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.

As the UN agency with the mandate to work on gender equality, UN Women is responsible for leading and coordinating United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world and at the country level. UN Women is also expected to provide strong and coherent leadership in support of countries’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society, the nodal government agency, private sector, and other relevant actors.

Preliminary findings from a study on socio economic impacts of COVID 19 on women and girls in India reveal that the pandemic has resulted in exacerbating the already existing gendered nature of unpaid work at home. While both urban and rural respondents suffered an income drop resulting in livelihood uncertainty especially among the marginalized sections, women and girls given the informality of their labor are disproportionately impacted.

Additionally, the pandemic has strained even the most advanced health systems in the world. In Asia and the Pacific, 60 per cent of women report facing more barriers to seeing a doctor as a result of the pandemic. Given the prevalent socio-cultural norms, unequal power relations in intimate partner relationships, early evidence indicates an adverse gender impact including unwanted pregnancies.

While rates of all other crimes have gone down during the COVID-19 lockdown period, crimes against women have continued to be reported, including domestic violence. As per the latest National Crime Records Bureau data, Assam continues to report the highest rate of crime against women. In Assam, 32 percent (National Family Health Survey 5, 2019-20) of ever-married women in the age 18-49 years have ever experienced spousal violence, which is close to the global data of 1 in 3 women experiencing intimate partner violence. Women and girls who experience gender-based violence struggle to access healthcare and essential support services owing to restrictions on movement, closed clinics, and fear of contracting coronavirus.

UN Women is currently implementing a programme to forge and strengthen multi-sectoral partnerships in Assam, India (Tea) to effectively rebuild after the COVID-19  pandemic through targeted interventions to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic and hence women workers’ health, wellness, and safety in the tea sector, by focusing on the following Outcome and Outputs 1, 2 and 3 to generate best practices and lessons learned to inform a gender-responsive COVID-19 recovery:

Outcome: Locally owned women’s health, wellness and safety solutions identified and implemented

Output 1: Capacity of partners enhanced on women’s health and wellbeing and on measures to respond to escalating risks related to VAWG post pandemic.

Output 2: Multi-stakeholder partnership platforms strengthened to identify and implement women’s health, wellness and safety solutions 

Output 3: Local data available on the impact of the pandemic on women and girls in the tea sector in selected intervention areas in Assam

Under the direct supervision of the Country Project Manager, the guidance of Programme Specialist, and the day to day mentoring of the Program Manager, the State Coordinator is responsible to support the coordination and implementation of programme activities within his/her portfolio in the state of Assam under the project ‘COVID-19 and Ensuring Women’s Health, Wellness and Safety in Rural Spaces in the Tea Sector in Assam.

The State Coordinator will work in close collaboration with the Country Project Manager of the project, operations team, programme staff in other UN Agencies, UN WOMEN staff and Government officials, technical advisors and experts, multilateral and bilateral donors and civil society ensuring successful implementation of specific components of the programme.

Key Functions:

Lead and Coordination of Project Implementation in the State:

• Support implementation of project activities and develop a mechanism to monitor implementation of planned activities and budgets.
• Support the Programme Team in the financial management of programmes.
• Provide guidance to the executing agencies on routine implementation of projects.
• Maintain project related reports/files and extend support preparation of quarterly narrative reports.
• Under the guidance of the supervisor, support the establishment of advocacy networks at state level.
• Support strategic partnerships by participating in workshops and public information events.
• Support relevant, high-impact advocacy activities and campaigns and other key partners.
• Coordinate key meetings, conferences, and training under the project, and prepare proceedings report/meeting minutes.
• Manage project activities and evaluation according to results-based management requirements.

Facilitation of Knowledge Building and Sharing:

• Support synthesis of lessons learnt, and best practices related to programme management.
• Support synthesis of lessons learned from the project.
• Support in documenting good practices and updates from the programme, for website and quarterly reporting;
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice.
• Support organization of training for the office staff and partners on programme and operations related issues.
• Support in the coordination and maintaining database of partners.
• Support to build evidence on existing policies and new labour laws and legal frameworks, including but not limited to Industrial Relations Code Bill 2020, the Code on Social Security Bill 2020, the Occupational Safety and Health Working Conditions, 2020, specially on women in the tea sector.

Provide administrative/programmatic support/coordination to the Project:

• Undertake logistical, administrative and financial arrangements for organization for meetings, workshops, events, and missions in the state
• Make travel arrangements, if required,
• Prepare public information materials and briefing packs
• Assemble briefing materials and prepare power-point and other presentations;
• Consolidation of project reports for UN Women periodic reporting and monitoring.

Apart from the above the State Coordinator-Assam will also be required to execute other duties and assignments entrusted by UN Women as relevant to the implementation of the project.

Key Performance Indicators:

• Timely programme implementation, events, workshops, and missions;
• Full compliance of programmatic and administrative activities with UN Women rules, regulations, policies and procedures;
• Timely recording of overall programme unit finances/reporting;
• Timely and accurate tracking of data for CO management and donor purposes;
• Quality maintenance of internal systems.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

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 Values and Competencies Framework:

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to perform a broad range of specialized activities aimed at effective and efficient functioning of the Programme unit including logistical support.
• Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities.
• Ability to handle a large volume of work possibly under time constraints.
• Ability to manage data, documents, correspondence and reports information and workflow.

Technical Knowledge:

• Familiarity with the development context and challenges regarding inclusive growth, human development, and disadvantaged groups in Assam, especially related to the tea sector, with reference to Ending Violence Against Women and Girls.
• Knowledge of programmes, laws, and schemes relevant to women and girls in the context of violence at home, workplace, and public spaces.

Education:

• Master’s degree in Social Sciences/ Social Work/Rural Development/Gender Studies/Policy.

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of relevant experience at the national/state level working with development projects including hand-on experience of design, implementation and monitoring of projects preferably in the area of violence against women and Women’s Rights.
• Experience of working with UN will be an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English, Hindi and Assamese is required
• Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Statements :

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.)

Level of Education: Bachelor Degree

Work Hours: 8

Experience in Months: No requirements