Grant-Making Programme Specialist – P3

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.

Established by UN General Assembly Resolution 50/166 in 1996, the United Nations Trust Fund to End Violence against Women (UN Trust Fund) is the first and remains the only global UN funding mechanism dedicated exclusively to providing direct grants to civil society organizations working to prevent and end all forms of violence against women and girls (EVAW/G). Since 2010, UN Women has administered the UN Trust Fund on behalf of the UN system, providing a strong institutional foundation and field support through a global infrastructure of country and regional offices.

With nearly three decades of experience, the UN Trust Fund has become a key global mechanism for funding initiatives that aim to eliminate violence against women and girls. It plays a critical role in fostering collaboration across governments, UN agencies, and civil society to address the root causes and consequences of violence, aligning its work with broader international policies and frameworks. The UN Trust Fund focuses on providing long-term grants to organizations that work in diverse contexts, particularly those representing marginalized groups, such as indigenous women, women living with disabilities, and women from rural or conflict-affected areas. Its investments are survivor-centered and aim to have sustainable, long-term impacts. To date, the UN Trust Fund has funded over 700 initiatives in over 140 countries and territories, significantly contributing to global efforts to end violence against women and girls.

Reporting to the Programme Lead – Global Grant Portfolio , the Grant-Making Programme Specialist will be responsible for (1) Leading the planning and coordination of the UN Trust Fund’s Call for Proposals, ensuring strategic alignment (2) Managing the end-to-end technical and operational aspects of the Grant-Making Programme, including application review, partner selection, grantee contracting, and fund disbursement; (3) Coordinating engagement with partners and stakeholders, including UN Women offices, external technical reviewers, and civil society partners, to strengthen grant selection and assessment processes, and (4) Facilitating grant application support and knowledge management, providing technical guidance to applicants, leading the development of tools and resources, and ensuring quality reporting and tracking of grant-making outcomes. This role requires strong technical expertise in grant-making, stakeholder engagement, and system management, along with a commitment to advancing inclusive and impact-driven funding models to support frontline civil society organizations addressing violence against women and girls.

Functions:

Provide technical leadership on strategic grant-giving and funding approaches

• Implement a grant-giving strategy focused on awarding grants to CSOs/WROs that aligns with the UN Trust Fund’s new Strategic Plan 2026-2030.
• Contribute to the Fund’s internal grantmaking systematization, including compilation of procedures and policies.
• Conduct assessments of the Fund’s processes as related to its Grant-making Programme and compile lessons learned, best practices and results to increase the Fund’s efficiency and efficacy.
• Provide substantive input into the UN Trust Fund’s operational guideline and procedures related to grant-giving and grants management.

Manage end-to end technical and operational aspects of the Grant-making Programme

• Lead the implementation of the overall annual grant-making processes, in alignment with the UN Trust Fund’s strategy and workplan.
• Develop an annual grant-making work plan and coordinate finalization of grantee cohorts according to agreed upon timelines and Annual Work Plan documents in collaboration with the Grants Management and Operations teams.
• Liaise with the UN Trust Fund staff, Global and Regional Programme Advisory Committees (PAC), UN Women Offices and partners to ensure the Programme results are achieved and resources are managed.
• Develop – in coordination with UNTF staff – external/public programmatic guidance, including the Call for Proposals grant-giving and reporting documents, application documents, appraisal guidance and criteria, feedback letters and grantee summaries.
• Provide timely documentation to the Global Giving Team to support the dissemination and outreach of the Call for proposals.
• Provide technical guidance to the Fund’s Technical Review Groups and external reviewers to ensure quality scoring during the application review process and analyze their inputs.
• Oversee communications with applicants and selected grantees and provide inputs into communications materials.
• Coordinate timely finalization of Partner Project Documents and Partner Agreements in compliance with UN Women rules and regulations
• Oversee and monitor the allocation and disbursement of funds to new grantees under each grant-giving cycle.
• Record and maintain documents on relevant grant-giving activities, issues, and risks.

