UNWomen Planning and 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 center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality are translated into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts while building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality translate into action. UN Women supports improved UN coordination and accountability mechanisms, and up-scaling of the quality of support provided to Member States in addressing national gender equality priorities. UN Women’s coordination work is supported at the regional level by Regional Offices – working with the Regional UN Sustainable Development Group (RUNSDG) and the Regional Coordination Mechanism (RCM). At the country level UN Women supports and works within UN Country Teams (UNCTs).

UN Women has also placed emphasis on improving its planning and Results-Based Management (RBM) as an organization. UN Women Regional Office will support and provide guidance and support to UN Women offices at country level in planning and RBM.

The Planning and Coordination Specialist reports to the Regional Director and the Deputy Regional Director of UN Women Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECA RO). The Planning and Coordination Specialist will lead the work of ECA RO in the areas the UN System Coordination, Strategic Planning and Results-Based Management (RBM) and to provide guidance, technical support and quality assurance to Country Offices (COs) and Programme Presence Offices (PPs) in these areas, as specified in the Strategic Note and Annual Work Plans (AWPs) of ECA RO. 

In carrying out the functions, she/he will work closely with the relevant units in UN Women headquarters, such as Programme and Coordination Divisions, as well as country-level UN Women offices and RCOs in the ECA region. The Planning and Coordination Specialist supports the ECA Regional Director and Deputy Regional Director to:

• Manage and implement activities to enhance system-wide coherence on gender equality and the empowerment of women at the regional and country levels in the ECA region;
• Identify, develop and implement joint UN initiatives within the framework of UNDS reform and/or the Common Chapter;
• Support UN Women field offices at country level in their coordination role with the UNCTs in the identification of technical expertise, the implementation of corporate-level accountability tools;

Provide guidance and technical support to UN Women ECA field offices to ensure high quality planning documents at regional and country levels, ensuring the alignment with the UN Women Global Strategic Plan and the corporate standard of RBM

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide guidance and technical support to the UN Country Teams (UNCTs) and Results Groups in the ECA region for the development and implementation of UNDAFs through inter-agency mechanisms:

• Review and provide support on draft Roadmaps, Common Country Assessments (CCAs) and UN Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAFs) from roll-out countries based on the latest UNDAF guidance and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) of Delivering as One (DaO) under the UN Sustainable Development Group (UNSDG).
• Contribute to the overall work of inter-agency mechanisms in support of joint UN planning and to related knowledge management platforms. 
• Coordinate with interagency mechanisms and participate in inter-agency meetings and other related activities (virtual and/or in-person) as needed.

Provide guidance and technical support to the UN Women field offices, RCOs and Gender Theme Groups (GTGs) to better integrate gender in UNCT work and associated accountability mechanisms:

• Provide guidance and support to UN Women field offices as well as to RCOs and GTGs to ensure the integration of gender in CCAs, UNDAFs, Joint Work Plans and other UNDAF-related documents.
• Provide and guidance and support for conducting gender scorecard exercises as needed and monitor the status of each country.
• Share relevant information and resources from the region with GTG chairs and other stakeholders.

Provide technical and coordination support for the implementation of regional UN Coordination activities:   

• Play the secretariat role of IBC-Gender, organizing and co-chairing its meetings
• Prepare and finalize joint annual work plans and reports of IBC-Gender with the members of IBC-Gender.
• Implement the activities that UN Women (co)leads and supports, as well as (together with co-chair of IBC-Gender), monitor the implementation of the joint work plans of IBC-Gender and and support lead agencies of specific activities if there are issues.
• Coordinate and work with other Issue-Based Coalitions and inter-agency mechanisms, including PSG, to ensure integration of gender quality and women’s empowerment in key joint activities on SDGs and MAPS missions.
• Prepare briefing notes, talking points and/or presentations for the Regional Director and Deputy Regional Director as required.
• Support the chairing of the inter-agency Issue-Based Coalition on Gender Equality (IBC-Gender), prepare joint presentations and/or summary documents to report to the Regional Directors on key gender issues, challenges, lessons and achievements from the region.
• Support Regional Director and Deputy Regional Director in implementing the follow-up actions and decisions made through regional inter-agency groups/mechanisms.
• Engage in and contribute to inter-agency initiatives at the regional level, particularly in terms of country support on SDGs, including on Mainstreaming, Acceleration and Policy Support (MAPS) engagement and Issue-Based Coalitions (IBCs), among others.
• Coordinate with UNDP, UNFPA and UNICEF to jointly implement, monitor and report on the Common Chapter of Strategic Plan as needed.

Provide guidance, technical support and quality assurance to UN Women ECA field offices in the areas of strategic planning, RBM and UN Women Result Management System (RMS).

