Programme Officer

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.

UN Women Mozambique focuses its interventions on women’s economic empowerment, participation and democratic governance, combating violence against women, among others. In this context, it puts a strong focus on young women’s economic empowerment as part of the strategy to promote sexual and reproductive health and rights. Additionally, it favours girls and young women in the development of high-profit initiatives and labour market opportunities at district and provincial levels.

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

Under the overall guidance and direction of the supervisor, the Programme Officer will work closely with the programme and operations team, Provincial Government, UN Agencies involved in the Rapariga BIZ (e.g. UNFPA, UNICEF and UNESCO) and civil society to ensure the technical direction and implementation of the project are maintained and key outputs are achieved in a cost effective and timely manner.

Specifically, his/her functions will include but are not limited to the following:

Programme officer will be responsible for achievement of the Rapariga Biz result on: “Girls and Young Women in safe Spaces in Zambézia Province are economically empowered.” Drawing on the lessons learned from on-going efforts in Nampula to ensure girls and young women, as well as mentors are offered economic empowerment opportunities, UN Women seeks to ensure that tailor-made activities are implemented for the local context in Zambézia.

Evidence show the positive effect of girls and young women’s economic empowerment on their agency, and consequently on their health, uptake of health care services, number of children, health of their children etc. Based on the fact that young women’s capacity to bring about economic change for themselves is increasingly viewed as the most important contributing factor to achieving equality between women and men, Rapariga Biz anticipates that a stronger emphasis on providing economic opportunities for the target group will assist in addressing the inequalities present in the geographic areas fueling the vulnerabilities and marginalization of girls and young women

Duties and Responsibilities

• Programme Development and Management

• Inter-agency Coordination Support on young women empowerment in Zambézia and at Central level

• Strategic Partnerships (including with private sector) and Resource Mobilization Support

• Advocacy Support and Knowledge Building & Management

• Programme Development and Management

• Design, implement and adjust partnership strategy and ensure coordination with national authorities, policy agendas, CSO partners and private sector;

• Responsible for day-to-day management, administration and decision-making of thematic initiatives to assure access to microfinance, vocational training and SME creation for girls and young women;

• Oversees strategic planning process for the Rapariga BIZ and complementary projects and ensures its implementation in accordance with the signed project document;

• Responsible for ensuring that the project produces the results specified in the project document, to the required standard of quality and within the specified constraints of time and cost;

• Manage the realization of Rapariga BIZ project outputs through activities;

• Provide direction and guidance to the Programme Assistanceand responsible party (ies);

• Identifies partnership strategies with regard to providers of specialized expertise and possible co-financiers, and assists in resource mobilization for project components;

• Identify and obtain any support and advice required for the management, planning and control of the project;

• Provide direct supervision and guidance to the project administrative staff to ensure administration of the project is carried out effectively;

• Supports the effective application of RBM tools and monitoring achievement of results as Rapariga BIZ frameworks;

• Manage projects appraisal and evaluation according to results-based management requirements.

  Running a project

• Lead all necessary preparatory work for the project inception workshop to take place in Zambézia;

• Plan the activities of the project and monitor progress against the initial quality criteria;

• Support daily management of activities and managing project aspects delivered directly by UN Women - including identification and supervision of high level senior technical expertise if relevant;

• Direct participation in project implementation through strategic advisory and technical inputsto partner-led interventions and processes - including substantive input to policy development, planning and monitoring processes and products relevant to young women’s economic empowerment and gender transformative leadership;

• Communication and liaison with key partners and intended beneficiaries (young women), regular briefings on the project, documentation of case studies and innovative approaches;

• Network and build synergies with other UN agencies parties of the Rapariga BIZ Project interventions at policy and programme levels, liaise with DFID and ensure wide reaching dissemination of tools and good practices;

• Incorporation of UN Women’s thematic expertise into the project approach and ensure collaboration with other UN Women strategies (gender budgets, value chains, etc.);

• Mobilize goods and services to initiative activities, including drafting TORs and work specifications;

• Coordinate and facilitate inputs of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, technical and vocational education and training (TVET), private sector, partner organizations, scientific and research institutes, subcontractors, and national and international experts in a timely and effective manner;

• Manage and monitor the project risks and make recommendations on possible actions if required; update the status of these risks by maintaining the Project Risks Log; Monitor the implementation of project components, analyses problems that hamper their implementation and takes appropriate measures to ensure timely delivery of required inputs and achievement of project-wide results;

• Ensure that the Project M&E plan is implemented; Monitor events as determined in the Project Monitoring Schedule Plan, and update the plan as required; Prepare project progress reports, information releases, as well as monitoring and review reports in accordance with UN Women and DFID monitoring and evaluation rules and procedures;

• Monitors and facilitates advocacy and mass media outreach activities, writing of success stories, newspapers coverage, PR campaigns;

• Ensure sharing and learning at national level to strengthen gender mainstreaming in ONE UN programming tools (UNDAF, AWPs …) and at regional and global levels through liaising with UN Women advisors, UN colleagues and others;

• Organize workshops, seminars and round tables to introduce project outputs to all stakeholders involved. Render support to related UN Women thematic activities such as publications, sharing of knowledge and group discussions;

• Liaises with other UN Women and bilateral and multilateral funded projects to implement possible synergies;

• Update the UN Women financial management platform (Atlas).

