Programme Specialist, Governance and Leadership

Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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 women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations System’s efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

UN Women’s programme in South Sudan focuses  four key results areas: (1); Women's leadership and participation in gender responsive governance enhanced; (2) Women in South Sudan, especially the poorest and most excluded are economically empowered and benefit from development; (3) Women and girls live a life free from violence; (4) Peace and security and humanitarian actions in South Sudan are shaped by women leadership and participation Increased women’s access to education opportunities is cross cutting and supports all 4 result areas.

The Women’s leadership and gender-responsive governance will support actions that enhance women’s effective leadership and participation in decision-making and governance at national, state and local government structures and processes. The component will also support gender responsive governance, which is vital for equitable delivery of basic services to women and men. In addition, the capacity of women leaders in national and state legislatures will be strengthened to enhance individual responsiveness to gender equality issues and women’s concerns, and effective performance in legislative processes through leadership skills training. Support will also be channeled to engender the planning and budgeting processes as well as enhancing institutional and organisational capacity of women’s organisations to deliver on their mandate and to lobby, advocate and demand the gender responsive governance. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance and leadership of the Country Representative, and under the direct supervision of the Deputy Representative, the Programme Specialist, Political Participation and Leadership is responsible for the formulation, management and implementation of programmes under his/her portfolio. She/he provides technical expertise on gender equality and women’s empowerment with a holistic approach to address opportunities and challenges in women’s political participation and leadership in South Sudan.

The Programme Specialist analyses political, social and economic trends; provides policy advisory services to partners in government, UN, development partners, CSOs and academia; and works closely with UN Women thematic advisors at regional office and at headquarters, ensuring successful implementation of the UN Women South Sudan Strategic Framework 2014 -2018, under his/her portfolio. The Programme Specialist provides regular analysis of policies and practices to senior management and compiles lessons learned for formulation of strategic interventions, including support on resource mobilization.

Project Management:

• Design, manage and implement UN Women South Sudan’s programming on women and governance; in particular, structured support to government ministries and civil service in national and local government; support to women elected officials at national and local level; support to women’s civil society organizations;
• Develop annual work plan for implementation of outputs and generation of results. Ensure high-quality, evidence-based, results-oriented reporting on the results generated;
• Develop, manage and oversees project budget, in consultation with the Deputy Country Representative  including the management of programming funds received for the programme component;
• Undertake training and monitoring needs assessment for legislators;
• Develop training modules and guidelines on leadership and management;
• Lead work on gender responsive budgeting;
• Identify, design, and implement areas for strategic intervention on legislative policy and advocacy;
• Ensures procurement and staffing requirements of the programmes are met and comply with UN WOMEN and UN rules and regulations;
• Supervision and coordination of all administrative and financial matters related to the project. 

Capacity Building:

• Assess the capacities and needs of partners and design, implement, monitor and evaluate a capacity building strategy to meet these needs;
• Arrange and facilitate workshops, trainings for women political actors, government partners and civil society organizations.

Partnership and Networking:

• Support public outreach and liaise with high level stakeholders and beneficiaries, developing strategic partnerships and strengthening linkages with relevant stakeholders and partners in both South Sudan and globally;
• Support the selection of partners for project implementation in line with UN Women rules and regulations;
• Serve as key liaison person to government bodies at national and local level.

Advisory Function:

• Serve as a key advisor for UN Women South Sudan on issues of capacity building, legislation and women political actors, remaining up-to-date with governance actors, ideas, activities and initiatives.

Monitoring and Evaluation:

• Ensure the effective monitoring and evaluation of all governance activities, projects and initiatives, advising UN Women on areas for strengthening activities, while taking the initiative to engage in proactive and remedial action in a timely manner to strengthen projects.

Impact of Results:

The Programme Specialist will implement UN Women South Sudan’s programming on governance with the aim of supporting South Sudanese women to be active partners in ensuring that governance structures and mechanisms respond to the needs of women and men in South Sudan. 

