Programme Manager - Women, Peace and Security (Open to Sri Lankan Nationals Only)

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 women’s rights at the center of all its efforts. The UN Women’s Multi Country Office (MCO), based in New Delhi, India, covers four countries of the region i.e.  Bhutan, India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka.

With regards to the Women, Peace and Security Agenda, UN Women recognizes that ongoing and emerging conflicts have devastating consequences, including the widening of development gaps between women and men. Women frequently make up the bulk of displaced and refugee populations and are disproportionately targeted for sexual violence. Despite being at the forefront of peace movements, women are rarely part of formal peace negotiations.

UN Women acts to build women’s participation and influence in decision-making to prevent and resolve conflicts and works towards more inclusive and peaceful societies. UN Women’s programmes on women, peace and security are guided by a series of commitments to women’s rights. These include the historic UN Security Council Resolution 1325, and seven supporting resolutions—1820, 1888, 1889, 1960, 2106, 2122 and 2242. Other key reference points are the Beijing Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), specifically CEDAW General Recommendation no. 30 on women in conflict prevention, conflict and post-conflict situations.          

In the aftermath of war in 2009, Sri Lanka has made several commitments to peacebuilding, reconciliation and good governance, and represents a historic opportunity to advance accountability and reconciliation as necessary steps towards long term and sustainable peace. In this regard, the Sri Lanka Peacebuilding Priority Plan (PPP) was developed, in collaboration with the UN, to serve as the framework for a coordinated Government, UN and development partners’ response to peacebuilding in Sri Lanka. The PPP places emphasis on integrating gender perspectives within its framework. It recognises existing barriers to women’s effective participation in peace processes and post-conflict political transitions as a critical challenge to sustainable peacebuilding in Sri Lanka, and aims to ensure that peacebuilding initiatives in the country include leveraging women’s capacities and contributions, and developing strategies for inclusion which recognize their roles, and diverse experiences of conflict.

In this context, funded by the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund (PBF), UN Women, in partnership with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the United Nations Volunteers Programme (UNV), is implementing a project on strengthening ‘Participation of Women and Youth in Peacebuilding Processes in Sri Lanka’.

Under the overall guidance and direction of the Representative, UN Women MCO, the Programme Manager for Women, Peace and Security (WPS) exercises overall responsibility for designing, implementing, managing and monitoring planned activities, and effectively mitigating unforeseen risks of the UN Women component of the PBF Project. She/he works in close collaboration with the Programme and Operations team, UN Women HQ, ROAP and MCO staff, Government officials, multi and bilateral donors and civil society for successful implementation of the project.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

• Strategic direction and development of UN Women’s WPS portfolio in Sri Lanka;
• Overall management of the PBF Project and supervision of the Programme team;
• Strategic partnership building and resource mobilization support;
• Advocacy, knowledge building and management, and communication efforts.

Strategic direction and development of UN Women’s Women, Peace and Security portfolio in Sri Lanka, focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Contribute to research and analysis on issues related to the Women, Peace and Security agenda in the country, including identification and synthesis of global, national and sub-national good practices and lessons learned;
• Contribute to inter-agency coordination to achieve harmonization and alignment with other in-country efforts on Women, Peace and Security;
• Identify opportunities for joint programming on Women, Peace and Security in Sri Lanka;
• Coordinate the development of policies and the strengthening of institutions that address WPS issues and needs in collaboration with the Government and other strategic partners;
• Design programme initiatives which translate UN Women’s Women, Peace and Security priorities into local interventions;
• Advise on mainstreaming the WPS agenda in relevant ongoing and future joint programmes implemented by UN Women through supervision and inputs to programme design and implementation, results based management, administrative and financial management, evaluation and reporting.

Overall management of the UN Women component of the PBF project and supervision of the Programme team, focusing on quality control of the full cycle of programming from formulation to implementation achieving the following results:

• Provide strategic oversight to planning, budgeting, implementing, management, monitoring and coordination of the project operations and personnel;
• Establish appropriate execution mechanisms and systems for management of the project budget including tracking the use of financial resources, in accordance with UN Women rules and regulations;
• Expedite and coordinate project implementation by establishing collaborative relationships with executing agencies, experts, government counterparts and other UN agencies, facilitating timely and efficient delivery of inputs;
• Provide oversight on the contracting of project services to implementing agencies, ensuring compliance with UN procedures; oversee the release of funds to counterparts, liquidation of funds and other processes;
• Manage technical assistance, mentoring, training and capacity development initiatives for project partners;
• Establish appropriate mechanisms for monitoring the achievement of results, including effective application of Results Based Management (RBM) tools, and implementation of the M&E framework for the project, with specific and measurable indicators;
• Monitor and analyze quality of project design and implementation, and periodically update the project monitoring framework incorporating reviews, lessons learned, and good practices;
• Be responsible for the timely preparation and quality control of all substantive technical reports, briefs and required documents, including donor reports;
• Effectively manage the Programme Team.

Strategic partnership building and resource mobilization support focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Develop and manage partnerships with other UN Agencies, government institutions, bilateral and multilateral donors, academia, private sector, civil society, media etc. to achieve project outcomes;
• Determine programmatic areas of cooperation, based on strategic goals of UN Women, country needs and donors’ priorities;
• Develop and implement resource mobilization strategies including donor mapping, preparation of substantive briefs on new areas of cooperation with current and potential donors, and identification of opportunities for cost-sharing;
• Provide substantive support to inter-agency coordination groups and mechanisms on Women, Peace and Security.

Advocacy, knowledge building and management, and communication efforts focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Lead the development of knowledge management strategies, products and methodologies on Women, Peace and Security;
• Ensure that knowledge is retrieved from the implementation of project activities through periodic reporting, documentation of meetings, analysis of project documents and lessons learned exercises, and other means; ensure that this knowledge is effectively documented and systematized and fed back into programme development;
• Establish and contribute to the strengthening of existing advocacy networks at the national level, and support engagement and knowledge sharing with international networks;
• Implement relevant, high-impact advocacy campaigns with key partners;
• Contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice;
• Organize trainings for the operations/ projects staff for effective programme management.

Any other duties assigned by the Representative.

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 lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
• Ability to lead formulation and monitoring of management projects;
• Ability to lead business processes re-engineering, implementation of new systems (business side), and affect staff behavioral/ attitudinal change;
• Ability to build strong relationships with clients, focusing on impact and result for the client and responding positively to feedback;
• Ability to model and promote transparency, honesty and openness;
• Ability to lead teams effectively, demonstrating emotional intelligence and good judgment. Good  mentoring as well as conflict resolution skills;
• Demonstratable understanding of client’s perspective;
• Demonstratable respect for confidentiality when dealing with individual staff members issues.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in Social Sciences, Gender/Women’s Studies, Peace and Conflict Studies, International Development or related field.

Experience:

• 7 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects;
• Experience in establishing inter-relationships among international organization and national governments, preferably in the field of gender and human rights of women;
• Experience and understanding of implementing gender equality and women’s empowerment programmes and initiatives;
• Technical knowledge and previous experience on the Women, Peace and Security agenda is desirable;
• Prior experience of working in the UN system will be an asset;
• Prior experience of working in the region/Sri Lanka will be an asset.

Language:

• Fluency in written and spoken English and language of the duty station (Sinhala/Tamil).

Application Information:

Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from  http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• 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 will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.

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.