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UN Women: Policy Specialist - Ending Violence against Women

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
    • Criminology, Extremism, Police Affairs and Anti-Corruption
    • Gender-based violence
    • Drugs, Anti-Money Laundering, Terrorism and Human Trafficking
  • 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.

The Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental  Division provides global programming and policy support to allow UN Women offices at Headquarters and in all field locations to deliver effective and efficient initiatives to support the implementation 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 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 work of UN Women’s Ending Violence against Women (EVAW) Section is focused on a comprehensive approach to ending violence against women that addresses legislation and policies, prevention, services for survivors, research and data, and creating safe public spaces in different settings. Under the supervision of the Senior Policy Advisor on Safe Public Spaces, the Policy Specialist is responsible for providing policy advice and technical support to UN Women country and regional offices and partners in the area of ending violence against women, and particularly in the area of  the prevention and response to sexual harassment in workplaces and public spaces, leveraging the work of existing EVAW initiatives to build the EVAW evidence and knowledge base, and identifying new strategic partnerships to support evidence-based policies and programming on EVAW and the prevention and response to sexual harassment in workplaces and public spaces.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide policy advice and technical support to UN Women country and regional offices and partners in the area of ending violence against women, and particularly in the area of the prevention and response to sexual harassment in workplaces and public spaces:

  • Lead the development of tools and guidelines on EVAW for use by UN Women field offices, the UN system, and other partners; including those which support multi-stakeholder integrated safe city approaches and the prevention of sexual harassment in different settings;
  • Identify and catalyze work in new/cutting edge areas in the area of VAW, especially in policy areas related to safe city women and girl approaches, and identify funding sources;
  • Provide technical support, including through technical inputs and support to intergovernmental processes, to the development of new global normative and intergovernmental standards related to EVAW, especially in the areas of safe and sustainable cities and transportation;
  • Provide technical guidance and advice on programme documents, country strategies, and knowledge products;
  • Provide policy advice and technical support to UN Women field offices;
  • Provide technical support and policy advice to support internal reviews of policies and mechanisms, knowledge products, methodological tools and thematic discussions on sexual harassment.
  • Prepare and finalize briefing notes, statements and advocacy messages, and contribute to corporate reports in assigned areas of focus.

Provide capacity building support to country offices/ multi country offices in close collaboration with regional teams and external partners:

  • Provide capacity building and technical advice to country offices and multi-country offices in developing and strengthening policies and programmes on EVAW, especially on initiatives to prevent and respond to sexual harassment in workplaces and public spaces, with impact indicators and monitoring and evaluation mechanisms in place;
  • Manage the identification of knowledge and implementation gaps and possible solutions;
  • Identify spaces for mutual learning and sharing across offices, regions and divisions.

Research, analyze and manage knowledge on ending violence against women, particularly in the area of prevention and response to sexual harassment in workplaces and public spaces:

  • Conduct on-going research and analysis of global, regional and national trends and promising strategies related to VAW prevention and response, in part to support the development of policies and innovative programming;
  • Develop new areas of cooperation in established global communities of practice on safe public spaces that promote collaboration, innovation and exchange of good practices, especially in urban and rural contexts;
  • Engage in global research and multi-sectoral networks, including global city and transportation networks to strengthen the linkages between research findings and EVAW policies and programmes within and outside UN Women.

Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with stakeholders, regional/ international actors in the area of EVAW, and particularly in the area of prevention and response to sexual harassment in workplaces and public spaces:

  • Strengthen strategic partnerships with relevant actors and contribute to the building of cross-sectoral coalitions of support to address sexual harassment in their sectors, through the organization of strategic events, and convening of stakeholders for exchanges of views and facilitation of consensus-building;
  • Identify strategic opportunities to link and strengthen EVAW programming, especially in the area of prevention and response to sexual harassment in workplaces and public spaces, with existing EVAW initiatives, and UN wide priorities (including but not limited to: SDGs, New Urban Agenda, Action Coalitions, etc.);
  • Prepare global donor reports related to global technical advisory policy services on safe cities and EVAW as required.
  • Build and strengthen close liaisons with relevant donors and other actors, including the private sector, supporting efforts towards EVAW and the prevention of sexual harassment in workplaces and public spaces, especially in urban and rural contexts.

Perform any other duties as requested by the supervisor.

Key Performance Indicators:

  • Timely and quality technical advice and support;
  • Leadership in the area of EVAW;
  • Quality reports and other strategic documents drafted and submitted in a timely manner;
  • Strong relationships with various partners and stakeholders;
  • UN Women is well represented in important meetings on topics related to EVAW and safe cities;
  • Contributions to resource mobilization;
  • Timely and quality knowledge products.

Competencies

Core Values:

  • Respect for Diversity;
  • Integrity;
  • Professionalism.

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:

  • Strong and proven knowledge of gender issues and violence against women and girls in diverse settings;
  • Excellent networking skills;
  • Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyse trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising;
  • Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research;
  • Ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
  • Excellent analytical skills;
  • Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings;
  • Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results based management and reporting.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

  • Master degree (or equivalent) in international development, social sciences, gender/women’s studies, public policy, human rights or other related social science 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 experience in designing and managing programmes and doing policy research and advocacy for the elimination of violence against women, especially in the area of prevention and response to sexual harassment, ideally with some experience in developing countries;
  • Experience working with and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field;
  • Experience working with the UN is an asset.

Languages:

  • Written and oral proficiency in English is required;
  • Knowledge of another UN 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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This vacancy is now closed.
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