Gender Officer

Contract

This is a UNV International Specialist contract. This kind of contract is known as International UN Volunteer. It is normally internationally recruited only. More about UNV International Specialist contracts.

UNICEF’s commitment to gender quality and the empowerment of women and girls is central to many of its policy and programme documents and the results are realised in its implementation reports as well as organisational practices. UNICEF’s mission statement also expresses that the organisation aims, through its country programmes, to promote the rights of children, women, and girls as well as to support their full participation in the political, social, and economic development of their communities.

In the same light, the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is fundamental to the mandate of UNICEF emanating from various global instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action among others. To realize this, the UNICEF Gender Policy (2021-2030), and Gender Action Plan (GAP III 2022 - 2025) are key documents that elaborate the organisational mandate and commitment to gender equality and facilitate the strengthening of gender mainstreaming in all areas of UNICEF's work.

UNICEF’s Gender Action Plan (GAP) 2022–2025 considers gender equality as both an organisational priority and a cross-cutting core value that guides programmatic work across its five Goal Areas. The GAP 2022–2025 outlines the gender dimensions of programmatic results that apply to development, humanitarian, peacebuilding, and high-income contexts. The GAP also establishes benchmarks that promote and track gender equality within UNICEF’s institutional policies across the organisation, to ensure accountability.

UNICEF Angola Country Office (CO) adopted the GAP III and is also in the final implementation phase of the current Country Programme. The CO conducted a Gender Programmatic Review (GPR) at the end of 2022, in alignment with the developing process of the next Country Programme Document (CPD), which supported the CO to identify strategic areas to strengthen existing gender programming in alignment with the Strategic Plan and inform the upcoming gender priorities in the CPD in alignment with the GAP and Strategic Plan 2022–2025.

This UNV assignment is part of UNICEF Angola’s gender programming agenda, which has been recently redefined through the GPR review process in 2022. The Gender UNV will support the implementation of the Country Office-defined annual Gender Action Plan, and provide critical advice, guidance and capacity to gender-related activities within the work plan, including but not limited to qualitative and quantitative analysis and reporting, youth network events, communicating with a gender lens, advocacy and support to gender monitoring.

The Gender UNV will support the Gender Specialist Consultant in organising and coordinating the Gender Working Group (GWG), including minuting the quarterly meetings, providing ad-hoc support to activities being led or monitored by the GWG, supporting gender monitoring of GWG activities, coordinating and providing support to Communications and Partnerships in regards to new partners, especially youth and women’s networks, and contribute to providing a gender-lens to CO writing pieces (reports, press releases, human-interest stories, etc.).

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Chief of Child Protection or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the UNV Gender Officer will:

(i) Support the generation of evidence and scale-up of gender-responsive and gender-transformative programming across UNICEF’s Country Programme. (ii) Strengthen the capacity of the Country Programme to effectively engage on Gender Equality, including through technical assistance, development of guidance documents, and training. (iii) Organize and support inter-agency coordination and partnership with civil society organizations

(i) Support the generation of evidence and scale-up of gender-responsive and gender-transformative programming across UNICEF’s Country Programme • Carry out project planning, data analysis and publication reviews with a gender lens. • Contribute to research and analysis and ensure findings are widely known/ adopted and integrated within country programming. • Support monitoring and evaluation of cross-sectoral programming increasing protection and agency of adolescent girls and young women and addressing gender discriminatory social norms. • Ensure funding proposals and regional advocacy include intentional focus on gender equality.

(ii) Strengthen the capacity of the Country Programme to effectively engage on Gender Equality, including through technical assistance, development of guidance documents, and training • Support knowledge sharing, communication, and networking of the Gender Focal Points. • Participate in cross-sectoral collaboration and coordination on key programmatic results on gender, ensuring coherence, maximization of synergies and efficiency in utilization of resources and delivery of results on gender and girls’ empowerment. Notably, support the implementation of the CO gender action plan and the key activities to be implemented and monitored using the Gender Working Group (GWG), with particular attention to the multisectoral flagship activity. • Support gender mainstreaming within capacity-building initiatives. • Facilitate the effective implementation of the UNICEF GAP III, guidelines, and tools in on-going programmes, support the development of strategies, evidence- based arguments in the area of gender and inclusion to strengthen UNICEF’s work.

