Coordinator for the Gender Open Day at ESCWA

Result of Service Enhancement of staff capacities on gender across selected topics.

Work Location UN House - ESCWA

Expected duration 3 Weeks

Duties and Responsibilities Since its adoption by the United Nations Chief Executives Board for Coordination in 2012 (CEB) to put into effect the policy on gender equality, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) has been among the first UN entities to roll-out and implement the United Nations System-Wide Action Plan (UN-SWAP) on Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women.

Upon the completion of the first 5-year reporting cycle on the UN-SWAP in 2018, ESCWA was recognized by UN Women, the custodian entity to monitor its implementation, as a top performer agency in UNSWAP implementation. ESCWA maintained its exemplary results, and in 2021 it exceeded the requirements for almost all the indicators of the action plan.

As part of its ongoing efforts, ESCWA has been conducting regular assessment surveys to learn more about staff capacities and needs in the field of gender equality. Building on the results of these surveys, ESCWA has been organizing yearly trainings on mainstreaming gender across thematic areas. The fourth capacity assessment survey conducted in 2021, recommended changing the approach to annual gender trainings by promoting the delivery of hands-on, more focused trainings that cover actual aspects of work rather than theories on how work on gender needs to be done. A similar recommendation was also reiterated in a participatory gender audit conducted for ESCWA in 2020 which shed light on the lack of on-the-job trainings to strengthen and enlarge the knowledge and competencies.

In light of the above, ESCWA aims to organize a Gender Open Day to provide staff members with the opportunity of strengthening and enlarging their knowledge by exchanging with experts in gender mainstreaming across the organization’s work. ESCWA mandate covers a multidisciplinary programme. It brings together various topics related to development across six integrated functional clusters. Project teams work in harmony to provide well-grounded policy advice in areas of high priority to the Arab region.

The thematic focus areas namely climate change and natural resource sustainability, gender justice population and inclusive development, shared economic prosperity, statistics information society and technology, and governance and conflict prevention, in addition to a sixth cluster following on the overall implementation of the 2030 agenda and SDG coordination. Information on ESCWA clusters and their areas of focus can be found on the following link https://www.unescwa.org/clusters.

ESCWA is organizing a Gender Open Day to provide staff members with the opportunity of strengthening and enlarging their knowledge by exchanging with experts in gender mainstreaming across selected topics.

Expert/consultants on topics such as gender and the economy; gender and climate change, energy, sustainable production and consumption, natural resources management, food security; gender and digital divide/digital transformation; gender and governance with a focus on governance in conflict settings; gender and social sciences, are expected to support ESCWA’s work by discussing with its staff members and reflecting with them on the substantive content as well tools and methodologies required to mainstream gender in their ongoing or upcoming outputs.

Therefore, a coordinator will be hired to support the origination and coordination of preparatory work for the day.

Qualifications/special skills A Master’s degree or equivalent in social and/or economic and/or development studies and /or related areas is required. A minimum of five years of experience in working on gender equality and women’s rights across the selected theme is required. Previous experience in conducting and publishing research is required. Previous experience in delivering presentations is desirable.

Languages Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of Arabic is desirable.

No Fee THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CHARGE A FEE AT ANY STAGE OF THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS (APPLICATION, INTERVIEW MEETING, PROCESSING, OR TRAINING). THE UNITED NATIONS DOES NOT CONCERN ITSELF WITH INFORMATION ON APPLICANTS’ BANK ACCOUNTS.