Policy Specialist Women, Peace and Security

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 142,186 USD and 183,320 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.

Aligned with Mali’s Strategic Framework for Economic Recovery and Sustainable Development (CREDD) adopted in 2019 and the new United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF), UN Women has developed a 5-year Strategic Plan (2020-2024) focusing on the following strategic outcome areas: 1) women’s leadership and political participation; 2) women’s economic empowerment; 3) ending violence against women; 4) women, peace and security (WPS) and humanitarian action, and 5) gender-sensitive planning and budgeting.

UN Women’s strategic approach puts emphasis on the creation of partnerships between Government, civil society, women’s movement, traditional leaders, private sector, academia, international development partners and other entities of the UN system; UN Women also applies the principles of innovative approaches and solutions, Leaving No One Behind (LNOB) and reaching the further behind first to achieve the results outlined in the UNSDCF. UN Women leverages its triple mandate: normative, coordination and operational to contribute to the overall implementation of international and national frameworks such as the AGENDA 203, CEDAW, Beijing Platform, resolution 1325 and at the national level CREDD and UNSDCF.

In the context of Mali, eight years after the signing of the peace accords in 2015, the country still faces a multidimensional crisis with security, socio-political, economic and humanitarian challenges affecting the population particularly women and girls all of which is exacerbated by the sudden withdrawal of MINUSMA following Security Council Resolution 2690 (2023).

Women's participation in ongoing processes and gender responsive programming in peace and security sectors are critical to respond to the gaps created by the mission’s drawdown, including with regards to supporting the rule of law, the advancement of the WPS agenda and the prevention of violence extremism.

Reporting to the Deputy Representative of UN Women in Mali, the Policy Specialist exercises overall responsibility for planning, developing, implementation, quality assurance including M&E and reporting on WPS interventions of UN Women in Mali. Partnerships and Resources Mobilization is an integral part of the overall management and responsibility of the WPS portfolio. In addition, the Policy Specialist works in close collaboration across other units and programmes of the Country Office including the M&E and operations teams. Internally, the Policy Specialist collaborates closely with the WPS Advisor in the Regional Bureau for West, and Central Africa based in Dakar-Senegal and the Peace and Security team based in HQ. Externally, the Policy Specialist will assume a proactive stance in collaborating and building positive rapport with Government officials, multi and bi-lateral donors, UN agencies and civil society to ensure successful partnerships and delivery of UN Women’s programmatic goals and objectives under her/his portfolio.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Advisory Services and Technical Support in the area of women, peace and security

• Advise UN Women Representative on strategies and opportunities for supporting women, peace and security agenda in Mali, in particular on strengthening women's participation and influence in conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding in with SCR 1325 in Mali.
• Represent UN Women on all related technical inter-agency meetings and events on peace and security.
• Prepare policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers and materials for use in the development and presentation of a coherent UNWOMEN country perspective on women peace and security (R1325).
• Provide technical inputs on all UN related documents to advance WPS agenda and UN Women’s comparative advantage in supporting the WPS agenda in Mali.
• Provide technical advice and ensure sound strategic engagement with national and international partners to advance the WPS priorities and the implementation of 1325 national action plan, and to ensure effective gender responsive and gender transformation conflict prevention, peacebuilding initiatives and prevention of violent extremism.
• Provide strategic and specialized technical advice to the peace and security team on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support effective program planning, implementation, monitoring and timely progress reporting.
• Advise on capacity development of Malian women's organizations including Peace huts in the peace building process.
• Review and provide feedback to ongoing peace and security sector-wide strategies, action plans, work-plans, case studies and related knowledge products and publications as needed.
• Maintain networks with institutions and experts in peace building and women's peace networks including the informal 1325 group.

2. Programme Management and Quality Assurance

• Lead on developing strategic programme documents outlining UN Women’s comprehensive support to WPS and its delivery on WPS priorities in Mali.
• Develop solid situation and gender analysis, workplans and results and resources frameworks as part of comprehensive programme documents.
• Lead on programme and project management and support effective quality assurance including human rights due diligence policy, leave no one behind, human rights-based approaches and conflict sensitive approaches.
• Lead on positioning and resource mobilization for relevant UN Women's programmes and initiatives on peace and security with national, regional and international partners.
• Assess and identify capacity building needs and other entry programming entry points in close collaboration with national and international partners to inform UN Women WPS engagement in Mali.
• Lead technical and programmatic coordination to ensure effective implementation, enhance synergies and leverages inter-agency partnerships.
• Review and evaluate proposals and oversee the preparation of donor proposals and reports.
• Support mentoring, training and capacity development initiatives jointly with partners.
• Manage overall monitoring, evaluations, re-adjustment and reporting of WPS and Humanitarian initiatives.
• Manage and oversee effective results-based management system for quality assurance.
• Lead field missions and ensure effective management and quality assurance of programme delivery in remote areas.
• Prepare quarterly and final reports for internal purposes and external (donor reporting) focusing on results, outputs, impact and contribution to strategic UN outcomes in close collaboration with the M&E unit.
• Contribute effectively to UN Women office and corporate reporting as requested.

