Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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 center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations System’s efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women established its presence in Mozambique in 2007 working as part of the UN system providing coordination and programme support to strengthen the UN response to addressing national priorities for gender equality and women’s empowerment, in line with UN Women’s strategic vision.  UN Women Mozambique performs its programmatic functions through three interrelated areas: Women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women and girls and Planning and Budgeting with HIV&AIDS, Humanitarian Issues and Planning and Budgeting as cross thematic issues.

Under the overall guidance and direction of the supervisor, the programme officer exercises overall responsibility for planning, implementing, and managing UN Women interventions under his/her assigned portfolio.  She/he works in close collaboration with the programme and operations team, Government officials, multi and bi-lateral donors and civil society ensuring achievement of UN Women results in the assigned thematic area.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

• Effective implementation of programme strategies and management of assigned projects/programmes;
• Quality assurance of project and financial management in accordance with UN Women’s Programme and Operation Manual;
• Strategic partnerships building with the government, donor and civil society organizations in the areas of assignment;
• Technical advisory services to the CO and partners, knowledge building and management.
• Advocacy support and Resource mobilization 
• Inter-agency Coordination Support
• Any other business as required by the office

Effective implementation of programme strategies and management of assigned portfolio:

• Support in the development of the programme portfolio in E-VAW and intersection with HIV and  Economic Empowerment;
• Support to prepare detailed annual and quarterly work-plans and ensure timely implementation of the programme activities in accordance with the work plan
• Support implementation of programmes/project under the assigned portfolio;
•  Support to develop research, monitoring and evaluation (MER) plans and facilitate effective application of RBM tools, and regular monitoring and tracking of programme results;
• Assist the supervisor in identifying programme risks and update the status of these risks developing contingency plans as necessary;
• Organize  and lead monitoring field visits and ensure implementation of resulting follow up actions
• Prepare and submit  progress reports  to the donor in a timely manner,  in line with UN Women Corporate Guidelines;
• Facilitate collaborative relationships with other UN agencies, experts, government counterparts ensuring timely and efficient delivery of inputs related to assigned portfolio.
• Identify  areas for support and interventions within the assigned areas;
• Provide advice to the CO within the thematic area/portfolio assigned.

Quality assurance of programme and financial management in accordance with UN Women’s Programme and Operation Manual.

• Ensure effective, timely and qualitative implementation of all activities under the assigned portfolio aligning to CO Programme;
• Carry out  coordination, management and monitoring of financial, administrative, human resources, procurement and logistical matters according to UN Women’s corporate procedures;
• Perform substantive and financial monitoring of assigned projects, identifying substantive and financial issues, proposing and implementing agreed upon mitigating strategies

Lead  evaluation of  projects under the assigned portfolio

Strategic partnerships with the government, donor and civil society organizations:

• Contribute to the development of appropriate working relations with key stakeholders on relevant aspects of the programme;
• Coordinate with the respective partners for programme linkages, leverage and synergy;
• Support strategic partnerships and resource mobilization efforts by researching relevant documentation, and participating in donor meetings and public information events;
• Ensure effective information flow, communication and coordination with and between UN Women office and implementing partners and  stakeholders of the assigned projects;
• Participate in  and contribute to  UNDAF processes on issues related to the area of responsibility 

Technical advisory services to the CO and partners  and facilitation of knowledge building and management:

• Identify CO and partners technical needs and provide or facilitate access to the necessary technical advice
• Identify sources of information related to policy-driven issues, and synthesize best practices and lessons learnt directly linked to programme policy goals to guide programme improvements and future strategic development planning;
• Participate in and provide sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice
• Support partners and stakeholders in capacity development activities to enhance knowledge and skills in results based management, results based reporting and budgeting, and systematic quality assurance.

Advocacy and Resource mobilization

• Proactively and substantively support and implement relevant, high-impact advocacy activities with key partners
• Promote development and implementation of advocacy approaches at national level on issues related to international commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment related to the assigned thematic areas;
• Design programme proposals  within the area of responsibility for resource mobilization and contributes to CO overall related efforts.

Inter-Agency Coordination Support:

• Provide support to the CO on inter-agency coordination related activities;
• Prepare substantive inputs to UNDAF related processes in the areas of  responsibility;
• Prepare analytical and regular progress reports on UN Women’s’ program experiences in support of UN women inter-agency coordination role.

Competencies

Core Values/ 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

• Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects;
• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
• Ability to formulate and manage budgets, manage contributions and investments, manage transactions, conduct financial analysis, reporting and cost-recovery;
• Ability to implement new systems and 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;
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• Lead teams effectively and shows conflict resolution skills;
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
• Focuses on impact and result for the partners and responds positively to feedback.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:        

• Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in social sciences, political science, development studies, gender/women's/human rights studies or other related Social Sciences.

Experience:       

• 5 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects and establishing inter-relationships among international organization and national governments, preferably in the field of gender and human rights of women;
• Proven management experience, preferably within one or more UN entities, with sound knowledge and experience in all aspects of project cycle (design, implementation, monitoring & evaluation) and solid knowledge on project operations (including finance, procurement and  reporting);
• Experience providing advisory services in the area of gender equality, coordinating programmes with multiple actors in an international context;
• Good knowledge of rights-based approach and result-based management.
• Experience in the use of computers and office software.
• Prior experience working in the UN System will be an asset.

Language:     

• Fluency in English and Portuguese (verbal and written) is required.