UN WOMEN Jobs - 72510- UN Women: Policy Specialist, Sustaining Peace

UN Women: Policy Specialist, Sustaining Peace

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

New York, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Type of Contract :

FTA International

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

12-Jun-17 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

P-4

Duration of Initial Contract :

1 year

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

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.

The Policy Division develops and implements the UN Women programme of work on analysis, research and knowledge management that provides the evidence base for the advice and guidance to the intergovernmental process, the UN system, and to UN Women staff working at country and regional level on issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment. It identifies emerging issues and trends, and develops and proposes new strategies for achieving the agreed goals through innovative approaches and lessons learned about what works in practice. It also designs and oversees the training and capacity development programs of UN Women, working closely with the UN Women training facility in Santo Domingo.

UN Women's Peace and Security Section is responsible for leading the policy development on substantive issues and providing technical support to UN Women Country Offices in a number of areas, including: conflict prevention and peacebuilding, justice sector and security reform, transitional justice, promoting women's political participation and mainstreaming gender issues into governance reforms.

The 2030 Agenda offers a key opportunity to ground women, peace and security in development practice and integrate it with the wider agenda of gender equality and broader participation addressing the long-term structural causes of conflict and inequality. The Agenda 2030 reinforces the notion of the need to work across the three pillars of the UN and in particularly SDG 16 highlights the conceptual shift needed to bridge the gap on this agenda. The resolutions on Sustaining Peace adopted in 2016[1] have demonstrated a shift in the mindset and strategic priorities of Member States, who also ensured that sustaining peace is underpinned by the people-centered approach, sustainability and inclusivity.

In that context and building n the imperical evidence gathered and anlaysed through the three Peace and Security reviews undertaken in 2015[2], UN Women’s goal is to ensure a central role for women, including young women lies at the heart of the UN’s work on peace and security and is not just a thematic area which is optionally taken into account in policy and programming.

With humanitarian and peacekeeping demands increasing exponentially, Member States have called for the UN to increase focus on preventing the outbreak of conflict, building resilient societies in particular in conflict-affected contexts to prevent relapse, and on political solutions to conflicts and disputes. Women’s participation is a key asset for sustaining peace that must be properly understood, supported and utilized. The General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on the Peacebuilding Architecture further underscore the importance of women’s leadership and participation in conflict prevention. In this context, UN Women’s policy positioning and work at global, regional and national levels in the area of conflict prevention and ensuring sustainability of peace outcomes through a robust policy guidance, analytical and monitoring frameworks and programming tools.

Reporting to the Chief, Peace and Security Section, the Policy Specialist with both policy and programmatic expertise will define, expand and deepend UN Women’s approach to sustaining peace, integrating prevention and the peace-humanitarian and development nexus into a sustainable gender-responsive peace outcome. The Policy Specialist will be responsible for contributing to the development and implementation of the organization’s efforts in the areas of sustaining peace to promote gender equality and advancement of women in countries with various stages of the conflict cycle – before, during and after: transitional, fragile, conflict-affected situations and recurring crises.

[1] A/RES/70/262 and S/RES/2282 (2016)

[2] Review of UN Peacebuilding Architecture, Peace operations Review and Revie of Implementation of the UN Security Council resolution 1325

Duties and Responsibilities

Policy development and support:

Enhance the focus the UN’s policies on sustaining peace and conflict prevention on gender, ensure that these policies are built on good practices, informed by the gender analysis and reflect a gendered approach;
Develop and roll out a concept note on gender and sustaining peace and ensure UN Women’s positioning in global policy debates, in close collaboration with UN, civil society and MSs partners;
Develop a strategy to guide UN Women’s approach and comparative advantage in the field of conflict analysis and prevention, in partnership with other UN entities, civil society and Member States;
Provide policy inputs to the evolving concept and policy notes of the UN’s peace and security work related to the implementation of the A/RES/70/262 and S/RES/2282 (2016), focusing on sustainable engagement of women in conflict prevention, peacebuilding, recovery and crisis response;
Integrate gender-responsive conflict analysis, prevention, recovery and peacebuilding to a range of intergovernmental and interagency forums including the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC), Agenda 2030, respective UNDG working groups and task teams;
Maintain an on-going watching brief of policy developments in the fields of implementation of sustaining peace and WPS resolutions, including via monitoring of debates in the Security Council, PBC, regional organizations and other relevant forums.

