Organizational Context:

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.

UN Women - in partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and European Commission - is proposing the regional programme “Win-Win: Gender Equality Means Good Business” to contribute to the economic empowerment of women, recognizing them as beneficiaries and partners of growth and development, by increasing commitment of private companies to gender equality and women´s empowerment and strengthening companies’ capacities to implement these commitments. The action will ultimately contribute to the achievement of gender equality through enabling women’s labour force participation, entrepreneurship, economic empowerment and thus their full and equal participation in society.

The guiding platform will be the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs). The WEPs are a set of Principles for business offering guidance on how to empower women in the workplace, marketplace and community. Coordinated by UN Women and the UN Global Compact, the Principles emphasize the business case for corporate action to promote gender equality and women's empowerment and are informed by real-life business practices and inputs gathered from across the globe.

Targeting women led enterprises and networks, multi-national companies, and relevant stakeholders in Europe and selected Latin American and Caribbean countries, the project will promote business links, joint ventures and innovation between women from both regions, while supporting inter-regional dialogue and exchange of good practices to increase the capacity of the private sector more broadly in the implementation of gender equal business.

It thus aims to support businesses, employers, workers and trade unions to address gender inequality faced by women in the working environment. Where relevant, the programme will adopt the intersectionality perspective to address specific challenges faced by afro descendant and indigenous women. Special attention will be given to identify opportunities to increase the economic empowerment of migrant and refugee women.

The programme will be implemented in 6 Latin American and Caribbean countries: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Jamaica and Uruguay. It will also have a regional component under the responsibility of UN Women Brazil CO.

Under the overall supervision of the Regional Programme Coordinator WEE based in Sao Paulo and the daily supervision of the Policy Specialist on Women’s Economic Empowerment based in Panama, the National Private Sector Specialist – Costa Rica is responsible for the coordination and implementation of the regional programme at country level. S(he) will work in close coordination with partner agencies and EU delegations, which will guide and provide input for the performance of the programme at country level. The National Specialist will maintain the Programme Coordinator based in Sao Paulo and the UN Women supervisor in Panama informed on programme implementation to coordinate with them on synergies to be built with other relevant initiatives implemented by relevant stakeholders.

Functions:

1 - Lead at country level the “Win-Win: Gender Equality means Good Business” Regional Programme:  

• Support the analysis and research of the political, social and economic situation in the country to identify opportunities and partners to advance in regional programme strategic planning;
• Elaborate and implement country level work plan of the regional programme following the approved programme document and in close dialogue with the Brazilian Private Sector Specialist;
• Identify key partners and organize inception workshops to engage them in the programme and get inputs to finalize country level workplan;
• Prepare country level inputs for elaboration of documents to be consolidated by the Regional Programme Coordination and presented to management instances (Executive Steering Committee, Regional Technical Advisory Group, ILO programme Unit, National Technical Advisory Group),
• Prepare country periodic narrative progress reports;
• Record and maintain documents on relevant programme activities, issues, risks and risk mitigation plans;
• Participate in the design and formulation of programme initiatives, translating UN Women’s and EU Delegation regional programme`s priorities into local interventions and ensuring substantive rigor in the design and application of proven successful approaches;
• Facilitate the collaborative relationships with EU Delegation, Global Compact, IDB and ILO at country level, government partners, NGOs, experts, ensuring timely and efficient delivery of activities and organizes periodic consultations with key stakeholders and women leaders to gather inputs on programme design, as necessary;
• Finalize country strategy documents, proposals, briefs, policy dialogue and other documents related to the project.  Provides programme development advisory services related to women’s economic empowerment (WEE), serves as an expert resource to partners and identify programmatic areas for support and interventions;
• Outreach private sector companies and employers` organizations to promote WEPs signature and reporting and identify HeforShe champions at country level;
• Support the strengthening of national women’s machineries capacities to convene private sector and other partners at the national level;
• Contribute to guide the research agenda and the elaboration of training materials for the country avoiding all duplication of efforts and to catalogue, leverage and promote existing quality research;
• Manage the implementation of programme activities through monitoring and reporting according to Results Based Management requirements (RMB) and in accordance to the Programme and Operations Manual (POM);
• Identify key partners to co-finance and co-organize workshops and trainings based on methodologies and tools developed by the regional programme at country level;
• Organize National Technical Advisory Committee meetings, in coordination with ILO and EU Delegation at country level, aligned to the Regional Technical Advisory Committee;
• Elaborate terms of reference (ToRs) for hiring consultants and other services.

