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Jordan: National Gender Specialist

May 15, 2023 | United Nation's Children's Fund
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While there has been progress on gender equality in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the Arab States region, the pace is slow and does not reflect the full commitments made to the Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. Also, despite advances in some areas including education, maternal mortality, and life expectancy, challenges of COVID19 restrictions, climate change and water scarcity as well as women’s limited participation in the labor force all threaten progress. Moreover, conflicts and humanitarian needs exacerbate existing inequalities and deprivations. UNICEF works in 190 countries and territories to save children’s lives, to defend their rights, and to help them fulfil their potential. UNICEF MENA Regional Office supports the work of 16 country offices in the Middle East and North Africa Region. Gender Equality is an integral part of UNICEFs work through the Gender Action Plan 2018-2021 (GAP). The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continues to face multiple and complex crises, conflicts, displacement, and damage to vital services, multidisciplinary resilience-building approaches and programmes are critical to influence policy, system and community changes that promote sustainable gender equality agenda.

Context

The UNICEF MENA region has identified five key accelerators representing the region’s strategic contribution to the Decade of Action towards the SDGs by 2030, in line with the CRC and CEDAW. The accelerators comprise: 1. Primary Health Care; 2. Improving adolescent girls’ and boys’ skills, learning and employability right from early childhood; 3. Addressing violence against children, especially in homes, schools and institutions; 4. Scaling up UNICEF’s specific programmatic response to the climate crisis with a focus on water scarcity; and 5. Expanding social protection national systems to reduce multi-dimensional poverty and vulnerabilities. Gender cuts across all these accelerators, and gender-responsive and gender-transformative programming is integrated into UNICEF country office programming. As a learning organization, the MENA regional office seeks to strengthen knowledge creation and management to capture lessons learned and gender results across the region. MENARO is deploying National UN Volunteer as a National Gender Specialist to provide technical assistance to support the implementation of Regional MENA Accelerators and UNICEF’s new Gender Policy and Action Plan, including but not limited to gender equality research for transformative results, programming and policy guidance, gender equality and women and girl’s empowerment. National UN Specialist Volunteers in Jordan are entitled to: - Monthly Volunteer Living Allowance (VLA) at the amount of JOD 1,068.5; - Annual and learning leaves; - Free life and medical insurance; and - Free access to different learning platforms. For more information on UN Volunteer benefits, entitlements and support, please visit: https://www.unv.org/volunteer-your-country-conditions-service

Task description

1. Gender analysis and literature/ evidence review

  •  Perform analysis of quantitative data and qualitative information from various sources, including but not limited CO reports and regional surveys, studies to summarize learning and gender results;
  •  Perform financial analysis and budget analysis to capture gender expenditures across accelerators, sectors and the GAP priority areas;
  • Employ a systematic review of literature and evidence to identify critical barriers that adolescent girls experience in UNICEF’s programming areas; proven/ effective interventions to address the barriers; find examples of effective implementation of cross-sectoral initiatives. 2. Strategic advice including policy advisory and advocacy briefs/ strategy/communications
  •  Support linkages and complementarity with partners, networks and coalitions including UN sister agencies, and the larger frameworks within which the UN operates, and coordinate mechanisms for advocacy and action at all levels;
  •  Support in developing and implementing a communication strategy in MENARO and with country offices in the region around issues, including breaking gender stereotypes through sports, promoting girls’ leadership in climate change;
  •  Assist in progress on the implementation of Gender Policy and Action Plan and ensure that the objectives, strategies and plans are in line with the changing realities of the global movement on gender equality. 3. Knowledge Management and Strategic Communication
  •  Support the development and maintenance of an online knowledge-sharing platform (internal and external), in coordination with UNICEF MENA’s Gender and ICT teams, using SharePoint;
  •  Compile a regular newsletter for the regional gender team with relevant resources, tools and guidance, to promote the regional and global gender programme priorities. 4. Technical capacity building/ training and support
  •  Support gender capacity development efforts in a variety of models, methods and materials delivered in multiple formats and languages across regions and country contexts;
  •  Collaborate with the Gender Section in Headquarters and regional as well as country offices to enhance gender capacity for high quality gender programming, research, advocacy and communications, through coordination of training of sectoral gender specialists and focal points, etc.;
  • Engage with UN agencies and partners to enhance gender results at all levels and keep updated on the global gender strategies, initiatives and events on the dissemination of gender-related tools and guidance.