Provide technical assistance to UN Women Country Offices, Multi-Country Offices, Multi-Country Offices and Regional Offices:

Provide substantive and technical support to UN Women Country Offices, Multi-Country Offices and Regional Offices on gender-responsive conflict analysis, prevention, and sustaining peace programming and policy;

Work closely with UN and external partners to support the integration of gender in conflict analysis, conflict prevention planning and programming;
Participate in, and provide assistance to, inter-agency joint assessments and technical support missions to fragile and conflict affected settings;
Provide technical support to resource mobilization efforts for global advisory work on sustaining peace, and design programming proposals to that effect, as well as for country-specific and region-specific efforts;
Substantively lead the global-level coordination, monitoring, and catalytic programming efforts to advance the engagement of women in sustaining peace.

Establish and maintain strategic partnerships:

Establish and maintain partnerships with relevant UN and Member States and civil society, actors, identifying and building upon the key comparative advantages of various actors and their committents to GEWE;
Strengthen UN Women’s internal network and partnership with inter alia Country, Regional and Multi-Country Offices, thematic sections, programme division and intergovernmental support division to capture and utilize internal capacity to engage in conflict prevention efforts, as well as sustaining the gains in peacebuilding;
Coordinate and lead UN Women’s inputs to system-wide strategic decision-making in this area;
Strengthen partnerships with other UN agencies and international policy making forums to support the inter-agency work and processes pertaining to gender and sustaining peace, including conflict analysis, conflict prevention, transitions, and peacebuilding, within the UN system.

Facilitate knowledge management and capacity building:

Facilitate knowledge capture and knowledge management of good practices and lessons learned through learning meetings, documentation of results;
Identify and map key capacities and capacity gaps for implementing conflict-sensitive and gender-responsive prevention;
Keep relevant staff and sections in UN Women aware and up to date on ongoing work and its implications for other initiatives, policies and programmes;
Establish and nurture relationship with academia, research institutes, civil society and experts in sustaining peace to expand and share knowledge, exchange views on latest findings, incorporate cutting-edge thinking into UN Women’s work;
Document results and good practices of the implementation of gender responsive conflict prevention, including preparation of briefs, managing production of knowledge products, participation in appropriate global knowledge events;
Contribute to capacity building for UN Women Country Offices, UN Country Teams and other partners in the field of conflict analysis and conflict prevention, and contribute substantively to the areas of prevention, recovery and peacebuilding in UN Women’s community of practice on women, peace and security.

Key Performance Indicators:

UN Women’s efforts on sustaining peace result in an increase in women’s levels of engagement and influence as well as strengthened efforts at prevention and recovery in relation to conflict. UN Women demonstrates global leadership and improves the gender responsiveness of the UN’s sustaining peace agenda. High quality technical assistance on gender and sustaining peace is made available via knowledge products and hands-on advice to UN Women COs/MCOs/ROs as well as to other UN entities, UNCTs and civil society partners. The incumbent contributes to the smooth and successful development and implementation of sustaining peace and WPS resolutions and the SG’s 7 Point Action Plan on Gender-Responsive Peacebuilding. In addition, policy support will contribute to the increasing positioning of gender-responsive conflict analysis and prevention on the political agenda and in the work of the peacebuilding architecture and peace and security apparatuses.

Effective strategy development and implementation which leads to an increase in women’s level of participation and influence, as well as strengthened effort at prevention and recovery in relation to conflict;
Timely monitoring of policy trends in order to affect policy development;
Quality support and guidance to COs, MCOs, and ROs to contextualize sustaining peace;
Quality knowledge products and tools which lead to increased capacity;
UN Women is seen a global leader in sustaining peace.

Competencies

Core Values:

Respect for Diversity;
Integrity;
Professionalism.

Core Competencies:

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
Accountability;
Creative Problem Solving;
Effective Communication;
Inclusive Collaboration;
Stakeholder Engagement;
Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

Strong knowledge of gender related issues including conflict analysis, preventionand sustaining peace;
Ability to undertake policy research and capture knowledge;
Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
Ability to handle a large volume of work under time constraints;
Ability to establish, build, and sustain effective partnerships, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective;
Ability to draft policy papers, speeches, briefings;
Excellent communication and public speaking skills;
Excellent analytical skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, such as political science, interational relations, gender, economics, human rights, law or other social science fields, of direct relevance to women peace and security.

Experience:

At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in women, peace and security policy research, analysis, and programme management;
Experience working on gender equality programming in Peace and Security contexts;
Substantial experience working in the field;
Experience in collaborating and coordinating with UN partners preferred.

Languages:

Fluency in English is required;
Working knowledge of another UN official language is an asset.

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.

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.