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UN Women: Policy Specialist – Humanitarian Normative and Coordination Action

New York City

  • Organization: UNWOMEN - United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
  • Location: New York City
  • Grade: Mid level - P-4, International Professional - Internationally recruited position
  • Occupational Groups:
    • Political Affairs
    • Legal - Broad
    • Women's Empowerment and Gender Mainstreaming
    • Humanitarian Aid and Coordination
    • Managerial positions
  • Closing Date: Closed

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 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.

The Peace, Security and Humanitarian Section of the Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division supports UN Women to fulfill its coordination mandate in the areas of peace and security and humanitarian action.  The Section specifically works on supporting Member States, UN Women Country Offices, and in collaboration with other UN entities Partners, including women’s organizations and networks to promote UN coordination and improved normative and accountability mechanisms on women’s meaningful participation (prevention, mitigation and preparedness) in peacebuilding, recovery, humanitarian emergency response, disaster risk management  and resilience. 

The Policy Specialist, Humanitarian Normative and Coordination Action, reporting to and under the supervision of  the Head of the Unit for the Humanitarian Normative and Coordination Action,  is responsible for strengthening the integration of the rights and needs of gender equality and the empowerment of crisis affected women and girls in global humanitarian coordination mechanisms and processes.  This includes   monitoring of progress and tracking of trends, close knowledge and data gaps, document good practice and support policy and programme development informed by quality research and evidence between UN Women and other key humanitarian stakeholders. 

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide technical and coordination services for UN Women’s humanitarian policy and coordination function:

  • Participate in and provide substantive support to relevant inter-agency and inter-governmental forums, notably the Inter Agency Standing Committee and the IASC Sub-Working Group on Gender, donor conferences and others.
  • Supervise and manage UN Women’s role as the Gender Desk function for the IASC’s Gender Accountability Framework, monitoring the global humanitarian system’s delivery on policy commitments, standards and roles and responsibilities vis-à-vis gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.
  • Represent UN Women in the IASC Gender Reference Group.
  • Coordinate, collate, publish and disseminate  the annual IASC Gender Accountability Framework report.
  • Provide sound system wide policy and recommendations to the global humanitarian system on how best to improve delivery of gender commitments in the coordination and implementation of humanitarian response.
  • Manage UN Women’s input into IASC Operational Policy and Advocacy Group (OPAG) decision making processes.
  • Develop and facilitate UN Women’s key messaging inputs and events for global humanitarian events such as the Global Forum for Refugees, ECOSOC Humanitarian Affairs Segment etc.
  • Serve as alternative Representative to the Policy Advisor, Humanitarian  Normative and Coordination Action in key humanitarian coordination fora, events, processes and initiatives.

Manage the development of UN Women’s Field Level Humanitarian Coordination Function:

  • Manage and oversee the technical support provided to Support UN Women’s country teams to develop programmes and projects to fulfill their humanitarian coordination and policy delivery mandate, providing support to HCs, HCTs, cluster-coordination etc, in close coordination with UN Women Regional Offices and Geneva office.
  • Provide substantive support to the development of and co-facilitate UN Women-led, system-wide GiHA capacity-building by organizing coordinated training sessions through UNW regional and country offices, in partnership with strategic partners including OCHA, UNFPA, UNICEF.
  • Maintain and expand UN Women’s developed online GiHA resources – online Handbook, online training modules etc.

Oversee the coordination and the implementation of UN Women’s Rapid Deployment Response Roster and Stand-by Capacity Partner Rosters:

  • Build, manage, and expand relationships with partners to support implementation and expansion of UN Women’s Rapid Deployment Response Roster and Standby Capacity Partner Rosters.
  • Provide policy and practice advice to experts deployed to country offices and facilitate knowledge building and management.
  • Serve as an expert resource to partners, Regional and Country Offices and other UN agencies.
  • Implement and oversee capacity building opportunities and initiatives for staff on humanitarian normative and coordination action, looking at promoting greater accountability at country and regional levels for implementation of World Humanitarian Summit/Grand Bargain.
  • Coordinate UN Women Country Office requests for internal and external personnel deployments.

Manage and oversee monitoring and reporting of the UN Women Humanitarian Normative and Coordination reporting obligations in all Global Humanitarian Programmes and Initiatives:

  • Manage the process of monitoring the programme/ project implementation of activities and finances using results-based management tools.
  • Finalize quarterly reports and donor reports, focusing on results, output and outcomes.
  • Write donor and UN Women reports.

Strengthen partnerships and support in developing resource mobilization strategies:

  • Provide substantive support to the finalization of relevant documentation on donors and develop potential opportunities for resource mobilization.
  • Analyze and research information on donors, finalize substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for cost sharing.
  • Develop and provide substantive  input to project documents in support of resource mobilization objectives as well as dialogue and negotiations with development partners
  • Work closely and collaboratively with relevant UN Women Sections to leverage innovation effectively in support of it programmes implementation. 

Lead and contribute to advocacy, knowledge building and communication efforts:

  • Lead the development of knowledge management strategies and methodologies and products on UN Women’s global humanitarian policy and coordination.
  • Support the implementation of knowledge management strategies and methodologies to demonstrate UN Women’s added niche and comparative advantage in humanitarian normative and coordination action. 
  • Identify best practices and lessons learned to guide Regional and Country Offices on programme improvement and strategy planning.

Provide any other functions as requested by the Supervisor.

Key Performance Indicators:

  • Timely and quality coordination and substantive support to Humanitarian bodies, as per annual workplan and budget.
  • Timely and quality policy advice and recommendations, including to the Field Level Humanitarian Coordination Function.
  • Timely implementation and strengthening of UN Women Rapid Deployment response approach and other rosters.
  • Quality inputs to Resource Mobilization efforts.
  • Relationship with stakeholders is maintained and further strengthened.
  • Quality of policy inputs, reports and knowledge products.
  • Regular collaboration, coordination and teamwork with colleagues globally.

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 of global policy frameworks and goals on gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls in humanitarian action and awareness of regional and national policy and implementation frameworks.
  • Strong analytical and drafting skills and ability to undertake policy research.
  • Ability to synthesize programme performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making.
  • Ability to develop and maintain strategic partnerships, coordinate events, facilitate learning exchanges and policy dialogues.
  • Ability to lead formulation of strategies and their implementation
  • Strong networking skills.
  • Ability to negotiate and interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising.
  • Capacity to plan, prioritize and deliver tasks on time. 

Required Skills and Experience

Education: 

  • Master’s degree or equivalent in development related disciplines, gender issues, economics, political science, human rights, law or other social science fields, of direct relevance to women peace and security and gender-responsive humanitarian action. 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: 

  • Minimum 7 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects;
  • Technical experience in gender in humanitarian action, accountability frameworks and capacity building;
  • Experience coordinating and liaising with government agencies and/or donors is an asset;
  • Experience working in the UN System is an asset;
  • Experience in leading/managing a team is an asset.

Languages:

  • Fluency in English is required; 
  • Knowledge of the other 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 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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