Antecedentes

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.

As per the LAC regional strategy, UN Women Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean in Panama, has identified a number of sectors and issues as priority falling into the thematic of economic empowerment of UN Women´s Strategic Plan, to include supporting efforts towards ensuring a gender approach in processes aimed towards the adoption and localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), the development of macroeconomic enabling environments for gender equality, women´s economic rights; female poverty eradication and gender responsive pro-poor policy making and gender responsive budgeting; equal employment and decent work for women and men; ensuring women access and command over resources; gender mainstreaming in national planning and budgeting processes and promoting women´s entrepreneurship and the relation with the private sector.

Reporting to the Deputy Regional Director, the Policy Specialist, Economic Empowerment will oversee the development of programmes and resource mobilization strategies on the thematic areas of gender equality and women´s economic empowerment, provide capacity building to programme presence offices, country offices and multi-country office in the region, establish and strengthen partnerships, and develop relevant knowledge products on economic empowerment.

Deberes y responsabilidades

Oversee the development of programmes on gender equality and women´s economic rights to support Programme Presence Office (PPO)/Country Office (CO)/Multi Country Office (MCO) teams:

  • Oversee the development of regional programme documents on gender equality and women´s economic empowerment;
  • Provide technical inputs to programme proposals from PPOs, COs and MCO;
  • Provide advice on contextualizing/ localizing programme documents, country strategies, and knowledge products;
  • Coordinate proper monitoring and reporting on gender equality and women´s economic rights in collaboration with programme teams.

Provide capacity building support to Programme Presence Office (PPO)/Country Office (CO)/Multi Country Office (MCO)teams and partners:

  • Provide substantive technical and policy support to PPOs, COs and MCO programme teams in developing and strengthening projects/ programmes;
  • Develop, implement and monitor capacity building initiatives;
  • Provide technical support to partners on implementation of gender equality and women´s economic empowerment programmes and initiatives;
  • Provide technical policy advice to programme/ project managers/ specialists in the region.

Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with stakeholders, regional/international actors and development partners:

  • Build and maintain alliances and strategic partnerships for the advancement of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment;
  • Build and maintain close liaisons with relevant donors and other actors supporting efforts towards gender equality and women´s economic empowerment;
  • Production of periodic updates and briefs on regional/country development situation to be used by stakeholders, CO and HQ;
  • Maintain close contact with relevant staff in UN Women HQ.

Manage the resource mobilization strategy for women’s economic empowerment in the region:

  • Participate in the implementation, monitoring and periodic updating of the resource mobilization strategy on women´s economic empowerment;
  • Provide support to field based presences in the region in mobilizing resources for the implementation of women's economic initiatives;
  • Research and analyze information on donors; prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation.

Oversee the design of gender equality and women’s economic rights initiatives in the region and the development of relevant knowledge products:

  • Provide policy recommendations and guidance to strategic planning and positioning on women´s economic empowerment;
  • Work closely with and provide advice to regional/ national bodies and interagency groups that influence national policies related to gender equality and women´s economic rights and where necessary represent UN Women;
  • Research, develop and present analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, correspondence, and knowledge products on gender equality and women´s economic empowerment; 
  • Identify promising practices, technical expertise, and strategic opportunities on women´s economic empowerment.

Oversee knowledge building and sharing for gender equality and women´s economic empowerment:

  • Identify and disseminate lessons learnt and good practices in collaboration with country offices;
  • Ensure technical skills and knowledge are shared within and among RO/PPOs/COs/MCO.

Key Performance Indicators:

  • Timely and quality technical advice and support;
  • Leadership in area of expertise in the region;
  • Quality reports and other strategic documents drafted and submitted in a timely manner;
  • Strong relationships with various partners and stakeholders;
  • UN Women is well represented in important meetings on topics related to expertise;
  • Contributions to resource mobilization;
  • Timely and quality knowledge products.

Competencias

Core Values:

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.

Respect for 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:

  • emonstrate 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:

  • Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women´s economic empowerment issues;
  • Knowledge of methodologies and best practices for promoting gender equality, equity and women empowerment in general and in the Americas and the Caribbean region in particular;
  • Strong knowledge of the Americas and Caribbean region;
  • Knowledge of the UN System;
  • Excellent networking skills;
  • Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising;
  • Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research;
  • Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
  • Excellent analytical and problem solving skills;
  • Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings;
  • Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results based management and reporting.

Habilidades y experiencia requeridas

Education:

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, development economics or related is required. Specialized studies in gender is a distinct advantage.

Experience:

  • At least 7 years progressively responsible experience in designing and managing programmes and advocating for gender equality and women´s economic empowerment, ideally with some experience in developing countries preferably in the Americas and Caribbean region;
  • Experience in programme, policy analysis, and strategic planning;
  • Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field;
  • Experience working with the UN is an asset;
  • Experience working in the Americas and Caribbean region is an asset.

Languages:

  • Fluency in English and Spanish is required;
  • Knowledge of French and/or Portuguese is an asset;
  • Knowledge of other UN official working language is an asset.

Application Information:

  • 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;
  • UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.

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.