Gender and Human Rights Advisor, P-5, FTA, ASRO

The Position:

 

The Gender and Human Rights Advisor serves in UNFPA’s Arab States Regional Office, in Cairo, Egypt, and is under the overall supervision of the Regional Director and reports directly to the Deputy Regional Director. As the principal advisor at the regional level for programme, technical and policy advice in gender and human rights, s/he works closely with relevant staff in the regional office (RO) ensuring integrated support to country offices (COs).

 

The Advisor plays a leadership role in strengthening protection systems for advancing human rights and promoting and protecting sexual and reproductive rights, leading on GBV programming (including in emergencies), as well as advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment - seeking to address social and gender norms.

 

How you can make a difference:

 

UNFPA is the lead UN agency for delivering a world where every pregnancy is wanted, every childbirth is safe and every young person's potential is fulfilled. The UNFPA Strategic Plan, 2026-2029 is a roadmap for resilience and renewal, aimed at ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health, realizing reproductive rights, and accelerating the implementation of the Programme of Action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), more than 30 years after its historic adoption in Cairo in 1994. Grounded in the ICPD Programme of Action, the Strategic Plan focuses on four interconnected outcomes: (a) Accelerating progress on meeting the unmet need for family planning; (b) Accelerating progress on ending preventable maternal deaths; (c) Accelerating progress on ending gender-based violence and harmful practices; and (d) Adapting to demographic change through evidence and rights-based policies.

UNFPA is seeking candidates that transform, inspire and deliver high impact and sustained  results; we need staff who are transparent, exceptional in how they manage the resources  entrusted to them and who commit to deliver excellence in programme results. 

 

Job Purpose:

 

The Gender and Human Rights Advisor provides technical, policy and programmatic support across the region, to ensure the regional and country offices remain abreast of  UNFPA’s policies and programme strategies, as well as current thinking, innovation and academic advancement in the substantive area of gender equality and social norms change and human rights.

The Advisor analyses regional trends, and contributes to action in response to these, and ensures that gender and human rights are adequately addressed within regional and national development frameworks and programmes, including the achievement of the SDGs, ICPD Programme of Action, the African Union Agenda 2063 and relevant League of Arab States outcome documents / decisions.

 

In all activities, the Advisor works within an interdisciplinary team providing integrated policy, programme and technical support to the region and the respective country teams - working across humanitarian and development contexts. The Advisor also liaises with other regional teams, especially other Programme Advisors, ensuring the timeliness, adequacy, relevance and quality of support to UNFPA country offices. The Advisor also collaborates within the broader organization across other regions and with the Headquarters teams working on gender and human rights.

 

You would be responsible for: 

 

Strategic advice and programme oversight

• Provide technical, policy and programme leadership, management advice and  guidance in gender equality and human rights, with a focus on strengthening regional and national protection systems for GBV, advancing gender equality and empowerment of  women and girls, and ensuring reproductive rights (using a human rights based, gender transformative and development, peace responsive and humanitarian nexus approach); 
• Identify and provide analysis and advice on promoting gender equality, human rights, and human rights-based programming and UNFPA’s comparative advantage and  specific contribution in the changing development agenda and participate in related  policy dialogues and advocacy at global, continental and regional and sub-regional levels;
• Provide oversight of the regional dimensions of the global programmes on child marriage and FGM, and ensure effective integrated implementation across RO and COs;
• Identify and analyze trends, threats and risks related to the promotion and realization of gender equality and human rights that may affect the ICPD PoA, 2030 Agenda,  AU Agenda 2063, and UNFPA’s work in the Arab region, and ensure that they are appropriately addressed at the regional and/or sub-regional levels;
• Support the integration and implementation of strategic action to engage men and boys to advance progress toward gender equality and the protection of the rights of women and girls as well as positive masculinity and aspects of gender, diversity and  inclusion; 
• Contribute to the development and implementation of an integrated strategy for the delivery of technical assistance and programme support in the region and manage the gender and human rights components of the regional programme as per identified priorities in close coordination with the technical teams;
• Contribute to the substantive elaboration and contextualization of the UNFPA Strategic Plan and to its implementation in the region with focus on gender and social norm change as well as focusing on reaching the furthest behind;
• Identify requirements for and contribute to the development of new or updated policies, positioning, frameworks, guidance, standards, instruments and tools to ensure UNFPA is addressing the region-specific gender and human rights agenda;
• Participate in the UNFPA gender and human rights networks, maintaining communication and feedback loops on all substantive work.

