Planning and Coordination Specialist

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 131,270 USD and 169,245 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.

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.

The West and Central Regional Office (WCARO) is the interface between the headquarters (HQ) and the country offices, with a different role than the upper and lower level ones. The RO plays an oversight, advisory, technical support, and capacity development role. In this context, WCARO acts as a policy advice and support provider, as well as a knowledge hub. The oversight, policy advisory, technical support and knowledge development functions cover the priority thematic areas, and the RO is the first line interlocutor for country offices.

Reporting to the Deputy Regional Director, the Planning and Coordination Specialist manages and implements activities to enhance system wide coherence on gender equality and the empowerment of women; supports UN Women country presences on the ground in their coordination roles with the United Nations Country Teams in the identification of technical expertise, the implementation of corporate-level accountability tools; and provides support to UN Women country presences to ensure high quality planning processes at regional and country level, including through application of results-based programme planning and management with an emphasis on the United Nations Sustainable Development Country Framework (UNSDCF) processes.

Duties and Responsibilities

Responsibilities:

Provide technical support and guidance to the Regional Director and to Country Offices and PP in strategic planning

• Provide technical support and guidance to regional and country level colleagues in the development and monitoring of work planning processes and in developing strategic notes;
• Provide technical support to RO and PP/COs and guidance in the development of regional and country level planning instruments, such as annual work plans, programme/ project documents and strategic notes;
• Collaborate with Regional Evaluation Specialists and country Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) focal points to ensure that findings and lessons from evaluations are reflected in strategic planning processes;
• Provide technical support and guidance to COs and PPs in the development of gender-specific country programming processes and products, including the preparation of UNSDCF and other UN system joint programming documents;
• Prepare briefing notes, and any other strategic notes or documents for the Regional Director.

Provide technical support to the Regional Director as well as Country Offices and PPs on inter-agency coordination

• Provide technical support and guidance to the Regional Director in participation in regional groups and interagency coordination efforts and related technical bodies as well as the Regional Coordination Mechanism;

• Provide analysis and advice to COs and PPs on engaging United Nations Country Teams (UNCT) and Resident Coordinators (RCs) on gender responsive development assistance; Promote application of the UNCT SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard and UNCT Gender Equality Marker by UNCTs in the region as well as knowledge sharing among offices and country teams that have implemented these.

• Prepare inputs to Common Country Assessment (CCA)/ United Nations Sustainable Development Country Framework (UNSDCF) and other documents; provide overall analysis on the UNSDCF at the regional level;

• Provide substantive support and representation at conferences, high-level meetings, joint programme development, joint advocacy and research.
• Periodically review and assess UN Women´s engagement in inter-agency processes and joint programmes in the field to devise improved strategies for ensuring that UN Women´s investment in coordination processes is yielding results in support of gender equality and women´s human rights. Additionally, in coordination with regional evaluation specialists, promote UN Women´s engagement in joint evaluations on gender equality and women´s empowerment.

Provide technical support and guidance to the development of strategic partnerships and resource mobilization as it relates to Coordination efforts

• Provide technical support and guidance to COs and PPs on managing activities and other promotional events to engage bilateral and multilateral institutions/ donors, private sector and civil society to expand and/or sustain interest and resources for UN Women programmes and joint UN system programmes;
• As part of strategic planning, provide support and advice to COs and PPs in forging and implementing strategic partnerships to increase UN Women’s positioning in country;
• Liaise with key stakeholders from Government, academia, civil society, the private sector and key international actors to build and strengthen strategic alliances and partnerships on women’s rights and gender equality initiatives.
• Participate in global practice network on UN coordination, sharing and learning best practices to keep abreast of and/or to contribute to ongoing debates and strategic thinking and to exchange experience and/or seek support on coordination issues affecting UNW and UN system programs and operation.
• Contribute to UN Coordination initiatives to address the COVID-19 crisis, particularly the Calls for Proposals of the UN COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund and the planning and accountability exercises for the joint implementation of the UN Framework for the Immediate Socio-Economic Response to COVID-1, including COVID markers and System-wide evaluations.

Facilitate knowledge building and sharing

• Lead the development and dissemination of good practices and lessons learned; ensure they are incorporated into programme development;
• Provide capacity development support to regional and country level colleagues on results based programme planning and management.

Deliverables:

• Quality and timely support to PP and COs in their planning processes and development of results-based and strategic notes and annual work plans;
• Chair and Coordination of Regional Gender thematic Group
• Quality guidance and leadership provided to UN agencies;
• Increase in Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) issues incorporated into UN agencies activities;
• UN Women partners, including government and donors provide good feedback on their working relationship with UN Women, based on evaluations and assessments;
• Increased awareness of UN Women’s work;

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• Excellent knowledge of gender equity and women’s empowerment issues
• Excellent knowledge of UN system and understanding of inter-agency coordination processes
• Excellent knowledge of results based programme planning and management
• Excellent analytical skills
• Ability to promote and monitor inclusion of gender-specific objectives, indicators, targets and activities in the UN agencies programmes

Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master's degree (or equivalent) in international development, public administration, public policy, or other relevant social science field is required

A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.

A project/programme management certification (such as PMP®, PRINCE2®, or MSP®) would be an added advantage

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience working with inter-agency coordination and strategic programme planning processes;
• Experience in the development, planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting of programmes;
• Experience working in gender equality and women’s rights at the international level is an asset;
• Experience working in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds or Programs is an asset.

Language requirement:

Fluency in French and in English is required.

Working knowledge of another UN official language is an asset.