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Gender Humanitarian Coordination and Partnership Specialist

The UN Women (UNW), 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.

Mali is currently in a severe institutional, political and humanitarian crisis as a result of the resurgence of the Touareg rebellion and the military coup on 22 March 2012. In addition, conflict and displacement in northern Mali continue to exacerbate the existing food and nutrition crisis as a result of drought in the Sahel. In view of this situation, UNW Mali Office has revised its programme to integrate new dimensions related to (i) strengthening capacities of women leaders to participate in the negotiations related to the transition and the peace building process (ii) promotion of renewable energy for rural women’s empowerment in the context of the food crisis and climate change (iii) prevention and service delivery to victims of violence and rape in Mali’s Northern conflict (iv) coordination for mainstreaming in the humanitarian response provided by the UN and aid agencies.

UN Women is playing a lead role to ensure the humanitarian clusters take into account the gender dimension and that post-conflict needs assessment and humanitarian programs are gender responsive. In this regard, UNW coordinated the development of an interagency strategy on Gender and Humanitarian Response and has taken steps to contextualize the UN Secretary General’s 7 Point Action Plan on Women’s Participation in Peace building.

To ensure UNW can live up to its coordination role and respond to the various demands from donors to support the integration of gender in humanitarian action, a Coordination and Partnerships Specialist is needed to support the Country Representative.

The Coordination and Partnerships Specialist reports to the Country Representative for guidance and supervision and is responsible for the implementation of the interagency strategy on Gender and Humanitarian Response and the 7 Point Action Plan on Women’s Participation in Peace building. The Specialist will participate in Mali’s aid and humanitarian coordination mechanisms, including providing the Technical Secretariat of the Gender Donor Thematic Group. The Specialist will also support the Country Manager for resource mobilization and communication. The Specialist will promote a partnership-oriented approach consistent with UN Women Mali’s Country Programme and UNW’s Global Strategic Plan.

The Specialist works in close collaboration with programme staff of the UNW Mali Office, the Coordination Specialist as well as the Communications and Resource Mobilization Officer of the Regional/Sub-Regional Office for guidance and timely information delivery

Duties and Responsibilities

Support the implementation of the of the Inter-Agency strategy for mainstreaming gender in UNCT’s humanitarian response and the 7 Point Action Plan on Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding:

  • Provide programmatic support to integrate a gender perspective in the overall strategic planning, design, programming and gaps of humanitarian clusters and other humanitarian programmes (CAP, CERF) coordinated by the UN Country Team;
  • Support the collection and analysis of sex- and age-disaggregated data as well as streamlining the needs assessment, collection and analysis process so that it can be more effective in meeting the needs of internally displaced men and women in response programmes;
  • Strengthening the capacities of UN staff (including the Donor Gender Theme Group), government counter parts and civil society organizations on mainstreaming gender in the humanitarian response;
  • Develop and use a gender marker to measure financial resources dedicated to the humanitarian actions that will be developed by the UN system (CERF and other emergency projects that will be implemented by the UN in Mali);
  • Develop a gender responsive monitoring and evaluation framework to monitor the progress in gender mainstreaming by using inter alia the framework and checklists in the gender handbook and guidelines, adapting the checklist items to existing monitoring and reporting mechanisms;
  • Support the Government, in particular the Ministries in charge of women’s affairs and humanitarian affairs to mainstream gender equality in the Government’s humanitarian response, the development rapid response projects/programs targeting internally displaces women;
  • Support the implementation of the 7 Point Action Plan on Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding in collaboration with UN agencies;
  • Document the process and lessons learned from mainstreaming gender equality in the humanitarian response in Mali.

Position gender in aid coordination mechanisms:

  • Provide the technical Secretariat of the Donor Thematic Gender Group and the UNDAF Gender Group (monitoring of annual work plan, organization of meetings, prepare agenda’s, meeting minutes, technical brief and background notes, actively manage the mailing list, assure flow of information between members and the technical pool, prepare annual progress reports);
  • Represent CPM where necessary in aid coordination mechanisms (quarterly Donor Presidents’ Meeting, monthly donor coordination meetings, etc).

Support partnership building and resource mobilization:

  • Coordinate the implementation of the Resource Mobilization Strategy, and prepare final 2012 report;
  • Update a mapping and database of bilateral and multilateral donors, private sector actors, foundations and trust funds to support the identification of funding opportunities at country level;
  • Develop concept notes and project/program proposals for submission to potential donors in collaboration with Program staffs and other UN agencies for the development of Joint program proposals;
  • Support the HQ resources mobilization branch to submit proposals to foundations and National UN Women Committees;
  • Participate in the UN Partnership and Resource Mobilization Thematic Group.

Raise the visibility of the country programme through increased communication:

  • Coordinate the implementation of the Office’s Communication Strategy (part of the RM strategy);
  • Prepare press releases, photo and press kits to provide coverage of UNW activities in Mali and major events;
  • Review and finalize articles for website and internal and external bulletins;
  • Provide input for the UN Country Team Newsletter, WARO newsletter and Africa newsletter;
  • Support website development;
  • Coordinate submissions and the publication of a monthly Bulleting on Gender and Humanitarian Action with the Ministry in charge of Women’s Affairs and Donor Thematic Group;
  • Contribute to the implementation of WARO’s communication Strategyocument the process and lessons learned from mainstreaming gender equality in the humanitarian response in Mali.

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;
  • Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating synergies through self-control;
  • Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements;
  • Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Learning and sharing knowledge and encourage the learning of others.

Functional Competencies:

  • Excellent writing skills in French and English: Ability to draft concise and informative documentation for a range of purposes (press releases, articles, progress reports);
  • Analytical skills to draw out key issues and present concise information;
  • Oral communication, interpersonal and networking skills;
  • ITC skills, including use of camera.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Master’s Degree in Social sciences, International Relations, Communications, Business or Public Administration.
Experience:
  • Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience in programme management related to gender and humanitarian action/gender, peace and security;
  • At least 3 years of professional work experience in the area of resource mobilization, partnerships and communication, or equivalent experience, including work in developing countries, preferably with the UN and/or another international development agency or NGO;
  • Experience in the usage of communication tools and web based management systems an advantage.
Language Requirements:
  • Fluent written and oral proficiency in English and French is required.

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.