Field Specialist (Open to Kyrgyzstan Nationals Only)

Background

UN Women was established by GA resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence, with a mandate to assist Member States and the UN system to progress more effectively and efficiently towards the goal of achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women.

Since 2001 UN Women (previously as UNIFEM) in Kyrgyzstan has been implementing catalytic initiatives on promoting women’s economic, political and social rights. In 2012 a full Country Office was established.

The position is in support of UN Women Kyrgyzstan’s Women, Peace and Security cluster that is primarily funded by the UN Peace-building Fund in support of realizing the Peace-building Priority Plan (PPP) and the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF), both agreed between the Kyrgyz Republic and the United Nations.

The position relates to UN Women project activities aimed at building positive relationships and interaction across the Batken-Sughd provinces’ border through facilitating the engagement of women and girls in these processes. UN Women will seek to empower women at household and community level so that they can play a larger role in formal and informal interactions across the border in village clusters in Batken and Leilek districts of Batken province of the Kyrgyz Republic. UN Women will work towards promoting gender equality by involving - especially young - women in all aspects of public life and economic activity, and by building support systems to ensure their rights, especially those related to living a life free of violence. UN Women activities focus on bridging ethnic divisions by promoting equal opportunity regardless of ethnic origin, by facilitating side-by-side and cross-border learning of life- and livelihood skills and by actively building knowledge of how to be a good citizen based on respecting diversity. In the border area of Batken and Sughd, UN Women works in close coordination and collaboration with FAO, UNDP, UNICEF and WFP.

The Field Specialist promotes a client-oriented approach consistent with UN Women rules and regulations and commits to high standards of quality, productivity and timeliness in the delivery of tasks. The Field Specialist will apply the highest standards of integrity and impartiality.

The incumbent will be fully dedicated to the mandate and the values of UN Women, particularly to promoting Gender Equality as a strategy to reduce conflict, improve livelihoods and ensure fairness and justice; to Women Empowerment underpinning Gender Equality promotion efforts; to inter-ethnic tolerance and concord; and to respect for diversity. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Under direct supervision and guidance of the International UN Women Programme Specialist on Women, Peace and Security in Kyrgyzstan and in daily collaboration with the Project Coordinator on the Women, Peace and Security portfolio, the Field Specialist will provide substantive programmatic and administrative services to the implementation of the UN Women activities in the area of Women, Peace and Security in the country, specifically in regard to interventions in the border area between Batken and Sughd.

The Field Specialist will:

Conduct Regular Field Missions of several day duration to remote areas.

• Prepare for, mobilise and conduct missions, liaise with partners and arrange for all logistics.
• Conduct training workshops and monitoring visits, participate in roundtable discussions, provide supervision support and prepare for each input.
• Document the findings/results/lessons learned and follow-up actions required, obtaining stakeholder commitments to time-bound action and subsequently monitoring implementation. 
• Support and guide responsible parties in the field towards effective and efficient cooperation on project implementation; oversee and support the organization of trainings and events.

Ensure substantive and implementation support to, and administration of projects and/or activities.

