Programme Specialist – Governance and institutional partnership management

Contract

This is a P-3 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 5 years of experience, depending on education.

Salary

The salary for this job should be between 118,841 USD and 155,613 USD.

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Background

A- Organizational Context

Established in July 2010 by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution A / 64/289, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), is implementing actions to the elimination of discrimination against women and girls; women's empowerment; and achieving equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. The mandate of UN Women is to lead and coordinate the United Nations system to ensure that gender equality commitments are translated into action around the world. It provides strong and consistent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts and builds effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

Women’s leadership and political participation is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work as mandated in its inception, recognizing the integral role of women in strong and stable democratic processes. Through its Leadership and Governance section, UN Women works to implement Goal 1 of the Entity’s Strategic Plan 2014-17 “Women lead and participate in all areas of decision-making”. UN Women’s theory of change for women’s political empowerment and leadership, based on the achievements of women in politics and lessons learned to date, envisions a four-pronged strategy: (1) support development and implementation of robust legal frameworks and administrative arrangements that promote gender balance and facilitate women’s participation; (2) expand the pool of qualified and capable women to run for election; (3) transform gender norms so that women are accepted as legitimate and effective leaders; and (4) support women leaders in gender-sensitive political institutions to attract, promote and retain women leaders, and highlight the constructive contribution they make to decision-making.

Established in 2015 as a Programme Presence, UN-WOMEN was accredited as full-fledged Country Office in 2021, to support the Central African authorities in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment as well as providing a multisectoral response to the specific needs of women in times of crisis for the implementation of the recommendations made by women on the side lines of the Bangui Forum in May 2015. It focuses its interventions on achieving the following strategic objectives: women's economic empowerment; promoting leadership and women's participation in decision-making processes, strengthening women’s role for peace and security in CAR; the integration of the gender dimension in the humanitarian response; and the fight against violence against women.

Despite a favorable legal framework and the many pleas of increasingly structured women's organizations, Central African women are still very poorly represented in decision-making bodies: barely 12% of women parliamentarians, 21% of women members of the Government, 11% of women heads of communal executives. As the country prepares to organize local elections in 2022, the Bureau would like to intensify its interventions with the National Elections Authority for the implementation of the National Gender and Elections Strategy; with the National Assembly to achieve gender-sensitive legislative processes; With the Government for the concretization of the national policy of equality and equity as well as the setting up of the National Observatory of Gender Parity; With women candidates for the implementation of a training, coaching and mentoring programme including the setting up of a legal assistance clinic for women candidates; Provide technical support to political parties - the main vehicle for women's election - to strengthen their capacity to promote gender balance in politics and to become more gender-sensitive institutions, including by nominating more women candidates for winning positions, adopting voluntary and gender-sensitive reforms in internal party processes and statutes, developing and implementing gender-sensitive policies and strategic plans, and developing codes of conduct that sanction discriminatory behavior and harassment, among other strategies.

Reporting to the Head of Office and working in close consultation with the Regional Governance, women political participation Advisor, the Programme Specialist exercises overall responsibility for planning, implementing, and managing UN Women interventions under the WPP and institutional partnership portfolio in CAR. The Programme Specialist works in close collaboration with the programme and operations team, UN Women Regional Office and HQ WPP division, Government officials, multi and bi-lateral donors and civil society ensuring successful UN Women programme implementation under portfolio

Duties and Responsibilities

B- Duties and Responsibilities

Design and develop programme strategies in the area of Governance and institutional partnership management

• Design and formulate programme/ project proposals and initiatives.
• Draft inputs to country strategy documents, briefs, policy dialogue and other documents related to Governance, women political participation;
• Strengthen the Office’s engagement in and contribution to Governance, women political participation programme.

Manage the implementation and management of Governance and institutional partnership management programme

• Finalize the annual workplan and budget and manage their implementation.
• Manage the technical implementation of the programme and related projects; ensure synergies with other teams;
• Manage the submission of implementing partner financial and narrative reports;
• Provide guidance to staff and partners on Results Based Management tools and performance indicators.
• Organize Projects Steering Committee, project review and/or evaluation meetings, as needed.

Manage technical assistance and capacity development to project/programme partners

• Manage the implementation of technical advice and guidance. Develop and implement technical tools, and initiatives
• Build and manage relationships with national partners to support implementation and expansion of the women, peace and security and humanitarian action programme; respond to any potential problems;
• Identify capacity building needs of partners and lead the coordination of technical assistance, mentoring, training, and capacity development initiatives to partners.

Manage the monitoring and reporting of the programme/ project

• Manage the monitoring of programme/ project implementation and finances using results-based management tools;
• Oversee field missions and review reports on monitoring missions.
• Write quarterly reports and donor reports, focusing on results, output and outcomes;
• Contribute to office donor and UN Women reports.

Manage the people and financial resources of the Governance and institutional partnership management programme

• Manage the programme budget and draft financial reports;
• Supervise staff; Mentor and coach staff and conduct performance assessments.
• Oversee recruitment processes, as necessary.

Build partnerships and support in developing resource mobilization strategies

• Develop and implement partnerships and resource mobilization strategies;
• Finalize relevant documentation on donors and potential opportunities for resource mobilization;
• Analyze and research information on donors, prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for cost sharing.

Contribute to inter-agency coordination on Governance and institutional partnership management to achieve coherence and alignment of UN Women programmes with other partners in the country

• Provide technical support to the Head of Office on inter-agency coordination related activities by attending meetings, events, and participating in groups and committees as needed;

• Coordinate with other UN agencies, government departments, donors and NGOs to ensure the capacity development programme is harmonized and aligned with other in-country efforts.

  Manage advocacy, knowledge building and communication efforts

• Develop and review background documents, briefs and presentations related to Governance, women political participation;

• Represent UN Women in meetings and policy dialogues on issues related to Governance, women political participation as necessary;
• Develop advocacy strategies and oversee their implementation;
• Identify best practices and lessons learned to guide programme improvement and strategy planning;
• Develop knowledge management strategies, products and methodologies on Governance, women political participation

Develop and coordinate the office’s institutional partnerships :

• Assist and coordinate relationships with key institutional partners, in particular with universities and higher training institutes for the development of continuous training programmes for civil servants and students on the promotion of gender equality
• provide technical inputs to senior management’s efforts to develop new and innovative partnerships;
• Set and monitor annual priorities, goals and key performance indicators for the institutional partnerships;
• Provide strategic advice to the head of office on building and maintaining partnerships and positioning with potential donors ;

Assist to design and implement of effective advocacy strategies and methods for proactive and strategic targeting of institutional partners and donors

Competencies

C- 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

• Strong programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skill
• Strong knowledge of Results Based Managemen
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making
• Strong knowledge of gender equality and the empowerment of women
• Strong knowledge of women, peace and security and/or gender in humanitarian action
• Strong knowledge of gender and livelihood programming
• Strong analytical skills
• Ability to identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising and develop strategies

Required Skills and Experience

Required Skills and Experience

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATION

• Master’s degree or equivalent in social sciences, human rights, gender/women's studies, political science, international development, or a related 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.

EXPERIENCE

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible work experience at the national or international level in design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects
• Technical experience in Governance, women political participation
• Experience coordinating and liaising with government agencies and/or donors is an asset
• Experience working in the UN System is an asset
• Working experience in CAR is an asset

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS

• Fluency in French and English is required
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.