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UN WOMEN: ARAB STATES REGIONAL DIRECTOR

UN Women is the newest UN entity which started operations on 1 January 2011. Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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, UN Women 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 Arab States Regional Director requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender and development issues in the Arab Region, as well as leadership and management expertise to provide UN Women Country Offices and programmes with the support they need to translate UN Women's strategic plan into effective development initiatives, results and strong partnerships. The Regional Director will provide leadership for the effective coordination and integration of gender perspectives in UN Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF) and promote other UN coordination mechanisms in the region, and will promote coherence and accountability in the UN system's work on gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Regional Director will build strategic partnerships with a wide range of actors, including bilateral donors, the private sector, NGOs, and women's organizations and networks.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the Supervision of the Director, Programme Division, the Regional Director has the following key functions:
Strategy Development and Managerial Leadership:
  • Provide leadership in the development and implementation of results-based regional, sub-regional and country workplans based on UN Women's Strategic Plan (SP) and in line with regional and national priorities. Plans will be developed in close consultation with government, women's organizations and other civil society groups, and UN partners and stakeholders;
  • Ensure regular monitoring and assessments/evaluation of the regional, sub-regional and country workplans and programmes to identify lessons learned that will contribute to consistently improved programming, results, partnerships and future development of strategic plans and programmes;
  • Establish a mutually agreed results framework and performance indicators and targets to effectively measure field offices capacity, in line with UN WOMEN's accountability frameworks;
  • Advise UN Women Senior Management on regional policy matters, participate in corporate management teams and initiatives, and provide input to other processes such as reports to inter-governmental bodies, including the General Assembly, the UN Women Executive Board and other strategic opportunities;
  • Establish the Regional Center annual work plans, in close consultation with UN Women offices in the region, with the UNDG Regional Director's Team, and with the Regional Coordination Mechanism and set objectives, performance measurements, standards and expected results;
  • Submit budget proposals and monitor delivery and adherence to corporate policies for financial, human and other required resources to ensure that the Regional Center operates efficiently. Decide on the optimum and appropriate allocation and management of resources to ensure effective and timely regional programming and operational support;
  • Lead efforts to increase staff capacity in the region in Results Based Management and Results Based Budgeting including systems and quality assurance in implementing results based, rights based programming and budgets.
Advocacy, inter-agency coordination and programme support:
  • Advocate on behalf of UN Women and its mandate to raise awareness and stimulate action to advance women's human rights and form strategic partnerships with government, NGOs, academia, media and the private sector. In consultation with the Strategic Partnerships team, liaise with donor agencies to mobilize resources at the regional level. Provide and coordinate support to field offices for their fundraising efforts;
  • Forge strategic partnerships with other UN system agencies at the regional level to promote gender equality and women's advancement through joint projects and interagency efforts;
  • Participate in the UNDG-AS (UN Regional Director's Team) and other regional coordination mechanisms to lead the integration of gender perspective in UNDAF and other interagency processes, promote UN Women's collaboration with UN System partners and promote coordination and coherence in the UN System's work on gender equality and empowerment of women. Support relevant aspects of the UN Reform in the region;
  • Supporting UN Women offices and staff, increase availability of quality assurance, technical support and advice to the RCs and UNCTs, including in their application of UNCT Performance Indicators and other efforts to strengthen overall coherence and performance of the UN Country Team on gender equality and women's empowerment;
  • Lead the Regional Inter-Agency Working Group on Gender Equality in order to promote UN system accountability on gender through the implementation of agreed mechanisms.
Advisory support, programme guidance and oversight:
  • Manage the team of the Regional Center and ensure that a credible knowledge hub is created to facilitate policy and technical advisory support on gender equality for UN regional and country teams. Oversee the design and dissemination of knowledge products and regional advocacy materials. Promote knowledge sharing through networks and communities of practice;
  • Develop a high-quality roster and/or stand-by capacity of qualified individuals and institutions from within and outside of the United Nations that can be deployed at short notice and can expand availability of technical expertise on gender equality;
  • Identify and secure additional capacity to enable UN Women offices in the region to strengthen their capacity to offer coordination support for inter-agency initiatives at country level;
  • Support and assure quality control in the formulation of high quality, results-based country programmes and projects and oversee the appraisal and approval of UN Women programme in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies;
  • Manage the allocation of funds to countries and assure the proper utilization of resources approved and allocated to programmes/projects.
Representation, Partnership and Resource Mobilization:
  • Represent UN Women in inter-agency and inter-governmental forums and other key meetings and events, as designated/appropriate to speak on regional programming issues, participate in program policy dialogues, discuss initiatives, report on progress achieved in the region and/or present papers/ideas to influence setting of agenda and /or advocate UN Women competencies;
  • Maintain active relationship/partnership with Member States, UN System and agency partners, inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, regional commissions, institutes and academia on women's issues to enhance collaboration, resource mobilization and/or share ideas to influence agenda and priority setting;
  • Lead/direct resource mobilization activities to maximize resources for programs and projects to meet ongoing and/or new challenges and opportunities to promote gender equality and women's rights in the region and to sustain achievements in these areas.
Impact of Results

Leading UN Women work in the Arab Region, the results expected from the position of the Regional Director are critical in terms of:
Leading UN Women work in the Arab Region, the results expected from the position of the Regional Director are critical in terms of:
  • The quality of development results and management efficiency of UN Women field offices.
  • The impact on the development, planning, implementation and evaluation of UN Country Team's and Regional Director's Team's initiatives to support countries to advance gender equality and women's empowerment in line with national and regional priorities.
  • The confidence of UN and national partners in the organization's capacity to provide relevant and timely technical support and expertise. Having expanded access to targeted and timely policy and programmatic advice on gender equality should assist UNCTs to significantly step up their contribution to improvements in women's rights and empowerment in the region.
  • The capacities of women's organizations - from grassroots to national advocacy organizations and regional networks - to expand access to decision-making venues and effectively monitor legal and policy changes and their implementation.
  • The effectiveness of UN WOMEN as a knowledge-based organization.
  • The image and added-value of the Regional team in providing country support to UN Women field offices.

Competencies

Core Values / 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:
  • Ability to develop a vision, concepts and strategies for aid development planning and management;
  • Excellent theoretical, intellectual and technical skills in aid development particularly those that are pertinent to UNW strategic priorities on gender issues and women's rights;
  • Demonstrates political savvy and intellectual capacity in representing the organization effectively at high level in national and international fora to advocate and to promote organizational priorities, initiatives and a better understanding of the organizational strategic agenda and to build consensus;
  • Ability to establish and maintain broad strategic networks and partnerships with UN agencies and other international partners to promote partnership and build alliances to advance organizational interests and competencies;
  • Effective leadership in fund raising strategies and activities and proactive engagement with the multilateral and bilateral donor community to ensure a stable resource base;
  • Ability to introduce new approaches and strategic innovations;
  • Solid understanding of best management practices; aligns management policies and practices to support achievement of organizational goals;
  • Exercises leadership in strengthening accountability and results-based management in supporting organizational priorities, policy and decision-making processes.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Masters degree ( or equivalent) in a development-related area of study .
Experience:
  • Over 15 years of extensive development experience that combines intellectual, strategic and managerial leadership in development cooperation at the international level, preferably in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds or Programs or UN Mission;
  • Experience with managing, supporting and overseeing development policy-making, programme and operations management, resource mobilization and partnership creation.
Language Requirements:
  • Fluency in written and spoken English. Knowledge of Arabic is an asset.
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.

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

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.
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UNDP is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Individuals from minority groups, indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the strictest confidence.