Project Officer- Peace Building Fund (Open to Sri Lankan Nationals)

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 and the third gender as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.

Globally, UN Women focuses on six priority areas. These include increasing women’s leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing women’s economic empowerment, supporting women's participation in achieving and sustaining peace, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.

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.                                                                                                                                          

Following the termination of the conflict 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 aims to ensure that peacebuilding initiatives in Sri Lanka include leveraging women’s capacities and contributions, and developing strategies for inclusion which recognize their roles, and diverse experiences of conflict.

The decades of armed conflict brought a major transformation in women’s roles in society. With the large loss or disappearances of spouses, over 1.2 million women became heads of households and left to cope with the loss of family members, death and disappearance of income earners, and displacement unassisted. This has resulted in intersectional vulnerabilities and exploitation of military and war widows. Poverty, discrimination based on gender, multiple responsibilities of women, little to limited support structures, insecurity, vulnerable forms of employment, indebtedness, limited access to basic services, goods and resources, and the extent of trauma undergone by widows converge to increase the likelihood of exploitation and re-victimization, particularly through sexual exploitation and sexual bribery.

In this context, funded by the United Nations Peacebuilding Fund, UN Women, in partnership with UNDP, is implementing a project to empower military widows and war widows and support sustainable income-generation.

UN Women is seeking the services of a Project Officer who will provide managerial and technical support, lead the evaluation of project activities, and ensure effective implementation of the project. Under the supervision of the Programme Analyst – UN Women Sri Lanka, the Project Officer will be responsible for coordinating and monitoring the implementation of the project component led by UN Women under the UN Peacebuilding Fund. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of Key Functions:

• Provision of technical inputs and coordination;
• Technical and financial management, monitoring and reporting;
• Strategic partnerships, advocacy and knowledge management.

Design, coordination and implementation of the project:

• Support the thorough analysis and research of the political, social and economic situation in the country and coordination with relevant stakeholders in finalising the project deliverables;
• Coordinate timely and effective implementation of the project, including daily management and delivery of project outputs;
• Support the development of women’s leadership programmes, with a focus on developing entrepreneurial skills to support sustainable income generation;
• Liaise with other UN agencies, government counterparts and partners in coordinating and implementing project activities.

Technical and financial management, monitoring and reporting:

• Coordinate the effective application of results-based management tools, providing guidance to partners on establishment of performance indicators;
• Assist the Programme Analyst in the management of budgets, administration and procurement-related matters and functions in accordance with UN/UN Women rules and regulations;
• Coordinate 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;
• Periodic monitoring meetings with government and non-government partners;
• Monitoring, analysis and evaluation of technical and financial reports from partners, including technical and management support;
• Assist in analysing quality of project design and implementation, and periodically update the project monitoring framework incorporating reviews, lessons learned, and best practices;
• Regular field visits and liaison with UN Women Multi-Country Office and the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific;
• Preparation of internal technical reports and briefs including donor reports; documentation of activities, outputs and outcomes on a regular basis.

Strategic partnerships, advocacy and knowledge management:

• Support the development and strengthening of partnerships with UN agencies, government institutions, and civil society programme/project implementation and other stakeholders;
• Analysis and research of information on donors, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for cost-sharing and joint programming;
• Identification and synthesis of good practices and lessons learnt linked to the project outcomes, and incorporating these to refine project strategies;
• Coordinate development of knowledge management strategies, advocacy products and methodologies on women, peace and security;
• Organise advocacy campaigns with implementing partners.

Any other responsibilities as assigned by the Supervisor.

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:

• Development/programming skills particularly those that are pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues and women’s rights.
• 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.

Required Skills and Experience

Education :

• Master’s degree in Conflict and Peace Studies, Gender and Development, International Relations, Public Administration, Law, Human Rights or equivalent in relevant fields of Social Science.

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years of relevant experience in implementation of projects related to women’s empowerment and/or women, peace and security.
• Demonstrable experience in organizing multi-stakeholder meetings and coordinating with a wide range of stakeholders, including government, civil society and non-governmental organisations, women groups, and local communities.
• Experience in preparing background documents, agenda and talking points for such meetings.
• Hands on experience in designing, implementing and monitoring development projects with particular experience in the areas of women, peace and security a distinct advantage.
• Good knowledge of policies, programmes and instruments to advance gender equality.
• Familiarity with civil society organisations and networks in Sri Lanka working to advance gender equality.
• Familiarity with the United Nations system and its coordination mechanism would be an advantage.
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills, including an ability to prepare succinct analytical documents and briefs in English.

Language:

• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of official national language (Sinhala/Tamil) is essential.

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.