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.

Achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment is an essential element of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development – the roadmap to a more equal, just, peaceful, and sustainable world. The Women’s Economic Empowerment Portfolio in India focusses on strengthening women’s economic rights and agency while creating an enabling environment for decent and safe employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women in all their diversity. UN Women is implementing European Union (EU) funded WeEmpower India programme to advance women’s economic empowerment in India. By promoting decent and safe economic opportunities, policy advocacy, and collaborative efforts including towards addressing discriminatory social norms, the project aims to create positive change for women and girls in all their diversity. The project envisions following result areas:

1. Increased access to safe and decent economic opportunities for women and girls in all their diversity.
2. Enhanced gender transformative policies and decision- making processes to improve women’s access to safe and decent employment and entrepreneurship.
3. Positive gender norms that enable and increase women’s participation in economic and social life promoted.

Under the supervision of the Country Representative, the Programme Manager is responsible for overseeing the management, development, implementation, monitoring and reporting of WeEmpower India programme as well as WEE portfolio to align with WeEmpower India priorities and managing the human and financial resources of the team. This includes providing technical support to the implementation of the programme, overseeing the monitoring of progress against mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators, monitoring programme’s financial situation to ensure adherence to delivery rates and utilization of resources to meet agreed upon targets and results, reviewing and developing partnerships and resource mobilization strategies; and leading knowledge management efforts.

Duties and Responsibilities

Oversee the programmatic development of WeEmpower India for India Country Office based on the Strategic Note:

• Advise and guide the development of WeEmpower India programme aligned with UN Women’s initiatives in WEE, including design and formulation programme initiatives;
• Provide strategic and specialized technical advice to support Programme planning, implementation, monitoring and progress reporting;
• Manage and coordinate overall programme direction, implementation, including strategy and collaborations/partnerships building, reporting, visibility, monitoring and evaluation;
• Develop and Operationalize WEPs adoption and implementation strategy with the private sector;
• Liaise with UN Women’s Ending Violence Against Women Specialist for technical guidance and collaboration on interventions around creating safe workplaces for women under the project;
• Coordinate with various thematic units within UN Women India for a convergent programme design and implementation approach.
• Review and provide feedback to ongoing projects/ programmes on related strategies and documents, workplans, case studies, and related knowledge products and publications;
• Provide strategic and specialized technical advice on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support programme planning, implementation, monitoring and progress reporting;
• Review and evaluate proposals and oversee the preparation of donor proposals and reports;
• Finalize policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/ materials for the use in the development and presentation of policy and programmatic positions;
• Oversee management of implementing agencies recruited towards delivery of project activities;
• Coordinates with EU Delegation in India;
• Coordinates with WEPs Secretariat in HQ/ WEPs focal points in UN Women’s Regional Office;
• Oversight and Supervision of WEE Portfolio also to align with WeEmpower India Priorities.

Provide technical support to the implementation of the Programme:

• Provide technical advice and manage/supervise technical experts embedded in Ministries/Departments especially around work on policy advocacy, data and statistics as well as social norm change;
• Convene relevant actors required for delivery of programme results;
• Assess annual work plans and provide recommendations to assure compliance with programme goals and results based indicators;
• Analyze and ensure alignment of project budgets with logical framework matrices and work plans;
• Oversee programme quality control and identification of potential challenges;
• Ensure aligned programme plans with operations plan;
• Provide technical advice and manage technical experts embedded in Ministries/Departments especially around work on policy advocacy, data and statistics as well as social norm change;
• Liaise with UN Women’s Ending Violence Against Women Specialist for technical guidance on gender based violence.

Oversee monitoring and reporting for the Programme:

• Ensure development of programme monitoring framework (PMF) and institute monitoring mechanisms;
• Review and recommend programme monitoring standards, criteria, and other indicators for measuring and assessing progress/results;
• Oversee the monitoring of progress against mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators;
• Gather information and prepare reports on progress of programme implementation for India Country Office and donors;
• Prepare technical reports;
• Provide technical support in the preparation of audits and follow up on the implementation of audit recommendations;
• Develop, coordinate and provide training on results-based management to India Country office.

Review budget management for Programme and manage people:

• Supervise, guide and oversee the work of the team to ensure the delivery of quality results according to established standards and goals;
• Perform staff performance reviews, ensure capacity development of staff members by suggesting development opportunities;
• Monitor programme financial situation to ensure adherence to delivery rates and utilization of resources to meet agreed upon targets and results;
• Ensure effective information flow, communication and coordination between offices, programmes and projects.

Build partnerships and support in developing resource mobilization strategies:

• Identify, develop and manage the diverse range of partnerships that UN Women needs to support its work on women’s economic empowerment, including for resource mobilization;
• Review and develop partnerships and resource mobilization strategies;
• Finalize relevant documentation on donors and develop potential opportunities for resource mobilization;
• Analyze and research information on donors, prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for cost sharing;
• Determine programmatic areas of cooperation, based on strategic goals of UN Women, country needs and donors’ priorities and develop the relevant partnerships;
• Represent UN Women in relevant fora to encourage greater commitment to and collaboration on the realization of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment policies;
• Represent UN Women in UN inter-agency working groups and other high level academic and policy conferences and events to participate in strategic discussions and establish cooperation/collaboration.

Lead knowledge building and sharing efforts:

• Lead knowledge management and communications related activities;
• Lead the process of identifying and synthesizing of best practices and lessons learned that are directly linked to the implementation of the programme and contribute to their global dissemination;
• Contribute to the development of regional and global knowledge products on WEE;
• Develop and maintain relationships with academia, research and training institutes civil society and thematic technical experts, and relevant stakeholders including EU to gain and share knowledge, exchange views on current issues/trends and to incorporate cutting-edge thinking on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: The incumbent leads a team of 20 personnel which includes 8 direct reports (2 NOBs, 7 SCs) as well as 12 affiliate personnel (SCs, Consultants).

Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies

• Excellent programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making
• Excellent analytical skills
• Excellent knowledge of Results Based Management
• Strong knowledge of UN programme management systems
• Ability to lead formulation of strategies and their implementation
• Strong networking skills

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Social Sciences, Political Science, Development, Public Administration, Gender is required.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in programme management, including programme design, programme coordination, monitoring and evaluation, donor reporting and capacity building especially in the area of women’s economic empowerment.
• Strong understanding of women’s economic empowerment policy and programme landscape in India.
• Demonstrated experience of work with government on gender mainstreaming and policy advocacy especially in the area of women’s economic empowerment.
• Demonstrated experience of work with private sector on strengthening women’s economic empowerment.
• Demonstrated experience in promoting women’s decent and safe employment and entrepreneurship opportunities.
• Experience in setting priorities, budgets, work plans, participating in programme development and programme writing is required.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required.

Language Requirement:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Working knowledge of Hindi and/or other India language is desirable.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable.

Interested applicants should apply to this vacancy announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

Application Information:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/about-us/jobs
• 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;
• UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.

Inclusion Statement:

• At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits employ, trains, compensates and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity, and organizational need.
• If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.
• UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority, and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

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.