Technical support and capacity development

• Advise COs on the implementation and proper application of UNFPA policies, strategies, guidelines and tools on gender equality and women’s empowerment (including protection from GBV),  with a focus on promoting positive gender and social norm change;
• Provide technical support in applying gender transformative approaches to programming, documenting practices and strengthening evidence on effective approaches to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Ensure that evidence-informed thinking and research on gender and human rights is integrated within the work of the regional/country offices and partnership networks, including through strengthening intersectionality and interlinkages between gender equality, sexual and reproductive health, adolescents and youth and population and development sectors;
• Review products of technical support at key stages of UNFPA, UN, and national development planning exercises, including reviewing draft CCAs, UNSDCF, and CPDs;
• Analyze technical and programmatic and substantive reports from the field and recommend required follow-up actions;
• Organize and contribute toward regional and inter-country capacity development activities in gender equality and women’s empowerment, social and gender norm change, positive masculinities, and human rights for COs, national/regional counterparts;
• Support the regional adaptation of training materials, manuals and tools in gender and human rights, including mainstreaming gender and human rights in programming and advocacy, and ensure their availability and promote their use for capacity development;
• Support country offices on the work of international and regional human rights  mechanisms with a mandate to promote, monitor and protect sexual and reproductive health and rights, and promote a life free of violence, including tracking  and supporting the implementation of recommendations of the Universal Periodic  Review of the Human Rights Council, UN Treaty Bodies and Special Procedure  mandate-holders;
• Work with country offices to support civil society networks and organizations such as national Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs) advocating gender equality and women’s empowerment and human rights including sexual and reproductive health and rights;
• Support the development of regional institutional capacities to promote gender equality and to deliver high-quality technical support in gender transformative  approaches to programming as well as human rights-based programming; 
• Ensure quality technical support received at the country level, for gender  and human rights, for effective policy dialogue and programming - including across development and humanitarian contexts, especially GBV in emergencies programming;
• Coach and manage relevant professional/support staff and consultants, if any, on  gender transformative approaches and human rights-based programming and facilitate working groups and task teams.

Evidence and knowledge management

• Play a key role in strengthening, coordinating and monitoring regional knowledge, through evidence-informed gender and human rights programming, impact evaluations and documentation of promising practices, including in other thematic knowledge platforms;
• Contribute to developing a mechanism to share technical skills and knowledge within  and among programme countries and/or other regions in gender and human rights;
• Facilitate and support the use of tools that effectively capture best practices, partnerships and consultant rosters and help ensure their accessibility  to all relevant colleagues at RO and CO levels;
• Collect, analyze and synthesize information/data and experience and prepare white  papers, briefings and materials on gender and human rights to be used in national,  regional and global advocacy; 
• Coordinate analysis and synthesis of substantive trends, emerging needs and  research findings in the region in order to produce new, cutting-edge technical  knowledge;
• Coordinate the reporting on Regional UN-SWAP on gender mainstreaming and  supports the countries in Arab States to report timely using the analysis to further  strengthen the institutional mainstreaming of gender equality; 
• Disseminate and promote the use of state-of-the-art technical knowledge, evidence,  lessons learned, and success stories and ensure their use to improve the  effectiveness of UNFPA programming.

Management and coordination of knowledge networks

• Coordinate overall provision of technical support to the country offices in the region in gender equality and women’s empowerment, with a specific focus on GBV as well as gender and social norms. This will include leading relevant communities of practice of country focal points, as well as participating in appropriate global communities of practice and result-focused networks;
• Develop and coordinate the substantive elements of partnerships and collaboration in GBV prevention and response - across development and humanitarian contexts - with other UN agencies, particularly with the regional technical arms of these agencies, as well as with regional institutions;
• Identify sources of technical knowledge among institutions and consultants; and
• Establish and maintain relationships with institutions in the region.

