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 UN Women provides to the intergovernmental process, the UN system, and to UN Women staff working at country and regional level. 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.

The Policy Division undertakes issues-based research; analyzes data on country, regional or global trends; builds a knowledge base on policy commitments and their implementation; proposes evidence-based options for global policy, norms and standards and for UN Women’s flagship programmes; and contributes substantive inputs to policy advocacy and technical cooperation programmes.

UN Women’s flagship programme on Stimulating equal opportunities for women entrepreneurs aims to support women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses by: (1) creating demand for their products and services from the public and private sector (e.g. through affirmative policies and practices); (2) developing their capacities, knowledge and skills and access to markets information; (3) supporting financial institutions to be more gender-responsive. The programme will engage UN Women’s broad spectrum of partners, including governments, UN system entities, civil society, large corporations, business associations, women entrepreneurs and women-owned and women-led micro-, small- and medium-size enterprises.

UN Women will leverage the following platforms to host and disseminate capacity development materials:

WeLearn, in its prototype phase, is the global learning community that will offer experiential, personalized and learning curricula to support women’s full participation in the economy.  WeLearn will focus on equipping women with the skills needed for the jobs of the future (entrepreneurship and employment), including 21st century skills. It will provide access to customized, skills-based learning paths, a supportive community of learners and change-makers, and connections to real-world learning and employment opportunities that will empower women and girls and build a more gender inclusive society.

The Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) offer a holistic framework to ensure the business practices create an enabling environment for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment (WEE).  The WEPs emphasize gender equality at workplace, marketplace and community, and women’s economic empowerment as a priority in global value chains.

EmpowerWomen.org is the global movement for women’s economic empowerment. It engages gender equality advocates and empowers women to achieve their full economic potential in more than 190 countries. Empower Women equips over a million women and men with resources, opportunities and a global platform to become change-makers and leaders in their communities.

Reporting to the Policy Adviser for WEE and WEPs, the Programme Specialist will be responsible for planning, implementing, and managing the global component of the flagship programme and for overseeing and quality assuring country-level implementation.  S/he will also be responsible for coordinating inputs to and for preparing the global donor report. S/he will work in close collaboration with both HQ and field colleagues in a team and collaborative spirit, as well as with government officials, private sector partners, academia, international organizations, business networks and civil society to ensure successful flagship programme impact and results.

Duties and Responsibilities

Lead the development and implementation of Learning and curriculum development content:

• Develop and implement a knowledge and learning strategy and action plan with clear goals, targets and indicators for the programme supporting women entrepreneurs, women’s micro, small and medium enterprises as well as corporations (on WEPs implementation).
• Develop online learning courses and learning paths on entrepreneurship for women and girls in close collaboration with UN Women HQ, regional and country offices.
• Work closely with UN Women’s IT team and external technology partners to ensure an effective, user-friendly and accessible data-driven learning management system and platform.
• Develop, test, pilot, implement, scale up and coordinate the blended delivery of training for women entrepreneurs, business owners and corporations.
• Work closely and collaboratively with relevant UN Women sections to effectively leverage innovation in support of development of virtual skills school platform.

Lead the provision of technical assistance, knowledge management and communication:

• Carry out needs assessments for programme activities at HQ and provide technical inputs to country-level needs assessments to ensure inclusive and comprehensive country strategies.
• Lead the development of knowledge management strategies and methodologies and products for the programme;
• Research and identify experiences, lessons learned and promising and good practices to guide programme improvement, strategic planning, advocacy and communication.
• Lead the development, and presentation of knowledge products (e.g. analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, online newsletter and other form of correspondence) on women’s entrepreneurship, women’s participation in supply chains, gender-responsive procurement and supply chain policies and practices, and investment and finance.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing on women’s entrepreneurship, procurement and finance by convening and participating in strategic events.
• Produce periodic updates, briefs and newsletters on programme implementation and results for stakeholders, partners and donors.

Provide technical support to stakeholder and partner engagement initiatives:

• Develop a roster of experts, partners and organizations working on stimulating equal opportunities for women entrepreneurs.
• Design and establish an online database to match buyers and suppliers.
• Develop advocacy strategies and implement them in close collaboration with programme teams.
• Build and strengthen partnerships with stakeholders, partners and donors to raise awareness of how to stimulate equal opportunities for women entrepreneurs.

Manage the financial and human resources:

• Finalize the annual workplan and budget and manage their implementation.
• Provide guidance to staff and partners on results based management tools and performance indicators.
• Manage the technical implementation of the programme; provide technical advice and ensure synergies within the global team and with other relevant teams.
• Manage and oversee the team, provide guidance, coaching and other support as necessary and manage the performance of staff members.
• Recruit and manage programme consultants and provide guidance to programme staff in the field, particularly South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
• Manage the programme’s financial resources, including monitoring the programme budget, and review of financial reports.
• Review the submission of implementing partner financial and narrative reports as required.
• Lead project steering committee, project review and evaluation meetings.

Monitoring, evaluation and donor reporting:

• Set up a monitoring system to track progress on programme results and indicators.
• Oversee the monitoring and reporting of the programme and obtain inputs from programme teams in the field.
• Review and write quarterly updates and donor reports;
• Manage the preparation of reports to donors and UN Women management.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Timely and quality programme strategies and contributions to Strategic Note;
• Timely and quality of programme delivery in line with budget, workplans and the Strategic Note;
• Strong and clear leadership/ supervision of team;
• Partners and other stakeholder provide positive feedback on advisory and technical services;
• Quality reports and timely submission;
• Quality of advocacy, communication and knowledge management initiatives;
• Resources mobilized;
• Strong relationships with donors, partners and other stakeholders.

Competencies

Core values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

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:

• Excellent programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills;
• Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them;
• Strong knowledge of Results Based Management;
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making;
• Excellent knowledge of entrepreneurship, supply chain, finance and capacity building for women’s economic empowerment;
• Ability to lead formulation of strategies and their implementation;
• Strong networking skills.
• Ability to negotiate and interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, business administration, education or a related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in design and implementation of education, training or learning projects.
• Extensive background on pedagogical approaches to develop learning materials for entrepreneurs.
• Technical experience in women’s entrepreneurship development and learning.
• Experience coordinating and liaising with government agencies, private sector companies and/or business organizations is an asset.
• Experience working in the UN System is an asset.
• Experience in leading/managing a team is an asset. 

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working 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.