UN WOMEN Jobs - 99201- Project Assistant for Gender Rural Equality and To

Project Assistant for Gender Rural Equality and Tourism (GREAT) Project and EU for Gender Equality UN Joint Programme

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Tirana, ALBANIA

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Starting Date :

Application Deadline :

02-Jun-21 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

SB-3

Duration of Initial Contract :

Languages Required :

English

Expected Duration of Assignment :

1 (one) year with possibility of extension

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

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, the UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world.

Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is providing technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental) in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, it facilitates networking and exchange of good practices and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life. According to its mandate, UN Women works in five thematic areas, such as leadership and participation, women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women, women peace and security and governance and national planning fully reflect accountability for gender equality commitments. UN Women is also the lead Agency in coordinating the UN Country Team on gender equality and is chairing the UN Group on gender equality.

UN Women is looking for a Project Assistant who will take responsibility to support two projects at equal time of engagement (50% time for each project), namely:

a) Gender Rural Equality and Tourism (GREAT) project, which is a three-year initiative in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and with the support of the Government of Italy. UN Women is the implementing agency for this project with FAO as the main responsible party that will implement specific components.

The GREAT project will contribute to rural women’s empowerment in Albania and will strengthen women’s roles and contribution to rural development. The project will be implemented primarily in the Regions of Shkoder, Vlore and Gjirokaster, contributing to sustainable economic development of rural women and their communities by increasing their income and ability to obtain work.

The project will aim to develop the capacities of rural women to develop their own business, to self-organize and register as local groups and to improve their access to finance. Simultaneously, GREAT will support targeted municipalities to prioritize and promote rural women’s businesses, rural tourism and value chain development. The project will promote a policy and legislative environment to strengthen women’s economic empowerment and their access to and control over productive assets.

b) EU for Gender Equality UN Joint Programme. “EU for Gender Equality in Albania: Support to the UN SDG Acceleration Fund in Albania - Implementation of the EU Gender Equality acquis” is a UN Joint Programme developed jointly by UN Women and UNFPA and funded by the EU Delegation in Albania. This 2-year intervention reflects the EU commitment on gender equality as a principle underpinning its external relations within the framework of Albania’s accession to the EU and with a focus on the negotiation process. With the overall aim of enhancing transposition of the EU Gender Equality acquis and achieving gender equality outcomes in line with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (particularly SDG 5), it will focus on strengthening gender and socially-responsive governance outcomes at central and local levels, in line with international human rights norms and standards such as CEDAW, the Istanbul Convention, and the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review. The action emanates from the implementation of the UN Women Gender Equality Facility Phase I (2016-18), and intends to complement ongoing programmes on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, including the EUD-funded Gender TA project.[1]

Specific emphasis is placed on supporting the Government of Albania in responding to the significant and gender-specific socio-economic challenges which result from the measures to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. In doing so, the action adheres to the principles of international guidance on gender-responsive recovery, and the EC’s 10 key actions for G7 Member States to promote gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in COVID-19-induced crisis response and recovery. It is in line with the EU’s “Declaration on human rights in times of the coronavirus pandemic”, clearly highlighting women’s and girls’ rights, and the joint recommendations of women’s rights organisations operating in the Western Balkans.

The UNJP has two generic objectives. At central level, it will provide expert support for the integration of gender perspectives into sector dialogue, policy revisions, recovery programmes, and ongoing reforms. At local government unit/service provision level, it will strengthen capacities to translate national gender equality goals to the local level by specifically supporting measures that increase resilience. Among a range of concerning effects, the COVID-19-induced crisis has amplified women’s precarious status on the labour market, women’s and girls’ exposure to violence, and made visible the challenges to reaching out and providing essential services to populations in rural areas.[2] Therefore, complementing ongoing UN-supported programmes on preventing violence against women and girls, the proposed action will specifically focus on women’s economic resilience, and the empowerment and social inclusion of adolescent girls in underserved, rural areas, also involving adolescent boys as partners in supporting gender equality. The intervention will be implemented under the UN Albania SDG Acceleration Fund jointly by UN Women and UNFPA.

The Project Assistant for GREAT and EU4GE projects will ensure quality of business processes as well as to support the projects’ planning, financial monitoring and knowledge building and sharing.

[1] “Technical Assistance to Gender Equality Agenda in Albania in the process of accession to EU” EuropeAid/138778/DH/SER/Multi SIEA 2018.

[2] UN Women. Rapid Gender Assessment of the situation and needs of women in the context of COVID-19 in Albania.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the direct supervision of the Project Manager for Gender Rural Equality and Tourism (GREAT) project and the Project Manager for EU for GE UN Joint Programme, the Project Assistant is responsible for the following duties and responsibilities:

Support to implementation of projects’ activities, ensuring quality of business processes;
Support to financial monitoring and management of GREAT and EU4GE projects ;
Support to GREAT and EU for GE projects planning;
Support to knowledge building and knowledge sharing.
Support in mainstreaming gender equality.

