UN Women: Capacity Development and Knowledge Management Specialist - Women’s Political Participation

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.

The Policy Division develops and implements the UN Women programme of work on analysis, research and knowledge management that provides the evidence base and global policy compass to guide UN Women’s work at country and regional level, the intergovernmental process, and the UN system on issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment. It identifies emerging issues and trends, and develops and proposes new strategies for achieving the agreed goals through innovative approaches and lessons learned about what works in practice.

Women’s political participation is a primary area of UN Women’s work. UN Women works to implement Outcome 2 of its 2018-2021 Strategic Plan, “Women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems,” and contributes towards achievement of several Sustainable Development Goals, namely Goal 5 on gender equality. The work includes supporting legal and policy reforms to promote women’s electoral participation (including initiatives to address violence against women in politics); strengthened capacities of women to engage in political life; supporting parliamentary bodies to deliver gender equality reforms, monitoring and preventing violence against women in politics, and improved data and statistics on women’s representation in local government (SDG indicator 5.5.1b).  UN Women works with a range of partners and stakeholders nationally, regionally and internationally to ensure more women of all ages fully participate, lead and engage in political institutions.

In line with UN Women’s mandate, the 2018-21 Strategic Plan highlights the importance of strengthened capacities for knowledge management, specifically: to generate, document, share and apply knowledge for achieving gender equality and women's empowerment. UN Women’s corporate commitment to knowledge management is essential to enhancing the effectiveness of the organization’s interventions, especially at country and regional level, and to improving collaboration across the UN system, globally. UN Women’s political participation programmes are currently implemented in more than 60 countries; between 2014 and 2017 this area of work was carried out in 117 out of 122 countries where UN Women was present. Knowledge from this experience must be codified, shared and applied. Within this context, UN Women is seeking to boost internal capacity to contribute to strategic and sustainable results on women’s political participation by institutionalizing knowledge management and capacity development on this priority issue across the organization.

Under the guidance and supervision of the Global Policy Advisor on Political Participation, the Capacity Development and Knowledge Management Specialist on Women’s Political Participation will: develop and oversee implementation of the Unit’s Knowledge Management strategy on women’s political participation;  guide the development, implementation and coordination of global knowledge management initiatives, including a community of practice, with internal and external stakeholders; provide technical guidance to and liaise with country and regional offices upon request; and develop and implement capacity development initiatives related to women’s political participation.

Duties and Responsibilities

Develop and manage implementation of Knowledge Management strategy on women’s political participation:

• Oversee organizational staff mapping/s to assess human resource capacities on women’s political participation at the HQ and field levels, identify knowledge and capacity gaps and oversee development of tools and strategies to address the gaps;
• Develop a global knowledge management strategy on women’s political participation in consultation with key partners, including the Leadership and Governance section, Political Participation Policy Unit, Policy Division Knowledge Management Specialist and regional advisors;
• Manage the implementation of the knowledge management strategy on women’s political participation, track progress made, identify any issues and make recommendations to address those issues.

Manage, implement and coordinate global knowledge management initiatives on women’s political participation, including managing a community of practice:

• Grow and manage a Community of Practice, and contribute to the active exchange of information between UN Women colleagues in countries and regions on women’s political participation;
• Map, compile and regularly update policies, programmes, comparative country experiences and initiatives related to women’s political participation to be used in regional and country programming;
• Screen material as part of the mapping and as provided by colleagues for quality assurance;
• Codify lessons learned from women’s political participation programming in all regions by ensuring that knowledge generated from programmes are thoroughly documented, stored and disseminated;
• Ensure the internet and intranet pages (including those relevant to the Community of Practice) are up to date;
• Document lessons learned and good practices, and share them with regional and country offices;
• Contribute to writing and editing documents – including briefing notes, talking points, press and media releases, or human-interest stories – as required.

Oversee technical guidance to and liaise with internal and external stakeholders on knowledge management related to women’s political participation:

• Act as focal point for knowledge management on women’s political participation for colleagues;
• Provide technical support for and substantive advice as needed on developing, implementing and disseminating knowledge management tools and knowledge products on women’s political participation;
• Liaise with other knowledge management specialists in UN Women for quality and consistency assurance; cross-link and establish synergies, and provide information for dissemination on social media;
• Liaise with relevant thematic advisors and field offices in developing knowledge products and in organizing a learning platform on women’s political participation; and
• Provide inputs to funding proposals, donor report and other reports as requested.

Develop and implement capacity development initiatives on women’s political participation:

• Develop guidance and training materials to address staff capacity gaps at all levels;
• Convene and/or support in-person trainings and thematic webinars to address capacity needs, facilitate peer-to-peer learning and promote a coordinated approach to women’s political participation priorities and implementation at country level;
• Coordinate the design of a data base and knowledge platform to identify, collect, and disseminate best practices and lessons learned on women’s political participation; and
• Provide technical support to the development and/or implementation of training materials for UN-Women partners and beneficiaries at country level, including women aspirants and elected leaders, and support and monitor usage of materials. 

Key Performance Indicators:

• Quality global knowledge management strategy on women’s political participation;
• Timely implementation of global knowledge management strategy on women’s political participation;
• Number of new knowledge products developed disseminated;
• Community of practices, intranet pages and other platforms are up-to-date;
• Timely and effective communication and liaison with different departments in the organization to ensure the integration of knowledge management in systems and processes;
• Quality support to field offices to ensure a constant and consistent flow of information with HQ and other field offices;
• Timely development and effective oversight of staff capacity development on political participation.

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:

• Ability to link Knowledge Management to key processes including programming, results-based management, monitoring, reporting and evaluation;
• Ability to apply knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside of UN Women;
• Substantive knowledge of issues on gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• In-depth substantive knowledge of Knowledge Management and development policy issues;
• Ability to manage for results: translate strategy into achievable plans, with established priorities, monitors them, making periodic adjustments as required;
• Ability to build strong relationships with, and focuses on results for clients and partners. Responds positively to feedback;
• Outstanding networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in International Development, Management, or another relevant field is required.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of experience in managing projects and building capacity on women’s political participation for diverse groups;
• Experience drafting and coordinating production of knowledge products on women’s political participation;
• Experience working in the field of Knowledge Management; familiarity with different Knowledge Management approaches including the development of practice communities and the use of ICT/web-based systems;
• Experience in programme analysis, evaluation and results-based management is an asset;
• Senior- level working experience in a governmental, multilateral or civil society organization in a developed or developing country is an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of another UN official working language is an asset.

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.