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 Policy, Programme and Intergovernmental Division develops and implements the UN Women program of work on analysis, research and knowledge management that provides the evidence base for the advice and guidance UN Women provides to the intergovernmental process, the UN system, and to UN Women staff working at country and regional level on issues of gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The Peace and Security Section of the Policy Division supports UN Women to fulfill its coordination mandate in the area of peace and security, UN system efforts to promote improved implementation, and monitoring and reporting of global commitments on women and peace and security, including as set out in the Beijing Platform for Action and in Security Council resolutions on Women, Peace and Security, on peacebuilding and sustaining peace, relevant Statements by the President of the Security Council, as well as related accountability frameworks established by the UN system.

To further this work UN Women has entered into a partnership with the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) to support the implementation of the Secretary-General’s Report on Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding and the Women, Peace and Security agenda more broadly. 

Under the commitment on post-conflict financing, the Secretary-General committed the UN to allocate at least 15 per cent of UN-managed funds in support of peacebuilding to projects that address women’s specific needs, advance gender equality and/or empower women as their principle objective.  The Gender Promotion Initiative is a special call for proposals that enables UN Country Team members and civil society organizations in select countries to access the Secretary-General’s Peacebuilding Fund (PBF) for gender-responsive peacebuilding projects. The 2020-2024 Investment Plan of the Peacebuilding Fund further commits to allocating up to 30 per cent to projects that promote gender equality. Lessons learned and good practice from PBSO’s experience must be documented and disseminated to inform practice and system reform processes at HQ and at the country level. At the same time, several important and time-bound policy initiatives are underway, which require technical expertise on gender-responsive peacebuilding, including  review of implementation of the Peacebuilding Commission Gender Strategy, the elaboration of the Secretary-General’s report on sustaining peace, mandated by Security Council resolution 2282 (2016) and review and finalization of revision of SG’s  Seven-Point Action Plan.

Under the supervision of the Policy Specialist - Sustaining Peace,  and in close collaboration with the front office of PBSO/DPPA, where this position is based, the Policy Specialist - Gender and Peacebuilding will provide policy and programmatic expertise to UN entities and country teams working on peacebuilding and policy support on gender and peacebuilding overall.

Provide advisory services and technical support related to gender-responsive peacebuilding:

• Ensure gender mainstreaming in conflict analysis, eligibility requests and peacebuilding project design and implementation of PBF projects, working closely with the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO) and PBF team in NY and PBF Secretariats in-country (both remotely and short term targeted technical missions);
• Ensure integration of gender in inter-agency joint assessment and technical support missions;
• Provide substantive support to UN Women’s Country Offices engaged with PBF in project design, implementation, monitoring, reporting and evaluation and support their gender mainstreaming role within the United Nations Country Teams;
• Conduct joint monitoring with the PBSO and provide technical inputs to mid-term and final reviews and evaluations of PBF projects;
• Provide technical inputs to the roll out and implementation of the 2020 Gender and Youth Promotion Initiative projects;
• Provide technical inputs to the evaluation of the PBSO, UN Women and UN Volunteer partnership and implementation of recommendations;
• Develop and roll out the 2021 Gender and Youth Promotion Initiative;
• Develop background materials and briefs on gender and peacebuilding issues and contribute to related positioning and messaging of PBSO.

Provide Policy development and research support:

• Lead the organization of Peacebuilding Commission meetings to operationalize the PBC Gender Strategy;
• Develop background materials and briefs on gender-responsive peacebuilding and contribute to ongoing policy discussions around peacebuilding and sustaining peace;
• Provide technical support to the Chair of PBC in reviewing PBC Gender Strategy;
• Lead on the revision of Secretary-General’s Seven Point Action Plan on Gender-Responsive Peacebuilding.

Provide learning development and capacity building support:

• Provide technical inputs into PBF Gender Thematic Review (2015-2019);
• Provide capacity development support to PBSO team members in gender and peacebuilding;
• Provide technical input to the implementation of the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA) Women, Peace and Security Policy as related to PBSO;
• Develop the capacity of UN Women Country Offices engaged with the PBF as well as staff members of Peacebuilding Fund Secretariats in-country.

Key Performance Indicators: 

• Timely and accurate technical support to country offices and partners;
• Provision of quality policy support and reporting in the area of gender-responsive peacebuilding;
• Relationship with stakeholders is maintained and further strengthened;
• Quality of knowledge products;
• Quality of capacity development initiatives.

Core values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• 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 knowledge of gender related issues including in peacebuilding, statebuilding and transitions;
• Ability to undertake policy research and prepare quantitative studies, utilizing statistical methodologies, knowledge of database applications for statistical analysis;
• Ability to organize and complete multiple tasks by establishing priorities;
• Ability to handle a large volume of work under time constraints;
• Establishes, builds and sustains effective relationships with clients, demonstrating understanding of client’s perspective;
• Ability to draft policy papers, speeches, briefings etc;
• Ability to develop and maintain roster of experts, and a databank of research institutes, academics, civil society experts, etc. of direct relevance to the Focus Area.

Education: 

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, gender issues, conflict studies, economics, political science, human rights, law or other social science fields, of direct relevance to women, peace and security;
• 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: 

• A minimum of 5 years of increasingly responsible professional experience in gender and peacebuilding/statebuilding, programme management, policy research and gender/conflict analysis with field experience;
• Experience working on gender equality programming in the framework of the Peacebuilding Support Office/Peacebuilding Fund is highly desirable.

Languages: 

• Fluency in English is requiredl
• 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.