UN WOMEN Jobs - 76387- Project Assistant (Open to Kyrgyzstan Nationals On

Project Assistant (Open to Kyrgyzstan Nationals Only)

Advertised on behalf of

UN WOMEN

Location :

Bishkek city, KYRGYZSTAN

Type of Contract :

Service Contract

Starting Date :

22-Jan-2018

Application Deadline :

01-Jan-18 (Midnight New York, USA)

Post Level :

SC-5

Duration of Initial Contract :

12 month

Languages Required :

English Russian

Expected Duration of Assignment :

12 month

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 was established by GA resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence, with a mandate to assist Member States and the UN system to progress more effectively and efficiently towards the goal of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women. The creation of UN Women in July 2010 came about as part of the UN reform agenda, consolidating the Organization’s resources and mandates on gender equality for greater impact. The mandate of UN-Women calls on UN Women to have universal coverage, strategic presence and ensure closer linkages between the norm-setting inter-governmental work and operations at the field level. UN Women is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to i) support inter-governmental bodies, such as the Commission on the Status of Women, in their formulation of policies, global standards and norms, ii) to help Member States to implement these standards, standing ready to provide suitable technical and financial support to those countries that request it and to forge effective partnerships with civil society, and iii) to hold the UN system accountable for its own commitments on gender equality, including regular monitoring of system-wide progress and mobilizing and convening key stakeholders to ensure greater coherence and gender mainstreaming across the UN.

Since 2001 UN Women (previously as its predecessor entity UNIFEM) has implemented catalytic initiatives on promoting women’s economic, political and social rights. In 2012, a Country Office with Delegation of Authority (DOA) was established in the Kyrgyzstan Republic. The programmes and projects focus on several key areas, including women’s economic empowerment, ensuring women’s political participation in times of peace and conflict and violence-free society. These programming directions aim at contributing to the efforts of national partners in ensuring pro-poor socioeconomic development, with particular focus on promotion of gender responsive and human rights based governance system in Kyrgyzstan.

The project “Across Generations and Gender Borders – Communities Combatting Gender-Based Violence in Kyrgyzstan” to be launched on 1 January 2018 and aimed at reduction of gender-based violence in the target communities, with a special focus on non-consensual marriage practices by tackling the root causes of violence against women and girls. Such root causes include deeply rooted patriarchal attitudes, pervasive gender stereotypes and harmful social norms. Research shows that people formally express negative views on non-consensual marriage practices but their personal experience and opinions contradict this official standpoint. To bring about behavior change across generations, the specific objective (outcome) of the action foresees target communities acting together across generations and gender borders to combat non-consensual marriage practices and associated violence against women and girls of all ages.

Trainings on collaborative interaction, effective listening and leadership skills, strategic thinking and planning, and cooperation between men and women will enable “community champions” to change gender stereotypes and transform power relations within household and communities. Establishment of community-based inter-generational and mother-daughter communication groups and legal awareness trainings will provide communities with improved knowledge of the provisions of laws on gender-based violence and platforms for inter-generational discourse on how to jointly prevent non-consensual marriages. Activities related to developing a behavior change strategy and conducting a large-scale advocacy and awareness raising campaign aim at informing the public on the negative consequences of gender-based violence and addressing the perceptions, attitudes and behavior of individuals on non-consensual marriage practices. These mutually reinforcing activities will enable the target communities to act together across generation and gender borders against non-consensual marriage practices and associated violence against women and girls of all ages.

The project’s target groups and final beneficiaries.

The action directly targets up to 16,000 following individual or collective rights-holders: youth (13-28 years) and their family members (mothers, fathers, spouses, in-laws, grandparents and others), older people and youth organizations whose legal knowledge, knowledge of behavior change techniques to combat VAWG, ability to promote dialogue and mobilize communities for joint action will be increased, and capacity to transform gender relations within households strengthened. Duty bearers, courts of Aksakals, local government, and religious leaders in the target communities, will gain increased knowledge and access to information on VAWG to address non-consensual marriages in more coordinated and effective manner. As a result of the outreach activities implemented by the communities, the project is foreseen to have up to 200,000 women and girls and men and boys as final beneficiaries who will benefit from reduced gender-based violence in the communities.

