Program Support Officer

In Afghanistan, UN Women works in four thematic areas i.e., Governance and Participation, Ending Violence Against Women, Women Economic Empowerment, and Women Peace and Security (WPS). On Women Peace and Security, UN Women is catalysing the UN system and supporting Afghanistan to deliver on the women, peace and security agenda and enhanced capacities and opportunities for gender equality advocates to participate in peace processes at all levels. UN Women ACO assists the Government of Afghanistan to implement their commitments on women, peace and security and more women and civil society organizations and those actors with gender equality agendas, influence peace, and security processes. UN Women’s priority outcomes for WPS in Afghanistan are the following: (i) supporting an enabling environment for the implementation of WPS commitments; (ii) ensuring that women are represented and meaningfully participate in all peace and security, peacebuilding and recovery processes, including formal and informal peace negotiations processes; and (iii) supporting gender-responsive security sector and justice reforms. Under the overall guidance from the Country Representative and Deputy Representative, the WPS Analyst will report directly to the Head of WPS Thematic Area and will support engagement with civil society, as well as with government counterparts and support coordinating, and monitoring of UN Women interventions implemented through civil society organizations and selected government institutions.

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.
UN Women Afghanistan focuses on reaching women who are most at risk and marginalized populations, in particular gender-based violence survivors, female headed households, women IDPs and returnees, women with disabilities, older women, and adolescent girls. Women, who comprise more than half of the population in Afghanistan have been hit hard by this crisis, especially women who are unemployed, women suffering from poverty, women-headed households, and women in rural areas who’s their livelihoods and income generation activities have been disrupted or lost. These women will be supported through livelihoods interventions. UN Women will support women in target areas, including in host communities and informal settlements, to secure alternative sources of income through livelihoods opportunities including Cash Based Interventions and development of capacities and skills. This will provide women with emergency livelihood protection and support—urgently needed given a looming economic collapse and associated crisis in the formal banking sector. This is in addition to Cash for Work and unconditional cash transfers which will be addressed to specific groups of women depending on the extent of needs mainly women- headed households across the country.
Under the oversight of the Country representative and the Deputy Country Representative, directly reporting to the Programme Manager, The Programme Support Officer will be contributing to programming modalities design, implementation, and close follow up with partners.

The UN Volunteer will report to the WEE Programme Manager, and will undertake the following tasks:

Coordination and stakeholder engagement

• Engages in women business networks and communities and establishes strong linkages with UN Women
• Supports in coordination with women business networks, AWCCI and other relevant stakeholders
• Supports relevant, high-impact advocacy activities and campaigns with key partners of the UN Joint Programme.
• Support field monitoring of projects and in beneficiary engagement

Events and Logistics

• Coordinate meetings, managing schedules, drafting meeting minutes and ensuring follow-up with relevant stakeholders.
• Support organization of events and workshops and take care of logistics required
• Support translation of small documents, presentations if required and translation during field visits

Travel and logistics

• Support travel arrangement such as preparation of travel plans, submission of travel requests in the system and support related administrative and security clearances in the system
• Keep abreast of travel-related rules and regulations and support the team and events accordingly

Research and Knowledge Products

• Keep abreast of researches, studies and data related to Afghan Economy and Women’s businesses and create and update general situation update regularly
• Support field research and consultations as required

Additionally,

• UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers Programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:
• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day).
• Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country.
• Provide annual and end of assignment self- reports on UN Volunteer actions, results, and opportunities.
• Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.
• Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly arrived UN Volunteers.
• Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.