Technical representation, advocacy and partnership development

• Represent UNFPA to further enhance UNFPA’s regional and global role in the field of gender, protection from GBV and human rights;
• Participate in policy advocacy, knowledge generation and high-quality programming;
• Participate in policy dialogue and advocate for substantive progress of gender and  human rights in international, inter-governmental, U.N., and other policy and  technical meetings and fora;
• Collaborate with UN agencies, academia, research and training institutions, think  tanks, centers of excellence, and other key stakeholders in the region to advance  gender and human rights;
• Participate as the focal point for inter-agency working groups on gender and human rights issue-based coalitions, where relevant, as part of the regional  collaborative platform;
• Liaise with respective counterparts corporately including the UNFPA Programme Division to identify opportunities for South-South  and triangular cooperation in the region and with other regions.

Carry out any other duties as may be requested by the Regional Director and/or the Deputy Regional Director.

Qualifications and Experience:

 

Education:

• Advanced university degree or equivalent in gender studies, anthropology, public health, medicine, sociology, human rights, law, cultural studies, international  development, or another field directly related to GBV prevention and response.

Knowledge and Experience:

• At least 10 years of increasingly responsible professional experience in GBV programming, gender mainstreaming, and/or rights-based programming, of which seven years at the international level;
  
  Knowledge and understanding of a Human Rights based approach essential;
• Extensive experience in gender mainstreaming and programming for women’s development;
• Experience in evidence informed policy advocacy for gender and human rights and development of national actions plans to address gender and social equity;
• Demonstrated experience in leading capacity building initiatives in gender and human rights in development settings;
• Knowledge and experience of working on social protection and Civil Society involvement in related security & protection;
• Strong track record of technical leadership, and proven ability to produce demonstrable  results;
• Demonstrated ability to network within the academic and development community;
• Familiarity with UN systems and procedures, management and monitoring tools;
• Field experience - including both humanitarian and development contexts - is strongly desirable;

Languages:

• Fluency in English and Arabic is required; knowledge of French is highly desirable.

Required Competencies 

 

Values:

• Exemplifying integrity, 
• Demonstrating commitment to UNFPA and the UN system, 
• Embracing cultural diversity, 
• Embracing change    

Core Competencies:

• Achieving results,
• Being accountable,
• Developing and applying professional expertise/business acumen,
• Thinking analytically and strategically,
• Working in teams/managing ourselves and our relationships,
• Communicating for impact 
  
   

Managerial Competencies:

• Providing strategic focus
• Engaging staff and partners
• Leading, developing and empowering people/creating a culture of performance
• Making decisions and exercise judgment.

Compensation and Benefits:

This position offers an attractive remuneration package including a competitive net salary plus health insurance and other benefits as applicable.

UNFPA Work Environment:

UNFPA provides a work environment that reflects the values of gender equality, diversity, integrity and healthy work-life balance. We are committed to ensuring gender parity in the organization and therefore encourage women to apply. Individuals from the LGBTQIA+ community, minority ethnic groups, indigenous populations, persons with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are highly encouraged to apply. Reasonable accommodation may be provided to applicants with disabilities upon request, to support their participation in the recruitment process. UNFPA promotes equal opportunities in terms of appointment, training, compensation and selection for all regardless of personal characteristics and dimensions of diversity. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is at the heart of UNFPA's workforce - click here to learn more.

Disclaimer:

Selection and appointment may be subject to background and reference checks, medical clearance, visa issuance and other administrative requirements. 

UNFPA does not charge any application, processing, training, interviewing, testing or other fee in connection with the application or recruitment process and does not concern itself with information on applicants' bank accounts. 

Applicants for positions in the international Professional and higher categories, who hold permanent resident status in a country other than their country of nationality, may be required to renounce such status upon their appointment.