To achieve its goal, the project pursues the following outputs with respective activities:

Output 1: Women and girls are skilled and empowered to transform gender relations on individual, family and community levels.

Activity 1.1: Implement a programme for empowerment of 16 ‘Community Champions’ using Gender Action Learning System (GALS) methodology to strengthen their capacity, and cascade this to others through pyramid peer sharing.

Output 2: Platforms for inter-generational communication and collaboration are established and communities are equipped with tools and legal knowledge to combat violence against women and girls.

Activity 2.1 Establishment of Intergenerational Groups (IGGs) to serve as platforms of action.

Activity 2.2: Train 16 youth organizations and 16 peer educators to work with schoolgirls and their mothers to improve the culture of mother-daughter communication with the aim of combating forced-marriage practices.

Activity 2.3: Conduct 10 legal awareness training sessions and consultations on provisions of the new laws on religious marriage with minors and on domestic violence, and on issues of gender-based violence across the life stages for key community members and courts of aksakal.

Activity 2.4 A three-day Training of Trainers on gender based violence across the life stages for project staff.

Output 3: Older people, youth, women and men are informed and aware about the negative consequences of gender based violence for women and for societies.

Activity 3.1: Develop a Behaviour Change Communication Strategy on EVAWG.

Activity 3.2: Conduct a large-scale advocacy and awareness raising campaign on violence against women and girls with a focus on prevention of non-consensual marriage practices.

Overall objective (impact): Gender-based violence is reduced in the target communities.

Indicator 1a: The average age at marriage (disaggregated by sex and territory).

Indicator 1b: The average age of the mother at the birth of the first child (Disaggregated by territory).

Indicator 1c: Number of registered marriages in the target communities.

Specific objective(s) (outcome(s)): Target communities act together across generation and gender borders against non-consensual marriage practices and associated violence against women and girls of all ages.

Indicator Oc1a: Number of joint initiatives to prevent non-consensual marriages implemented by community activist and citizen advocacy groups and local authorities.

Indicator Oc1b: Percentage of community members reporting of practicing trial behavior change or sustained behavioral change with regard to non-consensual marriages (Disaggregated by sex and age).

Outputs:

Output 1: Women and girls are empowered to transform gender relations at family and community levels and GALS process supports and develops collective action and gender advocacy for change.

Indicator Op1a: Number of community champions completing GALS training (Disaggregated by sex and age).

Indicator Op1b: Number of community members applying the GALS methodology (Disaggregated by sex and age).

Output 2: Platforms for inter-generational communication and collaboration are established and equipped with tools and knowledge to foster joint action and promote open and less-hierarchical dialogue to combat violence against women and girls in their communities.

Indicator Op2a: Number of inter-generational groups at community level actively working on preventing of and protection from violence against women and girls.

Indicator Op2b: Number of mother-daughter groups equipped with improved ability to communicate on non-consensual marriage practices.

Indicator Op2c: Number of training participants with increased knowledge on behaviour change techniques (Disaggregated by sex and age).

Indicator Op2d: Number training participants with increased legal knowledge on violence against women (Disaggregated by sex and age).

Output 3: Older people, youth, women and men are informed and aware about the negative consequences of gender based violence for women and for societies.

Indicator Op3a: Number of participants covered by outreach activities incorporating behaviour change techniques (Disaggregated by sex and age).

Indicator Op3b: Number of stories and communication products based on behaviour change techniques successfully placed in mass and social media.

With the aim to ensure effective implementation of this project, UN Women Kyrgyzstan office plans to contract a Project Specialist with a responsibility to support the project. A specific focus shall also be on lessons-learned documentation and coordination support to national implementing partners. The Project Specialist promotes a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations, and commits to high standards of quality, productivity and timeliness in the delivery of tasks. The Project Specialist will meet and apply the highest standards of integrity and impartiality

Duties and Responsibilities

Reporting to the National Project Manager, the Project Assistant works under the overall supervision and guidance of the UN Women National Programme Officer (NPO), and the general guidance of the Representative. S/he closely works with the Country Office Operations Unit and the Programme Team. S/he will specifically support the implementation of the “Across Generations and Gender Borders – Communities Combatting Gender-Based Violence in Kyrgyzstan” project activities, providing programme and administrative support as per UN Women rules and guidelines.

