Programme Manager - Gender Transformative Education (P-4), FT, Programme Group - Education (UNGEI) in Florence, Italy

Overview

Lead efforts to transform gender norms in education.

You have:

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in gender or women’s studies, education, sociology, psychology, child development, international development)
• A minimum of 8 (eight) years of relevant professional experience in programme planning, management, and/or research either in or working closely in education and gender equality and child rights is required.
• At least five years of experience in policy and programming related to gender equality for children, especially through education.
• At least three years of experience managing multi-country programmes with strong research and learning agendas
• Professional work experience in at least one developing country
• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

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 90,970 USD and 117,287 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.

UNGEI is a global partnership for gender equality in and through education. Our mandate is to catalyze and galvanize action locally, nationally, regionally and global for girls’ education and gender equality in education. We bring together diverse partners to develop and implement bold commitments to gender equality in education. We convene global, regional and local conversations and action for girls’ education and gender equality in education, including through the leadership of young feminist activists around the world. UNGEI partners include multilaterals, regional umbrella and intergovernmental organizations, national and global civil society organizations and young feminist leaders.

The UNGEI Secretariat is governed by UNICEF policies of employment. We strive to uphold feminist and anti-racist principles in how we work and offer flexible work arrangements.

UNGEI’s 2023-2027 Strategy includes five focus areas, including:

• Champion feminist expertise, leadership and partnerships in the education sector including girls’ and women’s rights movements
• Focus Area Three: Catalyze new strategies, protect and extend gains on addressing harmful gender norms and practices in and through education
• Focus Area Five: Increase support to/leadership of women in Ministries of Education, including teachers, principals and school staff (this is a REACH focus area which is new for UNGEI but has been emerged as a priority in the consultations that supported the identification of the five focus areas). This focus area is closely aligned with the women in learning leadership (WiLL) research implemented by the Education team at UNICEF – Global Office of Research and Foresight (UNICEF Innocenti), who will be a partner organisation for this role.

For every child… .. equal education

Under the overall guidance and direction of the Senior Adviser Education UNGEI Secretariat and with a dotted line reporting to the Chief of Education at UNICEF Innocenti, the Gender-Transformative Education Manager will be responsible for progressing new approaches to challenge and address harmful gender socialization of children through the education eco-system and to progress women empowerment in education, particularly school leadership positions.

The Programme Manage UNGEI Gender-Transformative Education will:

a. Lead UNGEI’s portfolio of work related to Focus Area Three and support the Director’s oversight on gender capacity building in Focus Area One

b. Work closely with Innocenti Education to progress research and evidence related to women’s underrepresentation in leadership positions in education, particularly in schools.

How can you make a difference?

Pr****ogramme management

• Plan and collaborate with internal colleagues and external partners to establish monitoring benchmarks, performance indicators and other UNICEF/UN system indicators to assess/strengthen performance accountability, coherence and delivery of concrete and sustainable results for the assigned sector on education programmes.
• Identify lessons learned and use knowledge gained for development planning and timely intervention to achieve goals.
• Actively monitor programmes/projects and exchange information with stakeholders to assess progress, identify bottlenecks and potential problems, and take timely decisions to resolve issues and/or refer to relevant officials for timely resolution.
• Manage the optimum and appropriate use of programme resources (financial, administrative and other assets) confirming compliance with organizational rules, regulations/procedures and donor commitments, standards of accountability and integrity, ensuring timely reporting and liquidation of resources.
• Coordinate and ensure the availability of technical experts to ensure timely support throughout all stages of programming.

Research, learning, monitoring and evaluation agenda

• Commission and manage research on:
  • Addressing gender socialization of children through schools
  • Women’s leadership and feminist leadership in the Education sector, especially related to addressing harmful gender norms
• Lead and manage monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) agenda, including results frameworks
• Lead and convene the coalition of partners on gender stereotypes in schools to galvanize joint action through a common MEL agenda, results framework, knowledge products, learning events so that there is increased enthusiasm and momentum for this area of work.
• Promote critical thinking, innovative approaches and good practices for gender equality in education initiatives through advocacy, evidence generation and technical advisory services so that the results, approaches and end products are disseminated, scaled up and replicated.
• Keep abreast, research, benchmark, introduce and implement best and cutting-edge practices on gender equality in education. Institutionalize and disseminate best practices and knowledge learned.

