Background
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UNDP Afghanistan Mission Statement:
UNDP supports stabilization, state-building, and governance and development priorities in Afghanistan. UNDP support, in partnership with the Government, the United Nations system, the donor community and other development stakeholders, has contributed to institutional development efforts leading to positive impact on the lives of Afghan citizens. Over the years UNDP support has spanned such milestone efforts as the adoption of the Constitution; Presidential, Parliamentary and Provincial Council elections; institutional development through capacity-building to the legislative, the judicial and executive arms of the state, and key ministries, Government agencies and commissions at the national and subnational levels. UNDP Programmes in Afghanistan have benefited from the very active support of donors. UNDP Afghanistan is committed to the highest standards of transparency and accountability and works in close coordination with the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan and the UN system as a whole to maximize the impact of its development efforts on the ground.
The Gender Equality II is collaboration between the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and UNDP Afghanistan. It aims to develop effective gender mainstreaming models and strengthen the capacity of government ministries and institutions. The Project is in line with the goals set out in the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS) for gender equity and consistent with the National Action Plan for Women of Afghanistan (NAPWA) and Millennium Development Goals of gender equality and empowerment of women. The Project has three components: 1) Enhancement of MOWA’s capacity for policy making and oversight for NAPWA implementation; 2) Development of Women’s entrepreneurship skills and capacity building of women cooperatives in 19 provinces; and 3) Increasing access to justice for women including awareness on women’s rights among men and women. The Project activities will be implemented to expand best practices identified from the pilot phase in co-operation, co-ordination and public sector effectiveness for gender mainstreaming, promotion of gender equality and strengthening of the position of women, with selected key government and non-government partners in a few specific locations. A strong partnership with civil society organizations will ensure effective implementation of some of the components of the Project and simultaneously serve as a bridge between government agencies and communities thereby modeling government-nongovernmental organizations co-operation, co-ordination and synergy for the sustainable development of Afghanistan. The Project is being implemented under the Direct Implementation modality of UNDP.
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Duties and Responsibilities
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Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Project Manager, the Project Management Specialist (Economic Empowerment) will provide technical and capacity building support for the economic empowerment of women, especially rural women at the sub-national level (regional and provincial offices) to ensure effective implementation of their work as well as in collaboration with other organizations to ensure national ownership over the process. S/he will support the Regional Coordinators and Project Officers at the provincial level in their role of providing necessary support to the government counterparts as well as other service providers for developing and implementing an integrated package of support of business development services (BDS) to address the needs of women for their economic empowerment in a comprehensive and sustainable manner that will continue even after the duration of the project. These activities will be implemented in accordance with UNDP’s regulations as well as in accordance with the Annual Work Plan of the project during its duration.
Summary of key functions:
- Implementation of UNDP Strategies to promote gender equality and women’s economic empowerment for equitable service delivery especially at the sub-national level.
- Ensuring appropriate programme design and delivery at the national and sub-national levels
- Provision of support for capacity development of the target groups in collaboration with other development partners from different backgrounds
- Strategic Partnership & Networking and support to resource mobilization
Implementation of UNDP Strategies to promote gender equality and women’s economic empowerment:
- Support the Project Manager in programme design and delivery through the development of strategic framework and work-plans based on the identification of the economic empowerment needs of women and development of need-based activities , in consultation with major stakeholders to achieve the project’s major goal and objectives with an emphasis on the sub-national level.
- Provide support and policy advice to the offices of Provincial Governors and District Governors as well as the Departments of Women’s Affairs (DOWA) and other sub-national level institutions including traditional institutions in implementing strategies for gender equality and women’s economic empowerment at the sub-national level.
- Identify strategic programme areas of cooperation between key players in areas of women’s economic empowerment and gender equality at the sub-national level.
- Analyze, present and interpret UNDP’s gender equality policies to enhance awareness of beneficiaries at the sub-national level with an emphasis on a long-term economic empowerment of women.
Ensuring appropriate Programme Design and Delivery at the national and sub-national levels:
- Provide technical and managerial support to the national and sub-national institutions on women’s economic empowerment, including visioning, conceptualization and design of targeted inputs on this dimension.
- Support sub-national institutions of different categories in carrying out planned activities for addressing the location-specific needs of women to develop their potential for economic empowerment by providing overall coordination, monitoring and implementation of the project at the provincial, district and community levels.
- Provide expert advice on programme and operational management including, but not limited to, selection procedures for contracting implementing partners at provincial and district levels with the approval of the Project Manager.
- Develop work and action plans, financial oversight, progress reporting against outputs and deliverables, coordination and cooperation between provincial partners, Project and CO for achieving the project’s outputs and outcomes as contained in Pillar 2: Development of Women’s entrepreneurship skills and capacity building of women cooperatives in 19 provinces.
- Use RBM tools to assess and evaluate the outcome of project implementation in the context of Pillar 2 for women’s entrepreneurship development as building the capacity of women-owned cooperatives; provide regular progress and delivery report to the Project Manager.
