Women’s Economic Empowerment Coordinator

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, the UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world.   

Through its programmes and projects, UN Women is providing technical assistance to national partners (governmental and non-governmental) in the implementation of existing international and national commitments to women’s rights and gender equality, it facilitates networking and exchange of good practices and advocates for women’s rights and gender equality in all areas of life. According to its mandate, UN Women works in five thematic areas, such as leadership and participation, women’s economic empowerment, ending violence against women, women peace and security and governance and national planning fully reflect accountability for gender equality commitments. UN Women is also the lead Agency in coordinating the UN Country Team on gender equality. 

The UN Women Country Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina has been supporting relevant stakeholders in the country to advance economic empowerment of women and the efforts are intensifying along the four primary programming streams – knowledge generation and sharing, support to women in entrepreneurship, raising awareness and policy response to the needs and potential of the care economy, advancing potential of women in rural areas and advancing role and participation of women in tech driven industries . 

UN Women Country Office in Bosnia and Herzegovina is seeking to recruit a Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE) Coordinator who will work under the direct supervision of Programme Specialist and overall supervision of UN Women Representative, and will be responsible for designing and implementing WEE programmatic interventions in support to gender perspective in the economic processes and reforms in the country and direct efforts for women’s economic empowerment. The WEE Coordinator will lead the work on Care Economy and Strengthening Women’s Entrepreneurship in UN Women BiH Country Office.

 The WEE Coordinator will work in close collaboration with the colleagues in the related programmes and the operations team to ensure consistent delivery of results.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide WEE Management and Coordination support:  

• Based on the internal and external consultations, develop and  support implementation of the WEE programme work plan in line with Country Office (CO) Strategic Note and CO Annual Work Plans; 
• Develop task descriptions, coordinate contracting, monitor and technically resource implementation of consultancy contracts and agreements with the implementing partners; 
• Draft project plans, budgets, Terms of Reference for national and international consultants, experts/ institutions, and CSOs and supervise and evaluate their performance in delivering required outputs; 
• Undertake close supervision of studies and analysis around Care Economy and WEE in general; 
• Develop and update work plans and expenditure plans based on the Annual Work- Plan; 
• Identify and obtain any support and advice required for the management, planning and control of the project; 
• Ensure proper identification of and follow up with all relevant counterparts; 
• Ensure project documentations/communication is properly done, tracking system is in place for effective project closure and any anticipated human resources changes on the project; 

  Provide WEE Technical Support and Advise

• Provide technical support to draft concept notes, project proposals and technical briefs on WEE with the focus on care economy and, women’s entrepreneurship in order to contribute to WEE portfolio growth and resource mobilization efforts;
• Provide technical/expert support to UN Women implementing partners as well as consultants and collaborators, towards the achievement of intended results; 
• Organize stakeholder coordination to ensure harmonization and sustainability of results; 
• Foster strategic partnerships with key stakeholders in the field of WEE, care economy, women’s entrepreneurship, economic development,   and private sector partnership;
• Identify and link to related ongoing activities within other institutions and stakeholders and encourage collaboration and synergies; 
• Support WEE portfolio communications and visibility efforts in close collaboration with communications officer; 
• Undertake regular monitoring missions to ensure timely delivery and quality of results;  
• Flags in a timely way issues of strategic concern and seeks advice by the supervisors in finding appropriate solutions; 
• Coordinate timely collection of all baselines and setting the targets; 
• Prepare deliverables and provide technical support and inputs as needed; 
• All other technical tasks as agreed with the supervisors. 

Reporting and Accountability for WEE Portfolio:

• Contribute and provide substantial inputs to UN Women donor reporting, RMS bi-annual reporting and annual reporting  as requested by the supervisors; 
• Support data collection, baseline and endline collection and tracking the progress of the programme implementation in line with the M&E framework;
• Contribute to ensure project documentation/communication is properly done and tracking system is in place for effective project closure;
• Ensure adherence to the UN Women operating rules and procedures;
• Perform appropriate operations in online Corporate Planning System (project manager, as per DoA).

Impact of results:

The overall objective of UN Women work on WEE is to strengthen the gender perspective in the economic reforms and policies and to contribute to direct economic empowerment of women in the country.

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, multiethnic 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:

• Ability to extract, interpret, analyze data and resolve operational problems;
• Ability to perform work of confidential nature and handle a large volume of work;
• Ability to support a team and team building skills;
• Strong IT skills and ability to apply it consistently in work tasks;
• Good knowledge of administrative rules and regulations, organizational policies and procedures related to the position and ability to apply it consistently in work tasks;
• Focus on results and positive response to feedback;
• Attention to detail;
• Generates new ideas and proposes new, more effective ways of doing things;
• Documents and analyses innovative strategies/best practices/new approaches;
• Reports to internal and external partners in a timely and appropriate fashion;
• Organizes and prioritizes work schedule to meet partners and donors needs and deadlines;
• Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships within the work unit and with internal and external partners;
• Responds to partners needs promptly.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• MA degree in economics, social studies, or closely related field.
• BA with additional two years of experience may be accepted in lieu of MA degree. 

Experience:

• A minimum of 3 years with MA or 5 years with BA of relevant experience in similar positions is required.;
• Demonstrated project experience as well as previous work and research on topics related to gender equality, care economy, entrepreneurship and women’s economic empowerment;
• Experience working on analytical or practical projects related to economic development is necessary and having a good understanding of economic position and empowerment of women in BIH;
• Experience with the international standards related to the Project Cycle Management and Monitoring and Evaluation of Projects;
• Previous experience working with international organizations will be considered an asset.

Language requirements:

• Excellent English and B/S/C language skills, both written and oral and good translation skills. Short listed candidates will be tested in this field.