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.

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 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 favor 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.

In this context, the project Women´s Economic Empowerment in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador aims to capitalize and expand the wealth of experiences, tools, methodologies, and lessons learned accumulated in the member states of the Central American Integration System (SICA) through the MYDEL multi-bilateral program of Italian Cooperation and UN Women, promoter of the Service Centers for Women Entrepreneurship (CSEM). The project seeks to emphasize the responsiveness developed through this MYDEL program, focused on women and based on the place, to the present challenges such as the increasing inequalities, the generalized unemployment and the pressure on the natural resources of Central America, especially the climate that impacts on the economy. The initiative will focus on improving the economic governance for gender equity and the empowerment of women based on partnership processes at the local, national and Central American level.

Under the overall supervision of the Regional Policy Specialist on Economic Empowerment, UN Women Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean, and in close coordination with the Regional Coordinator of the project Women´s Economic Empowerment in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, the  Knowledge Management, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist will be in charge of establishing proper mechanisms and common tools to ensure the implementation of the knowledge management strategy as well as to guarantee the systematic monitoring of advances in the indicators and results of the project.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

1.   Provide guidance to project coordinators in incorporating monitoring and reporting into programme formulation and management

2.   Build strategic partnerships and support in developing resource mobilization strategies

3.    Manage advocacy and communication efforts

4.    Advocate and facilitate knowledge building, knowledge sharing and management

1.   Provide guidance to project coordinators in incorporating monitoring and reporting into programme formulation and management

1. Elaborate and monitor the implementation of the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan;
2. Coordinate the design and implementation of the baseline study;
3. Provide common tools and support the project team in the preparation of country plans, ensuring their alignment with UNW annual work plan guidance;
4. Support country project coordinators in the design and formulation of initiatives translating project priorities into local interventions and ensuring substantive rigor in the design and application of proven successful approaches;
5. Help ensure quality of project design and implementation incorporating lessons learned, newly developed policies and best practices;
6. Support the project implementation establishing collaborative relationships with executing agencies, experts, government counterparts and other UN agencies facilitating timely and efficient delivery of inputs;
7. Establish appropriate monitoring mechanisms and systems to track progress on the project indicators at country level. Ensures effective application of RBM tools and monitoring achievement of results at country level;
8. Ensure systematization of information collected through Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation and its inclusion in the RMS system;
9. Generate synergies and links between different local experiences and the exchange of knowledge with other initiatives;
10. Contribute to regular donor reports, submitting inputs to the Project coordination and providing quality assurance of narrative reports;
11. Support financial monitoring of the project, identifying operational and financial problems and contributing to the development of solutions;
12. Support the designs and implementation of the project final evaluation;
13. Define regular communication mechanisms within the project team, regional office and COs involved.

2.   Build strategic partnerships and support in developing resource mobilization strategies

1. Support strategic partnerships and resource mobilization efforts by preparing relevant documentation, i.e. project summaries, conference papers, speeches, donor profiles, and participating in donor meetings and public information events;
2. Help create and coordinate partnerships with the UN Agencies, government institutions, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors, private sector, civil society etc;
3. Elaborate briefs on project achievements;
4. Propose, elaborate and disseminate knowledge products and materials to capture good practices and lessons learned from the project implementation.

3.    Manage advocacy and communication efforts

1. Provide preliminary inputs and information for elaboration of programme publications strategy and plan based on the UN Women and Italian Cooperation corporate publications policy;
2. Assist in the identification of storylines for publications and articles contributing to debates on key development issues;
3. Supervise translation/adaptation/rewriting of information received, printing and dissemination of publications and audio-visual materials;
4. Contact with printers and other suppliers for quality assurance of knowledge products elaborated in the scope of the project;
5. Elaborate and implement a strategy to disseminate publication elaborated in the scope of the project;
6. Support the production and publication of human-interest stories, partnership guidelines, coverage of the events and related content to feed the web page and social media.

 4.    Facilitate knowledge building, knowledge sharing and management

1. Coordinate and oversee elaboration and implementation of knowledge management strategy;
2. Helps create and document knowledge about current and emerging trends by analyzing programme, projects, strategies, approaches and ongoing experience for lessons learned, best practices, and shares with management for use in knowledge sharing and planning future strategies;
3. Support peers-to-peer exchanges with local, regional and global partners and businesswomen and entrepreneurs, through online platforms;
4. Support coordination of efforts and organization of communication and visibility activities to promote exchange of experiences between national and regional partners;
5. Provide strategic support for exchange of information and knowledge products of the project;
6. Contribute substantially to identification, synthesis and dissemination of best practices and lessons learned directly linked to project goals and activities;
7. Proactively contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice including UN Women and the Italian Cooperation corporate communications repositories;
8. Organize and assist implementation of training and workshops to share knowledge and experiences;
9. Facilitate organization of roundtable discussions, press conferences, and briefing sessions as needed;

Search and identify reference materials for retention and maintenance of information database;

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

Functional Competencies:

•  Demonstrated development/programming skills particularly those that are pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on women’s economic empowerment

•  Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects

•  Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them for development results

•  Good knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches

•  Ability to establish and maintain broad strategic 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

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree in economics, business administration, public administration, gender studies, project management, human rights, social sciences or related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience

• At least 7 years relevant experience at the national or international level working with development project including hands-on experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of development projects in the field of gender and human rights of women, preferably related to economic empowerment;
• Experience in the formulation and implementation of knowledge
• management tools and strategies;
• Experience in strategic partnership building and resource mobilization support;

Previous experience working in the UN system is an advantage.