- Analyze, identify and recommend amendments to the planned activities for enhancement of project delivery at the national, provincial and district levels for a sustained economic empowerment of women.
Provision of support to capacity building and facilitation of knowledge building and management in sub-national institutions:
- Assess, identify context-specific needs and design training for local counterparts at the provincial and district levels including the capacity development of service providers to ensure that the gender perspective is integrated into the trainings and mobilize strategies carried out by NGOs/CSOs for community and local religious leaders and other community leaders.
- Map and document the outcome of capacity development activities at regular intervals to incorporate them into monthly and quarterly reports.
- Support Regional Coordinators and Project Oficers of the provinces in designing and implementing a gender sensitive monitoring and evaluation framework in coordination with other implementing partners that would ensure the economic empowerment of women is achieved on a sustainable basis.
- Promote the socio-economic empowerment of Afghan women at the sub-national level by addressing the major constraints inhibiting their development of their entrepreneurial potential and design and implement appropriate interventions for the development of their full potential in close consultation with the project staff at the sub-national level. Facilitate the establishment and management of women’s knowledge-based networks for the dissemination of best practices and lessons learned on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.
Strategic Partnership and Networking, and support to resource mobilization:
- Extend technical support to the Regional /Project Officers in developing strategic partnerships and strengthening linkages and coordination mechanisms with NGOs, Gender Working Groups (GWG), donors, UN agencies, government institutions, NGO networks and local community leaders and mullahs and community grass roots organizations for the implementation of the GEP’s activities.
- Conduct trainings for the concerning officials at the Provincial/district levels including service providers of line ministries in the implementation and scaling up of programme activities in areas of outreach through strategic partnerships with key stakeholders at the district and village level (i.e. Mullahs) in collaboration with the Provincial Coordinators of GEP
- Implement the project partnerships and resources mobilization strategies to achieve project outcomes at the sub-national level.
- Enhances coordination and partnerships in women empowerment field with the UN Agencies, government institutions, donors, private sector, civil society etc.at the sub-national level.
- Analyze and undertake research of information on donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for cost-sharing at the provincial and district levels.
Key Expected Results:
The key results have an impact on the overall effectiveness and success of UNDP’s interventions and activities in achieving the country’s key development objectives as well as those of the Afghanistan Millennium Development Goals (MDG) with special focus on the economic empowerment of women. The key results of the post will be to contribute towards enhanced capacity of national institutions for the economic empowerment that would ensure the sustainability of the interventions and also for the long-term improvement of women’s economic potential. Simultaneously, the initiatives driven by this position would result in improved performance in the delivery of service providers from different backgrounds to achieve gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.
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Competencies
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- Promoting ethics and integrity, creating organizational precedents
- Building support among the major stakeholders
- Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation
- Facilitating the development of effective teams
- Contributing the creation of an enabling environment for open communication
- Creating an emotionally intelligent organization
- Leveraging conflict in the interests of UNDP & setting standards
- Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning.
- Promoting learning and knowledge management/sharing is the responsibility of each staff member.
- Fair and transparent decision-making; calculated risk-taking.
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Required Skills and Experience
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Education:
- Master’s Degree or equivalent in Development Economics, Social Sciences, International Relations, Political Sciences or related field.
Experience:
- Five (5) years of relevant experience at the national or international level focused on gender mainstreaming, hands-on experience in design, monitoring and evaluation of gender development projects and establishing inter-relationships among international organization and national governments.
- Minimum of 3 years of experience in community development/local governance programme focused on women’s economic empowerment.
- Experience in working with government bodies, preferably at the sub-national level and civil society organizations in conflict/post-conflict countries
- Experience in capacity development with local/provincial government counterparts.
- Availability and willingness to undertake field visits.
- Commitment to gender equality; knowledge and understanding of major gender issues in Afghanistan vis-Ã -vis the country’s cultural, political and development landscape
- Sound technical experience with gender analysis, community-based and participatory approaches
- Demonstrated ability to liaise, network and collaborate with a myriad of stakeholders and partners, including government, civil society, international organizations and grassroots organizations.
Language:
- Fluency in English required. Fluency in Dari and/or Pashtu is an asset.
Submission of Applications:
Please make sure to submit the following required documents for your application: Completed P.11 Form. The form is available http://www.undp.org.af/Jobs/index.htm Updated CV and Motivational Letter (Cover Letter) explaining your suitability and interest applying for this job.
Incomplete applications or applications received after the closing date 23rd December 2012 will not be given consideration. Please note that only applications who are short-listed will be contacted.
For more detailed information about UNDP Afghanistan please visit our website at www.undp.org.af
- Successful candidates must be prepared to start work within 3 weeks of the offer of appointment.
- Internal candidates who have served a minimum of 12 months in the current assignment are invited to apply.
- Female candidates are highly encouraged to apply.
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