UN Women: Chief - Asia Pacific and Arab States Region

Background

The 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. Placing women's rights at the centre of all its efforts, the 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 and depth of work of the Chief of a Geographical Region is demanding. It requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender and development issues, women's human rights, as well as management expertise, to provide SROs with the support they need to translate UN WOMEN's strategic plans into effective development initiatives and results. It also requires developing mutually reinforcing partnerships with relevant Member States' Permanent Missions to the United Nations, with colleagues in UN organizations, 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.

Duties and Responsibilities

Key Functions: Corporate policy and strategy development Support to Sub-Regional Offices Programme guidance, management and oversight Advocacy and support to the UN development system Office capacity and performance Under the supervision of the Director, Programmes, the Chief of the Region has the following key functions: Function 1: Corporate policy and strategy development Provide leadership in the development, implementation and evaluation of the regional strategic plan based on UN WOMEN's Strategic Plan (SP) in support of gender equality and women's empowerment and rights, in line with regional and national priorities and in consultation with government, civil society and UN partners and stakeholders. Ensure regular assessments of the regional and sub-regional strategic plans and implementation plans and identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to underpin consistently improved programming and future Strategic Plan development. Advise UN WOMEN Executive Director on regional policy matters. Participate in corporate initiatives, including the Management Team and provide input to other process such as reports to the UN WOMEN Consultative Committee (CC), presentations to the Executive Board and General Assembly, as required, to present UN WOMEN positions on specific policy and programme issues. Function 2: Support to Sub-Regional Offices 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 UN WOMEN programmes in line with corporate guidelines and consistency with corporate policies and strategies. Ensure that the Geographic Section has the human resources and systems necessary to respond to SROs requests for assistance effectively and efficiently, especially in areas relating to programme and project design and management and human resources. Ensure that SROs and Country Programme Offices have the human and financial resources and capacities needed to enable them to deliver on their commitments to support countries to advance gender equality and to participate effectively as a member of the UN Country Team. Function 3: Programme guidance, management and oversight Provide strategic guidance, substantive/ technical leadership and support to the Directors of UN WOMEN APAS's five sub-regional offices (SRO), in implementing and managing to enable them to deliver agreed results. Monitor mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators to measure SRO capacity and performance to ensure progress, timely support and proactive oversight. Use corporate monitoring and oversight tools such as the Balanced Score Card, Atlas Snapshot and Dashboard, Global Staff Surveys, audits, evaluation and other corporate reports to identify areas which need improvement. Work with relevant UN WOMEN units to identify and disseminate best programme and management practices. Manage the allocation of funds to sub-regions and countries, and assure the proper utilization of resources approved and allocated to regional programmes and projects managed by the Geographic Section. Oversee the development and implementation of strategic evaluation plans, ensure that management responses to all evaluations are completed and followed up, and that learning from evaluations is fed back into UN WOMEN initiatives and operations. Function 4: Advocacy and support to UN coordination, joint programming and reform Advocate on behalf of UN WOMEN and its mandate to help raise awareness and stimulate action to advance women's human rights and form strategic partnerships with government/UN missions, NGOs, academia, media and the private sector. In association with Bureau of Inter-Governmental Support and Partnerships liaise with donor agencies to mobilize resources at the HQ level for the region. Provide and coordinate support to SROs for their fundraising efforts. Forge strategic partnerships with other UN system agencies at HQ to promote gender equality and women's advancement through joint projects and interagency efforts. Participate in and follow up on Regional Director Team (RDT) initiatives to support joint offices, providing technical support and guidance to SROs on joint programming and joint office management. Represent UN WOMEN at interagency, intergovernmental, international, regional and national conferences and meetings and advocate UN WOMEN's policy and initiatives in advancing gender empowerment. Manage the process of collecting and disseminating lessons learned on gender equality and women's empowerment strategies and approaches for partners, including the UN system, and contribute to UN WOMEN's knowledge management efforts. Function 5: Office capacity and performance Establish a mutually agreed results framework and performance indicators and targets to effectively measure SRO capacity, in line with UN WOMEN's accountability frameworks. 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. Ensure that the Geographic Region has access to the resources it requires to undertake its responsibilities, and accounts for their use in line with UN WOMEN's rules and regulations. Assist in the timely hiring and review of all staff for the Section and for those staff in the region that report to the Chief Identify and support capacity-building/learning opportunities at HQ and in SROs/CPOs Impact of Results As a member of the team defining strategies to meet UN WOMEN's objectives, the results expected from the position of Chief, Geographic Section are critical in terms of: 1. The quality of development results and management efficiency of the SROs in the APAS region. 2. UN WOMEN's standing as a partner for UN, government, inter-governmental organizations and NGOs; 3. The effectiveness of UN WOMEN as a knowledge-based organization; 4. The image and added-value of the Organization in the eyes of the SROs in her/his portfolio.

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 Has substantive and demonstrated professional experience and record of accomplishment in the area of gender equality and women's human rights Is familiar with women's rights organizations and networks in the region and globally Has knowledge of UN WOMEN and the UN system Has proven ability to advocate and provide policy advice Has a successful track record in developing strong partnerships with donors and mobilizing significant resources for development assistance programmes Has ability to lead strategic planning, change processes, results-based management and reporting Has ability to lead formulation, oversight of implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes Has a deep knowledge of the Region (political, economic, social and cultural)

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Advanced university degree in a development-related area of study Experience: At least 10 years of active participation and leadership in a position with gender-related development programmes, including 5 years of working internationally on women's human rights in the Asia Pacific and Arab States Region. 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 at least one other official UN language an asset. 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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