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.

Women’s empowerment is a key objective in Egypt’s vision and roadmap for 2030. The “Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS): Egypt 2030” aims to maximize the use of Egypt’s potential and competitive advantage, achieve social justice, and afford a decent life to all its citizens. In early 2017, the year the President of Egypt declared the Year of Women, the Government launched the 2030 National Women’s Empowerment Strategy. This roadmap complements the SDS by focusing on (a) women’s political leadership and empowerment, (b) women’s economic empowerment, (c) women’s social development, and (d) women’s protection. In line with Egypt’s international commitments on gender equality and women’s empowerment, and the existing strategic frameworks, UN Women supports Egypt to empower women and reduce the inequality between men and women. The country office’s engagement is built on a strong partnership with the government—particularly the National Council for Women and the Ministry for Social Solidarity—and a collaborative relationship with the wider public, including civil society organizations, thus placing the women’s empowerment agenda firmly at the center of national priority to attain inclusive growth and social justice. The three programmatic pillars are (1) promoting leadership and political participation, (2) promoting women’s economic empowerment, and (3) ending violence against women, with access to education for women and girls, and engaging men and youth for women’s empowerment as cross-cutting themes. With the aim to mainstream gender issues across development cooperation, UN Women leads the UN Country Team in Egypt on gender equality and women’s empowerment by chairing the UN Gender Theme Group, composed by 16 UN agencies, funds and programmes. UN Women is also the Co-Chair (together with the United Kingdom) of the Donor Subgroup on ‘Gender and Development’. Both groups meet regularly to share information, lessons learned and best practices on issues related to gender equality and women’s empowerment as well as to strengthen coordination mechanisms between its members and their partners on the ground. Joint initiatives to support gender equality and women’s empowerment are expanding, most notably on combatting violence against women and girls, female genital mutilation and women’s socio-economic empowerment.

Under the general direction and guidance of the Regional Director, Arab States, the UN Women Representative is responsible for leading and managing the Egypt Country Office portfolio and for translating the UN Women's Strategic Plan (SP) in line with regional and national priorities, into development initiatives and results by developing, implementing and managing programs and projects for the Egypt Country Office (CO); and developing effective partnerships with Government counterparts, UN system agencies and organizations, civil society organizations, and with bilateral and non-traditional donors in order to promote inter-agency partnerships, support for UN reform, and mobilization of visibility and resources to advance gender equality and women's empowerment.

Duties and Responsibilities

. Provide strategic country programme planning and development:

• Identify development planning and programme needs, opportunities and approaches to strengthen UN Women country presence and relevance;
• Lead the design, planning, formulation, preparation and development of the Country Strategic Note;
• Participate in the regional programme strategy and provide advice to the Executive Director, Regional Director and Senior Management on the strategy, direction and planning of programmes and projects;
• Manage and ensure the quality of results-based and rights-based programming through the formulation of programme goals and objectives, the development of strategies and implementation of frameworks in line with corporate guidelines and consistent with corporate policies and strategies;
• Monitor the use of results-based management approach to programme planning and design.

2. Lead the management of the Egypt CO:

• Lead the office in the delivery of operational goals;
• Lead the preparation, submission of the Annual Workplan and budget and oversee the implementation, including providing direction, guidance and technical support;
• Oversee and approve programme work plans and monitor the overall progress and compliance of the CO;
• Approve the optimum and appropriate allocation and use of resources;
• Lead and manage the preparation of UN Women mandated country reports;
• Manage the CO’s collaboration with audit review and timely response to audit reports;
• Supervise the development and implementation on CO communication plans, based on UN Women’s communication strategy;
• Provide managerial direction, guidance and leadership to staff and provide performance feedback and coaching to staff under supervision;
• Maintain and update CO security strategy, plan, and measures to ensure full compliance with UN security policies, procedures and requirements.

3. Represent UN Women in UN system coordination:

• Serve as member of the UN Country Team (UNCT) and support the UNCT programming and advocacy to ensure gender equality and women’s empowerment issues are fully integrated into UN programming processes, including the Comprehensive Country Assessment (CCA)and UNDAF;
• Provide leadership and guidance to the UNCT in supporting enhanced response to national partners in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment and UN reform;
• Support the coordination and promotion of accountability with the UN Resident Coordinator System to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and UN reform;
• Advise the UNCT on the implementation of key policy commitments to gender and women’s rights;
• Partner with RC and UN system partners to strengthen UN system interagency coherence, collaboration, cooperation resource mobilization, advocacy, common services, and operations;
• Actively seek out participation of UN Women in UN system thematic and other working groups to establish effective networks and keep abreast of ongoing debates and thinking on development;
• Facilitate joint programming and promote UN competencies to advance gender equality and women’s human rights.

4. Represent UN Women and lead advocacy strategies:

• Represent UN Women in intergovernmental forums, public information/relations events and key meetings, participate in policy dialogue; discuss policy initiatives, report on progress achieved and/or present policy papers/ideas;
• Meet with high level and senior government officials as well as multi-lateral, bi-lateral agencies and NGOs;
• Participate in regional, country and other critical meetings and events to evaluate the impact and efficiency of UN Women policies and programmes and provide input in strategic discussions;
• Lead and support advocacy for gender equality and women’s empowerment to ensure that UN support towards realization of the national plans and priorities are done in a gender responsive manner, and within agreed international frameworks that promote and protect gender equality.

5. Create and maintain strategic partnerships and lead resource mobilization strategies:

• Lead the conceptualization, design and implementation of CO’s resource mobilization strategies;
• Establish and maintain relations with government, partners, stakeholders and donors to achieve active collaboration, cooperation and alliances on programme development and implementation and resource mobilization;
• Maximize partnership opportunities to mobilize resources;
• Review donor reports for quality assurance and compliance;
• Establish a reporting accountability framework to ensure that donors are duly informed on a timely basis;
• Negotiate and/or approve cost-sharing agreements with donors.

6. Knowledge management, innovation and capacity building:

• Promote critical thinking and innovative approaches and good practices in CO’s programming and operations to maximize efficiency and achieve concrete and sustainable results;
• Approve the implementation of innovation and best practices in the CO to ensure optimum efficiency and efficacy in programming and operations;
• Promote learning and development by providing opportunities for training and capacity guiding to enhance the competencies/productivity of staff members;
• Lead the production of knowledge product

Key Performance Indicators:

• Timely and quality development and implementation of the Country Strategic Note and Annual Workplan
• Timely and quality delivery on operational goals
• Timely submission of UN Women Country Reports, donor reports, and audit responses 
• Quality and level of engagement with UNCT, including joint planning joint programming, joint resource mobilization, joint advocacy, working groups
• UN Women is seen as a reliable and trustworthy partner by governments, donors and civil society
• Timely development and implementation of CO resource mobilization strategy
• Performance of staff, security plans are in place and up to date, office produces quality knowledge products

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
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice and interact with high level decision makers
• Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women's empowerment in country
• Strong knowledge of UN system
• Ability to envision and lead the strategic direction for UN Women in the country
• Excellent networking skills
• Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising and develop strategies

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master's degree or equivalent in development related disciplines, economics or public policy or other social science fields.

Experience: 

• A minimum of 10 years of extensive development experience that combines strategic and managerial leadership in aid development cooperation, some of which in gender and women’s issues programming, at the international level, preferably in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds or Programs or UN Mission;
• Field based experience working with multi-cultural teams;
• Experience in leading a team.

Languages:

• Written and oral proficiency in English is required;
• Working knowledge of Arabic will be an asset;
• Working knowledge of another UN official language will be 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. 

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.