• Provide guidance and technical support to UN Women field offices to ensure the effective use of RMS for the planning processes, and coordinate with the appropriate HQ units as required conduct RBM training for new project/programme staff of UN Women field offices, as required and relevant.
• Lead and manage the review process in ECA RO for the draft Strategic Notes submitted by field offices, including participation in PRG meeting
• Provide guidance and technical support to field office for the preparation of Mid-Term Review (MTR) of their current Strategic Notes,
• Provide guidance and technical support to all field offices to ensure the quality and timely submission/finalization of AWPs as per the UN Women corporate requirements and RBM standard.
• Lead and manage the review process in ECA RO for draft AWPs submitted by field. Consolidate comments from ECA RO and share with field offices.
• Provide RBM-related technical comments at the Regional PAC meetings

Lead and coordinate the strategic planning processes at the regional level:

• Coordinate with HQ, as required, for work related to the UN Women Global Strategic Plan, including providing additional inputs, attending virtual meetings and coordinating with UN Women field offices in the ECA region.
• Lead and manage the overall processes and coordinate the development of new Strategic Notes of ECA RO in collaboration with the relevant HQ colleagues
• Lead the overall processes and coordinate with ECA RO staff to develop AWPs of the RO
• Organize the ECA Regional Peer Review Group (RPRG) meeting with HQ, ECA RO and field offices
• to jointly review draft AWPs in the ECA region.
• Provide RBM-related guidance and technical support to ECA RO teams at the drafting stage of concept notes and/or proposals to ensure the quality of results framework, theory of change and M&E section.
• Coordinate and collaborate with UN Women HQ in order to: 1) raise issues and questions from the field; 2) ensure that country and regional perspectives are reflected in the upcoming/ongoing HQ-led initiatives and guidance documents; and 3) contribute to testing and roll-out of new modules/functions of RMS and other RBM-related initiatives.

Lead and manage documentation of and reporting on RO’s work in the areas of planning, RBM and UN system coordination:

• Regularly update the soft and hard filing of key documents, following the existing structure of ECA RO documents management, ensuring those are available for internal/external audits and evaluations.
• Regularly update the relevant sections of ECA RO page of UN Women Share Point to ensure that key resources related to planning, RBM and UN system coordination are accessible to UN Women staff via share point.
• Report on the activities and results in the areas of planning, RBM and UN coordination as per approved AWPs of the ECA RO in the quarterly monitoring and annual reporting exercises, using RMS.
• Contribute to other reporting requirements as well as audit and evaluation-related activities

Key Performance Indicators:

The post has an impact on the overall effectiveness and success of the coordination and planning work of UN Women ECA RO, which, in turn, impact on the overall effectiveness of the UN Women ECA RO in the region. 

• Quality and timeliness of UNDAF-related support provided to UNCTs via PSG mechanism
• Quality and timeliness of UN coordination-related support and guidance provided to UN Women COs, PPs and GTGs.  
• Quality and timeliness of inputs and contribution provided to the Regional UN System with RUNDG and RCM for SDGs-related initiatives and others
• Effective and timely implementation and monitoring of the 2018 joint work plan of IBC-Gender
• Quality and timely submission of new Strategic Notes of PPs and ECA RO.

• Quality and timely submission of 2019 AWPs of COs, PPs and ECA RO.   

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:

• Excellent knowledge of gender equity and women’s empowerment issues
• Excellent knowledge of UN system and understanding of inter-agency coordination processes
• Excellent knowledge of results based programme planning and management
• Excellent analytical skills

• Ability to promote and monitor inclusion of gender-specific objectives, indicators, targets and activities in the UN agencies programmes
• Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree in development-related disciplines, Social Sciences, Political Science, Development Studies, Public Administration, Gender, or other related field.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

Experience: 

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible development experience that combines strategic and managerial leadership in development cooperation, international relations, public administration or other related field, some of which must be in the areas of gender equality, strategic planning and Results-Based Management (RBM) at the country, regional and/or international levels.
• Experiences in the areas of strategic planning, including managing and coordinating the development of strategy, multi-year planning documents, work plans, and/or programme documents at the country, regional and/or international levels.
• Experiences in providing guidance and technical support for development of Theory of Changes, results frameworks, logical frameworks and indicators for programmes/projects, to ensure the minimum standard of RBM.
• Experiences in conducting RBM training, as a trainer, to staff and/or external partners to support results-based planning, monitoring and reporting.  
• Experiences in inter-agency coordination work specifically related to UNDAFs, CCAs, Results Groups and/or SoP for Delivering as One, at the country, regional and/or international level.
• Experience in inter-agency coordination work specifically related to joint programmes, Gender Theme Groups, UNCTs, gender scorecards, and/or other inter-agency mechanisms or processes at the country, regional and/or international level. 

Languages:

• Fluency in English (oral and written) is mandatory.
• Knowledge of Russian would be 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. 

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.

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