UN WOMEN: DEPUTY COUNTRY DIRECTOR

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. Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, the 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. Under the UN Women’s first Strategic Plan (2011-2013), the Deputy Country Director, under the supervision of the Country Director is responsible for leading and managing the country portfolio. The Deputy Country Director oversees the strategic development of the portfolio and oversight of programme implementation to ensure delivery of results as planned in UN Women’s Strategic Plan. The Deputy Country Director, Afghanistan will take the lead in managing the day-to-day implementation of UN Women’s Afghanistan Country Office Portfolio, under the overall strategic guidance and direction of UN Women’s Country Director and is responsible for providing specialized technical and strategic support to the Afghanistan Country Office in managing all aspects of programme management and related activities in the office/region.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions: Advisory and specialized technical support; Programme management, monitoring and oversight; Advocacy and support to UN coordination, joint programming and reform; Knowledge management and capacity building; Management of operations. Advisory and technical support: Advise, support, guide and provide input to assure quality control in the formulation of relevant, high quality, results-based and rights-based country programmes and projects; Provide strategic and specialized technical advice to the Country Director on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support effective programme planning, implementation, monitoring and timely progress reporting; Review and evaluate proposals submitted to the Country Office and oversee the preparation of donor proposals and reports to ensure quality, compliance with requirements as per established rules, regulations, including the commitments under relevant UNDAFs and the UN Women global Strategic Plans Take timely action to take any corrective action to meet standards for submissions; Prepare policy document, briefs and other strategic papers/materials for the Country Director for use in the development and presentation of a coherent regional perspective to help define regional strategic and plans of action for implementation; Assess the country level annual work plans and present the Country Director with recommendations and conclusions to assist in development planning. Programme management, monitoring and oversight: Recommend and/or set monitoring standards, criteria and other indicators for measuring and assessing progress/results; Monitor the progress on, mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators and timely take action/decision and/or provide timely support; Lead the annual process of gathering information and prepare reports for HQ on progress of programme implementation, assessing results and identifying areas for Country Director action and/or decision to ensure achievement of results as planned and in accordance with UNW goals and objectives and accountability framework; Identify areas that may require improvement and capture best practices/lessons learned, using corporate monitoring tools, as such as the Balance Score Card, Atlas Snapshot and Dashboard, Staff Surveys, Audits and other corporate reports. Take action to improve areas of weakness; Manage the timely allocation of funds to programmes. Monitor and ensure the appropriate utilization of resources approved and allocated to programmes and projects that are managed by the country office; Ensure substantive and good quality proposals following the established rules, and regulations, and adhering to the Strategic Plan and Annual Work plans; Ensure sustainable and solid relations developed with counterparts, resulting in the enhanced reputation and credibility of UN Women; Under the oversight of the Country Director, backstop the Operations Manager in preparing and providing guidance to the Country Office on the whole process of audit exercises, oversee the collection and verification of accurate and complete documentation for audit review, advice on the preparation of responses to audit and monitor the timely and full implementation of audit recommendations and required actions. Advocacy and support to Country Director and UNW presences on UN coordination, joint programming and reform: Support the Country Director in establishing and maintaining effective consultations with governments, partners, stakeholders and donors to achieve active collaboration, cooperation and alliances on programme development and implementation, resource mobilization and sustained partnerships; Upon the request of the Country Director, represent UN Women in UNCTs as appropriate/delegated to consult, collaborate and/or interact on common issues and activities and participate in the CCA/UNDAF process to ensure the active participation of UNW in these processes to advance gender equity and women’s human rights, actively seeks out participation of UN Women in UN system thematic and other working groups to establish effective network and to keep abreast of on going debate and thinking on aids development, facilitate joint programming and promote UN Women competencies and interests to advance gender and women’s human rights. Knowledge management and capacity building: Identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to guide program improvements and future strategic development plan; Manage the process of collecting and sharing lessons learned on gender equality and women’s empowerment to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders; Design and implement capacity building training activities to enhance skills and knowledge in Results Based Management, Results based budgeting and systematic quality assurance; Contribute to the development and maintenance of global and regional programme knowledge networks and practices, and development of knowledge products. Day to day backstopping of operations: Under the overall responsibility of the Country Director, provide day-to-day supervision of the Operational services, i.e. human, financial, procurement and IT services of UN Women Country Office and country programmes and projects, ensuring compliance of all services according to rules, regulations, processes and procedures and UN Women’s accountability framework. Impact of Results: The effective support provided by the Deputy Country Director in the management of programmes and operations in the Country Office directly impacts on the quality of UN Women programme development, implementation and results that in turn directly impact on the credibility and image of UN Women as an effective partner for and country organizations and as a competent knowledge based organization on gender equity and women’s human rights issues.

Competencies

Core values/guiding principles: 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. Core competencies: Ethics and Values: Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents. Organizational Awareness: Building support and political acumen. Developing and Empowering People / coaching and mentoring: Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation. Working in Teams: Building and promoting effective teams. Communicating Information and Ideas: Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication. Self-management and Emotional intelligence: Creating an emotionally intelligent organization. Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements: Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards. Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning: Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Fair and transparent decision-making; calculated risk-taking. Functional competencies: Demonstrated theoretical, intellectual and technical skills in aid development/programming particularly those that are pertinent to UNW strategic priorities on gender issues and women’s rights; Demonstrated political acumen and technical capacity in representing the organization effectively in national and international fora to advocate and to promote organizational priorities, initiatives and a better understanding of the organizational strategic agenda; Proven ability to lead a practice area and to drive results; Ability to establish and maintain broad strategic networks and partnerships with UN agencies and other international partners to promote partnership and build alliances to advance organizational interests and competencies; Ability to go beyond established procedures and practices, introduce new approaches and strategic innovations; Good knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Advanced university degree in development related disciplines, economics or public policy or other social science fields. Experience: Minimum 10 years of extensive development experience that combines intellectual, strategic and managerial leadership in development programs some of which should be in the area of gender equality and women’s rights at the international level, preferably in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds or Programs or renowned institutions/academia. Language Requirements: Written and oral proficiency in English is required. Knowledge of the other UN working knowledge 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. All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment 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.

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.