(iii) Organize and support inter-agency coordination and partnership with civil society organizations • Collaborate with other UN agencies and partners to enhance robust gender results in sectoral programmes at the country level; participate in external meetings on gender integration into sectoral and cross-sectoral results. • Strengthen and expand inter-agency meetings/ events on gender programming to collaborate with inter-agency partners on gender programmes/ projects. Identify and synthesise global and regional best practices and lessons learned for knowledge development, innovative methods to advance gender results. • Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.

Furthermore, UN Volunteers are encouraged to integrate the UN Volunteers programme mandate within their assignment and promote voluntary action through engagement with communities in the course of their work. As such, UN Volunteers should dedicate a part of their working time to some of the following suggested activities:

• Strengthen their knowledge and understanding of the concept of volunteerism by reading relevant UNV and external publications and take active part in UNV activities (for instance in events that mark International Volunteer Day); • Be acquainted with and build on traditional and/or local forms of volunteerism in the host country; • Provide annual and end of assignment self-reports on UN Volunteer actions, results and opportunities. • Contribute articles/write-ups on field experiences and submit them for UNV publications/websites, newsletters, press releases, etc.; • Assist with the UNV Buddy Programme for newly-arrived UN Volunteers; • Promote or advise local groups in the use of online volunteering or encourage relevant local individuals and organizations to use the UNV Online Volunteering service whenever technically possible.

• Professionalism: • Integrity • Teamwork and respect for diversity • Commitment to continuous learning • Planning and organizing: • Communication • Flexibility • Genuine commitment towards the principles of voluntary engagement, which includes solidarity, compassion, reciprocity and self-reliance; and commitment towards UNICEF’s mission and vision, as well as to the UN Core Values.

the UN or other international development organisation, national government or the private sector; especially experience with gender programming, monitoring and evaluation in international development. • Strong substantive, technical, programmatic and research skills in gender along with sectoral expertise in at least one of the following sectors: Health, Education, WASH, HIV/AIDS, Protection, Social Policy, Social Behaviour Change, ECD, or combined expertise in Adolescents. • Knowledge and understanding of gender equality issues, specifically relating to children and women, and the current trends, methods and approaches of analysis. • Proven ability to connect sectoral issues and programmatic approaches on gender; experience developing case studies, documenting lessons learned, • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills; culturally and socially sensitive; ability to work inclusively and collaboratively with a range of partners, including grassroots community members, religious and youth organizations, and authorities at different levels; familiarity with tools and approaches of communications for development. • Ability to work and adapt professionally and effectively in a challenging environment; ability to work effectively in a multicultural team of international and national personnel. • Proficiency in standard MS Office applications; familiarity with database management; familiarity with office technology equipment. • Self-motivated, ability to work with minimum supervision; ability to work with tight deadlines. • Have affinity with or interest in UNICEF’s mandate and volunteerism as a mechanism for durable development, and the UN System.

Languages: Fluency in Portuguese is preferred. Working knowledge of English, both spoken and written, is required

Angola is classified as a “B“ Duty Station. This is a scale that assesses the difficulty of working and living conditions, with A being the least and E, the most difficult. Categories are arrived at through an assessment of the overall quality of life. In determining the degree of hardship, consideration is given to local conditions of safety and security, health care, housing, climate, isolation and level of amenities/conveniences of life.

The UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials, as well as their transportation to and from work. While on mission outside Luanda they will be entitled to usual UN DSA. UN Volunteers are part of the malicious insurance plan.