UN Women – United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women

Junior Professional Officer Programme (JPO) Chiffre Nr.  2024-1-27
 

I General Information

Title: JPO Gender, Climate and Peace Analyst

Sector of Assignment: Women, Peace, Security, and Humanitarian Action Area team

Organization/Office:  Country Office Colombia

Duty Station:  Bogotá, Colombia

Duration of assignment: 2 years with possibility of extension for another year. The extension of appointment is subject to yearly review concerning priorities, availability of funds, and satisfactory performance.

Please note that for participants of the JPO-Programme two years work experience are mandatory! Relevant work experience can be counted. In order to assess the eligibility of the candidates, we review the relevant experience acquired after obtaining the first university degree (usually bachelor’s degree).

II. Organizational Context

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 work of UN Women’s Country Office is guided by its Strategic Note (SN) 2022-2024 and responds to the priority areas established within the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (UNSDCF) for Colombia for the period of 2020 – 2023, which is in the process of being updated based on the new National Development Plan, established by the national government for the next 3 years.

Likewise, its strategy is in line with the national priorities expressed in several public policies framework, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and Strategic Plan 2022–2025. The SN is also aligned with international normative frameworks on gender equality and women’s rights, such as the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions on women, peace and security, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and will contribute to compliance with the observations and recommendations of the CEDAW Committee’s reports. It will also support the implementation of national regulations and public policies to guarantee women’s rights in the country.

Currently, there are six action fields to reinforce the protection of women’s rights in humanitarian, development, democratic governance, and peace-building contexts as a condition for its sustainability which are prioritized in the Women, Peace, Security and Humanitarian Action (WPS&HA) Area: Support of reintegration processes, the territorial peace initiatives, the women’s human rights defenders protection, the care of the civic space in the peacebuilding contexts, the support for transitional justice issues, and support for gender in humanitarian action.

Likewise, from the normative and coordination mandates, UN Women prioritizes the promotion of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda, the gender-based approach promotion in humanitarian action and development cooperation; standardizing gender-responsive post-conflict analysis, planning and financing; promoting gender-inclusive peace processes and negotiations, as well as the implementation of a gender-based approach of the peace agreements, and promoting gender mainstreaming in the security sector reform agenda.

However, under a common understanding that meaningful participation of women in all stages of peace processes, conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding is one of the essential factors for the maintenance and promotion of international peace and security, including in the context of climate change, environmental degradation, and disasters, UN Women’s role should be key also, to encourage an increase of the full, meaningful, and equal participation of women in climate action and to promote global, regional and local initiatives to strengthen the links among the climate, human security, peace, and gender equalities.

In Colombia, for example, socio-environmental conflicts involve the interests of all actors in the territory, such as non-state armed groups that exert pressure on communities to preserve their illegal activities; legal and illegal private actors linked to the exploitation of natural resources; and peasant communities and ethnic peoples who want to protect the land, but also to have access to livelihoods and production.

Women environmental defenders in the country advance their agendas in these contexts of risk for their lives, their integrity and that of their organizational processes, families, and communities; as well as risks for the exercise of their citizenship, threatening – even – their role as caretakers of the territory. When the environmental conflicts intersects with the armed conflict, and gender and social inequalities, the women defenders face at least five risks in the middle of their work: control and violence by organized environmental crime and/or by non-state armed groups (NSAGs), food insecurity risks, livelihoods deterioration, confinement, displacement, and migration risks, infrastructural failure risk, and the risk of increase of health and infectious diseases.

Despite the described context, the peace process between the Colombian Government and the FARC-EP created the opportunity to “relate the construction of peace with the conditions, perspectives and needs of women as well as with the management of natural resources [and made it clear] (…) the need to carefully establish the limits of appropriation of natural resources, strengthen environmental democracy and incorporate environmental justice criteria that consider the particularities of women, men and youth, both urban and rural in the country (…), [showing the importance of] (…) reflecting the individual conditions and collective needs of women in the construction of alliances and mechanisms of environmental governance to resolve future conflicts”.

