UN Women: Chief, Research and Data Section

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, Programme and Intergovernmental Division (PPID) provides global support to UN Women offices at Headquarters and in all field locations to deliver results in support of UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2018-2021 and internationally agreed goals on gender equality and women’s empowerment, including the Beijing Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Division provides intellectual and strategic leadership on normative support and the delivery of integrated policy and program advice, including through policy analysis and gender mainstreaming. The Division leverages innovation, knowledge management and cutting-edge technical expertise to support UN Women programmes and to build the capacity of partners to deliver results on gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Research and Data Section in PPID is responsible for leading UN Women’s research and data agenda and strengthening the organization’s evidence generation and use. It manages a large global network of leading feminist researchers and high-profile publishing programme; produces high profile knowledge products including UN Women flagship publications such as Progress of the World’s Women and The Survey of the Role of Women in Development; and leads UN Women’s growing portfolio of work on gender statistics, including monitoring of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and cutting edge work to develop new statistical methodologies.

The Chief, Research and Data Section reports to the Director, PPID and in collaboration with the other sections, the Chief is responsible for leading the Organization’s data and statistical work, the development and planning of research and use of evidence, and strengthening the production dissemination and use knowledge to enhance its competence and credibility as a global broker of knowledge, experience, leadership and advocacy on gender issues and women’s empowerment. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Lead UN Women’s research and data agenda:

• Spearhead an ambitious, dynamic and innovative research and data strategy for UN Women, to position the organization as a global knowledge hub on – and central player in – gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Act as a thought leader for the section, and provide strategic advice to Director PPID and the rest of the organization, with a particular focus on forecasting emerging research and data issues and fostering innovation in research and data;
• Position the organization to take leadership on identifying major gaps in research and data, spurring institutions to take up the agenda and to contribute to filling identified gaps;
• Identify, develop and manage the diverse range of partnerships that UN Women needs to achieve its research and data goals, both within and beyond the UN system;
• Convene networks of leading feminist researchers, statisticians and key thinkers on gender to input, advise and steer UN Women’s research and data agenda;
• Represent UN Women in international fora to encourage greater commitment to and collaboration on research and data on gender equality;
• Commission, develop and manage research, and data and policy analysis on emerging and crosscutting issues, development trends, best practices, innovations, performance gaps and opportunities for UN Women development planning;
• Lead on the conceptualization of and research programme for UN Women reports, Progress of the World’s Women and The Survey of the Role of Women in Development. Oversee the preparation and dissemination of these reports;
• Alongside flagship reports, develop a high-profile publishing programme for the organization, including position papers, a discussion paper series and a policy briefing series.

Lead and strengthen UN Women’s work on gender data and statistics:

• Strengthen and position UN Women’s work on statistics, ensuring that the priorities respond effectively to the evolving capacity development needs of member states, UN Women and its partners;
• Oversee the implementation and growth of UN Women’s gender statistics portfolio, including the Flagship Programme Initiative: Making Every Women and Girl Count;
• Provide substantive support to the intergovernmental process to develop indicators for the gender dimensions of the SDGs and strengthen UN Women’s work in this area;
• Promote and publicize the work of UN Women in gender statistics. Initiate resource mobilization and ensures that the organization’s resources are being spent in accordance with its objectives;
• Advance and strengthen UN Women’s work on gender data and statistics in the context of unplanned global crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and drive excellence on gender data across the global organization. 

Lead Inter-agency collaboration, partnership and advocacy initiatives:

• Convene or represent UN Women in UN inter-agency working groups and other high level academic and policy conferences and events to participate in strategic discussions and establish cooperation/collaboration on research and data analysis and dissemination;
• Develop and maintain relationships with academia, research and training institutes (including the UN Women Training Center), civil society and thematic technical experts to gain and share knowledge, exchange views on current issues/trends and to incorporate cutting-edge thinking in research and data analysis on gender issues;
• Engage partners, stakeholders and other entities, including the UN Statistics Division, to advocate for improved harmonization and sharing of gender statistics.

