Gender Advisor

Details

Mission and objectives

UNDP’s mandate is to end poverty, build democratic governance, rule of law, and inclusive institutions. We advocate for change, and connect countries to knowledge, experience and resources to help people build a better life.

Context

The Global Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provides a great opportunity to achieve, in the next 15 years, reversing gender gaps and removing existing obstacles in the different spheres of human development. But in these efforts governments face some challenges. It is not easy to translate the SDGs into national development agendas. Likewise, the follow-up of the SDGs requires developing effective mechanisms to promote equality, non-discrimination, and the empowerment of women within the framework of harmonized agendas. It is imperative to consolidate mechanisms that allow the achievement of essential objectives for the State to include equality as a central axis of its public policies. The first step is the institutionalization of gender equality in the daily actions of the state operations to ensure that commitment is internalized and reflected in the mandates, regulations, processes, and budgets of public institutions. A second step is the mainstreaming of gender issues so that the State positions itself as a central actor in the achievement of substantive equality. This double process of institutionalization and mainstreaming will seek to develop clear and accessible tools and concepts to consolidate architectures and capacities for coordination, spaces for participation, development of programs and public policies within the framework of the SDG Agenda and indicators for monitoring and impact of public policies. One of the greatest concerns to achieve an inclusive State concerns the processes and mechanisms to achieve better coordination between the different sectors, policies, and programs. There are various international experiences that seek to install integrative structures, government institutions and other forms of articulation within the State to avoid the fragmentation of policies. In the area of gender equality, South Africa has experiences of integration of perspective in public policy in different departments of the State institutions. UNDP, together with South African Interested Public Institutions, intends to roll out the Gender Equality Seal in Public Institutions as a tool to support and recognize the efforts made by public institutions towards the achievement of substantive equality between men and women. The Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions is the culmination of the efforts made in the implementation of Public Management Systems for Institutionalization and Gender Mainstreaming. The Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions recognizes the efforts made by institutions at three levels. First, in the degree of political commitment to gender issues inside and outside the institution. Second, in the management of the public policy cycle in all its phases, from planning, execution, monitoring and evaluation. And third, in its own organizational and institutional management, enabling the integration of the gender perspective in all its areas and levels.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of Gender Specialist or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the Gender Advisor will support the Gender Specialist in:  Facilitating knowledge management and capacity building across the organization, focusing on the following results: o Organize and conduct training for CO staff on gender advancement, gender equality, women’s empowerment, women’s issues, and social development. o Conduct training for project beneficiaries as requested by the project teams. o Identify and formulate lessons learned and recommendations to strengthen UNDP’s gender equality efforts.  Support in the development of the Gender Seal process throughout all its steps: o Online self-assessments: - Accompany the Ministry in the implementation of staff surveys and the collection of quantitative data. - Provide permanent advice and technical assistance to the Ministry in the collection of evidence. - Support the Ministry in the use of the GES online platform o Development, implementation, and monitoring of the Action Plan for Improvement: accompany the development and implementation of the gender equality policy and action plan. o Preparation for the external evaluation: Support the Ministry in the evaluation process to obtain the Gender Equality Seal, working on the requirements of evidence and necessary documentation of the institution.  Conduct training sessions on gender equality and the Gender Equality Seal for Public Institutions, to institutional staff, under the coordination of the Global Gender Equality Seal Team.  Any other activities required to ensure adequate and sustained support to the participant public institutions.  Produce the self-assessment  Participate in all capacity building activities organized by the Gender Equality Seal, necessary for the advisor to provide adequate support to the institutions advised. The Gender Advisor will be responsible for developing the reports, training modules, action plan within the period established by this contract. The technical specifications of the products are only indicative, and the final ones will be established with the Gender Advisor. The Gender Advisor will have to develop a work plan with a schedule at the beginning of the project that must be approved by the Gender Specialist before starting the activities.