UN WOMEN Jobs - 89771- Community Development Specialist

Community Development Specialist

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Bishkek

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Starting Date :

24-Feb-2020

Application Deadline :

30-Jan-20 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

SC-7

Duration of Initial Contract :

6 months

Languages Required :

English Russian

Expected Duration of Assignment :

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence. UNDP does not tolerate sexual exploitation and abuse, any kind of harassment, including sexual harassment, and discrimination. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks.

Background

Background

As part of a 5-year global joint initiative launched by the Executive Heads of UN Women, FAO, IFAD, and WFP in October 2012, the joint project “Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment ” (JRWEE) focuses on rural women’s economic empowerment in the Kyrgyz Republic. The Programme will use a Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) modality to ensure transparency, accountability and efficiency.

Together, this partnership between UN Women, IFAD, FAO, and WFP is expected to generate synergies that capitalize on each agency’s mandate, comparative advantage and institutional strength to generate more lasting and wider scale results. JRWEE aims to promote rural women’s economic empowerment in the Kyrgyz Republic correspond with the Global Programme goal to secure rural women’s livelihoods and rights in the context of sustainable development and SDGs agenda. Programme is designed around the following three outcome areas: (i) rural women have Improved food and nutrition security; (ii) Rural women have increased income to secure their livelihoods; (iii) Rural women have enhanced leadership and participation in their communities and in rural institutions, and in shaping laws, policies and programmes; (iv) a more gender responsive policy environment is secured for the economic empowerment of rural women. The agencies aim to provide a harmonized, political, and institutional framework for complex programme interventions aiming at overcoming deep-rooted inequalities in rural areas.

The programme will be linked to on-going specialized large programmes on land rights, animal husbandry, seed & vegetable production, food security, pesticides management, irrigation, pasture management, agricultural value chains, GALS and etc. implemented by the four participating agencies. The partnership of four UN agencies, each having a specialized mandate is premised on a successful support model provided by UN Women, FAO, IFAD and WFP during their joint Delivering as One programme. This proved to be effective and mutually reinforcing.

Group solidarity and membership discipline in rural women’s self-help groups mobilized by UN Women ensured accurate use of seeds, fertilizers, and food, as well as consistent and systematic application of new knowledge on agricultural technologies and food security. Following this model, the programme will utilize the comparative advantages of four agencies: IFAD’s expertise to address hunger and poverty in rural areas through innovative methodologies; FAO’s policy assistance on agriculture and food security, value chain training and normative work; WFP’s food assistance innovations; and UN Women’s technical expertise on women’s economic empowerment and its mandate to promote accountability for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

In 2020, the JP RWEE partners intend to further consolidate the results focusing on the capacity development of the rural women's groups of the 3rd cohort[1] to continue their economic activities successfully beyond the programme life and contribute to the capacity building and sustainability of four Producers' Organisations. To provide for the sustainability of the SHGs of the 2nd and 3rd cohorts, they will be encouraged to join the four established POs. The partners will continue working on improving the policy environment with key national stakeholders to ensure national ownership and replication of rural women's economic empowerment approaches and mechanisms based on the best practices demonstrated by the project results and following the in-country evaluation recommendations, joint M&E activities and organizational analysis of the four POs.

With the aim to ensure effective implementation of the above mentioned programme, UN Women Kyrgyzstan office plans to contract a Community Development Specialist who will be responsible for ensuring effective and efficient delivery of programme activities at the community level. A specific focus shall also be given to feeding back findings of monitoring missions to all partners involved, development of recommendations to make use of potential synergies and complementarities between activities of different partners, as well as facilitation of lessons-learned documentation and coordination support to national implementing partners. The Community Development Specialist promotes a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations and commits to high standards of quality, productivity and timeliness in the delivery of tasks. The Community Development Specialist will meet and apply the highest standards of integrity and impartiality.

