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United States: Policy Specialist, Inclusive Peace Processes

Apr 12, 2021 | UN Women
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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.

The Peace, Security and Humanitarian Section supports UN Women to fulfill its coordination mandate in the area of peace and security and UN system efforts to improve implementation, and monitoring and reporting of global commitments on women and peace and security, including as set out in Beijing Platform for Action, ten Security Council resolutions and various other frameworks. In the area of mediation and conflict resolution, UN Women works to strengthen inclusivity by generating knowledge, providing expertise, building partnerships, facilitating dialogue and building the capacity of actors engaged in peacemaking to enhance women’s meaningful participation and ultimately secure gender-equality outcomes.

UN Women’s Peace, Security and Humanitarian Section has been implementing a project on gender-inclusive peace processes for more than four years. The project, which is integrated within a broader portfolio as well, has been instrumental in raising the profile of one of the most intractable issues in the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda—women’s direct participation in formal, high-level peace and political processes. Widespread and deep gender-based exclusion has continued into the 21st century. With its partners, UN Women has been building political partnerships across peace tracks, pushing knowledge generation forward, making expert resources available and offering spaces to strategize and build movements towards peace at national, regional and global policy levels. Still, despite significant efforts by the UN, civil society and others, high-level peace processes remain largely stalled and women’s meaningful participation and influence at the track I level limited, hampering the likelihood of reaching durable peace agreements.

Reporting to the Deputy Chief, the Policy Specialist will play key role in overseeing the implementation of the project “Enhancing Women’s Leadership for Sustainable Peace in Fragile Context in the MENA Region.” She or He will act as an important channel between country and regional offices, and global policy-related work in the areas of gender equality, conflict resolution and mediation. The Policy Specialist will also contribute to the broader work of the Peace, Security and Humanitarian section on mediation, including policy development and coordination, capacity building interventions and strategic partnerships, and learning.

Duties And Responsibilities

Lead project management and coordination for the “Enhancing Women’s Leadership for Sustainable Peace in Fragile Context in the MENA Region project ”:

  • Lead project’s activities at the global level and effective coordination with UN Women Country and Regional offices to ensure implementation on the ground.
  • Develop and monitor annual workplan and budget
  • Oversee the substantive and programmatic work of implementing partners,
  • Compile and draft regular donor reports and updates ensuring strong tracking of results and documentation of good practices and lessons learned.
  • Maintain strong communication with country focal points, donor representatives and implementing partners to ensure coordination and complementarity of efforts.

Provide Substantive Support To Policy Development And Coordination

  • Provide substantive support to Peace and Security Section in leading the global-level coordination, monitoring, and catalytic programming efforts to advance the implementation of gender sensitive mediation and inclusive peace processes;
  • Produce studies, reports, background papers on the gender and mediation portfolio
  • Provide inputs to intergovernmental processes and other international forums to facilitate and increase women’s participation in, and influence of, mediation and peace processes;
  • Organize (online) conferences, dialogues, expert meetings, panels and other interactive events on relevant issues for intergovernmental processes and project implementation;
  • Assess implementation bottlenecks and gaps in advancing the women, peace and security agenda with regards to conflict resolution and take appropriate responses whether in terms of policy development and negotiation with relevant stakeholders, or pilot programming interventions.

Provide substantive support and capacity building to UN Women field offices:

  • Provide technical support to UN Women Country Offices, civil society and governmental partners on Enhancing Women’s Leadership for Sustainable Peace in Fragile Context;
  • Ensure information flow between Country and Regional Offices, and HQ on lessons learned, promising approaches, and good practices of support to women’s participation in peace processes.

Provide Technical Support To Partnership Building

  • Identify relevant actors/forums, and liaise with key international, national, regional, and local civil society and governmental stakeholders to strengthen women’s capacity and solidarity and to facilitate and increase their access, participation and representation to peace processes and to key stakeholders;
  • Develop and solidify partnerships with key stakeholders, including academic institutions, governments and civil society organizations;
  • Build and maintain donor relations and
  • Draft reports for the project,
  • Strengthen partnerships with other UN entities and international policy making forums to highlight and reinforce accountability mechanisms for the implementation of global policy commitments on women, peace and security, including SCRs 1325 (2000), 1820 (2008), 1888 (2009),1889 (2009), 1960 (2010), 2106 (2013), 2122 (2013), 2242 (2015), 2467 (2019) and 2493 (2019);
  • Represent the Peace, Security and Humanitarian Section at internal and external meetings, as delegated.

Provide Technical Inputs To The Development Of Knowledge Products

  • Provide technical inputs to the development of policy and knowledge products;
  • Provide substantive guidance and technical inputs to ensure the quality of knowledge products and capacity development tools commissioned under the Section’s gender and mediation portfolio;
  • Provide feedback to UN Women offices on case studies and other related knowledge products and publications as requested and needed;
  • Collate good practices and lessons learned and feed into the WPS Community of Practice as needed;
  • Produce relevant knowledge products to meet UN Women needs and standards of quality.
  • Perform duties as assigned by supervisor.

Key Performance Indicators

  • Timely and quality implementation of the project
  • Quality reports, publications, and studies on mediation and conflict resolution as well as broader peace and security themes;
  • Timely and quality of organization of meetings;
  • Quality research which leads to actionable results;
  • timely and quality support to field offices;
  • Number of strong partnerships which lead to results.

Core Competencies

  • Integrity;
  • Professionalism;
  • Respect for Diversity.
  • 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: https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf?la=en&vs=637

Functional Competencies

  • Good planning, goal-setting and prioritization;
  • Strong communication skills, both written and oral;
  • Strong public speaking skills.
  • Strong analytical and drafting skills;
  • Strong analytical and problem solving skills;
  • Strong inter-personal skills, communicate effectively with staff at all level of the organization;
  • Demonstrate sensitivity, tact and diplomacy, comfortable with handling external relationships at all level;
  • Work in a highly pressured environment;
  • Strong sense of responsibility, confidentiality and accountability;
  • Strong understanding of women, peace and security issues.

Required Skills and Experience

Education

  • Master degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, gender issues, economics, public policy, law or other social science fields. (Education in Peace and Security is an advantage) 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 5 years of progressive experience in international development, law, policy analysis, sociological/gender equality or related areas, preferably with work experience from international organizations and/or the United Nations system;
  • Experience of working on policy and advocacy work on women’s human rights and gender equality, including conflict resolution and peacebuilding, with field experience in peace and security contexts highly desirable;
  • Experience in planning, coordinating and implementing events and other activities.

Languages

  • Fluency in English is required;
  • Knowledge of Arabic or French is highly desired;
  • Knowledge of the other UN official working language is an asset.

Application

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/-/media/headquarters/attachments/sections/about%20us/employment/un-women-p11-personal-history-form.doc?la=en&vs=558 . Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Note

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.