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.

UN Women seeks to advance women’s rights, gender equality, and the empowerment of all women and girls. As the lead UN entity on gender equality and secretariat of the UN Commission on the Status of Women, we shift laws, institutions, social behaviours, and services to close the gender gap and build an equal world for all women and girls. We make strides forward for women and girls in four areas: leadership, economic empowerment, freedom from violence, women peace and security and humanitarian action.

Support for gender mainstreaming within the UN System through its coordination mandate remains integral to the work of UN Women as mandated in its founding resolution (GA 64/289, para.58). UN Women’s global Strategic Plan 2026-2029 commits to ensuring that the Entity’s coordination mandate is central in all impact and outcome areas of UN Women, with an emphasis on the country and regional level. Through the UN General Assembly Resolutions 75/233 on the Quadrennial Comprehensive Policy Review (QCPR) and 72/279 on UN repositioning, the United Nations Development System (UNDS) is presented with a mandate to respond to the ambition of the 2030 Agenda. The QCPR places strong emphasis on the fundamental importance of promoting gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls, noting the multiplier effect for achieving sustained and inclusive economic growth, poverty eradication and sustainable development. It calls upon all entities of the UNDS to continue to promote women’s empowerment and gender equality by enhancing and accelerating gender mainstreaming through the full implementation of the UNCT performance indicators for Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment (GEWE) and calls on UN entities to draw on gender expertise, including in UN Women, to assist with gender mainstreaming in the preparation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks. Under these requirements, the UN system-wide Gender Equality Acceleration Plan (GEAP) launched in 2024 by the UN Secretary General sets a framework for significantly advancing the UN System’s investment and prioritization of GEWE, and calls on UN Women to support the system in this regard. The UN “System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity” includes recommended actions to reach gender parity at all levels across the UN System by 2028. UN Women is committed to support the UN entities to reach gender parity, based on its mandate to lead, promote and coordinate efforts to advance the full realization of women’s rights and opportunities.

In line with UN Women’s triple mandate, ROAP collaborates and supports UN Country Teams across 24 countries and UN Women Country/Multi-Country Offices and presences located in 16 of these countries, in the following areas: Women’s leadership; Women’s Economic Empowerment, Ending Violence Against Women; Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian response, with climate and statistics as cross cutting areas of support. Additionally, ROAP promotes and facilitates effective UN joint action at the regional and country levels to advance GEWE at the normative and programmatic levels, including through coordinated approaches towards normative/standard-setting processes as mandated to the UN, capacity building support and increased access to information and data on existing disparities and their drivers, and approaches to addressing the same.

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Regional Director, with matrix reporting to the Director, UN Women’s UN Coordination Division, the ROAP Regional Coordination Specialist is responsible for: supporting ROAP, UN Women country presences, and UNCTs in operationalizing enhanced commitments to GEWE; implementing activities to enhance UN system wide coherence on gender equality and the empowerment of women; supporting the UN Asia-Pacific Regional Collaborative Platform and UN Women’s co-leadership of the Issue-Based Coalition (IBC) on Promoting Human Rights, GEWE and Disability Inclusion, including supporting enhanced financing of joint initiatives; supporting UN Women and UN System engagement on normative processes, and in partnership with ESCAP, coordinating regional engagement on the UN CSW and Beijing Platform for Action. The work of the Regional Coordination Specialist is guided by UN Women’s global Strategic Plan, international normative standards and frameworks on GEWE, the UN Secretary General’s GEAP and under this the system-wide accountability frameworks on GEWE, and such key processes under the UNSDCFs and mechanisms under the frameworks.

The Regional Coordination Specialist works in close collaboration with UN Women country presences, the Offices of UN Resident Coordinators in the region, UNCTs and interagency mechanisms under these, Regional UN coordination mechanisms under the RCP, and in partnership with UN Women’s UN System Coordination Division (including the Office of the Focal Point for Women in the UN System) as well as UN Women’s Intergovernmental team.

Key Functions and Accountabilities:

Provide technical support to the Regional Director as well as Country Offices on inter-agency coordination

• Provide technical support and guidance to the Regional Director, including through participation in regional groups and interagency coordination efforts and related technical bodies as well as the Regional Coordination Mechanisms.

