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 work on governance and national planning is about ensuring that countries set up governance frameworks that enable implementation of gender equality goals including women’s economic empowerment, health, education and the elimination of violence against women and for addressing inequality at large. In 2011, UN Women established a section on Governance and Leadership, with specific work dedicated to women’s leadership and political participation.

The advancement in this thematic area has been significant in the Americas and the Caribbean region. UN Women has contributed to advance the concept of Parity Democracy, with PARLATINO and engaging various counterparts and partners, like universities, UIM, ParlAmericas, CIM, IDEA and UNDP, among others. The Policy Specialist will continue efforts towards attaining parity democracy in the region.

Under the Strategic Plan and the Agenda 2030, Governance shall cover institutional, legal, political and electoral reforms towards a governance system with gender equality and parity. The five key priorities for the Americas and the Caribbean region for the next four years towards improving the quality of democracy and governance through a profound cultural transformation where equal representation and parity are at the core of our partners’ agendas include:

• A profound transformation of political parties in all dimensions: financial, electoral, organization, and normative.
• Effective parity: improve laws, sanctions, empower electoral tribunals, define new laws on financing, define political violence.
• Media compact on gender equality to close stereotypes.
• Public policies to ensure co-responsibility, including State, private sector, women and men, boys and girls.
• Strengthen capacities of State institutions to generate gender sensitive policies, plans, strategies and budgets.

Reporting to the Regional Director, the Policy Specialist on Governance, Leadership and Political Participation will oversee the development of programmes and resource mobilization strategies on the thematic areas of gender-responsive governance, national planning, women’s leadership and political participation, provide capacity building to Programme Presence Offices (PPO), Country Offices (CO) and Multi Country Office (MCO) in the region, establish and strengthen partnerships, and develop relevant knowledge products.

Oversee the development of programmes on gender-responsive governance, women’s leadership and political participation to support Programme Presence Office (PPO) / Country Office (CO) / Multi Country Office (MCO) teams:

• Oversee the development of regional programme documents on gender-responsive governance, women’s leadership and political participation;
• Provide technical inputs to programme proposals from PPOs, COs and MCO;
• Provide advice on contextualizing/ localizing programme documents, country strategies, and knowledge products;
• Coordinate monitoring and reporting on gender-responsive governance, national planning and budgeting, women leadership and political participation in collaboration with programme teams.

Provide capacity building support to Programme Presence Office/Country Office/ Multi Country Office teams and partners:

• Provide substantive technical and policy support to PPOs, COs and MCO programme teams in developing and strengthening projects/ programmes to support the implementation of global norms and standards;
• Develop, implement and monitor capacity building initiatives;
• Provide technical support to partners on implementation on implementation of gender-responsive governance, women’s leadership and political participation;
• Provide technical policy advice to programme/ project managers/ specialists in the region.

Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with stakeholders, regional/ international actors and development partners:

• Build and maintain alliances and strategic partnerships for the advancement of gender-responsive governance, women’s leadership and political participation;
• Produce periodic updates and briefs on regional/country development situation to be used by stakeholders, RO, COs and HQ;
• Maintain close contact with relevant staff in UN Women HQ.

Manage the resource mobilization strategy for gender-responsive governance, women’s leadership and political participation in the region:

• Participate in the implementation, monitoring and periodic updating of the resource mobilization strategy on gender-responsive governance, women’s leadership and political participation in the region;
• Provide technical support to field based presences in the region in mobilizing resources for the implementation of initiatives in the areas of gender-responsive governance, women’s leadership and political participation;
• Research and analyze information on donors; prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation.

Oversee the design of gender-responsive governance initiatives in the region and the development of relevant knowledge products:

• Provide policy recommendations and guidance to strategic planning and positioning of the leadership and participation of women in the set-up of governance frameworks that enable implementation of gender equality goals and SDGs;
• Work closely with and provide advice to regional/ national bodies and interagency groups that influence national policies related to gender equality and women’s empowerment and where necessary represent UN Women;
• Research, develop and present analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, correspondence, and knowledge products on gender-responsive governance, women’s leadership and political participation; 
• Identify promising practices, technical expertise, and strategic opportunities to promote women’s leaderhisp in policy and advocacy spaces and to strengthen capacities of states institutions to generate gender sensitive policies, plans, strategies and budgets.

Oversee knowledge building and sharing for gender-responsive governance and women’s leadership and political participation:

• Identify and disseminate lessons learnt and good practices in collaboration with country offices;
• Ensure technical skills and knowledge are shared within and among RO/PPOs/MCO/COs.

Key Performance Indicators: 

• Timely and quality technical advice and support;
• Leadership in area of expertise in the region;
• Quality reports and other strategic documents drafted and submitted in a timely manner;
• Strong relationships with various partners and stakeholders;
• UN Women is well represented in important meetings on topics related to expertise;
• Contributions to resource mobilization;
• Timely and quality knowledge products.

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 Values and Competencies Framework: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent knowledge of political issues, governance and political participation;
• Strong knowledge of the region;
• Strong knowledge of LAC political networks and institutions;
• Excellent networking skills;
• Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising;
• Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research;
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• Excellent analytical skills;
• Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings;
• Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results based management and reporting.

Education: 

• Master’s degree or equivalent in law, political science, public administration, gender equality, human rights, international relations or other social science fields is required.
• 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 progressively responsible experience in designing and managing programmes and advocating for gender equality and women’s rights, ideally with some experience in developing countries;
• Experience in political issues preferably with at least five years of field experience in gender-responsive governance and women’s leadership and political participation;
• Experience in programme, policy analysis, and strategic planning;
• Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field;
• Experience working with the UN is an asset;
• Experience working in the Americas and Caribbean region is an asset.

Languages: 

• Fluency in English and Spanish is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset;
• Knowledge of French and/or Portuguese 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 https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=558. 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.