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's Peace and Security Section is responsible for providing technical support to UN Women Country Offices in a number of areas, including: conflict prevention and peacebuilding, justice sector and security reform, promoting women's political participation and mainstreaming gender issues into governance reforms. It has global components but is grounded in country-level activities.  The Section supports UN Women to fulfill its coordination mandate in the area of peace and security and UN system efforts to promote improved monitoring and reporting on the implementation of global commitments on women and peace and security, including as set out in Beijing Platform for Action and in Security Council resolutions 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009), 1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013) and 2242 (2015) and relevant Statements by the President of the Security Council.

The Elsie Initiative Fund for Uniformed Women in Peace Operations (the fund) aims to support and incentivize efforts to increase the meaningful participation of uniformed women in United Nations peace operations. The Fund primarily offers financial assistance and incentives for Troop and Police Contributing Countries to identify and overcome barriers to the deployment of trained and qualified uniformed women peacekeepers. The Fund can also support projects submitted by United Nations organizations which are designed to implement, and test innovations aimed at enhancing the meaningful participation of uniformed women deployed in United Nations peace operations. The fund is managed through a Secretariat, hosted in UN Women.

Reporting to the Chief of Peace and Security in close coordination with s, the Fund Manager will lead a small team in the Fund Secretariat and will be responsible for the operational functioning of the Fund. The Secretariat provides technical and administrative support to the Steering Committee and manages all aspects of the allocation and project cycles within the Fund, monitoring and evaluation, knowledge management and reporting.

Provide Policy and Technical Advice:

• Advise the Steering Committee on strategic priorities, programme-related and financial allocations;
• Compile and synthesize advice from the Technical Committee on programmatic priorities and project proposals;
• Advise Troop and Police Contributing Countries and Participating UN Organsations during the inception phase of projects and during the project life cycle;
• Provide coordination and validation support to the review of projects before final approval by the Steering Committee to ensure coherence, risk and quality management and to supervise the application of cross-cutting approaches of the Fund.

Provide partnerships and advocacy support:

• Ensure close and consistent liaison with the Fund’s donors and Steering Committee members, as well as broader stakeholders;
• Provide technical and coordination support to resource mobilization efforts for the fund, including providing inputs to proposals, and writing background documents.

Manage the Fund Programme Cycle:

• Organize calls for letters of interest and appraisal processes;
• Request the Administrative Agent to transfer funds based on advice provided by the Steering Committee and as authorized by the United Nations co-chair of the Steering Committee;
• Organize monitoring and control of operational risks, compile and synthesize monitoring results and outcomes for the Steering Committee’s consideration;
• Manage project revision requests (e.g. follow-up and support on budget revision, reprogramming, no-cost extensions, etc.);
• Consolidate the narrative annual and final reports submitted by implementing entities and present the consolidated report to the Steering Committee for approval; 
• Liaise with the Administrative Agent on fund administration issues, including issues related to project/fund extensions and project/fund closure;
• Manage development and implementation of the monitoring, reporting and evaluation processes.

Lead fund management and coordination support:

• Facilitate collaboration and communication between the Steering Committee and implementing partners to promote effective project implementation;
• Organize an annual stakeholders’ meeting;
• Engage with donors on questions related to the Fund;
• Develop and monitor the Fund’s annual workplan;
• Develop a Fund's communication strategy and/or facilitate sharing of public information with all stakeholders; 
• Advise the Steering Committee United Nations co-chair on the organization of Steering Committee meetings, draft and circulate the calendar and agenda of the Steering Committee meetings; and hold records of Steering Committee decisions through minutes of the meetings;
• Supervise other Secretariat staff and consultants, providing feedback and guidance and ensuring smooth delivery of the team’s efforts.

Lead Knowledge management initiatives:

• Analyze and manage of the Fund's knowledge including knowledge systematization, establishment of good practices and lessons learned and proposals of recommendations;
• Oversee the dissemination of knowledge and information;
• Participate in Communities of Practice related to Peace and Security.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Quality technical advice and support.
• Strong relationships with various partners and stakeholders;
• Timely and effective management of the programme cycle;
• Quality reports and other strategic documents drafted and submitted in a timely manner;
• Efficient management of a small team of complementary experts;
• Timely and quality knowledge products;
• Timely and effective performance of the fund’s monitoring, reporting and evaluation processes.

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:

• Demonstrated ability to work in a diverse environment;
• Proven ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• Ability to lead strategic planning, programme development and implementation, results-based management and reporting;
• Outstanding communication skills;
• Ability to develop and maintain strong partnerships;
• Demonstrated understanding of the issues surrounding gender in uniformed security services;
• Demonstrated experience of working in or with military and police services in a UN, regional or coalition environment;
• Team player;
• Ability to supervise teams.

Education:

• Advanced degree (Master’s level or higher) in Gender, Peace & Women Studies, Law, Political Science, International relations, Humanities or other related area. 

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible experience in the fields related to peace and security, inclusive of gender; programme management; international or regional cooperation and development assistance; and/or defense, military or police service is required;
• Experience working with on issues related to increasing women’s participation;
• Experience working directly or in partnership with police, military or defense services or components;
• Experience developing high quality policy, procedure and other written guidance documents;
• Experience in planning and organizing complex multi-stakeholder projects/processes;
• Experience mainstreaming gender into complex peace and security practices at policy and operational levels is desirable;
• Experience working in an international peace operation, in either military or civil capacity, is desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in spoken and written English is required;
• Fluency in French is desirable.

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.