• Provide analysis and advice to UN Women country presences on engaging United Nations Country Teams (UNCT) and Resident Coordinators (RCs) on UN system-wide accountability frameworks including the UN Gender Equality Acceleration Plan (GEAP) and the accountability mechanisms therein (i.e the UNCT SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard, the UN Gender Equality Marker, Gender Parity requirements, etc) and strategies for operationalizing the same.

• Provide substantive support and representation at UN conferences including the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), high-level meetings, joint programme development, joint advocacy, financing opportunities, and research, ensuring coordination with relevant regional UN and intergovernmental bodies, where relevant.

• Provide technical support and ensure guidance to RCOs and UNCTs related to system-wide processes and requirement related to GEWE in countries where UN Women has no presence.

• Provide technical support to UN Women Country Representatives and offices, as requested, on inter-agency coordination – helping Country Offices to identity thematic strategic entry points, including inter-agency pooled funds, and partners to significantly advance GEWE through targeted coordination and technical assistance.

• Provide substantive support to UN Women Country Representatives and offices, as requested, to scale up their provision of technical assistance and sectoral specific gender analysis on GEWE across the UNCT, enabling UN Women to act as the UNCT ”Think Tank” on gender equality.

• Upon the request of the Regional Director, coordinate internally with ROAP’s humanitarian team as/when required in support of use of System-wide accountability tools.

• Provide technical support and guidance to the development of partnerships and resource mobilization as it relates to coordination efforts.

Provide technical advisory support on gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) as a guiding principle during the development and implementation of the UN Country Analysis and Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCFs)

• Provide substantive support in the development of a rigorous gender analysis in the Country Analysis (CA) to explain immediate, underlying and root causes of gender inequalities and gender-based discrimination, and differentiated impacts, including through advocating for and supporting UN Women country presences (and beyond these) and UNCTs to develop and leverage Country Gender Equality Profiles (CGEPs) under the GEAP.

• Provide advice and inputs on the UNSDCF Roadmap to ensure that the UNSDCF development process will ensure strong integration of GEWE, in line with the UNSDCF, UN GEAP and system-wide accountability tool requirements therein; to lead capacity building initiatives (upon request), and facilitate active engagement of civil society orgnaizations and national women’s machineries.

• As a member of the Country Support Group, and in close collaboration with DCO, review and provide technical guidance and inputs to each step of the CA/UNSDCF to ensure the integration of GEWE considerations in the strategic prioritization and results matrix of the UNSDCFs, joint programmes, and monitoring and evaluation.

• Upon request, coordinate ROAP capacity building and technical advice to RCs/UNCTs for GEWE policy and legal framework development and monitoring, especially in countries where UN Women has no presence.

Provide overall coordination and quality assurance for the implementation of the UN GEAP

• Provide information and support to RCs and UNCTs on how to advance the UN GEAP at the country level, including but not limited to the use of Country Gender Equality Profiles and UNCT-SWAP and UNCT GEM requirements and track the implementation and related recommendations to ensure coherence in application and implementation across the region beyond countries where UN Women is present.

• In close cooperation with corporate support UNCT-SWAP helpdesk, provide quality assurance and technical support to the country-level UNCT-SWAP comprehensive and annual reports through the online platform as requested.

• Support UNCTs and GTG capacities building by rolling out learning and training materials in collaboration with UNSCD on the UN GEAP and related accountability tools such as the UNCT SWAP and UNCT GEM.

Provide coordination support to GEWE intergovernmental and normative efforts of regional UN entities, UNCTs and partners

• Provide advisory and technical support on UN normative mechanisms and processes, and opportunities for engagement and support of the ROAP and UN Women country presences and partners in regional and global intergovernmental/multi-stakeholder fora, including in relation to the CEDAW, the BPfA reviews, the Universal Periodic Reviews, the annual sessions of the Commission of the Status of Women (CSW) (global level and regional consultations), the Agenda 2030 and Sustainable Development Goals (Asia Pacific Sustainable Development Forums), and other relevant platforms and processes (at global, regional and country levels).

• Work with the UN entities, including the RCP and the UN regional Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UN-ESCAP) in advancing normative processes at the regional and global levels.