Hence, the importance of linking the implementation of the specific gender measures of the Final Peace Agreement with the approach of conflict prevention, the protection of environmental women defenders, the Total Peace Policy, and the National Development Plan 2023 – 2026 “Colombia, world power of life”, of the National Government.

Under the opportunity window described, to increase knowledge of the gender-specific impacts of climate-related peace and security risks, not only to strengthen the UN Women’s capacities and its strategic partnership-building skills for its mitigation and prevention; but also to promote within the country’s agenda the links among gender, climate, peace and security as a condition for sustaining peace, is also a key opportunity to contribute to the implementation of peace agreement in Colombia and the gender provisions relative to the comprehensive rural reform in link with the public policies on rural women.

Consequently, the support of a Gender, Climate and Peace Analyst is required, in order to support the entity’s efforts to strengthen and effectively respond to its mandate according to international normative frameworks in the matter and the CSW66 Agreed Conclusions (E/CN.6/2022/L.7) on achieving gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls in the context of climate change, environmental and disaster risk reduction policies and programmes.

III. JPO Programme Components

Title of Supervisor:  Deputy Representative, under matrix coordination of the Officer in charge of the WPS&HA Area

Content and methodology of supervision:

• The JPO will receive structured guidance by the supervisor and the Officer in charge of the WPS&HA Area, especially in the beginning of the assignment, with the purpose of gradually increasing the responsibilities of the JPO.
• Establishment of a Work Plan: During the first month of the assignment, the JPO will work jointly with the direct supervisor to finalize an agreed upon work plan. The final work plan will be discussed and mutually agreed to by the JPO its supervisor and the Officer in charge of the WPS&HA Area, based on the initial assessment of the JPO’s capability and strengths, with clear results and performance indicators.
• The JPO will participate in regular Programme Team meetings and retreats to ensure alignment of his/her individual work plan with the overall office work plan and priorities.

Evaluation:

• The Performance Management and Development (PMD) tool will serve as a primary platform to evaluate of the JPO’s performance. The JPO will receive mid-year and year-end performance feedback, the periodicity of feedback in between will be determined based on the degree to which the JPO can work independently.

Training components:

• Participation in a UN Women Induction Course in New York or remotely if applicable.
• Participation in a UN Women mandatory online training courses.
• Access to online training and learning resources of the Learning Management System to develop management skills as well as knowledge in specific technical areas in line with the individual learning plan developed annually with the supervisor.
• Use of yearly JPO duty-related travel and training allocation (DTTA), as per the online DTTA guide.

Learning components:

• Upon completion of the assignment, the JPO will be able to understand the opportunities and challenges to promote within the country’s agenda the links among gender, climate, peace, and security as a condition for sustaining peace and conflict prevention. Key training components are the nexus integrated approach in scenarios of sustaining peace, Colombia’s women, peace, and security agenda, the environmental justice national priorities, the gender-specific risks associated with climate change and security, the Strategic Note, and the annual work plan of UN Women. The JPO will also learn about interagency coordination on the matter.

IV. Functions

1. Technical project support and results-based management: Information and analysis of the gender-specific risks and opportunities associated with climate change, peace and security, and strategic programme planning & implementation assistance under the triple nexus (HDP/ Humanitarian, Development, Peace) approach.
2. Coordination, partnership, and resource mobilization: Pushing the gender, climate, and peace links as key priorities in the collective resource mobilization efforts of the UN system; advocacy for the integration of gender in climate change UN system initiatives, conflict prevention, conflict resolution, peacebuilding and development cooperation. Coordination, partnership, and resource mobilization: Pushing the gender, climate, and peace links as key priorities in the collective resource mobilization efforts of the UN system; advocacy for the integration of gender in climate change UN system initiatives, conflict prevention, conflict resolution, peacebuilding and development cooperation. Exploring strategic partnerships and pathways for resource mobilization, including potential areas of cooperation, donor priorities and financing trends at the country level and contribute to strengthening the capacity of the country office for the formulation of peacebuilding projects focusing on gender, climate, development, peace and security.

