UN WOMEN: PROGRAMME SPECIALIST ON GENDER AND MEDIATION

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women will work 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. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN women will lead and coordinate United Nations System efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. UN Women /DPA Joint strategy on Gender and mediation: Peace processes provide a critical opportunity to reshape the political, security and broader socio-economic landscape of a nation state. However, women have been consistently marginalized in formal peacemaking efforts. The low number of women at the peace table demonstrates a gap between the aspirations of many global and regional commitments, and the reality women face at the local and national levels. Five UN Security Council resolutions (S/RES/1325 (2000), S/RES/1820 (2008), S/RES/1888 (2009), S/RES/1889 (2009), and S/RES/1960 (2010) and the United Nations Secretary-General's reports on mediation support (2009) and women's participation in peace building (2010) have repeatedly called for the inclusion of dedicated gender expertise and greater numbers of women in peace negotiations. Yet, ensuring women's participation in peacemaking is not only a matter of women's rights. Women are crucial partners in shoring up three pillars of lasting peace: economic recovery, social cohesion and political legitimacy. By including women in peace processes, a mediation process can expand the domestic constituencies engaged in peacemaking, which in turn can build the credibility of the process and broaden national ownership. It can also bring more comprehensive understanding of the causes and alternative solutions to conflict. If women's participation can result in responses that address broader needs, including their own, this in turn can contribute to the long-term sustainability of the peace agreement. To achieve greater effectiveness of UN Mediation efforts through the increased participation of women and strengthened capacity to address gender issues in peace processes, UN Department of Political Affairs (DPA) and UN Women launched a Joint Strategy on gender and mediation to: Increase the availability and quality of gender expertise in mediation processes; and Support greater and more effective participation by women at all levels of conflict resolution and peacemaking including through the identification and preparation of qualified female mediators. With an aim to strengthen women's effective participation in the Somalia transitional tasks and in outreach and reconciliation activities, UN Women is looking for a Programme Specialist who will take responsibilities for providing technical assistance to UNPOS Gender and Political Affairs units as well as to members of the Somali UNCT on women, peace and security issues with a focus on supporting system-wide programming on gender-responsive peacemaking and peace building.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the joint supervision of the UNPOS SRSG and its Gender and Political Affairs advisors and of the EHA Regional Programme Director, and in close coordination with the DPA mediation Support Unit, the UN Women Peace and Security Cluster in New York, the International Programme Specialist will take responsibilities for programme interventions aiming at supporting women's participation and leadership in the ongoing Somali transition process and in outreach and reconciliation activities. Specifically, the IPS will perform the following duties and responsibilities: Technical assistance (25%): Conceptualize and provide substantive inputs to the operationalization of new programme and projects on gender and mediation in Somalia in relation to the EHA region. Develop, review and provide feedback to ongoing projects, project-related strategies and documents, work-plans, case studies and related knowledge products and publications as requested. Provide guidance and support to UNPOS Gender Unit and national and regional partners to ensure women's effective participation in the peace process and build strategic links with the work being done on regional and national development strategies and under other international frameworks on women, peace and security. Ensure effective information flow and communication in the gender and mediation area in the region. Programme Development, Management and Monitoring (20%): Conceptualize, develop and oversee implementation of the UN Women/DPA joint strategy on gender and mediation with regard to the Somali Transition process. Advise, guide and provide input into the formulation of quality project proposals for intervention in the areas of mediation and peace building, setting models for achieving results according to clear monitoring and evaluation systems. Ensure timely and proper collection of documentation regarding the implementation of mediation-related programmes. Network with and Build Capacity of National Women's Organizations (30%): Facilitate access of regional and national women's organizations to decision-making spaces, including peace fora and formal peace negotiations in Somalia. Support grassroots women's civil society organizations, including from the Somali Diaspora, and advocate to increase their influence in shaping national transition and peace building plans, strategies and financing mechanisms through network development, development of oversight bodies, capacity development and support to the development of national and international advocacy platforms. Facilitate South-South and regional cooperation among women's peace building organizations on gender-responsive mediation initiatives and peace building processes. Inform the common DPA/MSU and UN Women Global Database of Women and Peace building Organizations, developed under the joint Strategy on Gender and Mediation. Strategic partnership and resource mobilization (15%): Strengthen and enhance partnership/cooperation/consultation/coordination with national and local state actors, national and international civil society actors, especially women's organizations, bi-laterals, UNCT, World Bank, donors, academia, private sector and private foundations for more effective and coordinated implementation of the country strategies in the area of women, peace and security. Ensure internal partnership, networking and coordination between ongoing UN Women programmes, projects and activities for a holistic and coherent approach for implementing the UN Women/DPA joint strategy on gender and mediation. Take active role and provide substantive inputs into the process of resource mobilization and partnership building for fund raising for mediation-related programmes. Advocacy, Knowledge Management and Communications (10%): Support and facilitate necessary advocacy efforts in support to implementation of gender-responsive mediation and conflict resolution efforts. Document, and analyze lessons learned from the EHA region that might be useful for the UN Women/DPA Joint Strategy on Gender and Mediation, and particularly to Somalia. Develop and ensure the implementation of communications and advocacy plans and identify and seize strategic advocacy opportunities on an ongoing basis. Ensure maintenance of a calendar of the most relevant international/regional/national/local peace fora and events on mediation and conflict resolution, facilitate access to that information by partners and relevant DPA/UNPOS and UN Women staff, and coordinate their participation. Deliverables: Women's grassroots initiatives for conflict resolution in Somalia developed, supported and initiated. A communication strategy to ensure that women's contributions to community and national peacemaking is conveyed widely and to inform the Somali public about human rights principles (e.g. vis-à-vis constitution, security etc), as well as security and peacemaking mandates on women's participation (e.g. UN SCR 1325 and other resolutions/ protocols of regional security institutions, etc) is developed, including a factsheet about Somali women's peacemaking work to inform all stakeholders (UN community, the Somali community and TFIs) and debunk stereotypical attitudes about Somali women. Civil Society delegates are identified and capacitated - as a national platform- for systematic participation in existing consultative and decision-making fora. Technical material and advice are developed and provided to the UNPOS Gender and Political Affairs Units. Technical guidance is provided to civil society delegates.

