Background

I. Position Information

Contract Modality: Service Contract (SC)
Grade Level: SB4/1
Job Title: Programme Associate, Women’s Economic Empowerment
Unit/Office: UN Women Brazil Country Office
Duty Station: Brasília
Reports to (Title/Level): Project Manager Women’s Economic Empowerment Thematic Area (SB5) with matrix supervision of the Portfolio Manager/Head of Women’s Economic Empowerment thematic Area (NOB)

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 UN Women Country Programme in Brazil is implemented in line with the national development priorities, as well as in the framework of the international commitments to gender equality and empowerment of women, as well as the UN frameworks and instruments on Human Rights, of which Brazil is signatory, such as the CEDAW, CERD, Beijing Platform for Action, Durban Action Plan, Agenda 2030, as well as the UN Security Council Resolutions on Women, Peace and Security. It is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Partnerships Framework.

The UN Women Country Office in Brazil focuses on three key areas:

1) Women lead, participate in, and benefit equally from governance systems.

2) Women have income security, decent work, and economic autonomy.

3) All women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence.

In the scope of the Women’s Economic Empowerment Area UN Women Brazil Country Office leads Joint Programmes focused on refugee and migrant women. Since June 2019, the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg has been partnering with the offices of the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in Brazil in addressing gender and race inequalities and violations of human rights faced by the Venezuelan women and girls amidst the mixed migration and refugee crisis. The two sequential joint programmes – the “Leadership, Empowerment, Access and Protection (LEAP) for migrant, asylum seeker and refugee women and girls in Brazil” (2019-2021) and the Moverse – Economic Empowerment of Refugee and Migrant Women in Brazil Joint Programme (2022-2023) were implemented as a direct response to support the Venezuelan refugees and migrants as they continued to struggle to meet their most basic needs, including food, health care, education and housing, with the increasing cost of living, the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, lack of documentation or regularized status, and high unemployment rates making them particularly vulnerable.

Thus, in 2023, with a conclusion of the second Joint Programme Moverse with a wealth of good practices and lessons learned, as well as a solid knowledge base of knowledge products the partners seek for institutionalization of the experiences and processes through integration of human rights and gender equality in the new generation of National Policies on Migration, Asylum, and Statelessness and institutional measures for their implementation by the state. These policies will respond to the differentiated needs of refugee and migrant women and girls and other vulnerable groups of people facing multiple forms of discrimination beyond the group of Venezuelan refugees and migrants for the benefit of all groups of refugees, migrants, and asylum seekers in Brazil. The “Joint Programme Human Rights and Gender Equality in the National Policies on Migration, Asylum, and Statelessness of Brazil” focuses on ensuring that all capacities developed in the last Joint Programmes evolve into public policies at the national level, reaching refugee and migrant women of all nationalities.

The area of Women’s Economic Empowerment also focuses on Care Economy. Women contribute enormously to the economy, whether in paid work or doing unpaid housework and care work. Yet, care work has been historically unpaid, underpaid, undervalued, and unrecognized. Women are disproportionately affected by the burden of care, since they are expected to perform unpaid care work for their family and their homes and they also compose most of the paid care workers, such as domestic workers and nurses. In Brazil, for instance, women compose 84,6% of all nurses and 92% of all domestic workers – most of them being black and older women. On the unpaid care side, the impact on women is seen by their limited time to focus on other activities, such as participation in public and political life and paid work, thus preventing their equal access to the labour market and affecting their economic empowerment, autonomy, and access to social protection throughout their lives (unemployment benefits, disability and old-age pensions, maternity leave, among other benefits). On the paid care side, the workers tend to be underpaid and frequently occupied in the informal sector, which also affects their economic empowerment and access to social protection. The domestic workers, for instance, compose a category of workers with one of the greatest deficits of decent work in the country.

UN Women recognizes the need to design targeted actions in different levels to reward, represent, recognize, reduce, and redistribute care work, paid and unpaid. The Project “Building pathways towards an integrated care system in Belém do Pará: recognizing, redistributing and rewarding care work” – Ver-o-Cuidado – is an initiative to support Belém municipality in building a municipal participatory care system that recognizes the value of paid and unpaid care work, responds to the needs of women and those who require care and promotes a co-responsibility culture in society to realize women’s economic rights and opportunities. The project aims to ensure that women paid care workers and women who undertake unpaid care work have access to decent work, as well as to promote a co-responsibility culture in society and foster women’s economic empowerment. The project, generously founded by the Open Society Foundations, is implemented in the Brazilian state of Belém.

