Header

UN WOMEN: DIRECTOR INTERGOVERNMENTAL SUPPORT DIVISION

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 (UNW) will lead and coordinate United Nations system 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, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
The overall objective of the Inter-Governmental Support Unit is to ensure that UN Women provides the inter-governmental bodies with the substantive support and inputs they need for successful deliberations related to gender equality and the empowerment of women. Within the Unit there are three focus areas, including: support the work of the main intergovernmental bodies of the United Nations (General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, Security Council, GA/ECOSOC/SC), plan, organize and support the sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW); plan, organize and support the sessions of the UN Women Executive Board (EB).

Duties and Responsibilities

The Director (Intergovernmental Support Division) under the guidance of the ASG for Intergovernmental Support and Strategic Partnerships will provide policy advice to Member States and ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment are reflected appropriately in all intergovernmental processes, through presentation of reports to intergovernmental bodies, preparation of statements, coordination of timely and high quality reports, coordination of UN Women’s substantive support across organizational units, plan, organize and support effective meetings, support intergovernmental negotiations including assistance in the preparation of resolutions, facilitate the participation of civil society representatives and experts, as appropriate, engage in dialogue with Member States, and provide orientation to new delegates. In addition s/he will lead and manage the Executive Board Secretariat and the CSW Secretariat.
Summary of key functions:
  • Substantive support to GA/ECOSOC/SC Support
  • Substantive support to the UN Women Executive Board
  • Substantive support to the Commission on the Status of Women
  • Representation and advocacy
  • Knowledge management and capacity building
Substantive support to GA/ECOSOC/SC Support
  • Develop and coordinate the UN Women Rolling Strategy and Action Plan for interaction with, and support of, all inter governmental bodies, especially the GA, ECOSOC, Security Council, CSW, and the Executive Board, including determining the themes of meetings and reports that will be most useful for promoting the UNW agenda, advocating for these themes with member states.
  • Manage, coordinate, implement, monitor, and report on the implementation of the plan, including convening and leading the in-house committee for implementation of the action plan.
  • Lead the liaison with other UN bodies, coordinating all necessary inputs from other parts of UNW, and managing the UNW relationship with the ECOSOC Secretariat, and DCAGM.
  • Provide high-level policy advice to Member States through the presentation of reports of the Secretary-General/Executive Director of UN Women to the General Assembly, Economic and Social Council, Commission on the Status of Women, Security Council, as well as through statements to other intergovernmental bodies, and interaction and dialogue with Member States/heads of delegations
  • Manage and coordinate the timely submission of all inter governmentally mandated documentation, including preparation of documentation forecasts, slotting schedules, and tracking of compliance, in liaison with relevant UN Secretariat services
  • Liaise, coordinate with, and brief and report back to relevant Divisions in UN Women in preparation and support of intergovernmental meetings to ensure timely and substantive inputs, contributions and follow up
  • Coordinate the provision of substantive Secretariat services to the General Assembly, ECOSOC and Security Council when considering items assigned to UN Women, and manage UN Women’s contribution to the preparation and conduct of such intergovernmental meetings, including providing technical advice and support to negotiations of outcomes, and preparation of analytical summaries of inter-governmental debates
  • Sponsor and host partners and experts from developing countries to attend and speak at relevant inter-governmental events
  • Develop, support, and identify new opportunities for effective coordination and interaction with intergovernmental bodies, such as the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, Statistics Commission, or Human Rights Council, to strengthen attention to gender perspectives in all sectoral areas
  • Engage with other intergovernmental bodies, functional commissions and expert bodies to promote mainstreaming, as applicable and in coordination with relevant UN Women organizational units.
  • Engage in dialogue with the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to enhance linkages and synergies between the expert body and intergovernmental processes, and to explore opportunities for strengthening attention to women’s rights in such deliberations.
UN Women Executive Board Support
  • Lead the Preparation and implementation of the strategy of engagement with and support to, the UNW Executive Board, including liaison and support to the Bureau, ensuring timely and high quality document preparation, and ensuring effective communication with the 41 delegation of the EB members
  • Advise the Executive Director on her frequent inter-action with Executive Board members, and monitor information on Executive Board priorities and outcomes
  • Manage follow-up and response to Executive Board recommendations
  • Manage communications with the Executive Board members, and share and disseminate information about the work of the EB with UN Women staff and the general public
Commission on the Status of Women Support
  • Lead and oversee the planning for, and support to the CSW.
  • Provide authoritative technical and policy advice and assistance to the CSW and its Bureau, in regard to all policy issues pertaining to gender equality and women’s empowerment, as well as programme of work and working methods, to ensure transparent and effective preparations as well as conduct of sessions that involve all relevant stakeholders, and facilitate consensus-oriented outcomes
  • Coordinate the provision of UN Women’s substantive Secretariat services to the Commission on the Status of Women, and manage its contribution to the preparation and conduct of intergovernmental meetings
  • Identify, oversee and coordinate opportunities for different stakeholders, including from the Secretariat, the UN system, and Member States, for information exchange, presentation of good practices and lessons learned during annual sessions of the Commission, to enhance the Commission’s role as the central intergovernmental body that sets global policy on gender equality and women’s empowerment
  • Support opportunities for interaction between the Commission and other functional commissions as well as the Economic and Social Council to strengthen attention to gender perspectives in sectoral areas, as well as between the Commission and UN Women Executive Board, as appropriate.
  • Maintain dialogue with heads of national mechanisms for gender equality, heads of delegations, and other senior officials, in particular during annual sessions of the Commission on the Status of Women, to exchange views and identify opportunities for strengthening the promotion of gender equality and women’s empowerment.
Representation and advocacy
  • Participate in, and represent UN Women in intergovernmental meetings, as applicable and in coordination with relevant UN Women organizational units
  • Represent UN Women in international fora to encourage greater commitment to, collaboration on the implementation of gender equality policies.
  • Contribute to the development of strategic approaches to policy dialogue, resource mobilization, partnerships, and outreach.

