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.
In Nigeria, UN Women’s work is guided by its three-pronged mandate: 1) Normative support to the Nigerian government, including Federal and State Ministries of Women Affairs, in championing initiatives and implementing policies, systems and practices that advance women’s rights; 2) Programmatic interventions across four priority areas: Women, Peace, Security and Humanitarian Action (WPSHA), Economic Empowerment and Resilience, Leadership and Political Participation, and Ending Violence Against Women; 3) Coordination of gender-focused networks and platforms within the UN system and development community to promote and advance gender equality in line with the development and humanitarian objectives. Over the years, Nigeria has been contending with incessant violent conflicts across the six geopolitical zones. These include attacks by the Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East, farmer-herder conflict, resource-based conflict in the Niger Delta region, as well as a general increase of incidences of armed robbery and kidnapping for ransom. The humanitarian crisis in North-East Nigeria remains one of the world’s largest and most complex humanitarian crises. Though women constitute about 50% of the country’s population and contribute in many informal ways to conflict resolution, they continue to be poorly represented in formal peace and security processes. The security sector institutions are major actors engaged by the government to prevent and respond to the security issues in Nigeria. These institutions include the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC). However, there is a huge gender gaps in the policies and operational procedures by the institutions, at all levels. The advancement of gender balance in security sector institutions has been increasingly identified as a key strategy for enhancing gender-responsive security sector response, which is supported by global normative frameworks, including the United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 (2000) and UNSCR 1820 (2008), among others. Ensuring women’s meaningful representation in the security sector is critical to building an inclusive, responsive, and accountable security sector that reflects the diversity of the community it serves and better responds to their needs.
Reporting to the Country Representative, the Deputy Country Representative is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Country Office. The incumbent is responsible for substantially contributing to the design, implementation, management, and oversight of the country programme and to the operations supporting its implementation to ensure effective and efficient delivery of results as planned in the UN Women’s Strategic Plan and the CO plans.

Key Functions and Accountabilities:

1.    Manage the programme team:

• Manage the day-to-day work of the programme, including finalizing the team’s annual work plan;
• Manage the process of programme conceptualization, planning, implementation, and monitoring;
• Manage material and financial resources;
• Lead the process of preparing programme implementation progress reports and identifying areas for UN Women Country Representative’s action and/or decision;
• Technically support the development of the Office security strategy and plan, as required.

2.    Provide advisory and specialized technical support on the strategic direction of the office:

• Advise and guide the Country Representative on strategic areas;
• Provide specialized technical and strategic support in managing all aspects of the programme design and related activities and for ensuring compliance and accountability in programme monitoring, reporting, and evaluation;
• Develop policy documents, briefs, and other strategic papers/materials for use in the development and presentation of innovative and coherent policy and programmatic positions;
• Serve as a senior member of the management team.

3.    Represent UN Women in UN system coordination, with a focus on programming:

• As delegated by the UN Women Country Representative, represent UN Women in the United Nations Country Team (UNCT) and/or the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) to collaborate with the Resident Coordinator and UN system on interagency coherence, collaboration, cooperation, resource mobilization, advocacy, common services, and operations;
• Ensure UN Women’s participation in the UN system thematic and other working groups to advance UN Women’s mandate.

4.     Provide technical support in the creation of strategic partnerships and resource mobilization strategies:

• Provide substantive research and inputs in the formulation and implementation of the country resource mobilization strategy;
• Establish and maintain relations with government, partners, stakeholders, and donors to achieve active collaboration, cooperation, and alliances on programme development and implementation, and resource mobilization.

5.    Represent UN Women and support advocacy strategies:

• Represent and advocate for UN Women in organizational, regional, global, and public information/ relations events and key meetings, as delegated;
• Develop and implement advocacy and public communication strategies.

6.    Facilitate knowledge management, innovation, and capacity building:

• Manage the process of collecting and sharing lessons learned on gender equality and women’s empowerment to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders;
• Oversee the design and implementation of capacity-building training activities to enhance skills and knowledge.

7.    Manage personnel under supervision:

• Manage the performance of personnel under supervision; provide managerial direction, guidance, and leadership to staff and provide performance feedback and coaching to personnel supervision, ensure performance assessments are implemented on time and ensure personnel are fully aware of UN Women workplace relations policies;
• Create an enabling work environment;
• Identify learning and development opportunities.

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

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: The incumbent leads a team of 8 direct reports (1 P4 staff, 3 NOC staff), as well as 4 affiliate personnel (SC).

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 the UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent programme formulation, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation skills;
• Ability to develop detailed operational plans, and budgets, and deliver on them;
• Ability to provide policy advice and support to partners;
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports to inform management and strategic decision-making;
• Strong leadership skills, ability to create and enable work environment;
• Strong analytical skills;
• Excellent knowledge of Results Based Management;
• Strong knowledge of the UN system;
• Strong knowledge of the local country context;
• Strong negotiation skills.

Education and Certification:

• A Master’s degree in international development, public administration, public policy, or other relevant 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.
• A project/programme management certification (such as PMP®, PRINCE2®, or MSP®) would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible professional experience that combines strategic and managerial leadership in development programmes with a strong focus on the area of gender equality and women’s empowerment at the national or international level is required.
• Experience in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds, or Programmes is desirable.
• Experience leading and coaching staff in international settings is required.
• Field-based experience working with multicultural teams is desirable.

Languages:

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

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