Gender Programme Specialist (Regional Coordinator Spotlight Caribbean Programme), P-4, LACRO, TA (6 months), Panama City

Contract

This is a P-4 contract. This kind of contract is known as Professional and Director staff. It is normally internationally recruited only. It's a staff contract. It usually requires 7 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 131,907 USD and 170,066 USD.

Please keep in mind that the salary displayed here is an estimation by UN Talent based on the location and the type of contract. It may vary depending on the organization. The recruiter should be able to inform you about the exact salary range. In case the job description contains another salary information, please refer to this one.

UNICEF works in some of the world’s toughest places, to reach the world’s most disadvantaged children. To save their lives. To defend their rights. To help them fulfill their potential.

Across 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for everyone.

And we never give up.

For every child, an advocate

UNICEF promotes the rights and welfare of all girls, boys, and adolescents in everything we do. Together with our allies, we work in 190 countries and territories to transform this commitment into practical actions that benefit all children, especially focusing our efforts on reaching the most vulnerable and excluded, worldwide. Guided by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), and in line with the 2030 Agenda, UNICEF works to put the rights and well-being of the most disadvantaged boys, girls and adolescents at the heart of the social, political, and economic agenda, in line with our equity focus, working across our organization and with our partners in government, civil society and the private sector to support shifts in public policy, fuel social engagement, and increase investment for children.

Gender equality is a priority for UNICEF, as manifested in its Gender Action Plan 2018–2021 (GAP). The GAP establishes UNICEF’s intention to transform into a more gender-responsive organization with enhanced ambitions for gender equality across results areas. Programme priorities included in the GAP include child marriage and early unions, gender-based violence, girls’ secondary school education, menstrual health and hygiene, adolescent health, girls’ empowerment and transforming harmful gender norms from early childhood through adolescence.

In September 2017, the EU and the UN launched a joint partnership to eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls worldwide. The Spotlight Initiative (SI) aims at mobilizing commitment of political leaders and contributing to achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Initiative aims at ending all forms of violence against women and girls, targeting those that are most prevalent and contribute to gender inequality across the world. The Spotlight Initiative will deploy targeted, large-scale investments in Asia, Africa, Latin America, the Pacific and the Caribbean, aimed at achieving significant improvements in the lives of women and girls. The Spotlight Initiative thematic focus in the Caribbean is the reduction in prevalence and incidence of family violence. Family violence includes physical, social, sexual, economic and psychological/emotional abuse and acts of aggression within relationships that are considered as family connections or akin to family. The definition is guided by the domestic violence legislation across the region and the Initiative will take a non-discriminatory approach in advancing a comprehensive approach for all regardless of social status, location, identity or sexual orientation.

The initiative recognizes that family violence is a form of gender-based violence in which women and girls are disproportionately the victims. The initiative is concerned to address the root causes of this violence, that is, patriarchal and unequal gender norms and relations between women and men. Family violence negatively affects a range of human rights including women’s and girls’ enjoyment of sexual and reproductive rights. While the focus of Spotlight is on women and girls, the improved capacities of regional and national institutions to implement laws and policies, collect and analyse data and engage in prevention programming will benefit men and boys some who also experience family violence and all of whom are affected by harmful stereotypes around masculinity.

The UNICEF Latin America and Caribbean Regional Office is based in in Panama, operating in 36 territories, including 24 country offices. Five of those offices support child rights goals in Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States, with offices in Belize, Jamaica and Haiti. Multi-country offices are located in Guyana (covering Guyana and Suriname) and Barbados (covering 12 countries and territories in the Eastern Caribbean Area). All UNICEF offices operating in English and Dutch-speaking Caribbean are aligned with the United Nations Multi country Sustainable Development Framework (UN MSDF) for the period January 2017 to December 2021.

The UN MSDF includes 4 priorities, with a total of 8 outcomes. The priorities include: a) an inclusive, equitable and prosperous Caribbean; b) a healthy Caribbean; c) a safe and just Caribbean, and d) a sustainable and resilient Caribbean. While these priorities are aligned with the 2030 Agenda, an explicit definition of strategies to ensure gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is vaguely defined; UNICEF has since invested in strengthening its gender response by conducting Gender Programmatic Reviews in two of the five Caribbean country offices and conducting a light gender analysis in an internal mid-term review exercise. These, and other, planning exercises have revealed the need for stronger investment in addressing harmful gender norms, stronger coordination among gender and child rights actors and multi-sectoral approaches across Caribbean institutions to address the high levels of violence Caribbean girls and boys experience. These conclusions are supported by three main regional efforts in the Caribbean to address family violence: contributions to the CARICOM Violence Against Children Prevention Strategy; engagement in the CARICOM New School Model and participation in all six Spotlight national programmes to ensure linkages between violence against children and gender inequality – with a special focus on the intergenerational transfer of violence and the particular case of adolescent girls.

How can you make a difference?

Under the overall guidance of the Regional Gender Advisor, based in Panama City, with a dotted reporting line to the UNICEF Representative of the Office for the Eastern Caribbean Area, the UNICEF Regional Coordinator will ensure the implementation and monitoring of UNICEF commitments within the Spotlight Caribbean regional programme, and in close collaboration with UNICEF Regional Office staff in the areas of Education, ECD, C4D, Child Protection and Communications.

