UN WOMEN Jobs - 72109- Gender Specialist (International Peace Support Tra

Gender Specialist (International Peace Support Training Center)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Nairobi, KENYA

Type of Contract :

Individual Contract

Starting Date :

02-Jun-2017

Application Deadline :

11-May-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

National Consultant

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

6 months

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

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. Placing women’s rights at the center 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.

In Kenya, the UN WOMEN Country Programme contributes to the development objectives of Kenya’s blue print, the Vision 2030 and the Medium-Term Plan (2013-2018) 2030 and is aligned to the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF) of 2014-2018, as well as UN WOMEN Global Strategic Plan. The Kenya Country Programme - “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Gains Consolidated' - aims to achieve the following results: (i) increased women’s leadership and participation in governance; (ii) strengthened women’s economic empowerment; (iii) increased protection of women & access to justice for women; and (iv) strengthened women’s leadership in peace building and humanitarian response.

UN Women has been strategically supporting with the International Peace Support Training Centre since 2014 a to implement a programmes that seeks to integrate gender in peace support operations in Kenya and beyond. The International Peace Support Training Centre (IPSTC) is a Research and Training institution focusing on regional peace support capacity building to respond to conflicts through preventive, management, recovery and peace building measures. The centre is a key player in the Africa Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) with its strategic focus in the Eastern Africa Region.

Through UN Women Kenya support, the Centre adopted a gender policy which provides a road map for institutionalizing gender in its policies, programmes and administrative procedures. As a strategy of institutionalizing gender in its training, the Centre reviewed the entire training curricula from gender responsiveness and undertook a series of capacity building of the Centre staff as a means of strengthening institutianl capacity, as a Centre of Excellence to serve as knowledge center for expanding technical capacity, training and policy research and analysis on women, peace and security in order to better-inform the broader peace and security agenda in Kenya and the region. Furthermore, it enhanced visibility and attention to issues of women, peace and security, whilst also supporting mainstreaming gender in security sector institutions into their policies and programmes.

UN WOMEN recognizes the opportunity to continue engaging with IPSTC as a strategic partner in the security sector in efforts mainstream gender in its operations and programmes and also enhance the role women play within peace support operations.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the close guidance and direct supervision of Col Plans and programmes at IPSTC and of Ministry and oversight by UN Women’s Peace and Security Specialist in Kenya, the Gender Specialist will provide technical leadership in the implementation of IPSTC gender policy, the gender action plan, contribute to full integration of gender equality in PSO, and contribute to capacity building of women in Kenya who are involved in PSO initiative.

This assignment has different variables, which the Gender Specialist will support, they include the following functions:

Support Programme Development and Management:

Supports formulation of gender programme documents and implementation strategies and work-plans;
Advice on the implementation of IPSTC gender policy and associated workplan;
Support the design, formulation of interventions and coordination and oversight of all the gender related activities in line with the Centre’s priorities;
Responsible for the development of internal and external reports and updates, presentation as per the approved guidelines;
Responsible for internal and external reporting as per the approved guidelines;
Establish and nurture relationship with academia, research institutes, civil society and experts in women and peace building to expand and share knowledge, exchange views on latest findings on PSOs.

Provide Strategic Advice:

Provision of advisory services to IPSTC and the Ministry of Defence on integration of UNSCR 1326.gender in peace support operation programmes;
Support the Joint Control Board on pertaining to gender in its decision-making processes;
Design capacity building, trainings and awareness raising initiatives to stakeholders on the importance of implementing UNSCR 1325 and other normative frameworks that promote human and women rights;
Provide guidance to IPSTC on development of tools and guidelines on integrating gender in PSOs;
Provide technical assistance on the development and implementation of specifically, monitoring the integration gender in relevant strategic result areas;
Coordinate gender data collection and information management.

Facilitate Knowledge Building and Sharing:

Identify and support cross-national and regional initiatives on best practices on mainstreaming gender in the Centre and its interventions;
Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice through dissemination of knowledge through newsletters, briefs and presentation materials;
Facilitate curriculum design and researches on women’s role in peace and security in Kenya.

Final product/deliverable:

Implementation of IPSTC gender interventions/programmes on women Peace and Security;
Monthly progress reports on technical support provided to IPSTC on the implementation of the Gender Policy;
Final report highlighting results, achievements, opportunities, challenges and lessons learned.

Competencies

Core Values / 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;
Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Corporate Competencies:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability;
Treats all people fairly without favoritism. Excellent analytical and organizational skills.

Functional Competencies:

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

Knowledgeable on programme management tools, results based management and reporting;
Ability to lead strategic information collection, analysis and result-based use of information;
Ability to lead formulation of strategies and their implementation;

Strong client-orientation and ability to build strong relationships with, and focuses on results for, clients and partners;
Excellent research and analytical skills, including experience and knowledge about leading academic, data, research and gender-related resources;
Strong interpersonal skills demonstrated by the ability to gain the assistance and cooperation of others in a team endeavor; ability to build trust through operating with transparency and creating and open, positive and enabling environment;
Sound judgment and decision-making skills;
Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor tasks to achieve results.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master's degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, gender, economics, public policy, law or other social science fields.

Experience:

Minimum five years of progressively responsible experience in gender, preferably in the areas of conflict prevention, conflict management and post conflict peace building;
Proven leadership experience, team’s facilitation, delivering lectures, communication, planning, presentation, report writing and organization skills;
Relevant experience in curriculum design and training evaluation;
Experience in organizing events/workshops/symposiums and writing occasional papers, issues briefs and Newsletter is desirable.

Language:

Fluency in spoken and written English is required.