Historique

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 leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Since becoming operational in 2007, the Peace-Building Fund (PBF) has strengthened its efforts to support peace building projects that promote gender equality as part of their strategy to prevent relapse into conflict. As an overall principle, the PBF works to make sure that its entire portfolio is gender mainstreamed. Additionally, the PBF underscores the conclusion of the ‘Secretary-General’s report on Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding’ that, in post-conflict settings, targeted interventions are required to break patterns of violence and to capitalize on the leadership roles women may assume during conflicts. In order to fulfill these commitments, the PBF has strengthened its responsiveness to gender equality concerns in 2011, most notably through the launch of its Gender Promotion Initiative.

In this context Guinea-Bissau obtained funding of 1 million USD for a Joint Programme (JP) to promote “Women’s Economic Empowerment and the improvement of their working conditions”, working towards the global PBF outcome “revitalizing the economy”, and the Bissau-Guinean’s Peacebuilding Priority Plan outcome “Women […] have increased access to decent employment and self-employment opportunities and to micro-credit services for viable micro-enterprises development in selected sectors”.

The JP aims at improving women’s economic security and rights, contributing directly to initiatives ensuring their economic, social and legal empowerment, through investment, promoting and protecting their rights and building organizational capacity of 2 umbrella Civil Society Organizations, with a direct impact on 10 000+ women and contributing to an enabling environment for attaining decent work for women. There are initiatives for the elaboration of a national employment strategy as well as a strategy for macroeconomic growth that includes women and young women as target groups for formal employment and credits. However, tackling women’s disadvantaged position in the country and taking into account the fact that they already do much of the work and without decent work conditions, entails that the creation of formal employment will benefit a minor number of women and not necessarily empower the most vulnerable; and consequently there is a potential risk of further discriminating women excluded from existing economic and employment strategies and programmes. Bissau-Guinean women work mainly in the informal low scale agricultural sector, e.g. in horticulture, and hence do not benefit for example from the export of cashew, Guinea-Bissau’s main produce.
The JP plans to fill the gaps by creating an enabling environment intervening on multiple and complementary levels which jointly will ensure a sustainable and long lasting impact on women’s lives. Specifically, the programme will contribute to:
  • Creating a basis of knowledge and evidence on women’s economic role, situation and working conditions, market opportunities within key investment economic sectors;
  • Reviewing the legal framework (in particular related to the status of women vis à vis property rights, labor rights and business rights) and being able to hold duty bearers accountable to it;
  • Supporting and directly investing in economic initiatives of entrepreneurs for SMEs (as well as other type of economic organizations, such as cooperatives, associations, etc.) by directly supporting the creation of businesses and simultaneously empowering women through functional literacy, facilitating access to credit schemes, legal assistance, training on setting up and managing businesses, communication, negotiation, human rights awareness, claiming and creating decent work conditions, inter alia.
In summary, the proposed project adopts a legal empowerment approach to ensure promotion and fulfillment of improved decent working conditions and access to jobs and business opportunities.

CNMT (Commission of Women workers) and AMAE (the Association of Women in Economic Activity) are the main umbrella organizations working at multiple levels regarding women’s legal and economic empowerment, including access to justice, credit schemes, research on the situation of women in the labor market, supporting various types of economic initiatives, etc. These organizations have a wide range of members, both individuals and collective ones all over the country, and the ability to reach all types of public, including the most vulnerable, grassroots organizations and CSOs. Their areas of intervention are complementary; however, their level of influence, scope and impact is limited due to reduced technical capacity, including human and financial resources. Their role, influence and reach will be substantially strengthened and interventions improved by providing increased institutional and response capacities. It is important to note that before the war in 1998, AMAE had a significant impact and was able to perform an effective role of coordination and support to their members. However in the post-conflict period it has been unable to regain this role due to the lack of funding and support.

To guarantee sustainability of the outcome and project outputs, a strategic approach will be used in strengthening the two key networks, CNMT and AMAE, aimed at women’s legal and economic empowerment and security and involving stakeholders from the national level at Parliament, to women’s associations at the community level. It is expected that this support will be catalytic on several dimensions: improving the legal framework and awareness of as well as capacity to claim rights regarding women’s economic security, hence result in a rise in decent work and business creation. The key networks supporting individual women and women’s associations will provide legal support and continuous technical assistance, ensure de facto economic empowerment for women, increased income and wealth, and improved capacity for the different organizations to manage themselves and mobilize further resources in the future for new programmes and projects.

The JP will be led by UN Women in partnership with FAO, UNICEF and United Nations Integrated Peace-Building Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS), to support and strengthen the capacity of CNMT and AMAE.

Devoirs et responsabilités

Summary of Key Functions:
  • Programme Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Results Based Reporting
  • Provision of technical expertise on women’s economic empowerment
  • Advocacy and support to UN coordination, joint programming and reform
  • Knowledge management and capacity building – support to the region
Description of Functions:

The JP Coordinator will be a technical specialist in Women’s Economic Empowerment and responsible for the coherent implementation of the programme and its activities towards the common outputs; he/she will moreover be in charge of implementing UN Women’s activities within the JP. The position will be located within the Resident Coordinator Office (RCO).