Work across the organization to promote and encourage the use of data, evidence and knowledge (DEK) in UN Women’s policies and programmes, to strengthen the evidence base for UN Women’s decision-making:

• Oversee the development and implementation of an ambitious data, evidence and knowledge (DEK) strategy to effectively achieve UN Women’s ambition to be a rigorous and knowledge-based organization to promote the achievement of gender equality and women’s empowerment;
• Help drive the DEK strategy and facilitate the creation of Communities of Practice for various thematic areas
• Facilitate the translation of UN Women’s analytical work, including from flagship publications and evaluations, into policy and programming practice across the global organization;
• Provide substantive contributions to internal reviews of UN Women policies and programmes to ensure good use of evidence; Work with policy teams to build a high-quality evidence base for their work, including action-oriented research to link academic and policy research with knowledge generated from practice at country level;
• Provide quality assurance of UN Women’s publications, through developing peer review processes;
• Provide technical support to other sections and Divisions and the rest of the organization in the development of knowledge generation and insight.

Provide substantive advice and support to intergovernmental processes and key events:

• Provide substantive input to intergovernmental fora to help shape development of global and regional policies, norms, standards and implementation strategies;
• Produce reports and background papers on a wide range of gender equality issues in accordance with mandates provided by relevant intergovernmental bodies and report on progress and challenges on critical and emerging issues;
• Provide technical and advisory support on gender equality issues to intergovernmental bodies, preparing summaries of debates, supporting negotiations and analyzing outcomes.

Manage the Research and Data Section:

• Finalize the annual workplans and annual reports for the section;
• Manage the performance off staff and ensure compliance to the performance management process; Promote teamwork and establish a working environment that is conducive to delivering results;
• Supervise and oversee the work of the team to ensure the delivery of quality results according to standards and goals established in the Section;
• Manage the financial resources and take responsibility for the integrity of financial systems and consistent application of the internal control framework and/or UN Women/UN rules and regulations. Submit timely mandated reports;
• Identify and integrate efficiency gains and cost reductions in all operations;
• Build staff capacity through planned training, learning programs, mentoring and coaching;
• Oversee the development and implementation of strategic evaluation plans, ensure that management responses to all evaluations are completed and followed up, and that learning from evaluations is fed back into UN Women initiatives and operations;
• Oversee security requirements for the team.

Contribute to the work of the rest of UN Women’s work, including in mobilizing resources for UN Women’s research and data work.

Key Performance Indicators:

The ability of the Chief, Research and Data to lead and manage the output of the Section to produce quality research and data and to introduce best practices, cutting edge approaches and innovative thinking in the area of research and data management, directly impact on the efficiency and efficacy of UN Women global/political interventions and advocacy on evidence-based options for global policy, norms and standards and technical cooperation.

Key Performance Indicators include:

• Development of new Data, Evidence & Knowledge strategy for UN Women;
• Timely and quality strategic advice to the Director PPID and the rest of the organization;
• Flagship Programme Initiative: Making Every Women and Girl Count is managed on time on scope & on budget;
• Initiatives to engage and build relationships with key partners on gender data & research;
• Quality of inputs provided to intergovernmental fora to help shape development of global and regional policies, norms, standards and implementation strategies;
• Performance of staff; enabling work environment

Implementation of the “no programme without security, no security without resources” strategy in all activities.

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 Values and Competencies Framework: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent knowledge related to current policies and practices in the area of gender statistics;
• Ability to develop and implement substantial research and data programmes, and develop and manage research and data partnerships;
• Strong leadership and people management skills; ability to create a productive, respectful work environment;
• Evidence of leading work on quantitative and qualitative research methods, particularly in relation to gender; and knowledge management approaches;
• Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision;
• Strong communication and public speaking skills, with proven expertise in writing for a range of audiences, including a substantial record of peer reviewed publishing on gender issues;
• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Ability to leverage information technology, executive information systems, management techniques and tools for optimal office performance;
• Excellent strategic planning, goal-setting and prioritization skills;
• Effectiveness in establishing and fostering good relations with government counterparts, UN agencies, donors, and NGO partners;
• Strong, proven commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Masters (or equivalent) in gender and development, or in related discipline, such as political science, public policy, or other social science fields with significant focus on gender equality;
• 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:

• A minimum of 15 years of progressively responsible work experience carrying out research and/or driving data and statistics, and examine analysis in a development policy and/or research context;
• Significant record of research and writing, including on gender and development;
• Proven experience of effectively managing teams;
• Knowledge of modalities of UN technical support at global, regional and country levels, with a focus on gender statistics is an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is very desirable.

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=558. 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.

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