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.

About the UAE Liaison Office for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)

The UAE Liaison Office for the GCC focuses on 3 areas. These include advocacy for UN Women to drive its global mandate, resource mobilization for UN Women programs globally and coordination of partnerships to drive the work and strategic priorities of UN Women in the GCC region. The office acts as a liaison between UN Women globally and stakeholders in the GCC from the private sector, government, academia and non-profits. The office reports to UN Women global headquarters.

Reporting to the Director of the UAE Liaison Office, the Programme Specialist is responsible for the day-to-day management of the UAE office. The incumbent is responsible for substantially contributing to the design, implementation, management and oversight of the operations supporting its implementation to ensure effective and efficient delivery of results as planned in UN Women’s Strategic Plan and the office annual strategic work plan.

Duties and Responsibilities

Manage the office and team:

  • Manage the day-to-day work of the team, including finalizing the team’s annual work plan;
  • Manage the process of project, conceptualization, planning, implementing and monitoring; and the management of material and financial resources;
  • Lead the process of preparing progress reports for key projects and identifying areas for UN Women Liaison Office Director and Representatives action and/or decision;
  • Oversee the preparation of  and write donor proposals and reports; 
  • Oversee the monitoring of progress against  mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators;  
  • Technically support the development of the Office strategies and plan, as required.

Provide advisory and specialized technical support on the strategic direction of the office:

  • Advise and guide the Director of the Office on strategic areas;
  • Provide specialized technical and strategic support in managing all aspects of strategy design and related activities and for ensuring compliance and accountability in monitoring, reporting and evaluation;
  • Develop briefing documents, briefs and other strategic papers/materials for use in the development and presentation of innovative and coherent policy and other positions;
  •  Oversee programme quality control and identification of potential challenges; 
  • Serve as a senior member of the management team.

Represent UN Women in UN system coordination, with a focus on joint projects and collaboration:

  • Represent UN Women in the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) and/or other inter-agency taskforces to collaborate with the Resident Coordinator and UN system on interagency coherence, collaboration, cooperation, resource mobilization, advocacy, common services, and operations as delegated;
  • Ensure UN Women’s participation in UN system thematic and other working groups to advance UN Women’s mandate.

Provide technical support in creation of strategic partnerships and resource mobilization strategies:

  • Provide substantive research and inputs in the formulation and implementation of the country resource mobilization strategy;
  • Establish and maintain relations with government, partners, stakeholders and donors to achieve active collaboration, cooperation and alliances to advance UN Women’s mandate and resource mobilization.

Represent UN Women and support advocacy strategies:

  • Represent, act as official spokesperson and advocate for UN Women in organizational, regional, global, public information/ relations events and key meetings, as delegated;
  • Develop and implement advocacy and public communication strategies.

Facilitate knowledge management, innovation and capacity building:

  • Manage the process of collecting and sharing lessons learned on gender equality and women’s empowerment to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders;
  • Oversee the design and implementation of capacity building training activities to enhance skills and knowledge.

Oversee the development of UN Women’s strategic partnerships with private sector:

  • Oversee the relationships with key private partners; provide substantive technical inputs to senior management’s efforts to develop new and innovative partnerships;
  • Set and monitor annual priorities, goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) for partnerships;
  • Provide substantive technical support the drafting and review of partner-specific Framework Arrangements and Cost Sharing Agreements; and the preparation of brief funding proposals and concept notes;
  • Provide strategies on building and maintaining partnerships and positioning with potential donors, including foundations, private sector and government entities, coordinate of the work required on the ground;
  • Advise on the design and implementation of effective advocacy strategies and methods for proactive and strategic targeting of partners and donors.

Coordinate with the Regional Office for Arab States on resource mobilization strategies to the GCC region to ensure coordinated outreach:

  • Provide technical support to the Regional Office for Arab States on resource mobilization, by sharing donor intelligence, arranging high level roundtable meetings, providing support in building partnership opportunities, and addressing other ad-hoc requests from the Regional Office.

Key Performance Indicators: 

  • Timely and quality provision of strategic support and advise to the Director of the UAE Liaison Office;
  • Timely and quality delivery of the team;
  • Regular interaction and establishment of joint activities and projects with other agencies and partners;
  • Quality of inputs provided in formulation and implementation of the country resource mobilization strategy;
  • Quality and number of knowledge management and advocacy initiatives undertaken;
  • Quality mentoring, training, coaching which affects performance of Staff;
  • UN Women is seen as a reliable and trustworthy partner, providing substantial inputs to progress UN women’s mandate;
  • Number of partnerships with private sector.

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 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 programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills;
  • Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them;
  • Ability to provide policy advice and support to partners;
  • Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making;
  • Strong analytical skills;
  • Excellent knowledge of Results Based Management;
  • Strong knowledge of the UN system;
  • Strong knowledge of local country context;
  • Strong negotiation skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

  • Master’s degree in international development, international relations, public administration, public policy or other relevant 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 women peace and security agenda is required;
  • Experience in designing and managing programmes in developing countries is an asset;
  • Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field;
  • Experience in leading and working with multi-cultural teams;
  • Experience and strong knowledge of the GCC context;
  • Experience working with the UN will be an asset.

Languages: 

  • Fluency in English and Arabic is required;
  • Knowledge of another UN working 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 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.