UN WOMEN: PROGRAMME SPECIALIST

The 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. UN Women’s strategic plan for 2011-2013 includes a dedicated outcome on Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB): Goal 5: Strengthen the responsiveness to plans and budgets to gender equality at all levels. To achieve this goal, the section has a programme portfolio on gender responsive planning and budgeting at country level that includes three major programmes: the joint UNCDF/UNDP/UN Women “Gender Equitable Local Development” (GELD) programme, Integrating GRB into the Aid Effectiveness Agenda (supported by the European Commission) and Upscaling Gender Responsive Budgeting for Accelerated Action Towards Gender Equality – Phase III (2009-2011). All three programmes are coordinated by a programme management unit based in New York. In 2009, an external evaluation of the GRB Phase II programme was conducted. One of the key findings from the evaluation was the need to increase and improve internal capacity on monitoring, including the development of a monitoring system to track GRB results and change relating to policy, capacity, partnership, sustainability and financing for gender priorities and investment in capacity to effectively use this system. The GRB section requires additional capacity to support the three programmes in the final year of implementation – 2012. 2012 is the final implementation year for the Phase III programme, the period (first quarter) when the EC Programme final evaluation will be conducted, and the final year of GELD programmatic implementation. It is a year in which the GRB programmatic focus is on monitoring programme implementation, capturing lessons learned and best practices, supporting the planning and implementation of final evaluations, and completing comprehensive reports for programme donors. Programmatic efforts will require consistent and sustained programmatic, monitoring and evaluation support. This support in 2012 will also facilitate national capacity strengthening in monitoring and evaluation and the sharing of lessons learned among national stakeholders and countries where GRB is in its preliminary stages. The Programme Specialist will be in charge of programme monitoring and developing guidance and systems for country level final evaluation activities. She/he will also be responsible for donor reporting and ensuring that results, lessons and good practices from the global programmes are captured, documented and widely circulated within UN Women and beyond.

Duties and Responsibilities

Summary of key functions 1. Programme monitoring and capacity strengthening 2. Programme support 3. Reporting and Documentation Programme monitoring: Support the implementation of monitoring systems for GRB programmes; Oversee preparation and roll out of annual monitoring plans at country and programme levels; Undertake monitoring activities, including mid-term reviews, support the dissemination of MTR findings at country and HQ levels; Support the use of monitoring findings in programme consolidation and sustainability planning; Strengthen capacity of programme staff in country and sub-regional officers to use monitoring tools in line with UN Women’s theory of change on GRB, capacity development strategy and corporate outcomes; Engage with UN Women country offices, geographic sections, relevant HQ staff and partners to monitor achievement of results; Conduct field visits to programme countries as necessary. Programme support: In collaboration with the GRB Programme Manager, provide technical backstopping to country and sub-regional offices on programme documents, including annual work plans, to ensure quality assurance; Assist in the design and coordination of the EC final programme evaluation and ensure compliance of the GRB programme evaluations with corporate evaluation strategy through support to external evaluations; Support country and sub-regional offices to ensure effective use of evaluation results for future programming; Provide technical support to UNCDF for the final year of GELD programme implementation; Support coordination of the 2012 GELD Regional Partners’ Forum. Reporting and Documentation: Ensure all final programme reports are high quality and delivered on time; Review narrative reports and provide feedback with a focus on results analysis and support improvement to meet the UN Women’s donor reporting requirements; Contribute to UN Women’s corporate reporting and tracking on GRB programming; In close consultation with the GRB Knowledge Specialist, identify key areas for monitoring to track lessons, current trends and good practices from country programmes; Generate briefs and report on programme results.

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: Technical: Good knowledge of GRB approaches and strategies; Good knowledge of results based management and reporting; Demonstrated ability to formulate and implement monitoring systems. Client orientation: Ability to identify clients' needs and appropriate solutions; Ability to establish and maintain productive partnerships with donors and other partner agencies; Fosters linkages with key internal clients and other UN agencies and strategic partnerships with key external stakeholders. Communication: Demonstrate excellent oral and written communication skills with good representational skills. Experience in using M&E for learning-oriented activities with multiple stakeholders; Teamwork: Strong interpersonal skills demonstrated by the ability to lead and gain the assistance and cooperation of others in a team endeavor; Ability to build trust through operating with transparency and creating an open, positive and enabling environment. Managing performance: Ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor the progress of GRB programmes.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Masters Degree (or equivalent) in Social Science, Development Studies, International Relations, Gender, Women’s Studies or a related discipline. Experience: A minimum of 5 years progressively responsible experience for work focused on gender and economics at national and international levels; Experience in programme monitoring and use of monitoring tools for programming, reporting, evaluation and knowledge management; Experience in the application of results based management in programming, monitoring, reporting and evaluation; Experience in design of M&E methods and approaches (including quantitative, qualitative and participatory); Experience in training on M&E development and implementation; Familiarity with the UN system will be an advantage; Proven ability to build strong partnerships with clients and other partners. Language Requirements: Fluency in English is required A working knowledge of Spanish/French is an asset. 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.

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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.