More specifically the Project Assistant will perform the following tasks:

Supports formulation of programme strategies and the Annual Work Plan focusing on achievement of the following results:

Assists in ensuring that all programmatic inputs under the project are available on time and in full compliance with the respective UN Women rules and regulations.
Supports in collection, analysis and presentation of information for identification of areas for support and programme implementation.
Provides assistance in monitoring of programme delivery against work plans and coordination between regional and country levels. Prepares and contributes to information, reports and other documentation related to the project activities.
Provides assistance in timely preparation of background for progress, narrative & final reports for the project.
Contributes to and provides assistance for finalization of Annual Work Plans and Procurement Plans for country levels.
Provides assistance in any research and data collection efforts related to the project activities, tracks required information and follows up on correspondence under project activities.
Conducts missions to project sites to assist in monitoring of activities and to assist with facilitating project progress.
Supports development of information material for and on the project.
Assists with recruitment of consultants/personnel in line with UN Women rules and regulations.

2. Provides effective support administrative and financial support to the projects as follows:

Ensures timely and effective assistance to day-to-day project implementation by fulfilling project, administrative, HR, financial and logistical tasks in conformity with expected results and project work plans:

Provides assistance in preparing and modifying project budgets, implementing control mechanism for budget monitoring, preparing annual and monthly expenditure plans.
Maintains accurate personnel records of the project as required by UN Women.
Provides assistance in handling with procurement contracts for goods and services.
Maintains project equipment and servicing as well as its records.
Ensures the maintenance of a filing system, reports or other documentation related to the programme and administrative matters of the project in hard and electronic formats.
Provides assistance in organizing and holding seminars; conferences, trainings, and meetings.
Obtains necessary information and documents regarding financial records or projects expenditures.
Provides assistance in preparation and submission of the Requests for Payment (PR), Travel Requests, Travel Expense Claims and Requests for Contract with complete package of supporting documents at regional and country levels.
Acts as translator / interpreter as necessary to the project team and the Representative.
Ensures compliance of project, administrative and operations activities with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and strategies.
Any related tasks required for the smooth running and success of the projects, and on a case by case needs basis, other projects or the Country Office.

Competencies

Corporate:

Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standard.
Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women.
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional:

Knowledge Management and Learning:

Shares knowledge and experience.
Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.
Ability to analyze complex situations from a position of impartiality.
Ability to concisely and to the point document information and findings, targeting a specific audience.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to Results Management, including support to design, planning and implementation of projects, managing data. and reporting.
Good knowledge of Results Management Guide and Toolkit.

Leadership and Self-Management:

Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure, uses skills of diplomacy.
Ability to prioritize and manage competing priorities, grasping the situation quickly.
Ability to conduct advocacy on sensitive issues, not avoiding but processing conflict.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Bachelor Degree in Management, Business Administration, Economics, Political or Social Science, or a relevant field.
Fluency in English and Russian. Working knowledge of Kyrgyz.

Experience:

Three years of relevant administrative and/or programme experience; part time experience can be pro-rated up to one year. A postgraduate degree can be counted as one year of experience.
Experience with programme/project implementation.
Experience with gender equality, women empowerment related projects an advantage.
Strong numerical skills.
Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.).
Experience of field support to projects a distinct advantage.
Previous work experience with UN Agencies, government agencies and international development partners highly desirable.
Knowledge of ERP is an advantage.
Knowledge of UN procurement rules and processes is an advantage.

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.

Only short-listed candidates will be contracted. Candidates can only be shortlisted if they profess to meet all the mandatory requirements in the job description. All online applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women UNDP or UN Personal History form (P11) in English, which can easily be found via web search http://www.unwomen-eeca.org/en/announcements/. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment which must include the P11. Please carefully respond to the requirements of the job description in the P11 you submit.

Applications without the completed P11 form are incomplete and will NOT be considered for further assessment.