UN WOMEN: COUNTRY REPRESENTATIVE - Bogota, COLOMBIA

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, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations 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 launched its programme in Colombia in early 2002 following a series of consultations which enabled UN Women to identify a number of sectors and issues as priority programmes for the next four years. These include strengthening institutions within government and civil society to support gender equality and women’s rights, engendering the legal and judicial reform processes, supporting women’s leadership, initiatives on women’s economic empowerment at the national and community levels, and promoting women’s human rights and protection against violence. In addition to the above, UN Women also actively participates and contributes to various UN inter-agency processes and collaborates with UN organizations around specific programme areas. The most outstanding feature of the Colombian context is an over 45-year persistent internal armed conflict, strongly linked to a permanent humanitarian crisis as well as to drug trafficking networks for the past two decades. From 1995 to 2011, violence associated to this conflict has generated over 3,700,000 internally displaced persons (nearly 8% of the country’s total population), 49% or which are women. As of 2010, UN Women has intensified its intervention in those territories most intensely affected by the armed conflict and displacement, through inter-agency agreements with the UN System, particularly UNDP. UN Women Colombia has implemented a bidirectional intervention strategy, working both in national and state level political spaces and with female organizations in territories. This has allowed them to activate policy and law making processes, and at the same time has facilitated local collective action processes that permit putting pro women rights governmental provisions into practice. UN Women’s goal in Colombia is to promote the rights of women and ensure inclusion of women in peace and reconstruction processes in Colombia. UN Women currently has four core areas of focus to its programme, including support to: Mainstreaming gender across government institutions, systems, policies and programs, with special emphasis on Ministry of Women’s Affairs. Support to the capacity development of the sub-national governance for ensuring gender concerns are addressed at provincial levels. Developing an economic security and rights strategy building on UN Women’s past experience in supporting such initiatives. Gender justice including promotion of women’s political participation, elimination of violence against women and access of women to justice. The UN Women Country Representative reports to the Director, Regional Center who provides general direction and guidance. The incumbent is responsible for translating the UN Women's Strategic Plan (SP), in line with regional and national priorities, into development initiatives and results by developing, implementing and managing programs and projects; and developing effective partnerships with Government counterparts, UN system agencies and 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.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions: Strategic country program development and planning. Country program management and oversight. UN inter-agency coordination. Representation and advocacy. Strategic partnerships and resource mobilization. Knowledge management. Strategic program development and planning Assess national social development trends and identify emerging issues of relevance to the mandate of UN Women to identify opportunities for development planning to advance UN Women goals and objectives in the country. In close consultation/collaboration with national development stakeholders and partners, identify strategic program opportunities, approaches and modalities to strengthen UN Women country presence and relevance. Lead the formulation, planning and preparation of the Country SP based on UN Women's SP and regional and national priorities, in collaboration/consultation with government, civil society, UN partners and stakeholders and Director, Regional Center and Director, Programme Division. Manage and ensure the completion of high quality, results-based and rights based country programs and projects. Oversee the appraisal and approval of UN Women programs in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies. Country program management and oversight Establish the country office annual work plans in collaboration and discussion with the team and set objectives, performance measurements, standards and expected results. Ensure regular program monitoring and evaluate progress for timely action and intervention to achieve results. Set performance plans and evaluation standards. Regularly conduct performance assessments, provide feedback and guidance to ensure optimum performance and accountability according to UN Women standards of integrity, ethics and accountability framework. Oversee, monitor and ensure quality control in the implementation of high quality, results-based and rights-based for country programs and projects in line with corporate policies, guidelines and strategies. Establish Country Office (CO) security strategy, plan and measures that are in full compliance with UN security policies, procedures and requirements, to ensure the protection and well-being of staff and their dependents as well as to minimize risks in program planning and operations. Lead and manage the country budget preparation and submission processes to ensure budget proposals are correctly presented and submitted in a timely manner. Monitor the utilization of allocated funds to ensure transparency and compliance with UN Women financial policies and accountability framework. Decide on the optimum and appropriate allocation and management of CO resources. Lead and manage the preparation of UN Women mandated country reports and submit timely reports ensuring relevancy, quality and appropriateness of content and presentation. Contribute to regular assessments of the regional, and country strategic plans and implementation plans and identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to underpin consistently improved programming and future SP development. Plan and manage monitoring and evaluation of programs and projects. Evaluate results and take appropriate action UN inter-agency coordination Participate actively as a member of the UN Country Team (UNCT) to ensure that gender equality and women's empowerment issues are fully integrated into UN programming processes such as Comprehensive Country Assessment (CCA)/ UN Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), Country Programs, etc. Provide leadership and guidance to the UNCT in supporting enhanced response to national partners in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment and UN Reform. Support the coordination and promotion of accountability within the UN Resident Coordinator System to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment and UN Reform. Advise the UNCT on the implementation of key policy commitments to gender and women's rights. Partner with UN system and agencies to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and joint ideas to influence agenda and priority setting. 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 development, facilitate joint programming and promote UN Women competencies to advance gender equality and women's human rights Representation and advocacy Represent UN Women in the UNCT to contribute to the mainstreaming of UN Women’s policies in joint programming and initiatives, under the leadership of the UN Resident Coordinator. Represent UN Women in intergovernmental forums and other key meetings and events, as designated/appropriate to speak on policy issues, participate in policy dialogue, discuss policy initiatives, report on progress achieved and/or present policy papers/ideas to influence setting of agenda and/or advocate UN Women competencies and mandate. Participate in regional, country and other critical meetings and events to evaluate the impact and efficacy of UN Women policies and programs and provide input in strategic discussions and provide technical advice on policies and programs. Advocate on behalf of UN Women to help raise awareness and stimulate action to advance gender equality and women's rights. 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 international frameworks that promote and protect gender equality. Strategic partnerships and resource mobilization: Maintain active relationship and partnership with the Government, NGOs, UN system and agency partners, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, regional commissions, institutes, academia, media, and private sector on women's issues to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and/or share ideas and to influence agenda and priority setting. Conceptualize, design and implement country resource mobilization strategies. Plan and oversee the implementation public information and fund raising events. Knowledge management: Introduce innovation and best practices to enhance program and operational performance. Collaborate with UN Women units and other internal and external development partners to identify and/or share best program and management practices. Lead and manage the process of developing, capturing, institutionalizing and disseminating lessons learned to build the capacity of clients and stakeholders and contribute to UN Women knowledge management efforts. 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 successful performance of the UN Women Country Representative of his/her key functions directly result in effective and strategic development, implementation and management of high quality country programs and projects and achievement of quality results which in turn directly impact on the credibility and image of UN Women as an effective and efficient partner and as the leading knowledge-based technical and advocacy organization for gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Competencies