  Closing a Project

• In cooperation with the UN Women CO and national project experts, develop a suitable project exit strategy the year before the end of the project, and present it for approval to the CO Management;

• Ensure proper operational, financial and programmatic closure of the project;

• Prepare Final Project Review Reports to be submitted to the CO Management;

• Identify follow-on and key sustainability actions for young women in business and submit them for consideration;

• Manage the transfer of project deliverables, documents, files, equipment and materials to national beneficiaries or as stipulated in the Project Document;

• If applicable, prepare final CDR (Combined Delivery Report) for signature by UN Women and the Implementing Partner(s).

  Inter-Agency Coordination Support

• Provides programme support to the UN Women Representative on inter-agency coordination related to Rapariga BIZ activities.

• Provides inputs for the country level Comprehensive Country Assessment (CCA)/UNDAF processes and similar exercises related to the RC system by ensuring that gender concerns and young women economic empowerment are clearly reflected.

• Contribute to CCA/ UNDAF processes and other documents by collecting substantive inputs from the Programme Unit and analyzing and researching the political, social and economic situation in the province of Zambézia that may impact young women’s economic empowerment.

• Contributes to the preparation and consolidation of quarterly progress and financial reports, annual and final project report in support of UN Women inter-agency coordination role.

Strategic Partnerships Building and Resource Mobilization Support

• Supports strategic partnerships and resource mobilization efforts by researching relevant documentation and participating in donor meetings and public information events.

• Maintains information and databases on donors and developing database of project profiles for presentation to DFID.

• Ensure good partnerships with Rapariga BIZ involved UN Agencies, government institutions, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors, private sector, civil society etc.

  Follows up on resource mobilization activities for fund raising for consolidation or scaling up existing young women’s economic empowerment projects in coordination with the UN Women Representative.

Advocacy and Knowledge Building and management

• Under the guidance of the supervisor, supports the establishment of advocacy networks at national level.

• Contributes to strengthen the Rapariga BIZ learning agenda across outcomes through a strategic approach towards improved generation of evidence, new learning and to contribute to the national SRH strategy development on adolescents and youth.

• Supports relevant, high-impact advocacy activities and campaigns with key partners.

• Collects knowledge on current and emerging trends by gathering relevant information on young women economic empowerment strategies, approaches and ongoing experience for lessons learned and best practices.

• Contributes to knowledge networks and communities of practice on women’s economic empowerment.

Competencies

CORE VALUES / GUIDING PRINCIPLES

•  Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
• 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

• Development/programming skills particularly those that are pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues and women’s economic empowerment
• Ability to support formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects
• Knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches
• Ability to maintain networks and partnerships with UN agencies and other international partners to promote partnership and build alliances to advance organizational interests and competencies  
• Demonstrated good oral and written communication skills
• Knowledge of and experience in gender mainstreaming in private sector supply chain, and sexual and reproductive health and rights is an asset
• Experience in working and collaborating with government (Ministries of Gender, Children and Social Action, Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Youth and Sports, etc.)
• Initiative and strong leadership skills
• Result and client-orientations
• Willingness to travel as appropriate, mainly to districts in Zambézia.

Required Skills and Experience

Master’s Degree (or equivalent) in Economics, Business Administration, Development Studies, Rural Development, International Relations, Gender and Human Rights related disciplines, Social Sciences or related field.

Minimum 5 years of relevant experience at the national and/or international level with young women economic empowerment and leadership programmes and projects including experience in design, management, monitoring and evaluation of thematic and multi-stakeholder development programmes.

Minimum of 4 years of relevant experience working on development issues, preferably related to women’s rights, entrepreneurship development and gender equality.

Knowledge of rural development, economic empowerment and community-based poverty reduction strategies is desirable.

Knowledge of policy frameworks, planning, budgeting and monitoring tools/processes at district, provincial and national levels favoring youth is an asset.

Fluency in English and Portuguese (written and spoken) is required.

Knowledge of local languages (Chuabo and lómwè) is an asset.