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UN WOMEN REPRESENTATIVE, LIBERIA

The 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 UN Women Representative requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues, as well as management and pogramming 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 programming in Liberia is developed within the framework of the gender priorities identified in Liberia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS), and reflected in the UNDAF.
The goal of UN Women’s presence in Liberia is to contribute to addressing gender justice and equity through sustained peace building efforts particularly addressing violence against women and girls, promoting gender equality in governance and supporting women’s economic security and rights. The following areas have been identified as strategic areas for UN Women’s support:
  1. Increased economic empowerment of women, especially of those who are most excluded;
  2. Women’s leadership in peace, security and humanitarian response;
  3. National planning and budgeting processes promote stronger institutional accountability to gender equality commitments.

UN Women’s programme is implemented within the context of Liberia as a post-conflict country emerging from 14 years of armed conflict with devastating gender dimensions, which continue to pose serious challenges to the achievement of women’s human rights and gender equality in Liberia.

The UN Women Representative represents UN Women in Liberia. She/he is responsible for ensuring effective execution of UN Women's mandate and responsibility with respect to the advancement of women. S/he is the first line of contact between UN Women and other UN Agencies, Government bodies, technical advisors and experts, multilateral and bilateral donors, civil society in general and women’s organizations in particular. The UN Women Representative participates in regional and international fora on behalf of UN Women as required from time to time.

Duties and Responsibilities

Key Functions:
  • Strategic Programme Development and Advocacy;
  • Programme Management and Oversight;
  • Human Resources, Financial Management and other operations activities;
  • Representation and Partnership Building;
  • Knowledge Management and Capacity Building.

Under the supervision of the Regional Programme Director, the UN Women Representative has the following key functions:

Strategic Programme Development and Advocacy:

  • Proactively assesses trends and identifies emerging issues at the national level of relevance to the mandate of UN Women;
  • Leads the formulation and development of the UN Women Country Programme Strategy based on the Corporate Strategic Plan (SP) in support of gender equality and women’s empowerment;
  • Identifies strategic program opportunities, and approaches and modalities to strengthen UN Women’s country presence;
  • Supports, monitors and ensures quality control in the formulation of high quality, results-based, rights-based and relevant country programmes and projects and oversees the appraisal and approval of UN Women programmes in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies;
  • Ensures the coordination of the UN Country Team (UNCT) gender mainstreaming support to ensure that gender equality and women’s empowerment issues are well integrated into UN programming processes such as CCA/UNDAF, Country Programmes, and UN coherence on gender and women’s rights is realized;
  • Assists the UN under the leadership of the Resident Coordinator 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 UN Women is strategically placed within UN planning processes, joint programmes and other inter-agency initiatives;
  • Advocates on behalf of UN Women to 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;
  • Carries out ongoing advocacy to ensure that UN support towards realization of the national plans and priorities is done in a gender responsive manner, and within agreed regional and international frameworks that promote and protect gender equality.

Programme Management and Oversight:

  • Leads the management, implementation and evaluation of the country strategic plan based on UN Women's Strategic Plan (SP); in line with regional and national priorities and in consultation with government, civil society and UN partners and stakeholders;
  • 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;
  • Manages ongoing program activities on gender equality and women’s empowerment and ensures delivery of agreed results;
  • Ensures 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;
  • Oversees, monitors and ensures 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.

Human Resources, Financial Management and other operations activities:

  • Ensures that the Country Office (CO) 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 UNCT;
  • Manages staff and the office in an empowering and effective manner;
  • Supervises management delivery targets and monitors achievement of results; manages the establishment of UN Women’s internal control framework and issuance of appropriate delegation of authorities in writing for office managers and staff;
  • Ensures the integrity of financial transactions, systems and reports by consistent application of UN Women rules and regulations;
  • Routinely monitors financial exception reports for unusual activities, transactions, and investigates anomalies or unusual transactions; and prepares the necessary reports for the attention of the Regional Programme Director;
  • Ensures that HR processes are effectively implemented including the creation of specific positions funded from non-core resources, classification of local positions, recruitment, learning, etc.
  • Ensures that procurement processes are effectively implemented including the proper use of procurement methods, solicitation processes, award and management of contracts, asset management, etc.
  • Be responsible for the effective implementation of all audit issues relating to the management of the UN Women CO. In particular the UN Women Representative shall ensure that the relevant audit recommendations are addressed in a timely and effective manner;
  • Ensures the identification of all significant risks and takes appropriate action including the implementation of a risk management strategy;
  • Manage the CO resources and administration to ensure proper utilization of allocated funds and accountability in line with UN Women policies and procedures;
  • Use corporate monitoring and oversight tools to identify areas which need improvement.

Representation and Partnership Building:

  • Represents UN Women in UN system-wide inter-agency tasks forces to contribute to strategic and policy discussion on gender equality, and women empowerment issues;
  • Represents 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;
  • Forges strategic partnerships at the county level to promote gender equality and women's advancement through joint projects and interagency efforts;
  • Maintains 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;
  • Forges strategic partnerships with Government, UN agencies, NGOs, academia, media and private sector to advance gender equality and women's rights;
  • Identifies strategic alliances as well as identifies opportunities to attract or leverage resources;
  • Supports resource mobilization for UN Women within the framework of the CO strategic plan and annual work plans.

Knowledge Management and Reporting:

  • Manages 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;
  • Leads and manages the preparation of UN Women country and donor reports as required, ensuring relevancy, quality and appropriateness of content and presentation;
  • Works with relevant UN Women units to identify and disseminate best programme and management practices;
  • Leads the development/expansion of knowledge management strategies and methodologies at the country level;
  • Contributes to the development and maintenance of global, regional and national knowledge networks and practices;
  • Produces knowledge products to meet UN Women’s needs and standards of quality.

Impact of Results:

The results of the work of the UN Women Representative greatly impacts on the standing and reputation of UN Women in the country. The UN Women Representative represents UN Women in international and national fora, liaises and interacts on behalf of UN Women with external clients and partners including government, media, civil society as well as other international organizations. She/he is accountable for the timely and effective delivery of the UN Women programme and a proactive response of UN Women to changes in the country context.

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;
  • 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 social sciences, economics, gender issues, or other development-related fields.

Experience:

  • A Minimum of 10 years responsible experience on gender programming issues and 5 years field experience on gender equality and women’s rights issues with an international organization will be an asset;
  • Strong familiarity with UN inter-agency cooperation would be an asset.

Language Requirements:

  • Fluency in written and spoken English. Knowledge of another UN language is an added advantage.
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.
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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.