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 gender equality, considering women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates the United Nations system’s efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
UN Women works in Europe and Central Asia (ECA) across the humanitarian and refugee response and disaster risk reduction to ensure a gender-transformative response framework. Its programmatic, normative and coordination work is grounded on the mandate operationalized by the Strategic Plan and the humanitarian strategy launched in 2022 to allow to provide strategic programme development, advise on norms, policies and strategies for achieving the internationally and regionally agreed goals related to gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) issues, deliver policy and technical advisory services and quality assurance support on GEWE to partners.
UN Women Europe and Central Asia Regional Office (ECARO) intends to expand its support to the member states, civil society and its country offices in the area of the humanitarian assistance as well as disaster risk reduction and climate change mitigation to ensure the policies and actions in these areas are gender responsive and informed by voices and contributions of those women and girls who are marginalized and excluded.
With this aim UN Women ECARO intends to hire Regional Specialist, Humanitarian Action (HA) and Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA), who is expected to lead and support UN Women programmes in these areas by providing substantive inputs to the design, formulation, implementation and evaluation of the programmatic and coordination related work in these thematic areas. The Regional Specialists is expected to guide and facilitate the delivery of UN Women HA and DRR/CCA related programmes and work in close collaboration with the programme and operations team, HQ staff, government officials, multi and bi-lateral donors and civil society ensuring successful UN Women programme implementation.
Under the overall strategic guidance of the Deputy Regional Director, and reporting to the Regional Policy Advisor on Women, Peace and Security, the Regional Specialist on Humanitarian Action and DRR and CCA, will oversee the development and implementation of programmes under the humanitarian portfolio, provide technical and advisory support to UN Women country offices and humanitarian actors in the region and establish and strengthen partnerships with relevant humanitarian stakeholders, including supporting resource mobilization efforts in these areas.
Duties and Responsibilities:
1. Lead and provide strategic advisory support to strengthen UN Women humanitarian, DRR and CCA work in the region:
- Provide strategic inputs to development of ECARO Strategic Note in line with UN Women’s corporate Strategic Plan (2022-2025) and the corporate Humanitarian Strategy (2022-2025);
- Oversee and provide technical support to UN Women ECARO, field offices and partners on coordination and implementation of humanitarian action, DRR and CCA.
- Oversee the development and implementation of regional and country specific programmes on humanitarian action and DRR/CCA.
- Support the development of UN Women programming relating to preparedness and response for humanitarian emergencies, DRR, and climate-induced disasters in the region, including drafting of concept notes, project proposals and briefs.
- Advise the ECARO and field offices on analysis and integration of gender dimensions into needs assessment frameworks, including rapid assessments.
- Deliver a dedicated research support for further evidence-based programme development and implementation in the assigned thematic areas.
- Support UN Women field offices and partners in documenting humanitarian action and DRR/CCA project implementation challenges, lessons learnt, and strategies adopted to overcome the barriers, as well as risk mitigation measures for timely and efficient implementation of programmatic, normative and coordination work.
- Provide inputs to the preparation of donor and UN Women reports relating to humanitarian action, DRR, and/or CCA, including drafting reports on monitoring missions, programme results, outputs and outcomes;
- Advise on the development and implementation of signature interventions in line with the new UN Women’s Humanitarian Strategy.
2. Provide technical support to UN Women country teams and partners on the humanitarian response, DDR and CCA:
- Provide substantive technical, policy and surge support for development and implementation of rapid response actions, plans, programmes relating to gender-responsive humanitarian action, DRR/CCA in the region.
- Support Country Offices in rapid data gathering/assessments in the event of sudden-onset emergencies to provide inputs into humanitarian/emergency deliverables as required.
- Provide technical leadership in the development of gender-responsive DRR/CCA plans for UN Women offices and partners.
- Provide technical support to the implementation and management of the humanitarian programme such as inputs to the annual workplan(s) and budget, implementation of regional programme activities, as well as coordination of the call/request for proposals.
- Provide advice on contextualizing and localizing programme documents, country strategies, and knowledge products in links with UN Women corporate Gender Equality Accelerators.
- Contribute to the development/ adaption of tools and training/orientation on gender equality and Humanitarian Action/DRR and gender.
- Assess capacity gaps and needs and develop, implement and monitor capacity building initiatives.
3. Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with stakeholders, regional/ international actors and development partners
- Build and maintain alliances and strategic partnerships for the advancement of gender responsive humanitarian action and DRR/CCA.
- Build and maintain close liaisons with relevant donors and other actors supporting efforts towards humanitarian action and DRR/CCA.
- Work with GenCap and other gender advisers, EVAW, DRR and CCA focal points in the ECARO region (including governments, UN, INGOs, local NGOs, community and women’s groups), and other key actors at country and regional level.
- Produce periodic updates and briefs on regional/country development situation to be used by stakeholders, UN Women field offices and HQ.
- Maintain close contacts and interactions with relevant staff in UN Women HQ.
4. Support the resource mobilization strategy for humanitarian action as well as DRR and CCA in the region
- Participate in the implementation, monitoring and periodic updating of the resource mobilization strategy on the assigned thematic areas of work in the region.
- Provide technical support to ECARO and field offices in the region in mobilizing resources for the implementation of humanitarian action, DRR and CCA programmes.
5. Facilitate knowledge management (KM) in the assigned thematic areas
- Provide policy recommendations and guidance to strategic planning and positioning on KM on humanitarian action, DRR and CCA, including interagency knowledge products and exchange.
- Research, develop and present analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, correspondence, and knowledge products and technical guidance on gender in humanitarian action.
- Undertaken capacity needs assessment and develop, implement and monitor capacity building initiatives in the assigned thematic areas.
- Identify promising practices, technical expertise, and strategic opportunities in areas related to gender and humanitarian action and innovation through new technologies.
- Provide inputs to advocacy, knowledge building and communication efforts such as advocacy campaigns/events and development knowledge products on gender and humanitarian, DRR/CCA.
- Lead knowledge sharing and exchange between UN Women field offices, regional office and with the respective stakeholders.
6. Oversee the advocacy of humanitarian action through inter-agency coordination
- Work closely with and provide advice to regional/ national bodies and interagency groups that influence national policies related to humanitarian action and where necessary represent UN Women.
- Lead/co-lead on behalf of UN Women ECARO the respective GEWE interagency task force/s.
- Lead specific efforts in mainstreaming gender and protection in humanitarian response and recovery efforts of relevant clusters and working groups, including inclusion and participation of under-represented groups.
- Advocate for the engagement and participation of local organizations and civil society networks in humanitarian coordination mechanisms.
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
Functional Competencies
- Substantive knowledge and experience related to current policies and practices in the fields of gender equality, protection and humanitarian action, DRR and CCA, including interagency coordination
- Strong knowledge of the region
- Excellent networking skills
- Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
- Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research
- Ability to advocate and provide policy advice
- Excellent analytical skills
- Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings
- Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results-based management and reporting
Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework:
Required Skills and Experience:
Education and Certification
- Master’s degree or equivalent in humanitarian, DRR, human rights, gender, international relations, international development, international law 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, including experience working in gender in humanitarian action and/or DRR and CCA in emergency response settings.
- Substantive and technical experience in inter-agency coordination in humanitarian settings and/or DRR.
- Proven experience in normative work on humanitarian, and/or DRR and CCA.
- Demonstrated experience engaging diverse stakeholders, including governments, civil society and international development and humanitarian actors.
- Experience working with the UN is an asset.
- Experience working in the region is an asset.
Language
- Fluency in English 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.)
