Knowledge Management Specialist

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 center 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. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors. 

UN WOMEN West & Central Africa Regional Office has been supporting multi-initiatives through programming, global advocacy and building strategic partners with national governments, civil society, UN agencies and other bilateral and multi-lateral development organizations. In this process, UN WOMEN WCARO has contributed to building interest, capacity and commitment to integrating Gender issues processes in the West and Central Region. UN WOMEN Regional and country offices are supporting several other initiatives at regional, at country levels and there is a need of visibility.

Under the direct supervision of the Deputy Regional Director, the Knowledge Management Specialist will provide support to the coordination of cross-thematic knowledge management efforts. 

Duties and Responsibilities

1. Develop and implement knowledge management strategy and plan in the West and Central Africa Region (WCARO)

• Define and implement a knowledge management approach for WCARO aimed at enhancing knowledge sharing and delivering of planned results; building on the following: 1) contributing to the development of the corporate strategy and leading the development regional workplan plan including. conducting a needs assessment; 2) mining and distilling “knowledge”; 3) packaging and making knowledge products; and 4) dissemination and management of knowledge products.
• Promote knowledge capturing and sharing within WCARO, including identification and documentation of good practices, cross-country and cross thematic knowledge sharing through networks and communities of practice;
• Keep up to date on latest developments in all relevant thematic areas and take advantage of all mechanisms for contextualizing and sharing that knowledge;
• Promote and support new corporate knowledge sharing mechanisms, including cross regional knowledge sharing initiatives;
• Initiate and manage internal messaging and support public advocacy on knowledge sharing developments and achievements, by ensuring that content on websites and other communication material is creative and current, in coordination with Communication team, advocacy focal person and thematic leads;
• Address impediments to sharing information and the flow of knowledge and facilitate demand and supply of knowledge;
• Provide strategic input into development of corporate policies on knowledge building, sharing and networking, in collaboration with the Knowledge Management Team in Headquarters;
• Liaise with KM team in HQ and report KM work from the region to feed into the global KM strategy and knowledge sharing/learning.

2.  Develop and implement knowledge management technology and platform.

• Contribute to the creation and execution of knowledge platform and services for targeted specific audiences, including UN Women staff, international agencies, non-governmental organizations, institutions, and the private sector;
• Develop online tools, surveys and other pilot projects oriented toward learning;

• Innovate and engage on new technology (multi-media) opportunities to receive, capture and share knowledge;

3.  Provide capacity building on knowledge management to clients and stakeholders.

• Provide guidance to the Region on how to integrate knowledge management in country level work.
• Facilitate the cross-regional exchange and learning with Country Offices in the region;
• Provide advice, technical support and backstopping for the improvement of knowledge management across the WCA Region, other agencies and with external partners;
• Provide knowledge management training to WCARO staff members and CO staff;
• Support and advice COs in the development and implementation of knowledge management strategies;
• Proactively engage with UN Women clients and partners in developing innovative knowledge-based services, build capacity of clients to interact with new knowledge-sharing systems and lead knowledge exchanges;

4. Facilitate the production of reports, documentation, and other external knowledge products.

• Support the Monitoring and Reporting Unit in  the preparation of UN Women’s Annual Report, including all aspects of production, drafting inputs, outreach and dissemination.
• Support other Programme Managers in planning, production, dissemination and evaluation, including coordination of promotion and targeting of knowledge products, in alignment with the Section’s knowledge management strategy and global KM strategy;
• Provide inputs to reports and production of knowledge products.
• Implement quality assurance standards for developing knowledge products, documentation of programme challenges, good practices, lessons learnt, CoP, etc.

5.  Lead the coordination and dissemination related to knowledge products:

• Contribute to the development and implementation of knowledge management strategy for Country Offices and Regional Office, through a knowledge management board to support CO/RO.
• Promote and communicate new corporate knowledge-sharing mechanisms, and actively manage the existing community of practice.
• Collaborate with the WCARO Communication Team to enhance, update, and provide support in the external dissemination of the programme results/events.
• Contribute to organizational learning through the use of evaluations on/by Business Units of the Region

Key performance indicators

• Improved knowledge transfer/sharing practices within UN Women WCA Region
• Quality development of publications.
• Timely and quality coordination and dissemination of lessons and best practices.
• Quality and timely reporting.
• Strong relations with partners and stakeholders.
• Regular and timely monitoring of activities.

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

• Strong written and verbal communication skills in English, with an excellent understanding of structure and form of official UN documentation;
• Excellent organizational skills and proven ability to deliver projects within assigned deadlines;
• Excellent interpersonal skills and objectivity;
• Experience working collaboratively in a team structure in a multicultural environment.
• In-depth substantive knowledge of Knowledge Management and Development Policy issues, particularly in the area of gender equality and empowerment of women;
• Solid familiarity with current Knowledge Management technologies, including social media-based systems;
• Demonstrated capacity to strongly promote knowledge sharing and knowledge products and systems;
• Ability to provide advocacy, outreach and capacity development on knowledge management;
• Good knowledge of gender issues and women’s empowerment issues;
• Ability to communicate clearly and effectively to different audiences

Required Skills and Experience

Education

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Knowledge Management, Management, Communication, International Development, gender/women’s studies or a 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
• PHD will be an asset

Qualifications and Experiences

• At least 5 years of progressive experience in international development work, preferably focused on or strongly involving gender equality at national, regional and international levels;
• Excellent writing and editing skills in English and French;
• Experience in knowledge management and in leading/managing knowledge product development and dissemination;
• Experience in collaborating with different countries, departments, and donors/partners.
• Experience in actively managing communities of practice on different policy areas would be an advantage.
• Experience in writing, research and analysis .
• Work Experience with/in the UN system would be an advantage.

Languages

• Fluency in French and English is required.
• Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset

Application

All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from: . 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.

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.

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.