Specifically, to support donor relations with the German Government and the German Embassy in Colombia, related to the project financed by the German Government in support of environmental defenders and its contributions to the Women’s Peace and Humanitarian Fund, and relating to the potential role of Germany in the donor round table on gender.

1. Knowledge building on the gender-climate-security nexus in peacebuilding, post-conflict, and local development contexts: Capacity building of key stakeholders on the issues of how to improve women’s skills in collective action to address and mitigate climate impacts in conflict prevention, conflict resolution, and peacebuilding; how to integrate the gender, climate, peace and security issues in the comprehensive rural reform implementation; how to ensure the meaningful participation of women in environmental governance processes; how to build and strengthen networks and coalitions between rural women, women environmental human rights defenders, peacebuilders, and climate activists for the development of advocacy joint action plans; how to provide technical, educational, and financial support to rural women to address tensions between environmental restoration and conservation efforts versus sustainable food production systems, especially in the context of changes in the natural resources availability; how to promote the rights of women to land tenure and property rights through legal advocacy and capacity-building of local communities to recognize and support the importance of women’s equal access, use, and ownership of resources to increase resilience to climate change impacts, resolve disputes over land, and tackle food insecurity, how to engage with women environmental human rights defenders and climate activists to track land or water resources that have become inaccessible as a consequence of disasters, human mobility contexts or violence and local conflict  dynamics, etc.
2. Evidence-based communication: on the issues of gender, climate, peace, and security, and inclusive approach to ensure that this is reflected in all strategic planning, in the framework of Sustaining Peace and the Triple Nexus (H); and support to prepare advocacy documents and products to be presented to the donors, Government, and intergovernmental mechanisms.
3. Any other activity that is required or assigned by the supervisor.

V. Key Performance Indicators

• As an active member of the Women, Peace, Security, and Humanitarian Action Area team, you will provide efficient, timely, attentive, friendly, and quality support to UN Women and its grantees, partners and stakeholders in the performance of their duties, including:
  • Results-based management throughout the cycle of processes and initiatives related to its responsibility framework.
  • Compliance with UN Women standards and principles.
  • Incorporation of innovation elements to respond to the challenges of the context.
  • Timely and quality technical inputs.
  • Timely and quality monitoring and reporting on the activities under their responsibility.
  • Appreciative communication and multi-stakeholder dialogue capacity to support UN Women’s catalytic and facilitating role in Women, Peace, Security, and Humanitarian Action Area.

VI. Competencies

Core Values:

• Respect for Diversity
• Integrity
• Professionalism

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues
• Accountability
• Creative Problem Solving
• Effective Communication
• Inclusive Collaboration
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Leading by Example

Functional Competencies:

• Understanding of Do No Harm and Leave No One Behind principles.
• Excellent research, analytical, and writing skills.
• Ability to think and work logically and work precisely with attention to detail.
• Initiative, sound judgment, and demonstrated ability to work harmoniously with staff members of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Ability to work independently and meet tight deadlines in a high-pressure environment.
• Ability to teamwork.
• Knowledge in any areas such as gender, peace, security and/or climate change is an asset.

VII. Recruitment Qualifications

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree in social sciences, economic sciences, human rights, gender/women’s studies, climate change and sustainable development, or a related field is required.
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 2 years of progressively responsible work experience in development programme/project implementation, coordination, monitoring and evaluation, donor reporting and capacity building.
• Experience at field level in gender, climate change and sustainable development and peacebuilding is an asset.
• Experience coordinating and liaising with government agencies and/or donors in peace and development settings.
• Experience working in the UN or other international humanitarian or development organization is an asset.
• Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally.
• Experience in resource mobilization.

 Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English and Spanish is required.
• Knowledge of other UN official working languages is an asset.

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