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 and the third gender as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

All human development and human rights issues involve gender dimensions. UN Women globally focuses on key priority areas that are fundamental to women’s equality, and that can unlock progress across the board. The six priority areas include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, engaging in all aspects of women peace and security processes, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting through Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

UN Women’s work on GRB involves ensuring that national planning, budgeting, monitoring and evaluation processes incorporate a gender perspective. UN Women’s GRB programmes at the regional and country level have made significant contribution towards this by building political support, developing technical resources and capacities, generating good practices for improving women's access to services and increasing accountability for Gender Equality and Women’s empowerment (GEWE).  At the forefront of global, regional and local advocacy for application of GRB, UN Women has built partnerships with diverse government, inter-governmental and non-governmental partners, to further efforts  and demonstrate GRB’s relevance to sustainable development, aid effectiveness, public sector reform and financing for development.

In 2004-05, the report of the expert group of classification of government expenditure became instrumental in laying out the road map for GRB in India. This was followed by the adoption of “Budgeting for Gender Equity” as a mission statement by the Ministry of Women and Child Development (MWCD), Government of India (GoI). In 2005-06, the Ministry of Finance, GoI introduced Gender Budget Statement (GBS) which aimed to reflect the quantum of budgetary allocations for programmes/schemes that substantially benefit women. Another important mechanism institutionalised by the Ministry of Finance was setting up of Gender Budget Cells (GBCs) which serve as focal points for mainstreaming gender through GRB. GBCs have been set up in 57 ministries/departments of the Union Government thus far. The rigour has been replicated in at least 19 states, some of which have produced GBS and set up GBCs.

UN Women’s Multi Country Office (MCO), based in New Delhi, India, covers four countries of the region, i.e., India, Bhutan, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. UN Women India MCO is currently implementing a project with the objective of identifying strategies and operational approaches to strengthen on-going efforts in the area of GRB. Insights generated from this project will enable key stakeholders at the national and regional level to accelerate their efforts to ensure that women’s priorities are adequately reflected in national budgeting processes, and to make concrete changes for adequate resource allocation towards women’s priorities. The project will be implemented in two countries – India and Sri Lanka. Also, given the extent of fiscal federalism in both the countries, the project will focus on sub national levels. More specifically, in India, GRB efforts will focus on two states – Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Jharkhand.

The Government of Jharkhand is one of the most recent state governments that has produced a Gender Budget Statement. It reflects the commitment of the government in ensuring that the budgetary investments benefit men and women, boys and girls.

With the objective of supporting and strengthening the government’s efforts on GRB, UN Women, UNICEF and the Government of Jharkhand will be working together. UN Women is seeking services of an individual who will support the implementation of this partnership in Jharkhand.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the guidance and direct supervision of GRB Specialist, the Programme Assistant will support in strengthening the efforts of the Government of Jharkhand on GRB.

The Programme Assistant will work with teams of UN Women and UNICEF to ensure that the project produces the results in the State to the required standards of quality and within the given time and cost specifications. 

Therefore, the Programme Assistant will support the Department of Planning cum Finance on achieving the  following results:

  • Support the Government of Jharkhand in the designing of GRB strategies;
  • Support the government in implementation, tracking the outcomes of GRB;
  • Support in capacity building of officials at the start and local level;
  • Technical support for institutionalisation of gender budgeting at Shri Krishna Institute of Public Administration (SKIPA);
  • Support the project team in evidence generation and advocacy on GRB;
  • Administrative support to the Project.

With a view to achieving the above, the Programme Assistant will provide inputs and support implementation of the project in the state of Madhya Pradesh.

