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.

Placing women's rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women and the Government of Kazakhstan intend to set-up as a virtual community of practice for the Central Asia to advance gender equality. It will operate as a virtual learning platform to convene knowledge on priority GEWE issues in the current context of COVID-19 recovery and building back better. It will provide a space for partners from national Women/Gender Equality mechanisms, Gender Focal Points from the sectoral ministries, parliamentarians, CSOs and experts to meet regularly and exchange views and ideas on how to effectively integrate gender mainstreaming in their work, promote gender equality in line with the international standards and norms. They seek to unleash creative thinking, reduce learning lags, share best practices, provide spaces for open conversations, identify collective learning and knowledge, build on the lessons learnt, enable shared understandings and consensus-building, tease out complex issues, unbundle the “how-to” and facilitate
a deeper understanding of other people’s perspectives and one’s own views and thinking process. The links between policy and programming by bringing experts and practitioners together in regular dialogues will be ensured.

Thus, the virtual learning platform is expected to support to exchange and network, enhance capacities, create a sense of community and solidarity, develop and share innovation, and increase effectiveness and efficiency in knowledge management on gender equality and empowerment of women in Central Asia, including in the context of COVID-19 for successful response and recovery.

It will also include a virtual repository that enables all partners to access knowledge products, materials and information in Russian and/or local languages. The repository will be regularly updated and a quarterly digest presenting new publication or resource materials will be produced and shared. 

Under the guidance of UN Women Representative in Kazakhstan the Coordinator will provide technical support to set-up and maintain the virtual community of practice through timely and high-quality interactions 2 with partners in the Central Asian Region, organization of events, creation and maintenance of the virtual repository in GEWE area.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide coordination, technical support, and guidance to partners for harmonized participation in knowledge building, sharing best practices and creation of synergies across five Central Asian countries in GEWE area; 

• Develop the workplan, based on priorities and specific thematic areas identified for knowledge sharing and link with the discussions schedule with the agreed best practices, speakers, etc.;
• Coordinate and provide technical and expert support to focal points representing participating countries;
• Identify and deploy experts, as necessary;
• Lead substantive and organizational support to regional events in close collaboration with focal points and partners in the region, including developing concept notes, agendas, overseeing logistical arrangements for meetings, and issuing regular communications and preparing follow up reports and action points;
• Develop and agree on priorities for the dialogues between state and non-state actors in a wide range – CSOs, private sector companies, media, academia, etc.;
• Regularly liaise with the focal points of the participating countries and other partners;
• Oversee design and provide maintenance and update regularly of the One-Stop multilingual platform (virtual repository);
• Organize mechanism to solicit regular inputs for the virtual repository from the focal points representing participating countries;
• Organize strategic communications and public to promote the Centre’s activities;
• Produce the quarterly digest and reports for a wider dissemination and providing the necessary updates to partners on available knowledge products and resources on GEWE. Develop an outline/structure and terms of reference for e-repository of GEWE knowledge products and resources in Russian, English and local languages; 
• Develop and agree with the partners on the dissemination plan for the e-repository materials, ensure a feedback on knowledge products, assess their usage, etc.;
• Ensure links with the existing global community of practices, online platforms on GEWE priorities and thematic areas; 
• Provide any other support as requested by the supervisor.

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 Exampple

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of Inter-agency processes related to gender equality and context of central Asian countries;
• Excellent drafting, editing and oral presentation skills and ability to write and advocate succinctly;
• Strong planning and organizing skills; 
• Good supervisory skills; 
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills; 
• Demonstrated judgement in decision-making; 
• Demonstrated negotiating, cultural sensitivity and diplomatic skills; 
• Technological awareness and ability to leverage information technology for optimal performance; 
• Demonstrated skills in capacity building to diverse teams and individuals; 
• Demonstrated skills in organizing large inter-agency/inter organization meetings, preparing reports, keeping records, follow-up etc.; 
•  Demonstrated skills in the use of Knowledge Management (KM) strategies and practices; 
• Strong skills in data research and statistical analysis, as well as demonstrated knowledge in qualitative and quantitative monitoring;
• Familiarity with financial tracking mechanisms, pooled funding and gender budgeting tools

Required Skills and Experience

REQUIRED SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE
Education:

• Master's degree (or equivalent) in one or more of the following disciplines: gender issues, socialsciences, economics, international relations, or other related fields. 
• Qualifications/Training in data analysis, data research, and/or evaluation are highly desirable.
• 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 5 years of experience focusing on gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, including at the international level;
• Demonstrated experience supporting regional initiatives, programmes and projects;
• Demonstrated experience supporting capacity-building related to gender mainstreaming required; 
• Demonstrated engagement with gender equality issues including research report writing, evaluative assessments and data compilation and analysis of relevance to broad accountability frameworks and its multiple dimensions; 
• Work experiences with the United Nations or/and other international organizations and the government; 
• Work experience at high-level positions with the international organizations and/or representing the Republic of Kazakhstan at the international level is an asset;
• Experience in creation of virtual repositories and its maintenance is an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English, Kazakh , Russian, and is required; 
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Evaluation
Applicants must meet the above minimum qualification requirements which will be included in the technical evaluation process in the future. The next stage of the assessment process will be maintained by cumulative analysis methodology of technical proposal (70%) and the financial proposal (30%) of the candidate. 

Technical evaluation criteria:

Only candidates, who will accumulate at least 490 (70%) points of the maximum 700 points during the
technical evaluation process, will be qualified for financial proposal*.

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-historyform.doc?la=en&vs=558 
Only candidates who have passed the preliminary selection will be informed. 

Kindly note, that the system will only allow one attachment, hence all supporting document e.g. P11, CV and financial proposal must be scanned as one attachment. Applications without the completed UNDP P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.