The primary reporting line for the JP Coordinator will be the UN Women Representative in Dakar, but will in his/her every day work be supervised by the RCO Head of Unit. Also, there will be general guidance in relation to the job from the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General/Resident Coordinator.

The JP Coordinator / technical specialist in Women’s Economic Empowerment will ensure the following duties:

Programme Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Results Based Reporting
  • In close collaboration with implementing agencies and national partners and in consultation with the Joint Programme Coordination Unit (JPCU) and the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) specifically set up for the JP (UN Women, UNICEF, FAO, UNIOGBIS, Ministry of Women), elaborate results-based annual workplans according to the Project Document and in line with the Peacebuilding Priority Plan for Guinea-Bissau. Particular collaboration with the PBF Employment project will ensure taking into account of complementarities and synergies.
  • Manage a portfolio of on-going and future programmes in economic empowerment through technical monitoring and administrative and financial supervision.
  • Work closely with national partners on the implementation of UN Women’s activities and ensure coordination and timely as well as coherent implementation of all programme activities in accordance with the project document and agreed workplans.
  • Ensure cohesion, as well as technical advice to and backstopping of all partners’ activities towards the outputs of the JP, in close liaison with the TAG and JPCU.
  • Initiate and lead relevant capacity building programmes for government and NGOs for the JP; Working closely with national partners and with relevant UN staff to prepare and facilitate training modules and recruit required consultants.
  • Substantively monitor programme/project implementation. Assess implementation and financial management, analyze progress in achievement of objectives and results, propose direction and solutions, distill lessons learned and best practices
  • Responsible for UN Women’s management and reporting within the context of the JP as well as of reporting of the JP in line with PBF and Joint Programme standards and in close collaboration with the PBF Secretariat and the Peace-building Support Office at HQ where appropriate.
  • Ensure that programme/project reviews are undertaken timely and all reporting requirements are met.
Provision of technical expertise on women’s economic empowerment:
  • Provide input and support to any other processes within the UN System and with national partners to ensure the promotion of women’s economic empowerment, as relevant and requested.
Advocacy and support to UN coordination, joint programming and reform:
  • Support the RCO in establishing and maintaining effective consultations with governments, partners, stakeholders and donors to achieve active collaboration, cooperation and alliances on program development and implementation and sustained partnerships;
  • Upon the request of the RCO Head of Unit and general guidance of the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General/Resident Coordinator and the UN Women Office in Dakar, represent UN Women in UNCTs as appropriate/delegated to consult, collaborate and/or interact on common issues and activities and participate in the Comprehensive Country Assessments (CCA)/UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF) process to ensure the active participation of UN Women in these processes to advance gender equity and women's human rights
  • On behalf of the UN Women sub-regional office in West Africa, actively seek out participation of UN Women in UN system thematic and other working groups to establish effective network and to keep abreast of ongoing debate and thinking on gender, facilitate joint programming and promote UN Women competencies and interests to advance gender and women's human rights in the West Africa region.
Knowledge management and capacity building – support to the region:
  • Identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to guide program improvements and future economic empowerment programmes;
  • 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;
  • Design and implement capacity building training activities to enhance skills and knowledge in Results Based Management, Results based budgeting and systematic quality assurance;
  • Contribute to the development and maintenance of regional program knowledge networks and practices, and development of knowledge products.

Compétences

Core values and Guiding principles:
  • Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
  • Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
  • Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.
Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:
  • Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity
Organizational Awareness:
  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment
Development and Innovation:
  • Take charge of self-development and take initiative
Work in teams:
  • Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
Communicating and Information Sharing:
  • Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication
 
Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:
  • Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others
Conflict Management:
  • Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:
  • Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge
Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:
  • Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making
Functional Competencies:
  • Commitment to participatory and consultative approaches;
  • Strong analytical skills and capability for effective advocacy;
  • Proven capacity to elaborate and facilitate trainings to a diverse range of publics;
  • Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills;
  • Ability to focus on result for the client and responds positively to feedback;
  • Demonstrates consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
  • Ability to remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure, and manage stress and adapt to rapidly evolving situations

Qualifications et expériences requises

Education:
  • Master’s degree in development studies or economics or public policy with a gender component.
Experience:
  • Minimum 7 years of relevant work experience in the area of development or public policy. Professional experience in programme/project management and understanding of gender in the context of human development and women’s economic empowerment strategies will be an advantage;
  • Experience in designing and implementing joint programming or a joint project, preferably within the UN context
  • Experience providing advisory services in the area of gender equality;
  • Experience coordinating programmes with multiple actors in an international context;
  • Proven management experience, preferably within one or more of the partner UN entities, with sound knowledge and experience in all aspects of project cycle (design, implementation, monitoring & evaluation) and project operations (including finance, procurement, reporting, and human resources);
  • Good knowledge of UN Women and the UN system; including the functioning of humanitarian clusters and the UNSG’s 7 point action plan.
  • Displays strong expertise on women’s economic empowerment and wider methodologies to promote gender equality; including in emergency settings.
  • Good knowledge of development programming and project management skills and procedures; and experience in planning and managing programmes in conflict areas and humanitarian context.
  • Strong IT skills.
Language Requirements:
  • Fluency in English is required, and excellent knowledge of Portuguese and French, both written and spoken, will be an advantage.
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.

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

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.