Key Responsibilities will include:

Project design

  • Support in identifying the core elements of GRB work in the state;
  • Support in identifying strategies for project design and planning;

Implementation

  • Support implementation of project activities and develop a mechanism to monitor implementation of planned activities and budgets;
  • Establish effective coordination within the Department of Planning cum Finance, Department of Women and Child Development and other line departments to identify the scope for applying GRB across sectors;
  • Identify opportunities for collaboration, and joint action with select departments and other partners to enhance their capacities on GRB;
  • Compile relevant sections for periodic/annual reporting of the project;
  • Participate in key meetings, conferences, and trainings under the project and prepare proceedings report/meeting minutes;
  • Document and maintain project related reports/files and extend support in preparation of quarterly/biannual/annual narrative reports;
  • Coordinate with other implementing partners/vendors and support preparation of financial reports to UN Women (Funding Authorization and Certificate of Expenditures (FACE) forms), payment to vendors using ATLAS etc.);

Capacity Development

  • Collate existing training resources on GRB and identify areas/gaps to design, plan, implement and evaluate schemes/programmes from a GRB lens;
  • Support trainings on Gender Responsive Budgeting;
  • Prepare reports to capture key issues, achievements and challenges of capacity development initiatives under the project

Technical Support

  • Provide technical support and inputs on key processes and result areas on Gender Responsive Budgeting to relevant stakeholders;
  • Build/strengthen partnerships on GRB with state departments through documenting, analyzing and building evidence for application of GRB for gender aware and women centered policy uptake and implementation;
  • Provide coordination and support (IEC/advocacy) on GRB trainings/workshops with select State Departments;

Research, documentation and knowledge management

  • Coordinate and manage evidence generation and dissemination on GRB;
  • Develop partnerships with state level resource institutions, agencies, experts and practitioners on GRB;
  • Support process documentation of the project in the state;
  • Provide inputs on different knowledge products generated during the course of the project;

Apart from the above, the Programme Assistant will also be required to execute other duties and assignments entrusted by UN Women as relevant to the implementation of the project in the state.

Competencies

Corporate Competencies:

  • Demonstrates integrity by modelling the UN’s 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 favouritism;

Functional Competencies:

         Technical Knowledge:

  • Thorough familiarity with the development context and challenges regarding inclusive growth, human development and disadvantaged groups in the State, with particular reference to Gender Responsive Budgeting, development and social inclusion;
  • Adequate knowledge of the policy context of GRB within the state;
  • Knowledge of programmes and schemes relevant to budget plans, implementation and audits in the State;

        Knowledge Management and Learning:

  • Promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture in the office;
  • Demonstrates ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
  • Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in the area of professional discipline and job knowledge, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
  • Demonstrates competent analytical and presentation skills;

       Development and Operational Effectiveness:

  • Ability to facilitate strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
  • Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects, mobilize resources;
  • Excellent working knowledge of MS Office-Word, Excel, Access, Power Point, Intra-Internet, e-mail applications etc. Knowledge of other applications such as Front Page, Publisher and some multimedia tools would be useful;

       Management and Leadership:

  • Focuses on expected impact and results and responds positively to feedback;
  • Promotes teamwork and shows conflict resolution skills;
  • Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Demonstrates strong oral and written communication skills;
  • Builds strong relationships with stakeholders and external actors;
  • High interpersonal skills and ability to remain calm, in control and good humoured under pressure;
  • Ability to prioritize assignments and requirements, and multitask as needed;
  • Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
  • Demonstrates skills to liaise with varied government stakeholders and report to senior government officials;

       Communication Skills

  • Excellent oral and writing and communication skills in English and Hindi;
  • Sound analytical and presentation skills;
  • Good interpersonal and presentation skills, with an ability to work in a multi-cultural environment. 

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master’s Degree in Social Sciences/ Social Work /Gender Studies/Public Administration/Policy or related fields.

Experience:

At least five years of experience at the national/state level working with development projects including hands-on experience of design, implementation and monitoring of projects preferably in the area of Gender Equality and Women’s Rights. Experience of working with with national/ state governments and particularly on GRB is highly desirable.

Language Requirements:

Proficiency in English; good command over Hindi. 

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 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.