Background

The duration of the assignment is until 15 October 2024. Whereas an external candidate will be offered a temporary appointment; subject to release agreements, staff members in UN Women may be administered as a temporary assignment and staff members in the UN Common system may be administered under a loan arrangement.

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.

Women and girls face greater vulnerability and exposure to disasters and they are critical agents of change for prevention, preparedness, recovery and resilience, yet women remain largely ignored and their capacities unleveraged in conventional resilience building processes. As a result, women are generally absent in the development of resilience strategies and decision-making processes for prevention, preparedness and recovery and most laws, policies, strategies and plans for disaster risk reduction remain gender-blind, contributing thereby to increasing the gender inequality gap in disasters. This is compounded by significant gaps at the global, regional and country level in relation to the availability and use of sex, age and disability disaggregated data (SADDD), knowledge sharing on women’s resilience; an enabling environment for building women’s resilience (including capacities, leadership and funding); translation of commitments into action; coordination and private sector partnership; and a need for transformative change to tackle the underlying drivers of disproportionate risk. To address these issues, UN Women promotes gender responsive disaster risk reduction through its work in Peace, Security and Resilience. UN-Women’s coordination, normative and operational work in gender equality contributes to the UN and Member States’ processes in disaster risk reductions.

Reporting to the Chief, Peace, Security, and Disaster Risk Reduction Section, PPID, the Programme Specialist will strategically contribute to the implementation, management, development, partnerships, advocacy, capacity building and resource mobilization of the Disaster Risk Deduction work of UN-Women.

Duties and Responsibilities

Oversee the coordination of the implementation and management of the Women’s Resilience to Disasters programme and the gender and Disaster Risk Reduction work

• Lead the coordination of WRD programme and UN Women’s DRR global work and programming.
• Support processes to further enhance the strategic coherence of UN-Women’s disaster risk reduction work at HQ, regional and country levels.
• Provide advisory support to UN Women country offices on DRR programming and implementation.
• Participate in the WRD Board, programme review and/or evaluation meetings and ensure the implementation of agreed recommendations.
• Oversee risk management and proper monitoring, evaluation and reporting on DRR programming.
• Provide technical support as needed to Regional and Country Offices in gender responsive DRR including through thematic partnerships with regional and governmental agencies, UN agencies and other important actors;

Lead the provision of capacity building support in gender responsive disaster risk reduction to UN-Women offices and partners.

• Support UN-Women offices and partners in contributing to, developing and strengthening policies, plans, tools and modalities to support the implementation of global norms and standards for gender-responsive disaster risk reduction and resilience.
• Ensure technical skills and knowledge are shared within and among UN Women country offices working on disaster risk reduction.

Represent UN Women and advocate for gender responsive disaster risk reduction priorities and establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with stakeholders, international actors and development partners on gender-responsive disaster risk reduction and resilience.

• Represent UN Women in interagency processes and other conferences and meetings to increase focus on gender equality and women leadership in disaster risk reduction and climate change.
• Build partnerships and lead advocacy to reflect the needs, voice and agency from SIDS Pacific women in global normative and coordination processes in disaster risk reduction and climate change.
• Build and strengthen close liaisons with relevant donors and other actors supporting efforts towards gender equality and women’s leadership in disaster risk reduction and resilience.
• Support the research, development, and presentation of analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, and correspondence on gender equality and women leadership in disaster risk reduction and resilience.
• Identify promising practices, technical expertise, and strategic opportunities.

Support resource mobilization for UN-Women’s disaster risk reduction work

• Maintain strategic partnerships with current funding partner and connect with potential funding partners on gender responsive disaster risk reduction.
• Provide technical support to Country offices in mobilizing resources for DRR
• Research and analyze information on donors; prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation.
• Ensure high-quality and timely donor reporting.
• Represent UN Women in meetings and policy dialogues on issues related to gender equality and women’s leadership in disaster risk reduction.

Manage and oversee the operations of the DRR team

• Manage DRR related staff and consultancy arrangements and supervise the work of the Global team related consultants.
• Manage the financial resources allocated to the DRR global team.
• Oversee security requirements for the team.

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

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values ?

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Outstanding knowledge of gender-responsive disaster risk reduction.
• Excellent knowledge of programme development, implementation, results based management, monitoring, evaluation and reporting
• Ability to develop and monitor budgets, and deliver for development results
• Excellent networking skills
• Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
• Ability to undertake and oversee qualitative and quantitative policy research
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice
• Excellent analytical skills
• Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in sustainable development, international relations or other social science fields 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.

Experience:

• At least 7 years progressively responsible experience in technical support and advocacy for gender-responsive disaster risk reduction and climate change, ideally with experience in developing countries;
• At least 7 years of progressively responsible experience in programme design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects and programmes.
• Experience in implementing complex multi-country portfolios, ideally in disaster risk reduction or climate change.
• Experience in interagency coordination.
• Experience in leading/managing a team;
• Experience in f resource mobilization for disaster risk reduction or climate change;
• Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field.
• Experience developing knowledge products on gender-responsive disaster risk reduction.
• Experience working with multiple regions, including the Pacific, Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia is an asset.
• Experience working with the UN system is an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of an additional UN language, particularly French or Spanish, is an asset.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

Application:

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc. 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.

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.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, 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.