UN Women: Policy Advisor (Economic Institutions and Private Sector Engagement)

Background:

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.

The Policy Division develops and implements the UN Women program of work on analysis, research and knowledge management that provides the evidence base for the advice and guidance UN Women provides to the intergovernmental process, the UN system, and to UN Women staff working at country and regional level. It identifies emerging issues and trends, and develops and proposes new strategies for achieving the agreed goals through innovative approaches and lessons learned about what works in practice. It also designs and oversees the training and capacity development programs of UN Women, working closely with the UN Women training facility in Santo Domingo.

The Policy Division staff is organized in Thematic Sections, bringing together technical experts who: undertake issues-based research; analyze data on country, regional or global trends; build a knowledge base on policy commitments and their implementation; propose evidence-based options for global policy, norms and standards and for UN Women’s flagship programmes; and contribute substantive inputs to policy advocacy and technical cooperation programmes.

Under the direct supervision of the Chief of Section, Economic Empowerment, the Policy Advisor is responsible for developing the organization’s tool kit to effect women’s economic empowerment through engagement with economic institutions and the private sector. The tools will be deployed in support of UN-Women’s normative role, coordination function, and operational activities in the field and its policy-making, knowledge generation and advocacy functions. The tool kit includes policy recommendations and a collection of good practices on: the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, in particular the means of implementation; the discharge of States’ obligations under normative frameworks; and corporate responsibility in a rights-based framework that promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment, in particular in the context of the Women’s Empowerment Principles.  The programme of work delivers results through, inter alia, flagship programs lead by the Economic Empowerment Section. The Policy Advisor is responsible for the development of global public goods in key areas such as training materials to build capacity to incorporate a gender dimension into corporate policies; lending policies of development banks; and government and corporate procurement. Special attention is paid to women migrant workers.  He/she also prepares documentation for UN normative intergovernmental processes; studies, reports and content for policy advocacy as agreed with Chief of Section.

Description of Responsibilities :

Summary of key functions:

Under the supervision of the Chief, Economic Empowerment the Policy Advisor is responsible for:

• Development and management of the work programme of the Unit under his/her responsibility to ensure substantive and technical quality according to standards and goals of UN Women;
• Development of global public goods and materials for UN Women’s flagship programmes in economic empowerment;
• Development of policy papers in key areas such as advancing gender equality and women’s economic empowerment through creation of decent work, public and corporate procurement, and strengthening the capacity of economic institutions to service women clients;
• Development of tools, provision of advisory services, technical guidance and programme support and implementation;
• Liaison with Economic Empowerment Advisors in UN Women’s regional officers to understand and respond to the needs of UN Women’s Country and Regional Offices;
• Substantive support to intergovernmental processes and policy development on women’s economic empowerment, including substantive input in the preparation of position papers and reports for presentation to intergovernmental bodies such as Commission on the Status of Women, Economic and Social Council, the General Assembly and other policy-making organs, as appropriate and prepare analytical summaries of debates, supporting negotiations and analyzing/compiling outcomes;
• Representation and advocacy;
• Establish and nurture relationship with academia, research institutions, civil society and experts to expand and share knowledge, exchange views on latest findings, incorporate cutting-edge thinking in UN Women’s work;
• Knowledge generation and capacity building; and
• Results capture and reporting.

Knowledge generation and capacity building:

• Contribute substantively to the knowledge management and development of capacity building of UN Women Programme staff in the Economic Institutions area of focus;
• Establish and lead global and sectoral communities of practice that promote collaboration, peer support, consultation and innovation, replication of good practices; and

Develop and maintain rosters of gender experts, who can develop technical support to UN Women offices, national partners, UNCT’s or other UN system entities.

Qualifications :

Education:

• Master's degree (or equivalent) in Economics or related field.

Experience:

• 10 years of extensive development experience that combines intellectual, strategic and managerial leadership in development, policy analysis, sociological/gender equality at least seven of which is in the thematic area of the post;
• Experience in drafting papers on the gender dimension of private sector engagement in delivering on the gender agenda.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Working knowledge of another UN official language is an asset.

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