Background

Background and justification

 

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 centre of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate the United Nations system’s efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, while building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

 

Violence against women is an egregious, global and persistent manifestation of the systemic power of men over women.  Its resilience over time and place testifies to the insidious tolerance of such abuse. All such violence, abuse and exploitation impede women’s enjoyment of human rights and deny dignity, autonomy and equality. The ending of such violence is a core area of work in UN Women’s 2018-21 Strategic Plan.

 

UN Women pays tribute to the courage of women across the world who have over many decades of activism, advocacy and struggle, placed violence against them on the public policy agenda. Their imagination of, and calls for, a world without violence has informed the SDG5 commitment to eliminate all such violence.  The CEDAW committee has stated that violence against women constitutes sex discrimination. It is thus prohibited under international law and states have duties to end it. The human rights discourse has named sexual violence as an abuse of human rights.

 

In 2017, the #MeToo wave of denouncement and notice given by women against sexual harassers sent shock waves around the world.  It connected with many other global agitations to end violence and to press for the end of impunity for it, and it raised hopes that a turning point had been reached in the tolerance and enabling of sexual abusers. The calling out of abusers and the demand for accountability reached into the aid sector and the United Nations. In response, the Secretary-General established a High-Level Task Force (HLTF) to review existing policies and practices and make recommendations for improvement. It is led by the UN Under-Secretary-General for Management.

 

In March 2018 the Executive Director of UN Women created a special assignment of Executive Coordinator and Spokesperson on Sexual Harassment and other forms of discrimination. The role was established to place women’s experiences at the heart of work against sexual harassment and to bring survivor-focused approaches to the fore. The Executive Coordinator’s post serves to link UN Women with the #MeToo and #AidToo activists, as well as others taking forward global work to end violence against women.  It seeks to provide support and amplify the voices of those in the women’s movement seeking justice and an end to sexual harassment and all forms of sexual assault of women. It works with member states to bring promising practices to bear and support efforts to end such aggression. In particular, the position seeks to coordinate internal UN Women’s efforts towards decisive action on this pressing issue and lead UN Women externally as it engages with the UN system’s review of policies and practices on sexual harassment.

 

In this work, UN Women recognises that the links between the various forms of violence against women form a continuum, understands these as sex and gender-based discrimination, acknowledges the gendered nature of the distribution of power, its sexualised dimensions, and the need to ensure justice and dignity for women at home and in the world, including in the world of work.

Duties and Responsibilities

The Policy Analyst / Consultant in the office of the Executive Coordinator and Spokesperson on Sexual Harassment and Other Forms of Discrimination (hereinafter the Executive Co-ordinator) will provide support across a range of areas of work. The office is small and operates under high pressure with urgent needs for timely analytical information, coherent policy advice, event organising, internal co-ordination, engagement with system-wide developments and, centrally, placing the voices and experiences of victim-survivors at the core of this work.  The consultant will need to be able to work under pressure and with discretion in a sensitive and challenging environment. He/she will require excellent communication and organization skills to manage a varied, demanding agenda and to support a senior colleague with a spokesperson brief.

 

Within the relevant delegated authority, the Policy Analyst / Consultant will be responsible for the following duties:

  • Provide substantive inputs to support the Executive Coordinator in the performance of her functions to facilitate her internal and external representation
  • Provide technical inputs to Executive Coordinator’s interactions with other UN entities
  • Undertake research with regard to developments, trends and promising practices with regard to addressing sexual harassment and assault, particularly in the world of work
  • Facilitate meetings, manage the Executive Coordinator’s agenda and assist in meeting deadlines, in co-ordination with colleagues
  • Develop substantive and technical knowledge products: prepare outline and/or draft policy papers, briefing notes, research, presentations and talking points for the Executive Coordinator.
  • Prepare meeting notes for the weekly Internal Coordination Group meetings and other, prepare briefing to staff, as appropriate and assist  in follow-up to meetings
  • Work alongside colleagues to prepare monthly reports to assist monitoring and tracking of the project’s budget and expenditure.
  • Prepare official travel files and background documents including timely support for  planning and organization of the Executive Coordinator’s official travel, where needed
  • Perform other duties and special assignments which may be requested by the Executive Coordinator and Spokesperson.

Competencies

Core values / Guiding principles:

Integrity:

  • Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity / Valuing diversity:

  • Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies:

Ethics and Values:

  • Demonstrating / Safeguarding Ethics and Integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

  • Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:

  • Self-development, initiative-taking.

Working in Teams:

  • Acting as a team player and facilitating team work.

Communicating Information and Ideas:

  • Facilitating and encouraging open communication in the team, communicating effectively.

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:

  • Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.

Functional Competencies:

  • Knowledge of gender equality and women's empowerment
  • Technical knowledge in the field of violence against women and girls and/or sexual harassment highly desirable.
  • Good planning, goal-setting and prioritization;
  • Strong communication skills, both written and oral;
  • Excellent drafting skills with the ability to write and edit reports and other products,  speeches and correspondence;
  • Analytical and problem solving skills;
  • Good inter-personal skills, to communicate effectively with staff at all levels of the organization;
  • Demonstrate sensitivity, tact and diplomacy, comfortable with handling external relationships at all level;
  • Work in a highly pressured environment;
  • Strong sense of responsibility, confidentiality and accountability.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree (or equivalent) in one of the following disciplines: women’s studies/gender studies, international development, human rights, law, social sciences, political science, international relations

Experience:

  • At least 2 years of relevant experience in international organizations, preferably in the United Nations system and its organizations, and preferably focused on ending violence against women
  • Experience working in roles to prevent and address sexual harassment is an asset

Languages:

  • Written and oral proficiency in English is required;

Knowledge of another UN working language is desirable.