Women’s Political Participation Programme Specialist

Background

UN Women, based on the vision of equality enshrined in the UN Charter, works to eliminate discrimination against women and girls; women’s empowerment; and the achievement of equality between women and men as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action, peace and security.

Women’s political participation is a priority area of UN Women’s intervention, recognizing women’s equal participation in decision-making in strong and stable democratic processes and in inclusive societies. It is the first impact area of the 2022-2025 Global Strategic Plan – Participation and Governance in Public Life – “Women and girls participate in the decision-making and leadership process and benefit from gender-sensitive governance” This dimension is also taken into account in a cross-cutting manner in the other impact areas (outcomes 5 and 7).

 UN Women’s intervention in this area includes political and legislative reforms that promote women’s participation; women’s capacity building; institutional capacity building; prevention and response to violence against women engaged in the political field; improvement of knowledge; production of data; documentation and scaling up of promising initiatives. UN Women works with several key partners and stakeholders to ensure the full and active participation of women in all political institutions at all levels

UN Women’s Country Office in DRC works with institutional and civil society partners to transform social norms and practices to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment at all levels of society.  Indeed, the women’s leadership and political participation program has evolved well in recent years, thus constituting the second most important pillar of the new strategic note 2025-2029 with several projects (UK, Sweden etc.) and partnerships with several strategic actors (Ministry of Gender, CENI, UN, other international and national organizations involved in the field).

 On April 1, 2024, the Democratic Republic of Congo experienced a historic first with the appointment of a woman as Prime Minister.  This appointment symbolizes a major step forward for the representation of women in the DRC. It comes at a time when the DRC is committed to promoting gender equality and combating discrimination against women. In the same vein, the new Congolese government has 17 women ministers, i.e. a third of the government team. This increased presence of women in decision-making positions is an encouraging sign of the country’s progress towards a more inclusive and just society. The election of the Bureau of the National Assembly for the year 2024 was also marked by a strong presence of women 3 out of 7 members of the executive bureau. This can help to strengthen women’s voices in the legislative process.

While these advances are encouraging, much remains to be done to achieve real gender equality in the DRC. Congolese women continue to face numerous discriminations and significant obstacles to their full participation in the political, economic, security and social life of the country.

To support the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in consolidating these gains, UN Women DRC is recruiting a Political Participation Programme Specialist to support the implementation of the women’s political participation programme.

Duties and Responsibilities

1.  Oversee the implementation of The Women’s Political Participation (WPP) strategy for the country:

• Manage the development and implementation of an integrated strategy for the delivery of technical assistance, policy advocacy and programme support in DRC, guided by understandings of the challenges and priorities in the country and regional and global good practices.
• Manage the development and implementation of the country portfolio on WPP, in collaboration with Partners.
• Oversee the localization of programme documents, country strategies, and knowledge products, and ensure proper monitoring and reporting in WPP.

2.  Provide capacity building support to UN Women DRC CO’s partners:

• Provide substantive contextualized technical and policy support to UN Women DRC’s partners to implement and localize corporate guidance, knowledge products and tools on WPP, ensuring policy and strategic coherence, and avoiding duplication.
• Conduct capacity building and substantive sessions on key priority topics in WPP as needed through in-person trainings, induction, webinars, workshops, cross regional dialogues, and exchanges and through the coordination mandate to learn what others do better and replicate.
• Support UN Women DRC CO team in developing and strengthening policies, projects/programs, and modalities to engage in key normative processes (incl. Commission of the Status of Women, Beijing+30 review, UN General Assembly, and other global, regional, and national processes) to support the implementation of global norms and standards; and ensuring proper monitoring. This includes managing engagement on the elaboration and implementation CEDAW Committee general recommendation 40 (2024) on the equal and inclusive representation of women in decision-making systems.
• Provide thematic oversight of UN Women DRC’s corporate planning and reporting including as support to the development of the UN Women DRC CO’s Strategic Note and Work Plan and ensure quality assurance of the office’s reports during the elaboration of the Executive Director’s Annual Report (EDAR).

