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. This position sits within the UN Women Security and Safety Services and reports to the UN Women Global Security Advisor. The role will be completed remotely.  

1. Background

Since its inception, UN Women has experienced a significant growth in terms of geographical footprint, the number of employees and varied country context. This growth has seen the level of organizational security risk increase exponentially, due to presence within high-risk operating contexts, the programme nature of the organization and its unique mandate, in addition to the profile of its workforce, predominantly women. To address the elevated organizational risk, UN Women has established its own Security and Safety Services, which covers three organizational portfolios:

1. Security and Safety
2. Business Continuity and Crisis Management
3. Occupational Health and Safety

Whilst the main focus of this consultancy is to conduct a comprehensive organizational end-to-end risk assessment of the Security and Safety portfolio based on observations identified in IEAS/IAS/2022/001, the same should take into account that most of UN Women Security and Safety Services staff periodically or full-time work on the implementation of all three listed portfolios in addition to mandate advocacy.

The organizational risk assessment will inform the development of UN Women’s security strategy and the required security profile of the entity, vis-a-via strategic priorities in the field and address institutional gaps and/or misalignments, to ensure that the UN strategy of “no programme without security and no security without resources” is fully embedded into organizational processes and culture.

2. Responsibilities and Deliverables

In line with the UN Women Security and Safety Services Biannual Work Plan (BWP), organizational setting and available resources. The Organizational Security End-to-End Risk Assessment Consultant whilst ensuring the continued advocacy of the UN Women mandate, will be responsible for the completion of an end-to-end risk assessment of security management vis-à-vis business needs.

Deliverables: The Consultant will:

• Liaise with all appropriate divisions, units, and sections of UN Women, utilizing all available mediums to complete the end-to-end risk assessment of security management within UN Women.
• Map existing responsibilities and accountabilities against internal and externally funded capacity, with a focus on ‘Security’. The mapping exercise should take into account the dynamic operating environments, fluctuating workloads and future potential growth of the organization, with regard both normative and humanitarian settings. If appropriate, recognizing subsequent challenges that growth may bring.
• Based on the findings of the risk assessment; develop a UN Women security strategy, highlighting needs, risks, opportunities, good practices, and lessons identified. The strategy should encompass high-level priorities in terms of where organizational management should be, with ways to achieve high-level priorities in terms of a clear implementation plan, the resources needed and how those resources can be generated.
• Present the above deliverables in a report accompanied with a Power-Point Presentation. 

3. Activities

• Review applicable UNSMS policies, internal processes and activities, and organizational budgetary process within the context of IEAS/IAS/2022/001 observations and UNSMS Framework of Accountability.
• Perform a range of consultations with Security and Safety Services, Department of Administration and Management, other divisions, country-level and regional key stakeholders, and leadership of the organization.
• Where applicable, liaise with other UN sister agencies within the UNSMS, to include UNDSS.
• Ensure that consultations with all relevant stakeholders is conducted before the finalization of the report.
• Maintain close consultations with Global Security Advisor throughout the process.

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

Education and Experience:

• Master’s Degree or Higher
• Extensive experience within Security, Business Administration, Risk Management, or similar
• Minimum 10 years of international security experience
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in UN Security Management System
• Experience on similar projects e.g., corporate-level end-to-end assessment.

Language:

Fluency in oral and written English is required.