and experience in working on addressing issues related to violence against women and girls;
  • Experience in monitoring and reporting on programmes related to gender equality;
  • Experience in monitoring of grant programmes is highly desired;
  • Experience in knowledge management and communication – supporting collection and dissemination of lessons learned/best practices;
  • Experience working in the field of monitoring: developing plans, tracking results, reporting to different constituencies;
  • Experience in results-based management (RBM) is an asset;
  • Experience with databases and data management a plus;
  • Knowledge management and communications experience – supporting collection and dissemination of lessons learned/best practice;
  • Experience in the United Nations, a governmental, other multilateral or civil society organization in a developed or developing country is highly desirable.

Languages:

  • Fluency in English (oral and written) is required;
  • Working knowledge in Spanish and/or French is an asset. 

Application:

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.