3.  Support UN Women DRC CO’s coordination mandate on WPP:

• Provide substantive support on WPP to UN entities in mainstreaming gender into joint programmes WPP more broadly and strategic documents.
• Guided by relevant UN policy frameworks, support gender mainstreaming into joint programming on electoral assistance.
• Coordinate high-level advocacy on WPP within relevant inter-agency task forces and support timely and quality inputs as needed to inform Senior Management’s participation in the SG Executive Committee (EC) and follow up with UN Women DRC CO’s team on the implementation of relevant EC’s Decisions and other relevant task teams.
• Build, leverage, and maintain alliances and strategic partnerships for the advancement of WPP, with regional and national institutions and entities including civil society groups, traditional and faith-based institutions and networks, academia, and other non-governmental organizations.
• Maintain close contact with relevant personnel in UN-Women Regional Office for West and Central Africa and HQ.
• Work closely with and provide advice to regional/ national institutions and interagency groups that influence national and regional policies related to WPP and where necessary represent UN-Women.

4.  Manage advocacy, knowledge building and sharing for WPP:

• Provide thematic support to the Representative and Deputy Representative on high level advocacy efforts in support.
• Contribute substantively and lead existing thematic and gender equality networks to better connect UN Women and partners.
• Manage research, development, and presentation of analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, correspondence on WPP, and provide quality assurance of UN Women DRC’s knowledge products on WPP in line with corporate strategies.
• Identify promising practices, technical expertise, and strategic opportunities.
• Identify, codify, and disseminate lessons learned and good practices in collaboration with country offices; and liaise with HQ focal point for ongoing contribution to the global thematic Community of Practice.
• Ensure technical skills and knowledge are shared within and among UN Women DRC team.
• Maintain up-to-date relevant thematic national data; and integrate analysis to policy-oriented advocacy and corporate support (e.g., briefing notes, background papers, region-specific reports).

5.  Manage partnerships building and resource mobilization for WPP in the country:

• Develop and implement partnerships and resource mobilization strategies.
• Finalize relevant documentation on donors and potential opportunities for resource mobilization.
• Analyze and research information on donors, prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for cost sharing.
• Provide technical support to field-based presences in the region in mobilizing resources for the implementation of WPP.
• Research and analyze information on donors; prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation.
• Manage donor relations on WPP and programmatic expectations.

6.  Lead and manage personnel under their supervision:

• Manage the performance of personnel under their supervision by provide managerial direction, guidance, and leadership as well as performance feedback and coaching.
• Ensure performance assessment are completed on time and identify learning and development opportunities to support personnel’s engagement.
• Ensure all personnel under their supervision are fully aware of UN Women’s workplace relations policies. 

7.  The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities:

Under the direct supervision of the Resident Representative, the Women’s Political Participation Programme Specialist coordinates the implementation of the Women’s Political Participation portfolio. He/she supervises the Women’s Political Participation Unit (WPP) team.  The incumbent will work closely with the Programme Officer and other thematic units while maintaining close collaborative relationships with the Regional Office and Headquarters.

Competencies

Core Values:

1. Respect for diversity
2. Integrity
3. Professionalism

Key skills:

1. Gender awareness and sensitivity
2. Responsibility
3. Creative problem solving
4. Effective communication
5. Inclusive Collaboration
6. Stakeholder engagement
7. Leading by example

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s core values and competencies:

https://www.unwomen.org/en/about-us/employment/application-process#_Values

Functional Skills

1. Excellent domain knowledge
2. Strong knowledge of the country
3. Excellent networking skills
4. Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities, and threats to fundraising
5. Ability to conduct qualitative and quantitative policy research.
6. Ability to litigate and provide strategic advice
7. Excellent analytical skills;
8. Ability to draft policy papers, speeches, briefing notes;
9. Strong knowledge of development, implementation, results-based management and reporting

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in political science, gender studies, law, human rights, international relations, or other social science fields is required.
• 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:

• At least 7 years progressively responsible experience in programme design, management and governance and leadership advocacy, ideally with some experience in developing countries, is required.
• Experience in programme analysis, policy analysis and strategic planning is required.
• Experience working and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations at the international and field levels is required.
• Experience working with the United Nations is desirable.
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required.
• Experience in the use a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in French and English is required.
• Knowledge of another official language of the United Nations is desirable.