Core values and guiding principles: 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 promote ethics and integrity by creating organizational precedents. Organizational Awareness: Build support for the organization and ensure political acumen. Development and Innovation: Support staff competence development, and contribute to an environment of creativity and innovation Work in teams: Build and promote effective 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. Communication and Information Sharing: Create and promote an environment for open and 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: Share knowledge across the organization and build a culture of knowledge sharing and learning Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Ensure fair and transparent decision making processes and manage risk Functional competencies: Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision from the spectrum of development experience. Strong negotiation, advocacy and interpersonal skills Proven expertise in writing cogent and convincing documents Strong communications and public speaking skills Proven analytical and problem solving skills Good planning, goal-setting and prioritization skills. Effectiveness in establishing and fostering good relations with government counterparts, UN agencies, donors, and NGO partners. Effectiveness in strengthening accountability and results-based management in supporting organizational priorities, policy and decision-making processes.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Master's degree or equivalent in development related disciplines, economics or public policy or other social science fields. Experience: A minimum of 10 years of extensive development experience that combines strategic and managerial leadership in aid development cooperation, some of which in gender and women’s issues programming, at the international level, preferably in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds or Programs or UN Mission. Language: Written and oral proficiency in English and Spanish is required. Knowledge of an additional UN official language will be 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.

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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.