2 Outreach and build partnerships with country key stakeholders

• Provide inputs for the Regional Coordination to develop a win-win partnerships strategy involving private sector companies, finance institutions, multilateral organizations, businesswomen, entrepreneurs, relevant national authorities and sub-national governments and implement it;
• Engage in high level dialogue at country level with private sector companies, finance institutions, multilateral organizations and its networks to create and/or strength commitment regarding corporate practices on gender equality;
• Provide inputs for mapping activities and to connect and match business interests of European and LAC networks of women entrepreneur and business women to exchange experiences and strength each other business;
• Develop strategy, build partnerships and coordinate efforts to design and put in place the impact investment facility;
• Develop and implement partnership and resource mobilization strategy to build and sustain the impact investment facility, based on existing experiences and guaranteeing its innovative aspect;
• Provide inputs for the development of methodologies, tools and knowledge products to strength companies´ capacities to implement WEPs and create a non-discriminatory workplace;
• Provide inputs to the Regional Coordination to determine programmatic areas of cooperation, based on strategic goals of UN Women, EU Delegation and ILO country and region needs and priorities and develop the relevant partnerships;
• Build partnerships at country level and provide information on private companies engaged in the programme to identify possible areas of cooperation, especially potential contributions to the impact investment facility;
• Develop resource mobilization materials, such as concept notes and project profiles for to promote social impact facility and other initiatives proposed in the scope of the programme.

3.  Advocate support and facilitate knowledge building and management

• Lead advocacy and knowledge building at country level;
• Manage advocacy strategies and support relevant, high-impact advocacy activities and campaigns with key partners and their implementation;

• Collect knowledge on current and emerging trends by gathering relevant information on programme, projects, strategies, approaches and ongoing experience for lessons learned, best practices;
• Contribute to accomplish an updated databased of relevant women’s business networks after the initial mapping;
• Contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice, facilitating the knowledge exchange of companies to take up effective gender equitable business practices and guide development of incentives for companies to enjoy recognition of their advances;
• Represent the project in meetings and policy dialogues on issues related to WEE;
• Coordinate exchange of information and knowledge products internally and externally of the programme at country level;
• Provide inputs and build partnerships at local level to the communications associate in the organization of major advocacy campaigns, events, trainings, workshops and knowledge products;
• Contribute for the elaboration and implementation of knowledge management strategy;
• Contribute to organization of activities to promote exchange of experiences between national and regional corporate commercial associations, chambers and networks and advocate for implementation of WEPs;
• Build partnerships and provide technical support for the organization of EU/LAC bi-regional policy dialogues on gender sensitive private sector in close dialogue with EU Delegation, ILO and connecting to G7 proposal and other EU initiatives.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Timely and quality implementation of Programme at country level against set workplans, timelines and budgets, in line with the programme document
• Quality and timely reporting
• Excellent relations with partners and stakeholders
• Regular and timely monitoring of activities 
• Enhanced best practices and lessons learned documented and circulated
• Increase in resources mobilized to co-finance programme activities and to fund the impact investment facility
• Increase awareness of UN Women and European Union at country level

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competences:

• 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:

• Ability to support design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects;
• Knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches;
• Ability to maintain networks and partnerships with UN agencies and other international partners to promote partnership and build alliances to advance organizational interests and competencies;  
• Demonstrated good oral and written communication skills;
• Strong knowledge of UN and EU programme management systems;
• Strong knowledge in gender equality, women`s economic empowerment and private sector management, policies and environment.

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in public administration, law, economics, human rights, gender equality, management, social sciences or other related areas is required.

Experience:

• At least 9 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects;
• Experience working with gender equality and women’s human rights, preferably related to economic empowerment of women;
• Experience working in private sector companies` environment and corporate management practices and policies;
• Excellent communication skills;
• Experience working with Results Based Management principles and approaches;
• Supervisory or leadership experience is an advantage;
• Experience working with economic empowerment of women is an advantage;
• Previous experience working in the UN system is an advantage.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English and Spanish is required;
• Working knowledge of Portuguese and/or other official UN language is an asset.

Other Requirements:
• The interested parties must be nationals or have a valid work permit.

Note:
• Only qualified candidates will be contacted and selected for the short list.

Applications consists of one attachment that include of a completed and signed UN Women Personal History Form (P11) with an updated CV.  Applications without the completed P11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.  Please combine all your documents into on (1) single PDF document as the system only allows to upload maximum one document.  The electronic version of the P11 can be downloaded from the following website:  http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment

UN Women 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.

If you are experiencing difficulties with online job applications, please contact jobs.help@undp.org.