Regional Strategic Planning Specialist – ESARO

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.

UN Women has placed emphasis on improving its strategic planning and managing for results by applying the Results-Based Management (RBM) throughout all the work of UN Women. This requires dedicated efforts to strengthen results culture in the organization. In order for UN Women to communicate impact stories on women and girls at the corporate level with aggregated results and financial data across all the countries and regions, strategic planning with strong emphasis on results management is pre-requisite to facilitate systematic and effective results monitoring and reporting during the implementation.

In the East and Southern Africa Region (ESAR), UN Women has a presence in 12 countries namely: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa (Multi Country Office), South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The Multi Country Office covers Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) countries namely: Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland. The Office in Ethiopia is both a Country Office for Ethiopia and a Liaison Office to the African Union and Economic Commission for Africa. The region has a Country Programme in Somalia. The East and Southern Africa Regional Office (ESARO) in Nairobi oversees all the ESAR countries.

Under the guidance and direct supervision of the Deputy Regional Director, the Regional Strategic Planning Specialist is responsible for leading the strategic planning work in their respective region. The Regional Strategic Planning Specialist provides strategic guidance and technical support to the RO and Country Offices (COs) to ensure high quality strategic planning documents at regional and country levels, ensuring the alignment with UN Women Strategic Plan and the corporate standard on RBM. They lead the preparation of the Strategic Note and workplan of the RO in close collaboration with RO colleagues and COs in the respective region. Regional Strategic Planning Specialist also provides guidance, technical support and quality assurance to Country Offices (COs) associated with the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks (UNSDCFs), Strategic Notes and workplans from the strategic planning and RBM perspectives. They also contribute to HQ-led corporate level initiatives in the areas of Strategic Planning and RBM.

The Regional Strategic Planning Specialist works closely with the Regional Coordination Specialist, the Regional Monitoring & Reporting Specialist/Focal Point and the Regional Operation Manager, as well as the rest of RO colleagues and CO colleagues in the region. They also coordinate with other Regional Strategic Planning Specialists in other ROs to facilitate cross-regional learning and peer-to-peer support mechanism. In carrying out the functions, they coordinate and collaborate closely with relevant HQ Divisions and units, including the Strategy, Planning, Resources and Effectiveness Division (SPRED) and the Policy, Programme and Inter-Governmental Division (PPID), in order to ensure the implementation of corporate policy, procedures, guidance and systems associated with the strategic planning and results management in their respective region.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide strategic planning and RBM-related guidance and technical support to the UN Country Teams (UNCTs) and UN Women COs in the region for development of UNSDCFs through the inter-agency regional mechanism, such as Peer Support Group (PSG), in close collaboration with Regional Coordination Specialist:

• Substantively support and contribute to the inter-agency strategic planning processes at the regional and country levels, by coordinating with PSG co-chairs and participating in PSG meetings and related activities related to strategic planning, RBM, monitoring and reporting;
• Review draft Roadmaps, Common Country Assessment (CCA) and UNSDCFs from the perspective of strategic planning, RBM and monitoring/reporting, in line with the guidance/standard from DCO, in close collaboration with Regional Coordination Specialist;
• Provide additional technical support to UNCTs and Results Groups, upon request, in relation to UNSDCFs, joint work plans, RBM capacity development, monitoring and reporting;
• Provide guidance and technical support to UN Women COs in the areas of strategic planning, RBM, monitoring and reporting related to UNSDCFs, Joint Workplans and the UN Info platform, clarifying the alignment and linkage with UN Women Strategic Plan, Strategic Notes, workplans and UN Women Results Management System (RMS).

Provide strategic guidance, technical support and quality assurance to UN Women COs in the areas of strategic planning, RBM and UN Women Result Management System (RMS):

• Provide guidance, technical support and quality assurance to UN Women Country Offices in the region to ensure the quality and timely submission and finalization of Strategic Notes, ensuring the full alignment with the respective UNSDCFs and in line with UN Women’s relevant corporate policies, procedures and guidance;
• Provide guidance, technical support and quality assurance to UN Women Country Offices in the region to ensure the quality and timely submission and finalization of workplans, in line with UN Women’s relevant corporate policies, procedures and guidance;
• Lead and manage the regional level review and appraisal process of workplans from COs, in collaboration with the relevant RO colleagues, to ensure quality in the region to facilitate the approval of those CO workplans by Regional Director;
• Provide guidance and support to COs to ensure amendments of Strategic Notes and workplans are completed in a timely manner in line with relevant corporate procedure, in coordination with HQ;
• Provide guidance, technical support and training to strengthen the capacity of COs in the areas of RBM in relation to strategic planning;
• Provide guidance and technical support, upon request, when a CO conducts Mid-Term Review (MTR) of their Strategic Note;
• Provide guidance and technical support to COs to ensure the effective use of RMS for the planning processes.

