Job Vacancies UN Women – United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, August 2012

Job Vacancies UN Women – United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
Position: Programme Specialist
Location: United States of America ( The )
Closing Date: Wednesday, 08 August 2012

Background
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 womens 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.
Under the guidance and overall supervision of UN Womens Africa Section Chief, the Programme Specialist will provide the necessary support required to effectively manage current program needs. This includes daily support to field offices to ensure UN Womens delivery on its programs on the ground. The Programme Specialist analyzes political, social and economic trends and leads the formulation, management and evaluation of program activities within his/her portfolio, providing policy advice services.
S/he works in close collaboration with the operations team, the program staff in other UN agencies, government officials, technical advisors and experts, multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors and civil society, ensuring successful UN Women program implementation.

Duties and Responsibilities
Key Functions:
Under the supervision of the Section Chief, the Programme Specialist supports the Programme Division Directorate in carrying out its oversight and strategic program guidance as well as the roll-out of the Regional Architecture. The Programme Specialist analyzes overall trends in development and in policy making, together with constraints, opportunities, potential and challenges relevant to gender equality in program countries and at the sub-regional/regional levels.
In close collaboration with relevant HQ units, provides program support to field offices on the formulation process of projects and programs through a highly participatory process with senior management in the field and thematic advisers. Ensure the preparation and production of high quality documents and manages the development of new programs concepts as well as their approval process through Project Appraisal Committee presentation.
Monitors program performance, including delivery and impact, ensuring compliance with UN Women program goals and results-based indicators through systematic monitoring, consultations with counterparts and providing relevant and timely feedback to management and/or program team.
Provides substantive technical inputs for global initiatives on gender issues in the various thematic areas, and supports and guides the design and development of programs and projects with thematic advisers, multilaterals and bilateral partners’ technical units, governments and civil society,
Supports and advises field offices, project teams on UN Women policies and management strategies and relevant rules and regulations for achieving program delivery and for increasing accountability.
Undertakes advocacy work and develops supportive networks as requested.
Participate in resource mobilization efforts.
Manages the portfolio by monitoring programs with financial operations, ensuring compliance with applicable standards, rules and procedures, by assisting executing agents, particularly NGOs and governments, to ensure adequate delivery, increased accountability and achievement of substantive objectives.
Undertakes research and provides operational inputs in corporate exercises, including for Executive Board, CSW and General Assembly
Liaise with counterparts, HQ, thematic advisors and field offices to strengthen regional perspectives and Africa inputs, among other related tasks.
Represents Africa section in internal corporate program and policy development – i.e., Annual Work plans, program management, decentralization task forces and in external meetings as required, such as Inter-agency task teams.
Provide administrative support, as required, in processing regional projects, drafting and follow up of correspondence, support to reviewing and editing general correspondences and related tasks as requested.
Serve as a support to Programme Division in the transition process of strengthening its field capacities at country and regional levels and the roll-out of the Regional Architecture.
Undertakes any other duties assigned from time to time by the section Chief.

Competencies
Core Values/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. Demonstrate 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 policy advise
Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programs and projects and to mobilize resources
Well-developed interpersonal and communication skills
Ability to take initiative, be dynamic and promotes team/networking, knowledge sharing; creates a synergy and fosters a learning environment

Required Skills and Experience
Education:
Masters degree or equivalent in social science, international relations, law, human rights, gender/women’s studies or a closely related discipline.

Experience:
Minimum of 7 years of combined national and international level experience in related areas. At least three years in Africa is desirable.
Experience in Programme and/or Project development, management and design.
Knowledge of project development, gender analysis and mainstreaming is desirable.
Good knowledge of the Result Based Management Guide

Language Requirements:
Fluency in English. Working knowledge in French is desirable.

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.

UN Women 304 East 45th Street, 15th Floor New York, United States Tel: +1 212 906-6400, Fax: +1 212 906-6705




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