Eligibility criteria

Age: 27 - 80

Nationality: Candidate must be a national or legal resident of the country of assignment.

Requirements

Required experience

3 years of experience in gender equality, research, data analysis, field programming and evaluation in international development will be an asset,

  •  A proven record of developing field tools and guidance for gender analysis and sector programming;
  •  A sound understanding of gender equality and gender issues in international development;
  •  Experience implementing gender equality programming for transformative results and research in low- and middle-income settings will be an asset;
  •  Experience developing training materials and conducting training and related capacity building on gender equality programming for transformative results;
  •  Previous experience developing and managing evidence-based communications and advocacy initiatives;
  •  Experience developing case studies, blogs, documenting lessons learned, etc. desired;
  •  Ability to work under pressure and respond to deadlines without sacrificing quality;
  •  Demonstrated drive for results in previous work experiences. In addition, candidates must possess technical expertise in at least one of the following areas:
  •  Gender Equality in International Development, for example:
  •  Gender Equality in teaching and education systems (Girls’ secondary education, learning & skills (STEM)) and women’s economic empowerment
  •  Violence against Women and Girls and intersections with Child Protection including evidence-based programmes to prevent and respond to intimate partner violence and violence against children and harmful practices, especially in homes, schools and institutions
  •  Gender-responsive social protection systems for coverage and inclusion (gender, disability, migration status); social sector spending, and partnerships for more transparent, and more effective public finance for children; and Humanitarian Cash Transfer gender-responsive programming.
  •  Gender socialization (Human Rights; ADAP; SIP; C4D; Disability)
  •  Gender responsive Climate Change, WASH & hygiene systems (including Menstrual Health & Hygiene) with a focus on water resource management
  •  Knowledge Management and data analysis.

Area(s) of expertise

Communication, Development programmes, Community development

Driving license

-

Languages

English, Level: Working knowledge, Required Arabic, Level: Working knowledge, Required

Required education level

Master degree or equivalent in Gender, Public Health, Behavioural and other social sciences, Public Policy, International Development, Gender Studies, or another field relevant to international development and humanitarian assistance.

Competencies and values

  •  Accountability
  •  Adaptability and flexibility
  •  Creativity
  •  Judgement and decision-making
  •  Planning and organising
  •  Professionalism
  •  Self-management

Other information

Living conditions and remarks

Amman, the capital, is a peaceful city with over four million residents. People are friendly to visitors. Services in terms of banking, transportation, health and communications are easily available. Though Arabic is the official language, English is widely spoken among the majority of the population, especially in Amman. Road network is good both in terms of spread and quality of the roads. Public transportation in Amman is limited. Taxis are relatively cheap and easily available. There are a number of shopping malls, restaurants, gyms, and cinemas. A large variety of accommodation options can be found; however, it is worth noting that prices in Amman have generally increased in the past few years. There are no specific security threats. Amman is a very easy city in which to live; large, many amenities, very modern and serviced by an international airport with direct flights to most capital cities. According to the assessment of the UN Department of Safety & Security (UNDSS) Jordan is a family duty station (category A hardship). As this is a national UN Volunteer assignment, the UN Volunteer will be responsible for arranging his/her own housing and other living essentials. National UN Volunteers are part of the insurance plan.

Inclusivity statement

United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme that welcomes applications from qualified professionals. UNV is committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics. As part of their adherence to the values of UNV, all UN Volunteers commit themselves to combat any form of discrimination, and to promoting respect for human rights and individual dignity, without distinction of a person’s race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Reasonable accommodation

UNICEF offers reasonable accommodation for UN Volunteers with disabilities. This may include, for example, accessible software, travel assistance for missions or personal attendants. It encourages candidates to disclose their disability during the application in case they need reasonable accommodation during the recruitment process and afterwards in their assignment.

Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements

In addition to duty station-specific vaccine requirements, appointments are subject to confirmation of fully-vaccinated status against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) with a World Health Organization (WHO)-endorsed vaccine, which must be met prior to taking up the appointment. It does not apply to UN Volunteers who will work remotely and are not expected to work on or visit UNICEF premises, programme delivery locations or directly interact with communities UNICEF works with, nor to travel to perform functions for UNICEF for the duration of their contracts.