UN WOMEN: DEPUTY DIRECTOR, REGIONAL CENTRE FOR EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

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. 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 and depth of work of the Deputy Regional Director requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender and development issues in the Europe and Central Asian region as well as Programme and management expertise, to provide Country Offices, Multi-Country offices and programmes with the support they need to translate UN Women's strategic plans into effective development initiatives and results and build strong partnerships. The Deputy Regional Director will support effective coordination and integration of gender perspectives in UN Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF) to promote coherence in the UN system's work on gender equality and the empowerment of women with colleagues in UN organizations.  The Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia (ECA) is in the process of being established in Istanbul as part of the implementation of a new regional architecture of UN Women. Under the leadership of the Regional Director and in partnership with the relevant divisions and sections at UN Women HQ, the Deputy Director will assist in the establishment of the new Regional Office.  In line with the UN Women Strategic Plan, the Regional Director will lead UN Women’s regional portfolio for Europe and Central Asia covering a very diverse region. The Deputy Director oversees the strategic development of the portfolio and oversight of programme implementation in the region, to ensure delivery results as planned in UN Women’s Strategic Plan, regional strategies and accountability framework. At the country level, where UN Women does not have a presence, the Regional Office (RO) will provide integrated policy and technical support to United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs) so as to ensure a stronger, more coordinated response to advancing gender equality and women’s empowerment at the national level. At the Regional level, within the UN’s regional coordination mechanisms and UNDG regional interagency mechanisms, the Regional Office will provide technical advice and leadership so as to ensure gender equality is mainstreamed throughout the UN System’s response to Member State needs and prioritize.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the Supervision of the Regional Director, the Deputy Regional Director has the following key functions:  Advisory and technical support, programme management, monitoring and oversight: Support the establishment of the Regional Office in Istanbul including establishing new premises; recruitment of full staffing for the Regional Office as well as ensuring training of staff as required; assumption of oversight under the Regional Office of Country and Multi-Country Offices; and implementation of an internal control framework as required.  Advise, support, guide and provide input to assure quality control in the formulation of relevant, high quality, results-based and rights-based country programs and projects;  Provide strategic and specialized technical advice to the Regional Director on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support effective programme planning, implementation, monitoring and timely progress reporting;  Plan and implement the support provided to the Country Offices to ensure timely and appropriate services are provided as required. Identify areas of competencies and/or weakness to ensure focused and targeted services are provided;  Monitor the progress on mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators and timely  action/decision and/or provide timely support;  Lead the process of gathering information and prepare reports for HQ on progress of programme implementation under the responsibility of the Regional Centre, assessing results and identifying areas for the Regional Centre Director's action and/or decision to ensure achievement of results as planned and in accordance with UN Women's goals and objectives and accountability framework;  Identify areas that may require improvement and capture best practices/lessons learned, using corporate monitoring tools, as such as the Balance Score Card, Atlas Snapshot and Dashboard, Staff Surveys, Audits and other corporate reports. Take action to improve areas of weakness;  Manage the timely allocation of funds to field offices under the responsibility of the Regional Office.  Monitor and ensure the appropriate utilization of resources approved and allocated to regional programmes and projects that are managed by the Regional Office;  Review and evaluate proposals submitted to the Regional Office and oversee the preparation of donor proposals and reports to ensure quality, compliance with requirements as per established rules, regulations and, alignment with UN Women Strategic Plans and regional priorities;  Draft policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/materials for the Regional Director and HQ for use in the development and presentation of a coherent regional perspective.  Advocacy and support to UN coordination, joint programming and reform: Support UN Women Senior Management and the Regional Director's advocacy efforts 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. Provide support to Country Offices in their fundraising efforts;  Forge strategic partnerships with other UN system agencies to promote gender equality and women's advancement through joint projects and interagency efforts. Participate as required in regional coordination mechanisms, and support coordination and coherence in the UN System's work on gender equality and empowerment of women, including UN reform in the region;  Actively seek out participation of UN Women in UN system thematic and other working groups to establish effective networks and to keep abreast of the ongoing debate and thinking on aids development, facilitate joint programming and promote UN Women competencies and interests to advance gender and women's human rights.   Knowledge management and capacity building: Ensure regular assessments of regional and country strategic and implementation plans. Identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to guide programme improvements and future strategic development plan;  Manage the process of collecting and sharing lessons learned on gender equality and women's empowerment to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders;  Design and implement capacity building training activities to enhance skills and knowledge in Results Based Management, Results based budgeting and systematic quality assurance;  Contribute to the development and maintenance of global and regional programme knowledge networks and practices, and development of knowledge products.   Support to operations management:  Within the scope of delegated authority from the Regional Director, support and monitor the planning and management of operational services, i.e. human, financial, procurement and IT services of UN Women regional and country programmes and projects, ensuring compliance of all services according to rules, regulations, processes and procedures and UN Women accountability framework.   Impact of Results:   The effective support provided by the Deputy Regional Director in the management of programmes and operations directly impacts the quality of UN-Women programme development, implementation and results that in turn directly impact the credibility and image of UN Women as an effective partner for regional and country organizations and as a competent knowledge based organization on gender equity and women's human rights issues. Competencies : Core Values /

Competencies

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. 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:  Demonstrated theoretical, intellectual and technical skills in  development/programming particularly those that are pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues and women's rights; Demonstrated political acumen and technical capacity in representing the organization effectively in national and international fora to advocate and to promote organizational priorities, initiatives and a better understanding of the organizational strategic agenda;  Proven ability to lead and manage teams and  drive results;  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;  Ability to introduce new approaches and strategic innovations to business processes;   Good knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches.

Required Skills and Experience

Education: Master's degree (or equivalent) in a development-related area, including economics, public policy or other social science fields. Experience: Over 10 years of extensive development experience that combines intellectual, strategic and managerial leadership in development programmes some of which should be in the area of gender equality, preferably in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds, Programs, or UN Mission;  Experience with managing, supporting and overseeing development policy-making, programme and operations management, resource mobilization and partnership creation.   Language: Fluency in written and spoken English; Working knowledge of another UN Language, especially Russian, will be 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. Application: 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.