Knowledge management and capacity building

  • Lead the Division’s the contribution to the organization knowledge management strategies and methodologies
  • Oversee the Division’s production knowledge products to meet UN Women needs and standards of quality.
  • Maintain and ensure quality of content for EVAW area for UN Women guidelines, tools and other materials
  • Foster knowledge management and learning within the staff of the division
The Intergovernmental Support Director impacts on success of the efforts to develop and implement the UN Women Intergovernmental Strategies.

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: Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents
  • Organizational Awareness: Building support and political acumen.
  • Planning and organizing: Proven ability to plan strategic direction and ability to organize and service intergovernmental bodies and international technical meetings
  • Developing and Empowering People / coaching and mentoring: Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation
  • Working in Teams: Proven record of building and managing teams and creating an enabling and collaborative work environment, including the ability to effectively lead, supervise, mentor, develop and evaluate staff.
  • Communicating Information and Ideas: Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication
  • Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating an emotionally intelligent organization
  • Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements: Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards. Ability to interact and negotiate with high-level government officials are required
  • Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.
  • Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Fair and transparent decision-making; calculated risk-taking
  • Commitment to continuous learning: Willingness to keep abreast of new developments in the field of gender equality thematic areas Leadership - Proven track record of excellent management and technical leadership skills and ability to delegate appropriate responsibility, accountability and decision-making authority.
FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:
  • Substantive knowledge and experience related to Intergovernmental processes.
  • Substantive knowledge of gender issues, public policy and coordination.
  • Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision.
  • Strong communications skills, with proven expertise in writing cogent and convincing policy and programme documents for development practitioners
  • Proven analytical and problem solving skills
  • Ability to leverage information technology, executive information systems, management techniques and tools for optimal office performance.
  • Good planning, goal-setting and prioritization skills.
  • Effectiveness in establishing and fostering good relations with government counterparts, UN agencies, donors, and NGO partners.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Master degree (or equivalent) in gender issues, political affairs, international relations or social science or related fields.
Experience:
  • A minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible experience in development, law, policy analysis, sociological/gender equality or related areas, including in the thematic area and in managerial leadership
  • Experience in UN intergovernmental processes, preferably with a focus on gender equality and women’s empowerment and knowledge of UN system gender architecture and strategic stakeholders/partners is required.
  • Proven ability to organize and manage knowledge management processes and tools
  • Managerial Competencies/ Supervisory and management experience is a requirement including proven strong people management skills and public speaking skills
Language Requirements:
  • Written and oral proficiency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN working language is desirable.
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.
Click here for important information for US Permanent Residents ('Green Card' holders).
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.