UN Women: Policy Advisor (Macroeconomics)

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.

The Macroeconomics thematic area of work focuses on the framework and incentives that create the enabling environment for women and men to engage in labour, financial, goods and services markets. Macroeconomics is a determining factor in the pace and sequencing of development and growth and as such can be a tool for identifying and addressing patterns and levels of inequalities, boundaries between paid and unpaid work, factors influencing social reproduction and  the structure of the formal and informal economies. Working in this area of focus, will enable UN Women to engage in policy work to promote more inclusive growth, signpost exit routes from crises (i.e., economic and financial crisis; food and fuel crises, etc) and demonstrate how social protection can complement and support policies for poverty elimination. The work will position UN Women to provide valuable guidance and support to UN Member States seeking to improve performance against the Sustainable Development Goals, being decided in 2015. It will further identify entry points for empowering women in the development and implementation of corporate policies that facilitate delivery against the Sustainable Development Goals and other commitments such as those made under the Global Compact. This will contribute to UN Women’s knowledge of the nexus between public and private sector policy making and in the creation of advocacy tools that can guide policy makers in the design and implementation of gender-sensitive policies.

Under the direct supervision of the Chief of Section, Economic Empowerment, the Policy Advisor is responsible for developing the organization’s work on women’s economic empowerment through macroeconomic policy. 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, and the Addis Ababa Action Agenda; the discharge of States’ obligations under normative frameworks; and corporate responsibility in a rights-based framework that promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment.  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 macroeconomic policies and development plans; gender-sensitive international public and private finance and investment; the recognition of unpaid care; and access to social protection. 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, develop and manage 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 using monetary policy, fiscal policy and legislative, regulatory and administrative measures to advance gender equality and women’s economic empowerment including recognizing unpaid care, investing in public services and social protection;
• 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:

• Undertake results capture and prepare case studies on good practice;
• Contribute substantively to the knowledge management and development of capacity building of UN Women Programme staff in the Macroeconomics area of focus;
• Establish and lead global and sectoral communities of practice that promote collaboration, peer support, consultation, innovation and 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:

• A minimum of 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 the development and application of tools to assess gender-based constraint to women’s economic empowerment;
• Experience in drafting policy papers on the gender dimension of monetary and fiscal polic.

Language Requirement: 

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

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