UN Women Country Representative Job Opportunity in Uganda

Job Title: UN WOMEN: COUNTRY REPRESENTATIVE
Location :     Kampala, UGANDA
Application Deadline :    01-Nov-12
Type of Contract :    FTA International
Post Level :    P-5
Languages Required :
   

Background

The UN Women (UNW), 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. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, the UNW will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

The scope of work of the UNW Representative requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender equality and women's empowerment issues, as well as management and pogramming expertise, to translate UNW's strategic plans into effective development initiatives and results.  It also requires developing mutually reinforcing partnerships with relevant Government counterparts, UN organizations, CSOs, and with bilateral and non-traditional donors in order to promote inter-agency partnerships, support for UN reform, and mobilization of visibility and resources to advance gender equality and women's empowerment.

UNW started programming in Uganda in 2006 in the area of peace building and supported various interventions to ensure women's visibility and participation in the Juba peace process and later on, from 2008 to 2011, UNW embarked on consolidating its peace building programme by expanding to development programmes. This included a component on access to justice, especially for war related issues such as violence against women, land issues and other gender related challenges. UNW is also active partner in UNCT in charge of coordination of the UN Joint Programme on Gender and is also participating Agency in the joint programmes on GBV and Population, coordinated by UNFPA. The UNW country programme is aligned to the National Development Plan that has as its vision "A Transformed Ugandan Society from a Peasant to a Modern and Prosperous Country within 30 Years" and is aligned to UNDAF. The programme anchors some of the outcome areas in the Joint Programming on Gender.

The development objective of the UNW country programme in Uganda is: Capabilities for Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in Uganda Strengthened, and the programme has three result areas that are inter-linked and reinforce each other: (i) Increased economic empowerment of women, especially of those who are most excluded; (ii) Prevent violence against women and girls and expand access to victim/survivor services, and (iii) National planning and budgeting processes promote stronger institutional accountability to Gender Equality commitments.
It is in this context that UNW is seeking to recruit Country Representative who is responsible for ensuring effective execution of UNW's mandate in the country. She/he is the first line of contact between UN WOMEN and its partners and clients, and will represent UN WOMEN in key events and meetings.

Duties and Responsibilities
Key Functions:

    Strategic Country Programme Development and Advocacy
    Country Pogramme Management and Oversight
    Representation and Partnership Building
    Knowledge Management and Capacity Building

Under the supervision of the Regional Programme Director, the Representative has the following key functions:

Strategic Pogramme Development and Advocacy:

    Proactively assess trends and identify emerging issues at the national level of relevance to the mandate of UNW;
    Lead the formulation and development of the UNW Country Programme Strategy based on the Corporate Strategic Plan (SP)  in support of gender equality and women's empowerment;
    Identify strategic program opportunities, and approaches and modalities to strengthen UN Women country presence;
    Support, monitor and assure quality control in the formulation of high quality, results-based, rights-based and relevant country programmes and projects and oversee the appraisal and approval of UNW programmes in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies;
    Participate actively as a member of the UNCT to ensure that gender equality and women's empowerment issues are well integrated into UN programming processes such as CCA/UNDAF, Country Programmes, etc.
    Assist the RC System to secure expertise that will ensure commitment, quality control and resources for gender equality outcomes, and actively participate in country level United Nations programming processes ensuring that the UN Women is strategically placed within UN planning processes, joint programmes and other inter-agency initiatives;
    Advocate on behalf of UNW and its mandate to help raise awareness and stimulate action to advance gender equality and women's rights and form strategic partnerships with government, UN agencies, NGOs, academia, media and the private sector;
    Carry out ongoing advocacy to ensure that UN support towards realization of the national plans and priorities are done in a gender responsive manner, and within agreed regional and international frameworks that promote and protect gender equality. 

Country Programme Management and Oversight:

    Lead the management, implementation and evaluation of the country strategic plan based on UNW's Strategic Plan (SP), and in line with regional and national priorities and in consultation with government, civil society and UN partners and stakeholders;
    Manage ongoing program activities on gender equality and women's empowerment and ensure delivery of agreed results;
    Ensure UNW's strategic and technical support to government counterparts, non state actors and UN agencies through direct involvement and provision of advisory services as needed;
    Oversee, monitor and assure quality control in the implementation of high quality, results-based, rights-based and relevant country programmes and projects in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies.
    Ensure that the Country Programme Office has the human and financial resources and capacities needed to respond to requests for assistance and to deliver on its commitments to support and advance gender equality and to participate effectively as a member of the UN Country Team;
    Manage staff and office in an empowering and effective manner;
    Manage the Country Office resources and administration to ensure proper utilization of allocated funds and accountability;
    Use corporate monitoring and oversight tools to identify areas which need improvement;
    Contribute to regular assessments of the regional, sub-regional and country strategic plans and implementation plans and identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to underpin consistently improved programming and future Strategic Plan development.

Representation and Partnership Building:

    Represent the UNW in UN system-wide inter-agency tasks forces to contribute to strategic and policy discussion on gender equality, and women empowerment issues;
    Represent UNW at inter-agency, intergovernmental, international, regional and national conferences and meetings and advocate UNW's policy and initiatives in advancing gender equality and women's empowerment;
    Forge strategic partnerships at the county level to promote gender equality and women's advancement through joint projects and interagency efforts;
    Maintain active relationship/partnerships with National Government Counterparts, UN System, and agency partners, inter-government and non-governmental organizations, institutes and academia on women's issue to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and share and influence agenda and priority setting;
    Forge strategic partnerships with Government, UN agencies, NGOs, academia, media and private sector  to stimulate action to advance gender equality and women's rights.

Knowledge Management and Reporting:

    Manage the process of collecting and disseminating lessons learned on gender equality and women's empowerment strategies and contribute to UNW's knowledge management efforts;
    Lead and manage the preparation of UNW country reports as required, ensuring relevancy, quality and appropriateness of content and presentation;
    Work with relevant UNW units to identify and disseminate best programme and management practices;
    Lead the development/expansion of knowledge management strategies and methodologies at the country level;
    Contribute to the development and maintenance of global, regional and national knowledge networks and practices;
    Produce knowledge products to meet UNW needs and standards of quality.

Impact of Results:

    The Representative impacts on success of the efforts to formulate and implement the UNW Programme Strategy at the country level to promote and advance gender equality and women's empowerment issues.

Competencies
Core Values and Guiding Principles:

Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff.  Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.  

Core Competencies:
Ethics and Values:
Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents

Organizational Awareness:
Building support and political acumen

Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:
Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation

Working in Teams:
Building and promoting effective teams

Communicating Information and Ideas:
Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication

Self-management and Emotional intelligence:
Creating an emotionally intelligent organization

Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:
Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards

Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:
Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning. 

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:
Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking

Functional Competencies:

    Substantive experience and record of accomplishment in the area of gender equality and women's empowerment issues
    Demonstrated People Management Skills
    Familiarity  with women's rights organizations and networks in the region and globally.
    Good knowledge of UN Women and the UN system
    Proven ability to advocate and provide policy advice
    Ability to lead strategic planning, programme development and implementation, results-based management and reporting
    Ability to develop and maintain strong partnerships  and mobilize resources;

Required Skills and Experience
Education:

    Master's degree (or equivalent) in a social sciences, economics, gender issues, or other development-related fields.

Experience:

    A Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience on gender programming issues, including 5 years field experience on gender equality and women's rights issues with an international organization.
    Strong familiarity with UN inter-agency cooperation would be an asset.

Language:

    Fluency in written and spoken English.
    Knowledge of another UN language is an asset.

How to Apply:
http://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=33339

Deadline: 1st Nov  2012