Support to implementation of projects activities, ensuring quality of business processes in full compliance with the UN Women rules and regulations, relevant policies and procedures in place:

Provide administrative support in the preparation of project work plans, budgets, and proposals on programme implementation arrangements, including tracking the delivery of funds;
Provide administrative support to the executing agencies / responsible parties on routine delivery and reporting of projects supported activities and finances;
Coordinates procurement procedures for the projects activities according to SOPs ;
Assists in the organization of project Steering Committee meetings and follow-up actions, field visits, missions, workshops, training, roundtables and conferences within the GREAT and EU for GE projects;
Draft minutes of meetings as delegated; assemble briefing materials and prepare power-point and other presentations, in collaboration with the project teams;
Updates all administrative and financial files and records related to the projects in the electronic systems;
Provide administrative support for the audit of projects and support implementation of audit recommendations;
Assists in the recruitment processes for projects consultants, including drafting of interview minutes and preparing the supporting documents attached to requests for contracts ;
Maintains the inventory of projects assets/equipment and correspondence and files;
Prepares vehicle and security request for projects personnel.
Performs any other duty as requested by the supervisor.
Any other tasks and responsibilities as assigned.

Support to financial monitoring and management:

Prepares and follows-up on documentations related to projects related financial transactions in Global Atlas System, such as supporting documents for vouchers, requisitions, purchase orders, customer/vendor info updates, project budget revisions etc;
Creates requisitions in Atlas for projects related activities;
Prepares all documents for the payment of consultants and other vendors for projects related activities.
Supports periodic and ad-hoc financial reporting to UN Women and other parties, as needed;
Supports the projects management in monitoring expenditures and commitments against projects budget and relevant annual plans;
Supports the project managers for the preparation of budget revisions and related documentation for approval;
Provides finance-related data to support projects implementation, planning and reporting;
Drafts various correspondence concerning finance, operations and budgetary issues as required;
Assists team members, experts and consultants, in liaison with UN Women Operations, on financial and other operational matters.

Support to projects planning and implementation:

Collects, analyses and presents information for monitoring, reporting and evaluation of projects implementation against targets;
Compiles and designs background information for formulation of projects work plans, draft annual/quarterly budgets, proposals on implementation arrangements, draft of quarterly reports;
Monitor the timeline of the submission of deliverables as stipulated in the contracts, by reminding the vendors in a timely manner and ensuring that payments are processed within the payment schedule set in contracts.
Maintains timetables for the Project Advisory Board meetings and provides support to organizing and holding the meetings, including the preparation and dissemination of information and follow-up.

Support to knowledge building and knowledge sharing:

Participates in the trainings for the operations/ programme personnel and briefings for the programme staff where necessary on new internal procedures;
When necessary, provides inputs to programme personnel in business processes, administrative and other requirements and procedures;
Contributes to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

Support in mainstreaming gender equality

Supports the Project Managers in effectively mainstreaming the gender equality throughout project activities, work plans, budgets, reports, research, analyses and, where specifically relevant, analysed in detail;
Ensures that all the data, when collecting and compiling inputs related to the projects, are gender and age disaggregated and evaluated from the gender point of view.

Key performance indicators:

Timely and accurate administrative and logistical support to events, workshops, and missions;
Full compliance of administrative activities with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and procedures;
Timely and accurate tracking of data for CO management and donor purposes;
Quality maintenance of internal systems and files;
Quality and timely support to programme team.

Competencies

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: 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:

Ability to extract, interpret, analyze data and resolve programme/project implementation operational problems;
Ability to support a team and team building skills;
Good financial and budgeting skills;
Strong IT skills and ability to apply it consistently in work tasks;
Good knowledge of administrative rules and regulations, organizational policies and procedures related to the position and ability to apply it consistently in work tasks;
Focus on results and positive response to feedback;
Good organizational skills and ability to pay close attention to detail and handle a large volume of work;
Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet partners and donors needs and deadlines; Responds to partners needs promptly. Reports to internal and external partners in a timely and appropriate fashion;
Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships within the work unit and with internal and external partners;

Required Skills and Experience

Education/Academic requirements:

University degree in Economics, Business or Public Administration, Social Sciences or similar fields;

Work Experience:

A minimum of 3 years of relevant experience in support to project implementation is required;
Experience working with women rights issues and good understanding of gender equality and women’s empowerment will be considered an asset;
Previous experience working with UN system, EU-funded projects or similar international organizations will be considered an asset.

Language Requirements: Fluency in English and Albanian, both written and oral.

Application Procedure:

Qualified candidates are requested to apply online - Vacancies advertised via the job recruitment system. Applications should contain:

Cover letter stating your interest in and qualifications for the advertised position. Please paste the text of the cover letter into the "Resume and Motivation" section of the online application.
Completed and signed UN Women Personal History Form – to be downloaded from the link http://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment

Please make sure you have provided all requested documents.

How to Submit the Application:

To submit your application online, please follow the following steps:

Download and complete the UN Women Personal History Form (P11);
Merge your UN Women Personal History Form (P11) and cover letter into a single file. The system does not allow for more than one attachment to be uploaded;
Click on the Job Title (job vacancy announcement);
Click “Apply Now” button, fill in necessary information on the first page, and then click “Submit Application;”
Upload your application/single file as indicated above with the merged documents
You will receive an automatic response to your email confirming receipt of your application by the system

Special consideration

As this position is under Service Contract modality, only citizens of Albania and those holding valid working permit in Albania will be considered for the vacancy.

UN Women 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.