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.

In 2015, on 25 September, the United Nations General Assembly adopted unanimously the Resolution 70/1 Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Gender equality and women’s empowerment is at the heart of the agenda, as numerous goals and targets address structural barriers to achieve equal rights and opportunities between women and men, girls and boys.

One of the key areas of concern is the economic empowerment of women. It is expressed in targets and indicators of SDG 5 (Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls) and SDG 8 (Promote inclusive and sustainable development, decent work and employment for all). Progress toward it depends not only on the adoption of a set of public policies by governments, but also on the existence of an enabling environment and active engagement of the corporate sector. This is also relevant to the achievement of SDG 1 (Poverty Reduction), SDG 10 (Reduced inequalities) and SDG 17 (Revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development).

About 90 per cent of jobs in the world are in the private sector. This represents a huge potential to implement transformative actions in the world of work and social responsibility in favour of women, benefiting the whole society. There is an increasing consciousness, interest and commitment of private and public sector companies on the value and benefits of gender equality and the economic empowerment of women and its role to achieve it.

 UN Women - in partnership with the European Commission is proposing the regional programme “Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women at Work in Asia – WEE@Work Asia” 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 programme 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. 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 selected Asia countries, the project will promote business opportunities for women entrepreneurs and women-owned enterprises in Asia and their business relations with Europe, 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-sensitive business culture and practices. The programme will cover seven countries: India, Indonesia, China, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, and Viet Nam. It will also have a regional component under the responsibility of UN Women Region Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP). 

Reporting to the Deputy Regional Director, Regional Programme Manager, Regional Women’s Economic Empowerment and Private Sector Engagement Programme in Asia is responsible for supervising the Country Programme Managers, coordinating the implementation of the Regional Programme, which includes managing relationships with national, regional and European and Asia stakeholders, the monitoring and reporting, and the finances and personnel of the programme.

Duties and Responsibilities

Lead and coordinate the implementation of the Regional Programme, “Promoting Economic Empowerment of Women at Work in Asia – WEE@Work Asia”:

• Guide and manage the overall Regional Programme work plan development and implementation, according to the approved programme document; Guide and oversee the development of country planning; Prepare proposal for distribution of funds to be approved by the Regional Executive Steering Committee;
• Prepare and present country and regional work-plans, periodic narrative progress reports and expenditures status reports to the Regional Executive Steering Committee;
• Establish and implement systems for project planning, implementation and monitoring in collaboration with the EU Delegation in Bangkok; Ensure adequate recording and maintenance of documents on relevant programme activities, issues, risks and risk mitigation plans;
• Approve and reviews procurement processes, including required support documents, and the Procurement Plan.

Provide technical guidance and support to the Programme:

• Provide technical guidance advice and supervise Country Programme Managers on the implementation of the programme
• Identify capacity building needs and support partners through technical assistance, mentoring, training, cross partner learning and sharing, and capacity development initiatives; coordinate the development of training materials and workshops, as necessary.

Advocate and build partnerships with stakeholders:

• Lead the development of a shared-value partnerships strategy involving private sector companies, finance institutions, multilateral organizations, businesswomen, entrepreneurs, relevant national authorities and sub-national governments from Asia and EU, in close dialogue with Country Programme Manager and EU Delegations;
• Coordinate efforts from Country Programme Manager and engage in high-level dialogue with top managers and CEOs of private sector companies, finance institutions, multilateral organizations and their networks to create; special attention will be given to connect the regional programme to key global, regional and national initiatives;
• Develop strategy, build partnerships and coordinate efforts to connect and match business interests of women entrepreneurs, business leaders and larger local and internal companies, including identification of opportunities for gender lens investing and social impact investment opportunities in the region;
• Liaise with programme management structures (Executive Steering Committee, Regional Technical Advisory Group, National Technical Advisory Group), national and regional counterparts, Programme Management Unit in the EU Delegation in Bangkok, EU Delegations in implementing countries, private sector companies, UN Women Americas and Caribbean Regional Office and Headquarters, and the G7 programme coordinator to ensure the Programme results are achieved and resources are managed in an efficient and effective manner and synergies between programmes are created;
• Manage relationships with EU Delegations, the Global Compact, National Women`s Machineries and other key partners at the regional and national levels to support the implementation of the Regional Programme.

Facilitate knowledge building and management, peers-to-peer exchange and learning, and communication and visibility:

• Coordinate elaboration of training methodologies, materials and tools in close collaboration with key relevant country level stakeholders;
• Coordinate implementation of communication and visibility plan in close dialogue and collaboration with EU Delegations, guaranteeing that products and messages are in accordance with UN Women and EU guidelines, respecting and recognizing each other’s contributions and brands; Oversee and provide guidance to Regional Programme Communication Specialist regarding implementation of communications and visibility plan and interactions with WEPs signatory companies’ communication efforts;
• Establish knowledge exchange, multi-stakeholder dialogues as well as cross-regional exchange of knowledge and good practices in close collaboration with G7 and LAC, and EU initiatives, including the use of face-to-face and virtual platforms such as emerpowerment.org;
• Coordinate efforts and organize activities to promote exchange of experiences between national and regional corporate commercial associations, chambers and networks and advocate for implementation of WEPs in LAC;
• Build partnerships and organize EU/Asia regional policy dialogues on gender sensitive private sector in close dialogue with EU Delegation and connecting to G7, LAC region, and other EU initiatives.

Oversee the monitoring and reporting on the Regional Programme/Portfolios:

• Oversee monitoring and reporting on country and regional components from the planning to the evaluation stages;
• Monitor the implementation of activities and the expenditure of funds by each country included in the regional programme and partners; conduct regular monitoring visits;
• Finalize annual and quarterly reports;
• Provide inputs from the regional programme activities and results to UN Women and EU Delegation;
• Ensure the delivery of baseline, monitoring, evaluation plans and reports (flash, progress and final) based on information compiled from implementing countries, partners and other stakeholders.

Manage financial resources and supervise staff:

• Supervise and manage administrative, monitoring and evaluation, and communications staff, review performance and mentor/coach them as needed;
• Oversee the development and preparation of financial resources of the programme, including budgeting and budget revisions, and expenditure tracking and reporting;
• Oversee and monitor the allocation and disbursement of funds to implementing countries.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Timely and quality implementation of Programme activities against set workplans, timelines and budgets, in line with the Strategic Note;
• 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;
• Performance of Staff members;
• Increased awareness of UN Women, the European Union and the Women’s Empowerment Principles in programme countries and in the region.

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity;
• Integrity;
• Professionalism.

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;
• Excellent knowledge of Results-Based Management;
• Ability to lead the development of detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them for development results;
• Ability to synthesize programme performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making;
• Excellent analytical and communications skills;
• Strong knowledge of UN and EU programme management systems;
• Strong knowledge in gender equality, women’s economic empowerment and private sector engagement, policies and environment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in economics, business administration, international development, social science or related field, with minimum 7 years of relevant professional work experience in programme development and implementation, including monitoring and evaluation activities;
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree;
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in managing complex and multi-component programme interventions with national and regional partners;
• Experience in building private-sector partnerships to promote gender equality and/or social development;
• Experience in coordinating, implementing, monitoring and evaluating development programmes and projects;
• Experience on women’s economic empowerment, women-owned business, private sector engagement and/or corporate social investment in the Asia-Pacific region is required;
• Experience working in an international and multicultural environment, proven versatility and high organizational capability.
• Previous experience working in the UN system is an advantage.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Working knowledge in other Asian languages (covered by the regional programme) 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.