• Adapt processes and procedures to ensure achievement of project results and indicators, this also by directly facilitating, supporting and enabling peer educators and preparing them to deliver results.
• Assist with coordinating responsible parties towards effective and efficient cooperation on project implementation; oversee and support the organization of trainings and events.
• Provide support to developing and implementing activities, entering projects into Atlas, prepare for required budget revisions.
• Prepare draft project documents, work plans, budgets, proposals on implementation arrangements and reports required for the purposes of annual work planning, resource mobilization, collaboration with partners, reporting to donors, as well as drafting official letters.
• Ensure timely and quality implementation of activities under the relevant AWP, monitor budget utilization/implementation in lieu of AWP and project log-frame.
• Timely prepare progress, narrative & final reports for the Programme.
• Maintain an internal expenditures control system which ensures that vouchers processed are matched and completed, transaction are correctly recorded and posted in Atlas; maintain shadow budget.
• Help align project interventions with those of state and non-state actors as well as donors, and specifically with UN partner agencies active in the same locations.
• Liaise with government stakeholders, civil society and private sector partners to ensure proper coordination and partnership in common development efforts, present information on project activities, as well as ensure dissemination to broader public.
• Work with UN Women Country Office personnel on designing advocacy campaigns and related interventions on promoting attitude change in favour of inter-ethnic tolerance, gender equality and girl/women empowerment among the general population in the project area; draft visibility material such as human stories and webpage content related to project activities.
• Liaise with implementing partners on routine implementation of the project activities, track use of resources, train and monitor expenditure reports as per FACE.
• Maintain accurate personnel records of the project as required by UN Women.
• Support handling with procurement contracts for goods and services.
• Maintain project equipment and servicing as well as its records.
• Ensure the maintenance of a filing system, reports or other documentation related to the programme and administrative matters of the programme in hard and electronic formats.
• Provide logistics support to programme needs; provide assistance in organizing and holding seminars, conferences, trainings, and meetings.
• Provide assistance on financial and administrative matters to the project.
• Arrange travel and hotel reservations, preparation of travel authorizations, processing requests for visas, identity cards and other documents.
• Assist with recruitment of (Inter)national Experts/Consultants and assists with procurements for goods and services in line with UN Women rules and regulations.
• Oversee and coordinates working plans and travel schedules, and quality of reports (Inter)national Experts/ Consultants. Provides logistical support and programmatic guidance to (Inter)national Experts/ Consultants when required.
• Ensure facilitation of knowledge building and sharing through synthesis of lessons learnt and best practices under the project supported; sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice; assistance in maintenance of a calendar of the most relevant regional/national fora related to the project activities and assistance to facilitate access to that information by partners and relevant UN Women staff; keeping abreast of technical development in Women, Peace and Security.
• Assist international staff with interpretation during meetings and missions.
• Perform other related tasks as required, such as taking minutes, assisting other thematic areas.

Competencies

Corporate:

• Demonstrates integrity by modeling the UN's values and ethical standard.
• Promotes the vision, mission, and strategic goals of UN Women.
• Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality, and age sensitivity and adaptability.

Functional:

Knowledge Management and Learning:

• Shares knowledge and experience.
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills.
• Ability to analyse complex situations from a position of impartiality.
• Ability to concisely and to the point document information and findings, targeting a specific audience.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

• Ability to perform a variety of specialized tasks related to Results Management, including support to design, planning and implementation of the projects, managing data and reporting.
• Ability to provide input to business processes re-engineering, implementation of new system including new IT based systems.
• Good knowledge of Results Management Guide and Toolkit.

Leadership and Self-Management:

• Focuses on result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
• Remains calm, in control and good humored even under pressure, uses skills of diplomacy.
• Ability to prioritize and manage competing priorities, grasping the situation quickly.
• Ability to conduct advocacy on sensitive issues, not avoiding but processing conflict.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Bachelor degree in the social sciences, business studies, education, or another relevant discipline. In case the discipline is not relevant, a Master’s or higher degree in a relevant discipline may substitute.
• Fluency in English and Russian. Working knowledge of Kyrgyz. Knowledge of Uzbek or Tajik an asset but not a requirement.

Experience:

• Minimum three years of relevant work experience (one year of this experience can either be substituted for by a Master’s degree in a relevant discipline or by part-time work experience during university education).
• Work experience must include that which is related to activities in support of gender equality and women empowerment.
• Work experience must include travel to and work at field level in support of project implementation.
• Knowledge of gender equality or women’s empowerment; or on conflict prevention/peace-building.
• Proven experience in project administration support.
• Good numerical skills.
• Competent in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.).

Applications not including a fully completed P11 form which is used to assess the candidates’ responsiveness to the selection criteria mentioned in this Job Description will not be considered.

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.

Only short-listed candidates will be contacted! All online applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women, UNDP or UN Personal History form (P11) in English which can easily be found via web search. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment which must be the P11.

Applications without the completed P-11 form are incomplete and will NOT be considered for further assessment!!!