Gender and Adolescent Girls Specialist

UNICEF promotes the rights and wellbeing of every child, in everything we do. Together with our partners, we work in 190 countries and territories to translate that commitment into practical action, focusing special effort on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded children, to the benefit of all children, everywhere.

In all of its work, UNICEF takes a life-cycle based approach, recognizing the particular importance of early childhood development and adolescence. UNICEF programmes focus on the most disadvantaged children, including those living in fragile contexts, those with disabilities, those who are affected by rapid urbanization and those affected by environmental degradation.

UNICEF was created with a distinct purpose in mind: to work with others to overcome the obstacles that poverty, violence, disease and discrimination place in a child’s path. We advocate for measures to give children the best start in life, because proper care at the youngest age forms the strongest foundation for a person’s future.

We promote girls’ education – ensuring that they complete primary education as a minimum – because it benefits all children, both girls and boys. Girls who are educated grow up to become better thinkers, better citizens, and better parents to their own children. We act so that all children are immunized against common childhood diseases, and are well nourished: no child should suffer or die from a preventable illness. We work to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people because it is right to keep them from harm and enable them to protect others. We help children and families affected by HIV/AIDS to live their lives with dignity.

We are UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund.

The fundamental mission of UNICEF is to promote the rights of every child, everywhere, in everything the organization does — in programmes, in advocacy and in operations. The equity strategy, emphasizing the most disadvantaged and excluded children and families, translates this commitment to children’s rights into action. For UNICEF, equity means that all children have an opportunity to survive, develop and reach their full potential, without discrimination, bias or favouritism. To the degree that any child has an unequal chance in life — in its social, political, economic, civic and cultural dimensions — her or his rights are violated. There is growing evidence that investing in the health, education and protection of a society’s most disadvantaged citizens — addressing inequity — not only will give all children the opportunity to fulfil their potential but also will lead to sustained growth and stability of countries. This is why the focus on equity is so vital. It accelerates progress towards realizing the human rights of all children, which is the universal mandate of UNICEF, as outlined by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, while also supporting the equitable development of nations.

Gender equality is essential to realizing the mandate of UNICEF to uphold the rights of all children. The UNICEF Gender Action Plan (GAP), 2022–2025, operationalizes the UNICEF Gender Policy, 2021–2030, by specifying how UNICEF will promote gender equality across its programmes and workplaces. It affirms that promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is the responsibility of everyone, regardless of organizational role.

This UNV Gender Specialist for UNICEF Nepal country Office will report to the Deputy Representative – Programme, in close collaboration with the Field Offices and the sector and cross-sectoral areas.

With the support of Senior Management, the UNV Gender Specialist will support to accelerate the gender mainstreaming and adolescent girls’ agenda by catalysing gender issues across sectors, strengthening the cross sectoral synergies and contributing to integrate the gender approach in programme outcomes and institutional results.

• Provide technical guidance throughout all stages of programming to facilitate the management and delivery of results contributing to gender equality in alignment with the Gender Action Plan.
• Support the development, implementation, and monitoring of high-quality gender and adolescent girls’ programming/projects across sectors including in humanitarian situation in alignment with the Gender Action Plan.
• Support to implement action plans as per recommendation from Gender Programmatic Review and as per Gender Strategy and action plans developed recently.
• Represent UNICEF and provide technical and coordination support on gender issues in UN LNOB/GESI (Leave No One Behind/ Gender Equality and Social Inclusion), ROSA gender meetings, share progress on gender-related initiatives, and follow up on action points.
• Provide technical input and review on the gender components in program documents and in the design of funding proposals.
• Support capacity building of staff on adolescent agenda and on gender integration, monitoring of indicators and reporting of gender results.
• Ensure knowledge management and sharing of best practices and results on gender across country office.
• Ensure utilization of the budget allocation and expenditure on gender.
• Consolidate gender-related data for Core Standard Indicators (CSIs), COAR and prepare an annual gender thematic report.
• Other tasks related to the assignment may be required by the supervisor.