Header

UN WOMEN: PROGRAMME SPECIALIST - Kigali, RWANDA

UN Women, grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations (UN), 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 leads and coordinate UN system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
UN Women relies on a wide range of partnerships to fulfill its mandate, which include governments and intergovernmental organizations, civil society organizations, including women’s NGOs and grassroots organizations, networks, the academia, multilateral partners and faith based organizations. Its support is aligned with commitments to gender equality and women’s human rights as agreed in international and regional framework such as the MDGs, the Beijing Platform for Action, CEDAW, the Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa and the Protocol on Women Human Rights in the African People Charter.
The Central Africa Region is predominantly defined by conflict, crisis and post conflict recovery reconstruction and development. The region is very vast and disconnected given the size of DRC and other countries. UN Women is consolidating and expanding its work and presence in Rwanda, a country of strategic significance, among 8 other countries in Central Africa, under the purview of the UN Women Central Africa Sub Regional Office (SRO), in Kigali. UN Women's work in Rwanda is moving forward in the areas of Peace and Security, HIV and AIDS, Economic Security and rights.
To this end, UN Women's Regional Office in Central Africa seeks to recruit an international Programme Specialist specialized in programme development and implementation, policy & project analysis and resource mobilization. Under the overall supervision and guidance of the Regional Programme Director (RPD) of the Central Africa Sub-Region, the Programme Specialist guides Senior Management on macro-economic policy, trends and relevant linkages to UN Women programmes and action. S/he provides the analysis framework for formulation of strategies and regularly briefs the RPD on regional developments of political, social and economic significance. The Programme Specialist works with Governments and counterparts in the region to identify alternative macro-economic policy options and to enhance the policy impact of UN Women projects and programmes in the region.