Advisory services and technical support

• Provide technical advice to current and potential global and country-level partners on policies, strategies, best practices and approaches on girls’ education and gender equality in education, including in programmatic areas of work managed by this role.
• Lead and participate in strategic discussions, working groups, reference groups, advisory bodies, etc. to influence policy and agenda setting for girls’ education and gender equality in education.
• Provide technical and programmatic advice to partners and relevant supervisees regarding the Feminist School, i.e. the online gender equality capacity development curricula.
• Provide technical support to partners, grantees and relevant supervisees with regards to the management and implementation of small-envelope grants to networks of young feminist activists working for gender equality in and through education.

Advocacy, networking and partnership building

• Build and strengthen strategic partnerships for the programmes through networking and advocacy with local/national governments, UN system agency partners, donors, internationally recognized institutions, NGOs, funding organizations, research institutes and private sector to reinforce cooperation and/or pursue opportunities to promote goals and achieve sustainable and broad results on education.
• Support the UNGEI Secretariat and UNICEF Innocenti to galvanize collective action and joint advocacy voices by bringing together evidence and knowledge from global collectives such as the Feminist Network for Gender Transformative Education, Global Working Group to End School-Related Gender-Based Violence (includes co-chairing role), Partner Coalition to End Gender Stereotypes, etc.

Advancing research generation and use on women in school leadership

• Provide technical guidance and research support to the women in learning leadership (WiLL) research project within the Education team at UNICEF Innocenti. This includes reviewing research frameworks, analytical documents, and instruments from a gender lens and providing technical guidance to improve and accurately target these resources.
• Identify connections between UNICEF programs and the WiLL evidence with the ultimate goal of facilitating the use of evidence for programming. This includes identifying and advocating for evidence generation on women’s leadership in schools to COs/ROs/Ministries of Education and other development partners and identifying ways of improving in-country demand and capacity to use data and evidence for programming (for example, by participating in strategic discussions, working groups, reference groups, advisory bodies, etc. to advocate for WiLL evidence usage, providing technical advice to partners etc.)
• Identify synergies between Innocenti Education and the UNGEI strategic goals and agendas, especially around gender and women’s leadership, fostering cross-sharing and learning and enabling better collaboration on common goals.
• Supervise a Research Associate (consultant) in conjunction with the UNICEF Innocenti WiLL Research Manager and Education Chief to accomplish the tasks highlighted under this function.

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

• An advanced university degree (Master’s or higher) in gender or women’s studies, education, sociology, psychology, child development, international development) is required.
• A minimum of 8 (eight) years of relevant professional experience in programme planning, management, and/or research either in or working closely in education and gender equality and child rights is required. Within this experience, the following are also required.
• At least five years of experience in policy and programming related to gender equality for children, especially through education.

• At least three years of experience managing multi-country programmes with strong research and learning agendas

• Professional work experience in at least one developing country

• Relevant experience in a UN system agency or organization is considered as an asset.
• Fluency in English is required. Knowledge of another official UN language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish) or a local language is an asset.

For every Child, you demonstrate…

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

Please click Here to view UNICEF's core values and Here to view our competency framework.

UNICEF competencies required for this post are.

• 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)

UNICEF is here to serve the world’s most disadvantaged children and our global workforce must reflect the diversity of those children. The UNICEF family is committed to including everyone, irrespective of their race/ethnicity, age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, socio-economic background, or any other personal characteristic.

We offer a wide range of benefits to our staff, a wide range of benefits to our staff, including paid parental leave, breastfeeding breaks, and reasonable accommodation for persons with disabilities. UNICEF strongly encourages the use of flexible working arrangements.

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 is committed to promoting the protection and safeguarding of all children. All selected candidates will, therefore, undergo rigorous reference and background checks, and will be expected to adhere to these standards and principles.

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.

UNICEF appointments are subject to medical clearance.

Issuance of a visa by the host country of the duty station, which will be facilitated by UNICEF, is required for IP positions. Appointments may also be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid).

Government employees that are considered for employment with UNICEF are normally required to resign from their government before taking up an assignment with UNICEF.

UNICEF reserves the right to withdraw an offer of appointment, without compensation, if a visa or medical clearance is not obtained, or necessary inoculation requirements are not met, within a reasonable period for any reason.

“UNICEF only considers higher educational qualifications obtained from an institution accredited/recognized in the World Higher Education Database (WHED), a list updated by the International Association of Universities (IAU) / United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The list can be accessed at http://www.whed.net/”

For more information on remuneration and benefits, please visit UNICEF’s Entitlements’ page. If you would like to find estimates for entitlements, you may use the online Salary Estimate Calculator

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted and advance to the next stage of the selection process.
• Mobility is a condition of international professional employment with UNICEF and an underlying premise of the international civil service

Potential interview questions