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 leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. 

FYR Macedonia is a signatory to a number of important and binding international documents, which guarantee the equality of women and men and prohibit gender based discrimination. Despite the legal and policy framework, gender inequalities are present in all spheres of political and socio economic life and impact access to opportunities and resources. The National Strategy on Gender Equality and other sectoral strategies, such as the Strategy for Prevention and Protection from Domestic Violence, the National Strategy on Gender Responsive Budgeting, the National Strategy on Employment, NAP on UN Security Council Resolution 1325 set up country priorities on gender equality.

Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is providing technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental) in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, it facilitates networking and exchange of good practices and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life. According to its mandate, UN Women works in five thematic areas, such as leadership and participation, women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women, women peace and security and governance and national planning fully reflect accountability for gender equality commitments. UN Women is also the lead Agency in coordinating the UN Country Team on gender equality and is chairing the UN Group on gender equality.

Since 2010, UN Women has been implementing the regional project “Promoting Gender Responsive Polices in South-East Europe and the Republic of Moldova” covering Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYR Macedonia) and the Republic of Moldova. The project is financially supported by the Austrian Development Agency and the Swiss Agency for Cooperation and Development. Its overall goal is to support the advancement of implementation of national and international commitments to gender equality and women’s empowerment in line with national Sustainable Development Goals priority targets.

The project is structured around two outcomes:

• Governments in targeted countries promote gender responsive fiscal laws, policies and national action plans to enable specific budgetary allocations for gender equality. 
• Gender advocates and MPs demand accountability from national and local governments on policies and budgetary allocations for GEWE.

The programme’s country component implemented in the FYR Macedonia includes activities focused on enhancing the institutionalization of GRB at central level and an extensive component for introducing gender responsive budgeting at local level.

The UN Women Project Office in FYR Macedonia is seeking to hire a Project Officer to support the implementation of the activities within the regional project on Gender Responsive Policies at country level. The Project Officer will work under the direct supervision of the GRB Regional Project Manager (based in Skopje) in close coordination with the UN Women Head of Programme office.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

• Support with project implementation
• Monitoring and evaluation 
• Support with office coordination activities
• Other/administrative support 

Project Implementation

• Support the implementation of the project’s activities in accordance with the annual work plan and towards achieving the project  outcomes and outputs;
• Regular follow up with national experts/consultants and civil society groups/think tanks involved in the implementation of project  activities, including revision of their deliverables and results;
•  Maintaining regular communication and extend technical support to ten pilot municipalities piloting Gender Responsive budgeting  initiatives; 
•  Provide guidance and support to UN Women implementing partners/responsible parties, carrying specific activities within the  regional project;
•  Give inputs to quarterly progress reports and contribute to the drafting of Annual and final project report;
•  Support project related events, including trainings organized by project partners and support the organization of the final project  conference;

Monitoring and evaluation 

•  Contribute to the preparation and consolidation of quarterly progress and financial reports;
•  Monitor regularly project activities implementation by conducting field visits and maintaining close communication with project  consultants and institutional contractors;
•  Keep records and file all documents related to planning and implementation of the project in line with the office filing system;
•  Provide technical support and guidance in the field of Gender Mainstreaming and GRB to partners and institutions involved in the  project;
•  Provide inputs on GRB for UN Women quarterly and annual reporting and UNCT/UNDAF quarterly and annual reports. 

Support with office coordination activities

•  Ensure continuous collaboration and coordination with Country Project Officer and Regional Project Manager on implementation  of the country component of the regional GRB project;
•  Contribute to synthesizing and documenting project and activities findings and lessons learned;
•  Ensure continuous coordination, guidance and supervision with project experts/consultants;
•  Participate at the meetings of the UN Result group on gender equality and prepare minutes, including preparation of background  documents for the meetings; 
•  Support UN Women team in the organization of key advocacy/awareness raising events, in close cooperation with the  communications and knowledge management specialist;

Other/administrative support

•  Provide input to various tasks such as workshops, research, analyses and publications;
•  Support the office team in the organization of events, workshops, trainings. 
•  Support with filing system in the office and ensure documentation as per UN Women rules and guidelines;
•  Support with the organisation of the office library.

*Any other responsibilities as assigned.

**The implementation of the above-mentioned duties will expect also occasional travel within the country and abroad.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

Technical expertise:

• Knowledge and experience in project implementation;
• Knowledge in monitoring & evaluation tools;
• Extensive knowledge on gender mainstreaming and gender responsive budgeting;
• Experience in organizing meetings, workshops, conferences.

Knowledge Management and Learning

• Shares knowledge and experience;
• Seeks and applies knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside UN Women;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness

• Demonstrates excellent written and oral communication skills. Communicates sensitively, effectively and creatively across different constituencies;
• Demonstrates very good understanding of and experience in communications and outreach/advocacy;
• Ability to perform a variety of standard specialized and non-specialized tasks and work processes that are fully documented, researched, recorded and reported;
• Ability to review a variety of data, identify and adjust discrepancies, identify and resolve operational problems;
• Uses Information Technology effectively as a tool and resource.

Leadership and Self-Management

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure;
• Proven networking skills and ability to generate interest in UN Women’s mandate;
• Identifies opportunities and builds strong partnerships with clients and partners..

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• University degree in gender, development, public policy, social studies, economics, public finance, or an area relevant to the requirements of the TOR.. Master’s degree in those areas would be considered an asset.

Experience:

• A minimum of 4 years (2 years for candidates with Master degree) of experience  in coordinating projects in the fields of gender equality and/or  governance;
• Experience in working with national or international organizations (experience with the UN is an asset);
• Knowledge of national policies on gender equality (including gender responsive budgeting);
• Experience in gender equality trends and the status of women in the country is an asset.
• Experience in organizing conferences, events and performing office work and reporting is considered a major advantage.

Language Requirements:

Fluency in English and Macedonian is required.

Open to national citizens.  

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.

Interested candidates should submit their applications on-line, through the UNDP Web site www.undp.org.mk. The deadline for submission of application is 19 July 2018. For further requirements, detailed Terms of Reference and a copy of the UN Personal History form (P-11) are available on UNDP Web site www.undp.org.mk . Applications received after the closing deadline will not be considered. No telephone calls please.

Only short listed candidates will be contacted.