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.
Women’s political participation is one of UN Women’s primary areas of work, recognizing the role of women’s equal participation in politics in strong and stable democratic processes and inclusive societies. It is covered under the Entity’s Strategic Plan 2022-2025 Impact Area 1 – Participation and Governance in Public Life: “Women and girls participate in leadership and decision making and benefit from gender responsive governance”; and across several Systemic Outcomes of the Strategic Plan, mainly: Outcome 1 on normative frameworks and policies, Outcome 5 on Voice Leadership and Agency; and Outcome 7 on UN coordination.
The UN Women Fiji Multi-Country Office (MCO) is based in Suva, Fiji and works alongside over 20 other UN agencies in the region and 14 countries and territories across the Pacific Region. Under its Strategic Note (SN) 2023 – 2027, UN Women Fiji MCO focuses on delivering on four interlinked programme areas underpinned by UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2022 in line with international normative frameworks: i) Governance and Participation in public life; ii) Women’s Economic Empowerment; iii) Ending Violence against Women and Girls; iii) Climate Action/Humanitarian Action and Resilience
The work includes, inter alia: supporting legal and policy reforms that facilitate women’s participation in public life; strengthened capacities of diverse women to engage in political life; support parliamentary bodies to deliver gender equality reforms; support legal and policy responses to prevent, monitor and mitigate violence against women in politics; improve knowledge, data and statistics on women’s political participation; support women leaders in gender-sensitive political institutions including legislative bodies at national and local levels; and support initiatives aimed at changing gender norms so that women are accepted as legitimate and effective leaders. UN Women works with a range of partners and stakeholders to ensure more women of all ages fully participate, lead, and engage in political institutions.
Reporting to the Representative, and matrixed to the Women Political Participation Global Advisor Political Participation in Headquarters, the Policy Advisor, Women’s Political Participation (WPP) will oversee the development of WPP programming for the Pacific, provide capacity building to teams in the UN Women Fiji MCO including Non-Physical presences (NPPs), establish and strengthen partnerships, and develop relevant knowledge products on WPP; and support implementation, monitoring and reporting on global and regional agreements norms and standards, in close collaboration with the programme and operations team, UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu
Duties and Responsibilities
1. Oversee the development and implementation of a Women’s Political Participation (WPP) strategy for the region:
- Manage the development and implementation of an integrated strategy for the delivery of technical assistance, policy advocacy and programme support in the Pacific, guided by understandings of the challenges and priorities in the region and global good practices.
- Manage the development and implementation of regional programme documents on WPP for the Pacific, 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 Fiji MCO teams including NPPs and partners:
- Provide substantive contextualized technical and policy support to UN Women Fiji MCO teams to implement and localize corporate guidance, knowledge products and tools on WPP, ensuring policy and strategic coherence, and avoiding duplication.
- Develop, implement, and monitor capacity building initiatives on key priority topics in WPP as needed.
- Conduct capacity building and substantive sessions 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.
- Manage surge capacity deployments as needed, experts, practitioners, trainers, academics, etc.
- Support UN Women Fiji MCO teams in developing and strengthening policies, projects/programs, and modalities to engage in key normative processes (incl. Commission of the Status of Women, UN General Assembly, and other global, regional, and national processes) to support the implementation of global norms and standards; and ensuring proper monitoring.
- Provide thematic oversight of UN Women Fiji MCO’s corporate planning and reporting including as support to the development of the UN Women Fiji CO’s Strategic Notes and Work Plans and ensure quality assurance of the office’s reports during the elaboration of the Executive Director’s Annual Report (EDAR).
- Provide technical support and policy advice to programme/project managers/ specialists in UN Women Fiji MCO including NPPs in implementing WPP programmes in line with corporate direction and messaging, national and regional priorities and in compliance with UN System wide policies. Support will include thematic assessments and in-country missions to overcome financial, programmatic, and operational challenges in the field.
- Provide substantive support by contributing to UN Women Fiji MCO’s capacities through CCA and UNSDCF development processes; and by engaging with the UNCTs and closely supporting Resident Coordinators’ Offices and UNCTs covered by the UN Women Fiji MCO, including : (i) ensuring gender mainstreaming in national gender strategies and UNSDCF and CCA processes; (ii) providing on demand support to UN Agencies to integrate gender in their specific strategic plans or joint programming on WPP; and (iii) working with UN Women Fiji MCO teams to meet gender equality requirements with a specific focus on implementation of Beijing Platform for Action (BPfA), CSW, CEDAW and UPR recommendations related to WPP, the SDGs, and other normative work. 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.
3. Support UN Women Fiji MCO’ s coordination mandate on WPP:
- Provide substantive support on WPP to UN entities in mainstreaming gender into joint programmes on electoral assistance and WPP more broadly (including Peace Building Fund projects) and strategic documents (CCA/UNSDCF).
- 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 Fiji MCO teams 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 the Council of Regional Organizations of the Pacific (CROP) agencies, 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 Asia and the Pacific 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 to Member States in WPP.
- 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 Fiji MCO’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 Fiji MCO teams.
- Manage and monitor a regional knowledge platform and innovative approaches in WPP.
- Maintain up-to-date relevant thematic regional 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 region:
- 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.
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 Core Values and Competencies:
Functional Competencies
- Excellent knowledge of Women’s Political Participation (including issues related to democratic development, electoral assistance, campaigns, legal frameworks, political parties, legislatures, local government).
- Strong knowledge of the Pacific region
- Knowledge of the UN System.
- Excellent networking skills
- Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities, and threats to fundraising.
- Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research.
- Ability to advocate and provide policy advice.
- Excellent analytical skills.
- Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings.
- Strong knowledge of programme 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 designing and managing programmes and advocating for gender equality and WPP, ideally with some experience in developing countries is required.
- Experience in programme, policy analysis, and strategic planning is required.
- Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors, and civil society organizations internationally and in the field is required.
- Experience working with the UN is desirable.
- Experience working in the Pacific 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 of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable.
Language Requirements:
- Fluency in English is required.
- Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, or Spanish).
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. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.
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