Mozambique: Project Officer, Women, Peace, and Security

Jul 17, 2022 | UN Women
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The United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, also known as UN Women, is a United Nations entity working for gender equality and the empowerment of women. UN Women advocates for the rights of women and girls and LGBTIQ+ rights, and focuses on a wide array of issues, including violence against women and violence against LGBTIQ+ people.

Background

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. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative approaches aimed at fostering women's empowerment and gender equality at global, national, regional, and sub-national levels.

Placing women’s rights at the centre of all its efforts, UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. UN Women provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. Through a set of tested approaches, UN Women proposes to build synergies over the humanitarian-development continuum by strengthening women’s agency, leadership, and participation to rebuild the lives of women and girls in crisis and conflict, and disaster contexts. This will contribute to Goal 4 of UN Women’s Strategic Plan: peace and security, humanitarian action and disaster risk reduction are shaped by women leadership and participation.

The peace and security and humanitarian context in Mozambique is becoming increasingly complex and protracted, with significant long-term impacts. War, violent conflict, terrorism and violent extremism have differential and devastating consequences for women and girls. Intersectional vulnerabilities can further determine how people are affected, among others, women with disabilities, women head of households, adolescent girls, and older women. Pre-existing gender-based discrimination and inequalities exacerbate the impact of the crisis on women and girls and reduce their likelihood to receiving the humanitarian services they need to survive and recover. Gender inequality tends to worsen in the insecure and violent contexts. In the face of this, women have the capacity and are leading movements for peace and to rebuild communities. In fact, there is strong evidence suggesting that women’s participation in peace processes contributes to longer, more resilient peace after conflict. Yet, despite this, women remain largely invisible to, and excluded from, peace processes and negotiations. With the support from the Government of the Kingdom of Norway, UN Women and partners are working to strengthen the capacity of women and girls affected by conflict (internally displaced, residents in host communities, and female ex-combatants as well as the wives, widows and dependents of ex-combatants) to contribute to and to have greater influence in building sustainable peace and resilience, and to benefit equally from the prevention of conflicts and disasters in Mozambique. More especially the project will seek to: (1) Empower women and gender equality advocates to have greater influence in decision-making in political, peace and security processes, contribute to crisis response, and create resilience; (2) Build the capacity of the Government of Mozambique to implement Women, Peace and Security (WPS) commitments and ensure monitoring and accountability frameworks are emplaced at national, regional and provincial levels; (3) Foster greater coordination of the implementation of WPS commitments; and (4) Facilitate the access to sustainable livelihoods and socioeconomic opportunities to women affected by conflict.

Under the overall guidance and direction of the Head of Programmes/Programme Specialist and direct supervision of the Programme Officer on Women, Peace and Security, the Project Officer will work closely with the programme and operations team, Local Government, UN Agencies, and civil society organizations to ensure the technical direction and implementation of the project is maintained and key outputs are achieved in a cost effective and timely manner. The Project Officer will be responsible for coordination and achievement of expected results of the project entitled “Promoting the participation and leadership of women in peace, security and recovery processes in Mozambique” which includes coordinating relationships with partners and stakeholders (also including technical assistance, capacity building and advocacy to relevant stakeholders), monitoring and reporting, and UN Women representation in the Northern Region of Mozambique. The project will be implemented in Cabo Delgado, Nampula, Sofala and Manica.

Duties and Responsibilities 

Summary of Key Functions: 

•  Lead project implementation at provincial level
•  Monitoring and knowledge management
•  Support with office coordination activities
•  Other/administrative support 

Lead Project Implementation in Northern Region of Mozambique 

• Ensures timely and effective implementation of the project’s activities in accordance with the annual work plan and towards achieving the project outputs and outcomes;
•  Ensures regular follow up with national experts/consultants and civil society groups/think tanks involved in the implementation of project activities, including revision of their deliverables and results;
•  Maintaining regular communication and extend technical support to women, peace and security initiatives conducted by women and gender-equality organizations;
• Provide guidance and support to UN Women implementing partners/responsible parties, carrying specific activities within the project;
• Serve as UN Women focal person in the provinces;
• Give inputs to quarterly progress reports and contribute to the drafting of Annual and Final project report;

Monitoring and Knowledge Production & Management  

• Conducts systematic monitoring and reporting on project implementation in the 3 provinces
• Contributes to the preparation and consolidation of quarterly progress and financial reports;
• Maintains close communication with project beneficiaries, consultants, responsible partners and institutional contractors to monitor the project implementation against the baseline and targets;
• Contributes to synthesizing, documenting, and developing project activities, success stories and lessons learned;
• Contributes to and participate in the project evaluations in collaboration with local partners and relevant stakeholders

Support coordination activities 

• Coordinates with the Programme Officer and Programme Specialist on implementation of the country component of the women, peace, and security (and other relevant UN Women priority areas);
• Ensure continuous coordination with all project parties and partners involved in project implementation
• Participate at the meetings of the UN Result group on gender equality and humanitarian action and prepare minutes, including preparation of background documents for the meetings; 
• Organizes key advocacy/awareness raising events in coordination with relevant colleagues at the country office.

Required Skills and Experience 

Education: 

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in in Peace and Security, Gender and Human Rights, Political Science, Social Sciences, or related fields.

• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree.
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage

Experience: 

• Minimum 3 years of relevant experience at the national and/or international level with development programmes and projects
• Relevant experience working peace and security and gender related issues such as women’s political participation, ending violence against women, economic empowerment or similar
• Experience of working with multiple stakeholders from government and other development actors preferably on issues related to gender equality and women’s empowerment. Working Experience with the UN an asset
• Solid understanding of results-based management approaches
• Knowledge of policy frameworks related to gender equality and women’s empowerment
• Good knowledge programme/project related monitoring and reporting.
• Experience developing programme/project related knowledge products, including project briefs, success stories, human-interest stories, etc.

Language Requirements:

• Portuguese and English (written and spoken) is required.
• Knowledge of local languages spoken is an asset.