UN Women: Inter-Agency Coordination Specialist

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 centre of all its efforts, UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The Strategic Partnerships, Coordination and Intergovernmental Bureau leads and coordinates UN Women’s implementation of its system-wide and interagency mandates and functions. Central to this is the operationalization of the intergovernmental mandate expressed in its founding resolution in which the UN’s General Assembly decided that UN Women will “lead, coordinate and promote the accountability of the United Nations system in its work on gender equality and the empowerment of women” at the global, regional and country levels.

Under the guidance and supervision of the UN Coordination Adviser, UN System Coordination Division, the Inter-Agency Coordination Specialist will provide technical contributions to gender mainstreaming across the UN System; provide technical support to intergovernmental and interagency processes; lead knowledge generation and sharing; and contribute to management and administration.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide technical contributions to gender mainstreaming across the UN System:

• Lead the support of specific technical requests by other UN agencies related to gender mainstreaming as requested by the UN Coordination Adviser;
• Conceptualize and organize activities in the UN and outside to highlight key issues, opportunities and practical experiences for advancing gender equality and gender mainstreaming;
• Lead substantive technical support in the reporting, monitoring and analysis of gender mainstreaming in the UN system, including for the report of the Secretary-General on gender mainstreaming and negotiations on the related draft resolution;
• Represent the Division at international and other meetings, organize/participate in working groups, meetings, conferences, and consultations with UN entities and other as delegated by the UN Coordination Adviser.

Provide technical support to intergovernmental and interagency processes:

• Provide substantive support for UN Women’s engagement in interagency and intergovernmental processes, including IANWGE; CEB, HLCP, CSW and ECOSOC;
• Participate in and provide substantive contributions to internal working groups, including contributions to intergovernmental work and participation in interagency consultations;
• Liaise with UN Women colleagues and others, as relevant, to ensure coordinated UN entities’ inputs into the work of intergovernmental bodies supported by UN Women such as the CSW and the General Assembly.

Participate in knowledge generation and sharing:

• Lead the production and dissemination of knowledge products on gender mainstreaming, including in the context of the SDGs;
• Lead in compiling and managing an online repository of good practices, lessons learned and other resources on gender mainstreaming;
• Contribute to the organization of expert group meetings and capacity-building workshops on gender mainstreaming in select thematic issues.

Management and administration:

• Manage work-stream in the absence of the UN Coordination Adviser;
• Contribute to the development and implementation of the workplan and budget for the section;
• Mentor and coach junior staff.

Contribute to ad hoc requests as needed.

Competencies

Core values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: http://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-employment-values-and-competencies-definitions-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of the inter-agency process in particular related to gender equality issues, and the work of the UN in gender equality issues;
• Strong knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment policies;
• Excellent drafting, editing and oral presentation skills;
• Strong planning and organizational skills;
• Strong supervisory skills;
• Strong technological awareness;
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills;
• Strong team player;
• Sound judgement and decision-making skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in international relations, development studies, gender studies, social sciences, or other related fields.  

Experience:

• A minimum of 7 years of progressively responsible professional experience working on gender equality and women’s empowerment issues at the international level is required
• Demonstrated experience supporting interagency and intergovernmental bodies to advance gender equality and the empowerment of women required;
• Demonstrated experience in successfully contributing to gender mainstreaming initiatives is required;
• Experience in the UN Common System required.

Languages:

• Written and oral proficiency in English is required. Knowledge of another UN working language is desirable. 

Application:

• 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. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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.