Duties and Responsibilities

Note:
UN Women is currently in the process of strengthening its field capacities at country and regional levels, including through structural changes. This process may necessitate limited changes to the precise functions described below.
Duties and Responsibilities
The Programme Specialist will take the lead in managing the day-to-day implementation of UN Women's Sub-regional Portfolio, under the overall strategic guidance and direction of UN Women's Central Africa Regional Office RPD and is responsible for providing specialized technical and strategic support to the Sub-regional portfolio in managing all aspects of program management and related activities in the office and region.
Summary of key functions:
  • Advisory and technical support
  • Programme development, management, monitoring and oversight.
  • Advocacy and support to UN coordination and joint programming as well as maintain a network with colleagues from UN agencies, Government officials, multilateral and bilateral donors, civil society organizations and lead UN Country Team (UNCT) thinking on gender.
  • Knowledge management and capacity building – support to the region in preparation for the delegation of authority.
Description of Duties :
Advisory and technical support
  • Advise, support, guide and provide input to assure quality control in the formulation of relevant, high quality, results-based and rights-based country programs and projects;
  • Provide strategic and specialized technical advice to the RPD on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support effective program planning, implementation, monitoring and timely progress reporting;
  • Review and evaluate proposals submitted to the SRO and oversee the preparation of donor proposals and reports to ensure quality, compliance with requirements as per established rules, regulations, including the commitments under relevant United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF) and the UN Women global Strategic Plan. Take timely action to take any corrective action to meet standards for submissions;
  • Prepare policy document, briefs and other strategic papers and materials for the RPD for use in the development and presentation of a coherent regional perspective to help define regional strategic and plans of action for implementation;
  • Assess the country level and sub-regional level annual work plans and present RPD with recommendations and conclusions to assist in development planning.
  • Provide guidance and support to UN Women national partners on governance and gender issues in general and by strategically linking to the work being done on Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Millennium Development Goals (MDG), national development strategies, Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action (BPFA), Paris Declaration and subsequent regional and global reviews
  • Facilitate and undertake a thorough analysis of regional situation pertaining to the status of gender equality, identifying gaps, major social and institutional barriers to women's active participation in the political and economic development, mobilizing partners and resources around priority issues, establishing criteria for prioritization and targeting UN Women programming interventions, and providing rationale for UN Women regional short-term and long-term strategy
  • Provide support to UN Women Gender Advisors to conceptualize, develop and implement overall country strategies, specifically in the areas of governance, economic security underpinning support to national development priorities, the UNDAF and Comprehensive Country Assessment (CCA) or any other framework for UNCT priorities, the country's gender equality priorities, ensuring holistic programming approach and coherence between UN Women programmes, projects, activities and partnerships, and identifying existing and missing capacities, resources and partnerships necessary to implement the country strategies
  • Conceptualize and provide substantive inputs for new programmes and project proposals within UN Women strategic directions of work;
  • Review and provide feedback to ongoing projects on project-related strategies and documents, work-plans, case studies and related knowledge products and publications as requested and needed
  • Assist the RPD and HQ with resource mobilization efforts, including follow-up with donor agencies. Broker support from governments, UN agencies and other bilateral and multilateral aid organizations, and establish linkages with their work
Programme development, management, monitoring and oversight
  • Plan, implement and/or supervise the support provided to the sub-regional portfolio, including country offices and sub-regional programmes, to ensure timely and appropriate services are provided as required. Identify areas of competencies and/or weakness to ensure focused and targeted services are provided;
  • Recommend and/or set monitoring standards, criteria and other indicators for measuring and assessing progress/results;
  • Monitor the progress on, mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators and timely take action/decision and/or provide timely support;
  • Lead the annual process of gathering information and prepare reports for HQ on progress of program implementation, assessing results and identifying areas for RPD action and/or decision to ensure achievement of results as planned and in accordance with UN Women goals and objectives and accountability framework;
  • Identify areas that may require improvement and capture best practices/lessons learned, using corporate monitoring tools;
  • Manage the timely allocation of funds to sub-regions and countries. Monitor and ensure the appropriate utilization of resources approved and allocated to regional programs and projects that are managed by the SRO;
  • Substantive and good quality proposals following the established rules, and regulations, and adhering to the Strategic Plan and Annual Work plans;
  • Sustainable and solid relations developed with counterparts, resulting in the enhanced reputation and credibility of UN Women;
  • Under the oversight of the RPD, backstop the Operations Manager in preparing and providing guidance to the offices on the whole process of audit exercises, oversee the collection and verification of accurate and complete documentation for audit review, advice on the preparation of responses to audit and monitor the timely and full implementation of audit recommendations and required actions.
  • Utilize effectively ongoing coordination mechanism to ensure coherence of the UN Women programmes with other processes in the country including national development policy-making, UN programming and coordination processes (UNDAF, UN Gender Theme Group, etc.), donors' council work, etc for a more holistic and coherent approach to programme implementation;
  • Ensure high-quality, results-oriented reporting, for internal and external audiences (e.g. UN, donors), including providing guidance to ongoing programmes and projects in the submission of timely, quality reports and contributions, where necessary. Develop, manage and oversee programme budgets, as needed, in consultation with UN Women SRO and HQ, and in close collaboration with administrative and financial staff
  • Ensure effective information flow, communication and coordination within the countries between UN Women programmes, projects and activities
  • Ensure timely and proper documentation of the programme implementation in accordance with the UN Women Documenting Guide
Advocacy and support to UN coordination, joint programming and reform
  • Support the RPD and country level representatives in establishing and maintaining effective consultations with governments, partners, stakeholders and donors to achieve active collaboration, cooperation and alliances on program development and implementation, resource mobilization and sustained partnerships;
  • Upon the request of the RPD, represent UN Women in UNCTs as appropriate/delegated to consult, collaborate and/or interact on common issues and activities and participate in the UNDAF/CCA process to ensure the active participation of UN Women in these processes to advance gender equity and women's human rights On behalf of the sub-regional portfolio and in partnership with country-level UN Women Representatives, actively seek out participation of UN Women in UN system thematic and other working groups to establish effective network and to keep abreast of ongoing debate and thinking on aids development, facilitate joint programming and promote UN Women competencies and interests to advance gender and women's human rights.
Knowledge management and capacity building – support to the region
  • Ensure regular assessments of the regional and sub-regional strategic and implementation plans. Identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to guide program improvements and future strategic development plan;
  • Manage the process of collecting and sharing lessons learned on gender equality and women's empowerment to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders;
  • Design and implement capacity building training activities to enhance skills and knowledge in Results Based Management, Results based budgeting and systematic quality assurance;
  • Contribute to the development and maintenance of global and regional program knowledge networks and practices, and development of knowledge products.
Impact of Results:
  • The effective support provided to the RPD in the management of programs and operations in the office and the region directly impact on the quality of UN Women program development, implementation and results that in turn directly impact on the credibility and image of UN Women as an effective partner for regional and country organizations and as a competent knowledge based organization on gender equity and women's human rights issues.

Competencies

CORE VALUES:
Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.
Core Competencies:
Ethics and Values:
Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity
Organizational Awareness:
Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment
Development and Innovation:
Take charge of self-development and take initiative
Work in teams:
Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
Communicating and Information Sharing:
Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication
Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:
Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others
Conflict Management:
Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:
Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge
Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:
Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making
FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES
  • Ability to provide top quality policy advice services on economic issues
  • Ability to ensure development and operational effectiveness
  • Ability to analyze data, apply conceptual models and policy frameworks.
  • Ability to lead formulation and evaluation of development programmes and projects
  • Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them for development results
  • Ability to apply economic theory to the specific country context, carry out high-quality economic research
  • Ability to communicate clearly, both written and oral as well develop and communicate advocacy strategies
  • Ability to problem-solve and think creatively to develop and implement smart business solutions in a challenging socio-economic environment
  • Builds strong client relationships, focuses on impact and results for the client
  • Ability to work under pressure and with multi-disciplinary and multicultural teams and possess excellent inter-personal skills, and ability to monitor progress against milestones and deadlines

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, economics, human rights, gender/women's studies, international development or a related field
Experience:
  • Minimum of 7 years of relevant experience at the national, regional and/or international level in economic policy research and analysis
  • Experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of development projects with sound macroeconomic and modeling background
  • Experience with Results Based Management principles and approaches will be an asset;
  • Experience from Africa will be an asset.
  • Managerial experience in the UN or an international organization and familiarity with the sub-region will be an asset
  • Experience in the usage of computer and office software packages, experience in handling web-based management systems and advanced programmes for statistical and data analysis
Language Requirements:
  • Proficiency of oral and written English and French is required.
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.