3. Policy Development and Coordination

• Support establishing and operationalization of the women, peace and security national coordination mechanism to monitor the implementation of 1325NAP, and UNWOMEN peace and security Program.
• Represent UN Women in meetings and policy dialogues on issues related to WPS as necessary.
• Proactively lead policy dialogue with national, regional and international partners, in close coordination with UN Women’s Regional Office for West and Central Africa, and the Peace and Security Section in HQ.
• Provide technical support for the coordination of the peace and security result group of the UNCDF and other UN system wide coordination mechanisms.
• Provide technical support and guidance for women's groups and women peace activists to develop common positions related to peace and security processes affecting Mali.
• Advise on capacity development of Malian women's organizations in the peace building process and collect and analyze good practices.
• Develop policy briefs and background documents based on objective studies and desk-reviews on WPS related issues with the view of tabling recommendations, informing advocacy efforts, influencing political processes to advance women’s rights and the WPS agenda.
• Identify best practices and lessons learned to guide programme improvement and strategy planning.
• Provide technical support and guidance for women's groups and women peace activists to develop common positions related to peace and security processes affecting Mali.
• Participate in workshops, meetings and events to present on behalf of WPS its strategic position and advocacy on WPS issues.
• Plan, organize and provide technical support to ad hoc expert group meetings, seminars, conferences, workshops, communities of practice and similar gatherings, including identification and determination of major issues for discussion and selection of participants.
• Liaise with the commission on Dialogue and Reconciliation to ensure provision of technical support and expertise to ensure women's full participation and gender-sensitive transitional justice.
• Liaise with the DDR and RSS National commission to ensure women’s ex-combatants and associated with combatants are included in relevant processes.
• Maintain networks with institutions and experts in peace building and women's peace networks including the informal 1325 group.
• Liaise with the Regional Office and HQ to ensure exchange of information and develop analytical briefs on the evolution of peacebuilding processes in Mali.

4. Strategic partnerships, resource mobilization and advocacy

• Proactively reach out and foster strategic partnerships with national partners, donors, CSOs and regional organizations to advance UN Women’s positioning and to support the implementation of WPS initiatives.
• Ensure collaborative engagement and nurture strategic partnership with the national gender unit on the implementation of the national action plan of 1325 in its entirety and to support the development of the upcoming NAP due by 2024.
• Establish and nurture strategic partnerships with line ministries including the Ministry of the Promotion of Women, Ministry of Interior and Defense to establish rapport, increase understanding of UN Women’s mandate and added value as an integral part of the UN country team in Mali.
• Proactively seek partnerships with national experts, financials partners, academia, research institutes, media, and civil society to expand and strengthen advocacy for women peace and security matters and to strengthen knowledge and expert networks.
• Support strategic partnerships with regional and sub-regional organizations (AU, ECOWAS) and civil society groups.
• Convene or represent UN Women in relevant international and regional forums to enhance coordination and/or ensure increased attention to women’s rights, gender equality and women’s participation in conflict prevention and resolution mechanisms.
• Develop advocacy strategies to ensure effective participation of women and to amplify the voices of women in peace, security and peacebuilding processes and mechanisms.
• Work with civil society partners and other stakeholders to conduct awareness raising on priority WPS issues, including protection, transitional justice, prevention of violent extremism, and resilience to mobilize the women’s movement to document and advocate for gender responsive measures.
• Foster and maintain strategic partnerships with key stakeholders including with UN entities, regional organizations, NGOs and core international mediation institutions seeking to increase their presence and activities in Mali.
• Organize regular meetings with the technical and financial partners of the peace and security program.

5. Knowledge Management

• Develop and review background documents, briefs and presentations related to WPS and humanitarian issues.
• Develop knowledge management strategies, products and methodologies on WPS in Mali.
• Develop, implement and monitor capacity development on gender equality and peace building amongst relevant stakeholders including through information sharing and joint trainings with partners, including in support of rapidly deployable specialists in this area.
• Proactively manage the process of enhancing knowledge on WPS in Mali by identifying knowledge gaps on WPS jointly with national and international stakeholders, the community of practice, and develop strategic knowledge management plans to address identified gaps.
• Commission studies to identify emerging and conduct horizon scanning on priority issues with the view to inform and enhance relevant policy frameworks, review entry points and implementation strategies aiming to advance WPS in Mali.
• Systematically identify and codify best practices/lessons learned and share them corporately using existing corporate monitoring and reporting tools.
• Prepare comprehensive capacity building strategies to enhance knowledge and skills on women’s participation in peace building, gender and DDR, gender and SSR, women’s early recovery.
• Ensure the dissemination of existing tools and products published in partnership with UN Women on relevant issues and lead the localization of such products as appropriate.

Competencies

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 Peace and Security
• Strong knowledge of the region
• Excellent networking skills
• Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
• Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice
• Excellent analytical skills
• Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings
• Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results-based management and reporting

Required Skills and Experience

Education :

Master's degree (or equivalent) in social sciences, political science, international affairs, international development studies, gender/women's studies, human rights or a related technical field.

Work Experience :

• At least 7 years progressively responsible experience in designing and managing programmes and advocating for peace and security ideally with some experience in developing countries, in conflict/post-conflict situations.
• Experience in programme, policy analysis, and strategic planning.
• Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field.
• Experience working with the UN is an asset.
• Experience working in the west and central Africa is an asset.

Language:

Fluency in both written and spoken English and French is required.

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc. Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Note:

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel 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.