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UN WOMEN: POLITICAL PARTICIPATION ADVISER

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 center 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.
UN Women launched its Regional Center in Cairo following a series of consultations which enabled UN Women to identify a number of sectors and issues as priority programmes for the next years. As per the Arab States regional strategy, the priority areas of work are (i) expanding women’s leadership and participation; (ii) enhancing women’s economic empowerment; (iii) ending violence against women; and (iv) Institutionalizing gender in Governance with a focus on gender responsive budgeting and planning. In addition to the above, UN Women also actively participates and contributes to various UN inter-agency processes and collaborates with U.N. organizations around specific programme areas.
The scope of work of the Political Participation Adviser requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender equality and women’s political empowerment issues, to translate UN Women`s strategic plans in the area of political participation into effective programmes and results. It also requires developing mutually reinforcing partnerships with relevant Government counterparts, UN organizations, and CSOs.

Under the supervision of the Arab States Regional Director, the Political Participation Adviser based at the Regional Center in Cairo is expected to engage proactively on women’s leadership and political participation issues with local and regional figures to help advance women political participation in the Arab Region and deliver on the following key functions.

Duties and Responsibilities

Key Functions:
  • Analysis and monitoring of trends, opportunities and challenges
  • Programme development and technical support
  • Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, regional and international actors and development partners.
  • Knowledge management and reporting

Under the supervision of the Regional Director, the Political Participation Adviser has the following key functions:

Analysis and monitoring of trends, opportunities and challenges

  • Provide policy recommendations, strategic advice and proposed courses of action to the Regional Director and Country Representatives.
  • Establish and maintain close working contacts with national partners and regional actors, civil society, and international organizations in the region
  • Maintain up-to-date knowledge of political events and integrate information and analysis in support of policy development, analysis, outreach and advocacy.
  • Contribute to the drafting and delivery of briefings to senior management and other officials as required.
  • Prepare analytical reports, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, correspondence and talking points;
  • Liaise with key national, regional, and local stakeholders from Government and civil society and key international actors to build up and strengthen strategic alliances and partnerships on political participation initiatives.
  • Represent UN Women at inter-governmental and regional meetings on women’s political participation in the region;
  • Propose plan of action for immediate and long range actions on Women’s political participation in the region;
  • Work closely with colleagues of UN Women’s Leadership and Political Participation, Peace and Security teams across the organization to identify promising practices, technical expertise, and strategic opportunities for enhancing women’s political participation as well as the effectiveness of women political actors in advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Programme development and technical support

  • Manage and be responsible for the overall implementation of the Arab State UN Women Regional Political Participation programme;
  • Assist country offices in developing and strengthening policies to scale up efforts to increase women’s participation as candidates and voters;
  • Work closely with UN Women country offices in the Arab Region and provide programme support to develop and implement programmes at the local and national level to enhance women’s political influence;
  • Promote coordination and participation in joint activities with various stakeholders to work collaboratively in pursuit of the shared goal of increasing women’s political participation such as: UN agencies, Women’s National Machineries, civil society, Inter-governmental organizations and regional women’s networks

Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, regional and international actors and development partners.

  • Support the building of strategic alliances and partnerships for women political participation related strategies and initiatives;
  • Maintain close liaison with relevant donors and other actors supporting women political participation efforts in the region;
  • Support the country offices mobilizing resources for the implementation of women political participation initiatives.
  • Maintain close contact with relevant staff in UN Women Headquarters.

Knowledge Management and Reporting

  • Manage the process of compiling reports and lessons learned on Women’s political participation and contribute to UN Women's knowledge management efforts;
  • Work with relevant UN Women teams to identify and disseminate lessons learnt and good practices in the area of political participation;
  • Contribute to the development of the regional knowledge hub and propose plans to enrich its political participation coverage.
Impact of Results:
The Political Participation Adviser impact on success of the efforts to formulate and implement the UN Women Political Participation programmes and initiatives in the Arab Region to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment in the political sphere.

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 political participation;
  • Demonstrated People Management Skills;
  • Familiarity with the Arab Region, 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 political science, social sciences, international relations, law, gender issues, or other development-related fields.

Experience:

  • A minimum of 10 years of experience on political issues, and preferably including 5 years field experience in the area of governance and political participation.

Language Requirements:

  • Fluency in written and spoken English.
  • Working knowledge of Arabic is an assett.

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.