Guide the coordination and engagement with partners and other stakeholders

• Provide guidance to potential grant applicants to support the completion of applications, including Full-Fledged Proposals in collaboration with the Grants Management and Operations teams, to ensure compliance with Fund’s policies towards the submission of high-quality applications by priority groups.
• Manage the identification, selection and recruitment of external experts engaged in the Call for Proposals, including translators, issue area experts and members of the Fund’s Technical Review Groups (approximately 60+ each year with various language skills and regional expertise), and maintain an updated roster to be expanded through targeted recruitment of new issue experts based on the specific focus of each grant-giving cycle;
• Oversee all aspects related to the NGO capacity assessment, as well as the quality assurance and records management of the documents received.
• Coordinate the review of the NGO assessments by UN Women RO/COs as well as the UN Trust Fund, where needed.
• Review completed implementing partner assessment forms (NGOA) and supporting documentation packages; conduct and disseminate the analysis of the results of the NGO capacity assessments.
• Manage all aspects of the Global Advisory Committee’s grant selection, endorsement, and approval processes, including convening relevant stakeholders and ensuring the timely submission of appraisal forms and other materials for decision-making.
• Facilitate communication across various stakeholders, including the external technical reviewers, UN Women, Civil Society and UN PAC members.
• Provide technical guidance on grant review and selection to UN Women ROs/COs and grantees to ensure adherence to UN Women policies, administrative and financial procedures.
• Ensure adherence to established selection criteria and timelines across the ROs and their inter-agency programme advisory committees (PACs), through timely coordination with and guidance to UN Trust Fund Programme Specialists.

Facilitate grant application support and knowledge management related to the Grant-making Programme

• Support applicants through the preparation of easy-to-understand tips and tools (including webinars and FAQs) on how to complete their requirements for application submission.
• Provide technical/system related guidance to potential grant applicants to support the completion of applications to ensure compliance with Fund’s policies and use of application technologies.
• Gather and compile all necessary documentation for reporting on the grant-making programmes from the planning to the grant selection stages for each grant-giving cycle.
• Contribute to the exchange of information and knowledge products internally and externally of the programme, including through development of application analysis and inputs into various reports.
• Coordinate the internal tracking of financial resources of the Grant-Making Programme including budgeting, and expenditure tracking and reporting.
• Prepare and present periodic narrative progress reports and expenditures status reports to the Supervisor and Chief.
• Develop an annual review of the Fund’s processes as related to the Grant-making Programme and compile lessons learned and best practices to increase the Fund’s operational efficiency and efficacy.

Provide guidance and coordination support to the Grants Management System utilized by applicants and grantees to report on their projects to the UN Trust Fund

• Oversee GMS Consultant who takes first-line responsibility for technical issues, helpdesk support, and troubleshooting.
• Handle and resolve escalations from the GMS Consultant.
• Oversee all aspects related to the online application system set up, including translation and appropriate documentation, as well as ensuring quality assurance of each application cycle in the GMS in collaboration with the GMS consultant;
• Ensure appropriate Helpdesk Support and webinars to a range of system users.
• Oversee the application assignment process to the Technical Review Group Members (technical experts in ending violence against women) in the Grant Management System.
• Ensure system user guides for applicants are updated to reflect changes in the grants management systems and to improve the content and reader-friendliness based on feedback and suggestions from users.
• Oversee capacity development activities related to all type of system users, including webinars, guidance materials, in person and online training.
• Run database reports and exports and ensure timely updates of call-related documentation on the system site as well as regular email status updates to applicants.

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

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: The incumbent will supervise the GMS Consultant and manage up to 60 affiliate personnel each year (short term consultants).

Competencies :

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:

Functional Competencies:

• Strong coordination and, programme implementation and monitoring skills;
• Strong budget and finance skills
• Ability to develop detailed operational plans, budgets, and deliver on them
• Ability to synthesize program performance data and produce analytical reports in order to inform management and strategic decision-making
• Strong analytical skills
• Strong knowledge of Results Based Management
• Good knowledge of UN programme management systems

Recruitment Qualifications:

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Social Sciences, Political Science, Development, Public Administration, Gender Studies or related field 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.
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in managing complex and multi-component ending violence against women programme interventions with national partners, related to Grant-making and Operations is required.
• Experience in coordinating, implementing, monitoring and administering grant-making programmes and projects is required.
• Experience in project management – preferably grants management – is required;.
• Experience with databases and data management is required.
• Experience working with civil society organizations, particularly women’s rights organization, is desirable.
• Previous experience working in the UN system or with other feminist funds is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is highly desirable (Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese, or Russian).

Statements :

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.

Diversity and inclusion:

At UN Women, we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment of mutual respect. UN Women recruits, employs, trains, compensates, and promotes regardless of race, religion, color, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, national origin, or any other basis covered by appropriate law. All employment is decided on the basis of qualifications, competence, integrity and organizational need.

If you need any reasonable accommodation to support your participation in the recruitment and selection process, please include this information in your application.

UN Women has a zero-tolerance policy on conduct that is incompatible with the aims and objectives of the United Nations and UN Women, including sexual exploitation and abuse, sexual harassment, abuse of authority and discrimination. All selected candidates will be expected to adhere to UN Women’s policies and procedures and the standards of conduct expected of UN Women personnel and will therefore undergo rigorous reference and background checks. (Background checks will include the verification of academic credential(s) and employment history. Selected candidates may be required to provide additional information to conduct a background check.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.

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