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Representative/Head of Programme, the Programme Associate reports to the Project Manager of Women’s Economic Empowerment (WEE ), with matrix supervision of the Portfolio Manager/Head of this thematic area. S/he works with and provides support to the members of the Programme Unit in the development and implementation of effective programmes consistent with UN Women rules and regulations. The Programme Associate contributes to research, financial management, and programme implementation including providing necessary operational, administrative and programmatic support. The Project Associate works in close collaboration with the operations, programme and projects’ staff in the UN Women Country Office in Brazil UN Women HQs as required for resolving complex finance-related issues and exchange of information.

Duties and Responsibilities

III. Key Functions and Accountabilities

1. Provide administrative and logistical support to the formulation and management of programmes

• Provide administrative support in the preparation of programme work plans, budgets, and proposals on programme implementation arrangements;

• Provide technical guidance to the CO on Women’s Economic Empowerment thematic area and executing agencies on routine delivery and reporting of programme supported activities and finances;

• Prepare information for the audit of programmes/ projects and support implementation of audit recommendations;

• Review programme data from programmes/ projects for the Brazil CO website;

• Identify sources, and gather and compile data and information for the preparation of documents, guidelines, speeches and position papers.

2. Provide administrative support to the financial management of the Programme Unit

• Create projects in Quantum system, prepare budget revisions, revise project awards and status; and determine unutilized funds and the operational and financial close of a project;

• Provide administrative support in monitoring budget preparation and the finances of programmes/projects; including the finalization of FACE forms;

• Review financial reports; prepare non-PO vouchers for development projects;

• Process payment for consultants; • Maintain internal expenditures control system;

• Create requisitions in Quantum system for development projects; register good receipts in Quantum system;
• Assist in the preparation and follow up of cost-recovery bills in Quantum system.

3. Provide administrative support to the Programme Unit

• Undertake all logistical, administrative and financial arrangements for organization for meetings, workshops, events, and missions;

• Make travel arrangements for the Programme Team, including travel requisitions and claims;

• Prepare public information materials and briefing packets;

• Assemble briefing materials and prepare power-point and other presentations;

• Provide guidance and training to Project Assistants as needed.

4. Provide administrative support to Resource Mobilization

• Prepare cost-sharing and other agreements; follow up on contributions within the Country Office resource mobilization efforts;

• Organize, compile and process information from donors, Brazil Country Office, and programme team, as inputs to various databases and documents.

5. Facilitate knowledge building and knowledge sharing

• Provide administrative support synthesis of lessons learnt and best practices related to programme management and finance;

• Provide administrative support to the organization of training for the office staff and partners on programme and operations related issues.

6. 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 Programme Associate act as direct supervisor of the Programme Assistant (SB3/4) that will have as matrix supervisor the Project Manager (SB5).

Competencies

IV. 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

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 COMPETENCIES:
• Programme formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation skills
• Knowledge of Results Based Management
• Ability to gather and interpret data, reach logical conclusions and present findings
• Good analytical skills

Required Skills and Experience

V. Recruitment Qualifications

Education and Certification:

Graduation in Economics, Political Science, International Relations, Social science or related areas or additional 3 years of relevant experience to the post beyond the requirement is required.

Experience

• At least 6 years of progressively responsible experience in administration or programme management/support is required.
• Experience on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment is required;
• Experience in race, ethnicity and other intersecting identities is an asset;
• Experience in working in a computer environment using multiple office software packages is required;
• Experience in supporting a team is required;
• Experience in use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Pracle Cloud, is desirable.

Languages

• Fluency in Portuguese and English is required.
• Working knowledge in Spanish is an asset.

Recruitment Process

Application and submission package:
In case of not mentioning the essential requirements in your application, your application will not be considered for evaluation and, therefore, will be discarded from the process.
All applications must include in their application:
1) Completed and signed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) in English which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc

Interested candidates are requested to apply no later than 11:59 pm (NYC/ New York time) on 31/03/ 2024 by submitting applications only THROUGH ONLY to UNDP Jobs Platform (https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_jobs.cfm)

Applications WITHOUT SIGNED P11 will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

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.)