Leads and coordinate the strategic planning processes at the regional level;

• Lead and manage the overall processes and coordinate within RO and with COs in the region to develop a new Strategic Note, ensuring the timely submission and quality in line with the relevant corporate policies, procedures and guidance;
• Lead the overall processes and coordinate within the RO to develop and finalize workplans of the RO, ensuring the timely submission and quality in line with the relevant corporate policies, procedures and guidance documents;
• Lead and manage the amendment process of Strategic Note and workplan of RO in line with relevant corporate procedure and in coordination with SPRED/SPU;
• Provide RBM-related guidance and technical support to RO personnel to improve strategic planning in RO;
• Provide guidance and technical support to personnel in the RO to ensure the effective use of RMS for RO’s planning processes;
• Provide support to the Regional Operations Manager for matters relating to the Regional Quarterly Business Review (QBR), the Regional Risk Management process and the development of the regional Office Typology and physical presence setup.

Contribute to HQ-led corporate initiatives in the areas of Strategic Planning and RBM in close collaboration with HQ to ensure the field perspectives and needs are reflected in those corporate initiatives:

• Contribute to corporate level strategic planning exercises associated with UN Women Strategic Plan, including development of new Strategic Plan and Mid-Term Review of Strategic Plan;
• Contribute to development, revision and roll-out of relevant corporate policies, procedure and guidance in the areas of strategic planning and RBM;
• Contribute to development/revision of corporate RBM capacity development resources and tools in the areas of strategic planning;
• Contribute to development/enhancement of corporate systems in the areas of strategic planning and results management;
• Contribute to enhancement of UN Women’s Transparency Portal to improve publishing of planning data;
• Contribute to cross-regional and corporate level knowledge exchange and learning on strategic planning and RBM in close collaboration with other Regional Strategic Planning Specialists and HQ colleagues;
• Coordinate and collaborate with HQ to support the preparation of sessions with the Executive Board associated with Strategic Notes, as needed.

Oversee documentations in the areas of strategic planning and RBM within the Regional Office and contribute to audits and evaluations:

• Ensure Strategic Notes and workplans of RO and COs in the region are fully updated in the corporate systems and documented with amendments, ensuring the readiness for future audits and evaluations;
• Contribute to internal/external audits, corporate/regional evaluations, other assessment/reviews and reporting requirements, by providing necessary data, information and documents associated with UNSDCFs, Strategic Notes and workplans from the region.

Other functions;

• Contribute to the corporate level monitoring and reporting requirements, such as the Executive Director’s Annual Report (EDAR) to the Executive Board on the implementation of UN Women Strategic Plan and UN Women’s Transparency Portal.
• Provide guidance and technical support to Country Offices to support planning of monitoring and reporting work at the planning stage of Strategic Notes, workplans and projects in line with the corporate requirements.

Lead and manage personnel under their supervision:

• Manage the performance of personnel under their supervision by providing 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.

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

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities:

• The incumbent supervises the Regional Monitoring and Reporting Specialist (P3) and G6 Programme Associate

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/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent knowledge of strategic planning and RBM;
• Excellent knowledge of UN system and understanding of inter-agency strategic planning processes;
• Excellent analytical skills;
• Ability to promote and monitor inclusion of gender-specific results, indicators, targets and activities in various planning frameworks;
• Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision;
• Ability to support others to strengthen their knowledge and skills in the areas of strategic planning

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in development-related disciplines, Social Sciences, Political Science, Development Studies, Public Administration, Gender, 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.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively responsible development experience that combines strategic and managerial leadership in development cooperation, international relations, public administration or a related field is required;
• At least 3 to 5 years of experience in Results-Based Management (RBM) and strategic planning, including managing and coordinating the development of strategy, multi-year planning documents, work plans, and/or programme documents at the country, regional and/or international levels is required;
• Experience in providing guidance and technical support for development of Theory of Change, results frameworks, logical frameworks and indicators for programmes/projects, to ensure the minimum standard of RBM is required;
• Experience in inter-agency strategic planning work related to UNDAF/UNSDCFs at the country, regional or international level is required;
• Experience in developing RBM resources and tools is desirable;
• Experiences in conducting RBM training, as a trainer, to personnel and/or external partners to support results-based planning, monitoring and reporting is desirable;
• Experience in the use of a modern web-based results management system, is desirable

Languages:

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

All applications must include (as an attachment) a completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2022-07/UN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form-en.doc

Please note that the system will only allow one attachment and candidates are required to include in the P-11 form links for their previously published reports and articles completed within the last two years. Applications without the completed and signed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Notes:

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.