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UN WOMEN REPRESENTATIVE (OPT)

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, the UN Women 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 scope of work of the Programme Manager requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, as well as management and programming expertise, to translate UN Women's strategic plans into effective development initiatives and results. It also requires developing mutually reinforcing partnerships with relevant Government counterparts, UN organizations, CSOs, and with bilateral and non-traditional donors in order to promote inter-agency partnerships, support for UN reform, and mobilization of visibility and resources to advance gender equality and women's empowerment.
UN Women’s work in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) began in 1996, in follow-up of the Fourth World Conference on Women and the Beijing Platform for Action. Through the years and functioning in a very volatile environment, this experience was consolidated and eventually led in 2004 to the development of a larger programme catering to the specific political and operational context of the oPt. This programme adopted a bottom-up approach and focused on community-based initiatives tackling various thematic areas, including leadership, political participation, economic security, protection and advocacy. Due to its specific nature, characterized by a chronic conflict interspersed with periods of intense and often, geographically specific conflict, the UN Women programme in the oPt tackles both development work and humanitarian assistance.
Within the last decade UN Women in the oPt has made significant progress towards mobilizing the resources and efforts of national and international partners around the promotion of gender equality and women's human rights within the framework of national priorities. A holistic approach to programming and close links with national partners from policy to community levels enabled UN Women to provide meaningful and when needed, rapid response. Over time and in order to address institutionalization of gender equality, UN Women in the oPt has been working closely with Government, humanitarian actors, civil society, UN agencies and donors, with a focus on coordination.
The UN Women Programme Manager for the oPt is responsible for ensuring effective execution of UN Women's mandate and responsibility with respect to the advancement of women in the oPt. The Programme Manager will provide technical and programme support services ensuring project/programme delivery, high quality outcomes and outputs, as well as efficiency and consistency of work, in line with national priorities and UN Women’s strategic vision. S/he is the first line of contact between UN Women and its partners and clients, and will work in close collaboration with the UN Women regional architecture as well as UN Women units and sections in HQ.

Duties and Responsibilities

Key Functions:
  • Strategic Programme Development and Advocacy
  • Pogramme Management and Oversight
  • Representation and Partnership Building
  • Knowledge Management and Capacity Building
Under the supervision of the Regional Director, the Programme Manager has the following key functions:
Strategic Pogramme Development and Advocacy
  • Proactively assess trends and identify emerging issues at the national level of relevance to the mandate of UN Women;
  • Lead the formulation and development of the UN Women Programme Strategy based on the Corporate Strategic Plan (SP) in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment;
  • Identify strategic program opportunities, and approaches and modalities to strengthen UN Women country presence;
  • Support, monitor and assure quality control in the formulation of high quality, results-based, rights-based and relevant country programmes and projects and oversee the appraisal and approval of UN WOMEN programmes in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies;
  • Participate actively as a member of the UNCT to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment issues are well integrated into UN programming processes such as CCA/UNDAF, Country Programmes, etc.
  • Assist the RC System to secure expertise that will ensure commitment, quality control and resources for gender equality outcomes, and actively participate in country level United Nations programming processes ensuring that the UN Women is strategically placed within UN planning processes, joint programmes and other inter-agency initiatives;
  • Advocate on behalf of UN Women and its mandate to help raise awareness and stimulate action to advance gender equality and women's rights and form strategic partnerships with government, UN agencies, NGOs, academia, media and the private sector;
  • Carry out ongoing advocacy to ensure that UN support towards realization of the national plans and priorities are done in a gender responsive manner, and within agreed regional and international frameworks that promote and protect gender equality.
Programme Management and Oversight
  • Lead the management, implementation and evaluation of the country strategic plan based on UN Women's Strategic Plan (SP), and in line with regional and national priorities and in consultation with government, civil society and UN partners and stakeholders;
  • Manage ongoing program activities on gender equality and women’s empowerment and ensure delivery of agreed results;
  • Ensure UN Women’s strategic and technical support to government counterparts, non state actors and UN agencies through direct involvement and provision of advisory services as needed;
  • Oversee, monitor and assure quality control in the implementation of high quality, results-based, rights-based and relevant country programmes and projects in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies.
  • Ensure that the Programme Office has the human and financial resources and capacities needed to respond to requests for assistance and to deliver on its commitments to support and advance gender equality and to participate effectively as a member of the UN Country Team;
  • Manage staff and office in an empowering and effective manner;
  • Manage the Programme Office resources and administration to ensure proper utilization of allocated funds and accountability;
  • Use corporate monitoring and oversight tools to identify areas which need improvement;
  • Contribute to regular assessments of the regional, sub-regional and country strategic plans and implementation plans and identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to underpin consistently improved programming and future Strategic Plan development.
Representation and Partnership Building
  • Represent UN Women in UN system-wide inter-agency tasks forces to contribute to strategic and policy discussion on gender equality, and women empowerment issues;
  • Represent UN Women at inter-agency, intergovernmental, international, regional and national conferences and meetings and advocate UN Women's policy and initiatives in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment;
  • Forge strategic partnerships at the county level to promote gender equality and women's advancement through joint projects and interagency efforts;
  • Maintain active relationship/partnerships with National Government Counterparts, UN System, and agency partners, inter-government and non-governmental organizations, institutes and academia on women’s issue to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and share and influence agenda and priority setting;
  • Forge strategic partnerships with Government, UN agencies, NGOs, academia, media and private sector to stimulate action to advance gender equality and women's rights.
Knowledge Management and Reporting
  • Manage the process of collecting and disseminating lessons learned on gender equality and women's empowerment strategies and contribute to UN Women's knowledge management efforts;
  • Lead and manage the preparation of UN Women country reports as required, ensuring relevancy, quality and appropriateness of content and presentation;
  • Work with relevant UN Women units to identify and disseminate best programme and management practices;
  • Lead the development/expansion of knowledge management strategies and methodologies at the country level;
  • Contribute to the development and maintenance of global, regional and national knowledge networks and practices;
  • Produce knowledge products to meet UN Women needs and standards of quality.
Impact of Results:
The PM impact on success of the efforts to formulate and implement the UN Women Programme Strategy at the national level to promote and advance gender equality and women’s empowerment issues.

Competencies

Core Values and 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
Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:
Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation
Working in Teams:
Building and promoting effective teams
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
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
Functional Competencies
  • Substantive experience and record of accomplishment in the area of gender equality and women's empowerment issues
  • Demonstrated People Management Skills
  • Familiarity with women's rights organizations and networks in the region and globally
  • Good knowledge of UN Women and the UN system
  • Proven ability to advocate and provide policy advice
  • Ability to lead strategic planning, programme development and implementation, results-based management and reporting
  • Ability to develop and maintain strong partnerships and mobilize resources

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Master’s degree (or equivalent) in a social sciences, economics, gender issues, or other development-related fields.
Experience:
  • A Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience on gender programming issues, including 5 years field experience on gender equality and women’s rights issues with an international organization.
  • Strong familiarity with UN inter-agency cooperation would be an asset.
Language Requirements:
  • Fluency in written and spoken English; knowledge of Arabic will be considered an asset.
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.

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

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.