Background

UN Women is the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women created to accelerate progress on gender equality and the realization of women’s rights. UN Women is a dynamic and strong champion for women and girls, providing them with a powerful voice at the global, regional and local levels.

Within the overall context of UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2014-17, UN Women MCO in New Delhi under the Governance Programme is implementing a three-year project, entitled, ‘Gender-responsive governance leading to better outcomes for women based on improved access to their rights and entitlements’. It is aimed at strengthening capacities of governance institutions to better leverage opportunities created for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment through legislation, policies and programmes. 

To implement this programme, UN Women will work closely with central ministries such as the Ministry of Panchayati Raj (MoPR), in addition to select state governments.  One of the key strategies for this programme is to strengthen government institutions through technical partnerships on gender responsive governance

The technical support will be aimed at informing the gender responsive design and implementation of flagship policies and schemes of the Ministry, support the government’s commitment to normative frameworks such as CEDAW and Beijing Platform for Action, and support advocacy efforts on key legislations to promote women’s political participation and leadership.

Justification:

In connection with the above tasks, UN Women will place a Programme Officer (Gender) at the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. The Programme Officer will be placed in MOPR and will directly report to the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj in charge of capacity building and women empowerment. The Programme Officer will also meet with UN Women on a monthly basis or when required to discuss work undertaken.  

Duties and Responsibilities

The Programme Officer will provide inputs and support implementation of UN Women’s Work Plan on Gender Responsive Governance. Key Responsibilities include:

  • Coordinate and manage proposed research studies on promoting women’s political participation and leadership to be conducted by UN Women in partnership with MOPR;
  • Support capacity development efforts on gender mainstreaming within the Ministry;
  • Document best practices on gender responsive governance with a focus on promoting women’s political participation and leadership at the national level through field visits, and compilation of global best practices through desk research; 
  • Compile relevant sections for periodic/annual reporting of MoPR and UN Women;
  • Participate in key meetings, conferences, and trainings of MoPR and UN Women, and prepare proceedings report/meeting minutes.;
  • Undertake mission travel to select states as and when required for research, documentation and monitoring of UN Women-MoPR collaborative projects, including submission of mission travel reports;
  • Support UN Women with possible areas of collaboration and coordination with the Ministry on gender responsive governance;
  • Provide assistance and technical support on any other tasks assigned by MoPR and UN Women.

Impact of Results:

The key results will have an impact on the overall performance of the Programme Unit and success in implementation of the regional strategy and annual reporting.  Accurate analysis, data entry and presentation of information will ensure proper programme implementation

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 behaviour 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:

  • Demonstrated development/programming skills particularly those that are pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues and women’s rights;
  • Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects;
  • Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them for development results;
  • Good knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches;
  • Ability to establish and maintain broad strategic networks and partnerships with UN agencies and other international partners to promote partnership and build alliances to advance organizational interests and competencies;
  • Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
  • Demonstrated good oral and written communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Masters Degree in Social Sciences, Public Policy, Economics, Women’s studies or a related field.

Experience:

A minimum of 5 years of relevant programmatic and technical experience in the field of gender and development. Proven ability to dialogue with senior government functionaries and experience working with the Government& experience of working in the area of Panchayati Raj desirable.

Excellent analytical writing, presentation and documentation skills required. Computer skills. Analytical and excellent writing skills. Should be well versed with the use of computers and its programmes / applications. Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc) and advance knowledge of spread sheet and database packages.

Language:

Fluency in written and spoken English, Hindi and knowledge of language of the duty station.

Application Information:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

  • 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;
  • UN Women will only consider applications from consultants as per the relevant terms and conditions laid down by Government of India (for outsourcing through bilateral/multilateral organisations).  
  • UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.

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.