[1] Initially JP RWEE in Kyrgyzstan was implemented in 45 villages located in 32 rural municipalities in Naryn, Chuy, Jalal-Abad and Osh provinces (hereinafter this group of villages is referred to as the first cohort of villages). In 2014, 1,731 beneficiaries were mobilized and constituted the first cohort. In the end of 2016 JP RWEE expanded its reach and started working in additional 28 villages located in 14 rural municipalities in Batken, Jalal-Abad and Osh provinces (hereinafter this group of villages is referred to as the second cohort of villages). In 2016, additional 1,000 beneficiaries were mobilized into the second cohort. Additional 14 new villages were included in the programme and 700 beneficiaries were mobilized in early 2019 and they constitute the third cohort of beneficiaries.

Duties and Responsibilities

Ensure substantive support and implementation of JPRWEE programme focusing on achievement of programme results in the field;
Coordinate UN Women’s field activities on social mobilization of rural women, organized in Self-Help Groups (SHG)s, women’s producer cooperatives;
Coordinate national implementing partners towards effective and efficient cooperation on programme implementation; feed information from monitoring missions back to JPRWEE partners;
Undertake regular monitoring missions to programme sites (to villages located in Batken, Osh, Jalal-Abad, Naryn and Chui) to identify and flag any implementation issues, risks and provide recommendations for addressing these in a timely manner;
Identify and provide recommendations on synergies and complementarities between activities implemented by different implementing partners;
Liaise with government stakeholders and other partners at the local and national levels to ensure proper coordination and partnership in common development efforts, present information on programme activities, as well as ensure dissemination to broader public;
Liaise with implementing partners on routine implementation of the project activities, track use of resources;
Contribute to project documents, work plans, budgets, and proposals required for the purposes of annual planning, resource mobilization. Collaboration with partners is essential, etc;
In partnership with JPRWEE Programme Manager ensure timely and adequate implementation of activities under the relevant AWP, monitor the budget utilization/implementation in lieu with the AWP and project log-frame;
Contribute to knowledge building and sharing through synthesis of lessons learnt and best practices under the JPRWEE programme;
Contribute to preparation of quarterly and annual joint programme progress reports, and any other reports as requested by the participating agencies;
Participate in monthly technical meetings with the programme’s team and perform assigned tasks;
Assist in preparation for National Steering Committees (NSC) meetings and follow up on the NSC meetings decisions;
Perform and other duties as requested

Competencies

Corporate competencies

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN’s values and ethical standards;
Promotes the vision, mission and strategic goals of UN Women;
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional competencies

Knowledge Management and Learning

Shares knowledge and experience;
Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
Ability to analyze complex situations from a position of impartiality;
Ability to concisely and to the point document information and findings, targeting a specific audience.

Development and Operational Effectiveness

Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to Results Management, including support to design, planning and implementation of the projects, managing data and reporting;
Good knowledge of Results Management Guide and Toolkit.

Leadership and Self-Management

Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure, uses skills of diplomacy;
Ability to prioritize and manage competing priorities, grasping the situation quickly;
Ability to conduct advocacy on sensitive issues, not avoiding but processing conflict.

Required Skills and Experience

Professional skills and experience

Undergraduate or university degree in social sciences or relevant field;
At least 5-7 years of relevant work experience of implementing projects in the area of community development with a focus, income-generating activities, gender equality and women’s empowerment;
Demonstrated substantive knowledge of community mobilization theory and practice, women’s economic empowerment, and gender equality issues in Kyrgyzstan’s context, as well as key players both at the national and grassroots level;
Excellent interpersonal, communication and presentation skills in Russian and Kyrgyz;
Competent in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel and etc.);
Fluency in Kyrgyz and Russian languages is a requirement; functional level of English;
Proven working experience with local self-governing bodies (?????? ???????? ??????????????) is required, while experience of working with government national agencies (in particular, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Social Development) will be considered as a strong asset;
Previous work experience with UN agencies and other international development partners is highly desirable.