Competencies

Core Values: Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct. Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity. Management and Leadership: Establish and maintain relationships with a broad range of people to understand needs, gain support and trust. Be pro-active in developing solutions. Monitor progress against milestones and deadlines. Demonstrate openness to change, flexibility, and ability to manage complexities. Ability to work under pressure and with multi-disciplinary and multicultural teams and possess excellent inter-personal skills. Demonstrate strong written and oral communication skills. Demonstrate proven networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills. Ability to establish priorities for self and others, and to work independently. Development and Operational Effectiveness: Proven ability to problem-solve and think creatively to develop and implement smart business solutions in a challenging post conflict socio-economic environment. Knowledge Management and Learning: Possess in-depth knowledge of the issues of women's rights, mediation and peace building. Knowledge and experience with programming, monitoring and evaluation. Actively work towards continuing personal learning and development, acts on learning plan and applies newly acquired skills. Seek and apply knowledge, information, and best practices from within and outside of UN Women.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Masters degree or equivalent in the fields of gender and international affairs, political science, development and/or security studies. Experience: At least 5 years of management and supervisory experience for programming geared to support women's empowerment and rights, with particular experience in complex and multi-component programmes on gender responsive governance, peace and security. Demonstrated knowledge of programming issues within UN Women strategic directions of work. Specific skills in political analysis and peace talks process issues (planning, design of table and agenda, engaging excluded groups). Experience in writing project documents, fundraising proposals and project reports. Fundraising experience highly desirable. Experience in developing advocacy strategies and public speaking highly desirable. International peace building experience and multi-cultural exposure. Languages: Fluency in English required. Somali language or Arabic is desirable. 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.

UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.