Competencies

CORE VALUES / GUIDING PRINCIPLES: 

Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff.  Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity. 

Professionalism: Professionalism at UN Women means that we are champions of the UN Women mandate. We embrace and promote our shared mission, striving to implement positive change globally in the lives of women and girls. We aim for women and men to work together as equal partners. We see women and girls, together with men and boys, as agents of change for the benefit of all humanity.

CORE COMPETENCIES:

Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues: 

• Take Consideration of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues and the application of this awareness by treating all members of UN Women equally and with respect;
• Knowledge of gender based disadvantages, discrimination and inequality; formed from a shared understanding that there are socially determined differences between women and men, which affect women and girls experience of equality;
• Modify behavior and interactions at work to overcome biases and assumptions regarding socially constructed roles of men and women, girls and boys;
• Ensure all actions demonstrate zero tolerance for sexual harassment and abuse of power to ensure that all behavior supports UN Women’s commitment to gender equality practices.

Accountability:

• Demonstrate individual responsibility for achieving UN Women’s priorities and ensure these outcomes are achieved to the highest standard with the resources available;
• Plan and organize work with a clear and deliberate focus, ensuring commitments are easily identified and progress is widely communicated;
• Exhibit ownership for assigned responsibilities by conscientiously working to fulfil commitments through to completion.  

Creative Problem Solving:

• Ensure behaviors and interactions are inclusive and supportive of different perspectives and opinions;
• Demonstrate behaviors that value individual differences and work to leverage alternative viewpoints to identify creative solutions and enhance outcomes;
• Collaborate with team members to identify new ways of working that enhances existing practices to improve performance;
• Promote organizational learning and knowledge management by sharing subject matter expertise and share key lessons learnt.

Effective Communication:

• Develop written communication that are clear, concise and easily understood;
• Ensure verbal communication in one-on-one or group situations is adapted to suit the audience;
• Consider the cultural context when developing materials and key messages to ensure communications are relevant to the audience.  

Inclusive Collaboration: 

• Promote inclusive practices by creating opportunities for team members to collaborate. Support team members with their participation by demonstrating respect for diverse points of view;
• Encourage the inclusion of all team members and stakeholders by building relationships across cultural and gender differences within UN Women;
• Adapt the delivery of our work to account for different perspectives and cultures. 

Stakeholder Engagement: 

• Identify key stakeholders, this may include influential figures within UN Women or within the broader UN community, or external stakeholders;
• Engage key stakeholders to identify issues, options and desired outcomes in the delivery of our mandate;
• Communicate regularly and openly with key stakeholders to ensure they are engaged and consulted with. 

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Promotes knowledge management in UN Women and a learning environment in the office through leadership and personal example;
• Development and Operational Effectiveness;
• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
• Ability to lead the formulation and monitoring of management projects;
• Solid knowledge of financial and human resources management, contract, asset and procurement, information and communication technology, general administration;
• Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds; 
• positive to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills;
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master`s  degree (or equivalent) in social sciences, political science, international affairs, international development studies, gender/women’s studies, human rights or a related technical field.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of relevant experience programming on women in governance and leadership. Knowledge of and country experience in the governance system of the country is desirable;
• Demonstrated knowledge and understanding of programming for gender-responsive governance and leadership;
• Experience providing high level policy advice and technical assistance on women, governance, leadership and participation;
• Experience engaging in results oriented in-country capacity development. Experience supporting women’s organizations in conflict and post conflict situations is desirable;
• Professional project management, monitoring and evaluation experience;
• Experience working within the UN and knowledge of UN Women is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Outstanding oral and written communication skills in English;
• Knowledge of South Sudan’s  spoken and written local languages;
• Knowledge of other UN languages such as Arabic is an asset.

Application Information:

• 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, scan your documents into one single file. 

Qualified women candidates are highly encouraged to apply.

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.