• Foster collaboration and support joint action and coordination of inter-agency mechanisms under the Regional Collaborative Platform, bringing regional expertise, capacity, and data to provide analytical, policy, and operational support to countries, to deliver bolder GEWE solutions, with lasting, large-scale impact.

• Lead capacity building initiatives, targeting ROAP units, UN Women country presences, UNCTs and partners as needed, to ensure that they can meaningfully engage on normative processes, by leveraging such mechanisms as the Issue Based Coalition on Promoting Human Rights and GEWE, and other platforms.

• In collaboration with the IBC, build, manage, and expand relationships with national and regional partners to advocate for enforcement of international standards and norms on GEWE, including by designing and implementing joint actions and initiatives, and by advising on and supporting targeted engagements with key partners through intergovernmental and multi-stakeholder spaces/initiatives.

• In collaboration with ROAP units and UN Women country presences, ensure meaningful engagement of civil society organizations (CSOs) representative of women and girls in all their diversity, in regional and global events/convenings.

• Identify areas for joint interventions and advocacy in partnership with UN agencies, international/regional inter-governmental bodies etc.

Provide coordination support to RCs and UNCTs on advancing gender parity, in cooperation with the UNSCD/Office of the Focal Point for Women in the UN System

• Monitor the implementation of the UN System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity and UN Women’s implementation plan in the UNCTs in the region and report the progress and identified gaps to Office of the Focal Points for Women in the UN System.

• Provide coordination support, in cooperation with Office of the Focal Points for Women in the UN System, to RCs/UNCTs on advancing gender parity where UN Women has no presence.

• Promote communication products such as the UN System-wide Dashboard on Gender Parity, the UN System-wide Knowledge Hub on addressing Sexual Harassment.

• Further promote communication products on gender parity from the Office of the Focal Point for Women in the UN system.

• Contribute to collaboration with the Office of the Focal Point for Women in the UN system and local Gender Focal Points in the region and explore ideas and tools for enhancing parity in their region.

Facilitate knowledge building and sharing

• Lead the development and dissemination of good practices and lessons learned on coordination and gender mainstreaming at the UNCT and regional levels; ensure they are incorporated into programme development.

• Provide capacity development support to regional and country level colleagues on coordination mandate and gender mainstreaming.

• Develop capacity development initiatives on gender-related issues and priorities as needed.

• Support RCP-led knowledge development for UNCTs and regional mechanisms to enhance investments on GEWE.

Lead and manage personnel under their supervision 

• Manage the performance of personnel under their supervision by provide managerial direction, guidance and leadership as well as performance feedback and coaching.

• Ensure performance assessment are completed on time and identify learning and development opportunities to support personnel’s engagement.

• Ensure all personnel under their supervision are fully ware of UN Women’s workplace relations policies.

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 will lead a team of two personnel as well as technical consultants, as required.

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:

• Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues

• Excellent knowledge of UN system gender architecture, including-wide accountability tools to advance GEWE and understanding of inter-agency coordination processes

• Excellent knowledge on UNDS reform content and its implementation at the country level

• Good knowledge of mechanisms and processes (national, regional, global) for advancing normative commitments on GEWE including Human Rights treaty body mechanisms and special procedures.

• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice on women’s human rights issues.

• Ability to support corporate and UN gender-responsive strategic planning, results-based management. Joint programmes and reporting.

Recruitment Qualifications

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in international development, public administration, public policy, or other relevant social science field 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 of progressively responsible experience working with inter-agency coordination is required.

• 5 years of progressive experience working in support of normative intergovernmental processes.

• Technical and capacity building experience in the field of gender and/or human rights of women.

• Experience in supporting or developing UNCT-SWAP Gender Equality Scorecard and its action plan or other system wide processes on Gender equality such as UN System-wide Strategy on Gender Parity, CEDAW UNCT report, GTG and UNCT GEM is required.

• Experience working in gender equality and women’s rights at the international level is desirable.

• Experience working in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds or Programs is desirable.

• Experience leading and coaching staff in international settings is required.

• Experience in the use of computers, office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.), spreadsheet and database packages is required.

• Experience in the use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, 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.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.