In consultation with regional partners, UNICEF put forth areas such as child marriage, VAW-VAC intersections, girls’ empowerment and gender socialization within three pillars of the Caribbean Spotlight Regional Programme, towards strengthening regional priorities set out in the CARICOM Gender Equality Policy, CARICOM VAC Strategy and CARICOM New School Model. Collaboration with OECS and a range of other Caribbean institutions will be required, including the CXC, UWI, IGDS, CariMan, CARICOM Youth Ambassadors and CIWIL. Below is a summary of the main areas under UNICEF responsibility in the Spotlight Regional Programme.

Pillar 2: Coherence around VAW-VAC policies and standards; education standards for violence against women and girls (VAWG), and gender competencies for front-line workers.

Pillar 3: (UNICEF co-lead with UNFPA): Pillar co-coordination with all partners; education system strengthening; parenting practices for early childhood and adolescents; girls’ empowerment index; gender norms change.

Pillar 5: Evidence gaps around gender and family violence; child marriage manifestations and measurements.

For more information about UNICEF and its work: www.unicef.org/lac/en/gender-equality

Key functions, accountabilities and related duties/tasks

1. Advisory and/or technical support to Regional Gender Advisor or Representative

• Under the guidance of Regional Gender Advisor actively participate in key regional-specific teams to ensure strategic inclusion of gender and family violence in relevant programming.
• Coordinate with the Regional Gender Advisor and the Headquarters Gender Section to plan, utilize, monitor and report on the programmatic funds that are allocated to the regional-specific interventions for the Spotlight Caribbean Regional Programme.
• Support Regional Gender Advisor in advancing the technical and research capacity in the region to continue to build evidence base for programming and to ensure continuous capacity in gender and family violence across the region.

2. Program management, planning, monitoring and delivery of results (excluding emergency contexts)

• Implement and monitor Phase 1 workplan in coordination with UNICEF sectoral colleagues, Regional Institutions and Partners.
• Support the development, implementation and monitoring of Phase 2 workplan in collaboration with UNICEF sectoral colleagues, Regional Institutions, and Partners.
• Coordinate the adolescent engagement plan in collaboration with CSO and the Caribbean Regional Youth Council, and CARICOM youth ambassadors.
• Develop terms of reference and support hiring processes, and where appropriate, supervises temporary staff/consultants across pillars.
• Develop a contact list for regional partners pertinent for UNICEF activities, updating as needed.
• Liaise with UNICEF RO, HQ and the Spotlight PMU on Spotlight monitoring and reporting, including participation in Spotlight discussions with Country Offices in Latin America and the Caribbean to effectively collect and report on the programme indicators.
• Ensure Caribbean lessons are communicated to broader LAC approaches around VAW-VAC, gender competencies and child marriage and early unions.
• Ensure strict budget analysis and adjustments to meet with EU deadlines and commitments.
• Provide punctual support, ensuring linkages with Regional Programme initiatives, to national Spotlight Programmes in Caribbean CO.
• Develop periodic reports for different stakeholders.

3. Advocacy, networking and partnership building

• Liaise with RCO Barbados and PMU as per Spotlight governance procedures.
• Establish and maintain cooperation agreements with regional institutions and other external partners (CSOs, private sector).
• Conducts regular planning and feedback meetings with temporary staff/consultants.
• In collaboration with sectoral colleagues, identify the areas of focus for the greatest potential for impact and scale, in alignment with regional priorities.
• Identify areas for convergence and leverage existing partnerships to accelerate programme implementation.
• If necessary, participate as a member of steering committees and represent UNICEF in external meetings on gender and family violence.

To qualify as an advocate for every child you will have…

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in Gender and development, human rights, public health, sociology, child and adolescent development, or other field directly related to gender, family violence and child rights.
• A minimum of eight (8) years of professional work experience, of which at least 2 years at international level, in gender equality and girls’ empowerment, family violence, gender-based violence, girls’ education, relevant social and behaviour change communication or other relevant programmes in the Caribbean.
• Experience in designing, implementing, managing, and delivering results-based programmes on gender and development or any other cross cutting programme, especially at regional level.
• Experience working with girls and boys under the age of 18, in particular in the development and implementation of adolescent participation programmes is highly desirable.
• Knowledge of, and familiarity with Caribbean women’s movement and gender equality architecture and activism desired.
• Fluency in English is required. French and Dutch language skills desirable. Spanish language skills will be considered an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate...

UNICEF's values of Care, Respect, Integrity, Trust, and Accountability (CRITA).

The UNICEF competencies required for this post are:

• Nurtures, Leads and Manages People (1)
• Demonstrates Self Awareness and Ethical Awareness (2)
• Works Collaboratively with others (2)
• Builds and Maintains Partnerships (2)
• Innovates and Embraces Change (2)
• Thinks and Acts Strategically (2)
• Drive to achieve impactful results (2)
• Manages ambiguity and complexity (2)

To view our competency framework, please visit here.

UNICEF is committed to diversity and inclusion within its workforce, and encourages all candidates, irrespective of gender, nationality, religious and ethnic backgrounds, including persons living with disabilities, to apply to become a part of the organization.

UNICEF has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UNICEF, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. UNICEF also adheres to strict child safeguarding principles. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.

Remarks:

Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service.

Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.