UN Women: Partnerships Engagement Assessment 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.

Part of the Strategic Partnerships Division, the Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships and Advisory Services (MPAS) Section brings together UN Women’s multi-stakeholder initiatives through various engagement modalities. MPAS is the driver of UN Women’s corporate engagement with the private sector both in terms of substantive partnership as well as resource mobilization. It aims to leverage the complementarity between different partnership vehicles to enable the fullest possible support for delivering UN Women’s mandate and the objectives of its Strategic Plan in accordance with UN Women definition of private sector, which refers to the part of the economy that is run by the business sector and individuals and is not state controlled.

Under the overall guidance of the Chief of MPAS, the Partnerships Engagement Assessment Specialist is responsible for ensuring that all engagements with current and prospective private sector partners are in alignment with the policies, procedures and principles guiding UN Women and the UN System.

In accordance with the UN Staff Regulation 4.5 (b) A temporary appointment does not carry any expectancy, legal or otherwise, of renewal. A temporary appointment shall not be converted to any other type of appointment. This temporary appointment is budgeted through 31 December 2025.   Whereas an external candidate will be offered a temporary appointment, subject to release agreements, staff members in UN Women may be administered as a temporary assignment and staff members in the UN Common system may be administered under a loan arrangement.

Duties and Responsibilities

Providing technical assistance and advisory support for UN Women’s engagement with private sector partners:

• Serve as the central focal point and provide advisory support to all UN Women teams for development of the assessments for partnership engagement with private sector required for an establishment of the partnership, inclusive of the risk appetite and risk tolerance assessments and due diligence process.
• Lead on the implementation of UN Women’s Private Sector Engagement Policy and Procedure and as needed, provide input and recommendations to any revision process, including development and update of UN Women’s risk tolerance boundaries.
• Lead on daily processing of all partnership engagement requests received by the Due Diligence Team.
• Provide technical support to project/programme managers/leads for the preparation of the presentation of high-risk engagement proposals to the UN Women Risk Management Committee (RMC).
• Lead and oversee acquisition, development, implementation and maintenance of all required systems and tools -including specialized third-party tools – to meet the needs of UN Women’s private sector partnership engagement assessment policies, procedures and practices.
• Coordinate with the Enterprise Risk Management Unit and the Communications and Advocacy Section to ensure the development of robust risk mitigation/supervision plans, including communications, to support the partnership engagement management.
• Coordinate with counterparts across the UN system to contribute to a collective UN Community of Practice as relevant to engagement with private sector.

Building capacity of UN Women teams for developing risk informed approaches to private sector engagement:

• Lead development of tailored capacity building tools and activities with an aim to support all UN Women teams and strengthen corporate practices in private sector partnership growth and engagements, including developing trainings, workshops, webinars, help clinics etc.
• Coordinate regular internal consultations with UN Women teams to ensure that ongoing outreach and partnership engagement is aligned with UN Women’s Private Sector Engagement Policy and Procedure and Private Sector Engagement Strategy.
• Streamline coordination and training on risk mitigation and management of active partnerships in coordination with the Strategy, Planning, Resources and Effectiveness Division (SPRED) and the Communications and Advocacy Section.
• Ensure that all activities are conducted in compliance with relevant standards and methods of UN Women’s work, including for protection and safe handling of information.

Gathering of knowledge/data and provision of a full analysis as relevant to partnership engagement and growth:

• Collect relevant knowledge/data and as needed/required provide an analysis to enhance organizational knowledge, learning and decisions making for the risk-informed private sector development and engagement.
• Review expert reports, surveys, documents, and relevant due diligence materials to evaluate potential partnership/s and provide substantive input in development of Partnership Intelligence Briefs.
• Provide input to knowledge sharing and organizational learning through the development and use of all relevant on-line tools, templates, and guidelines.
• Prepare and coordinate the preparation of all relevant documents and information and participate in relevant internal and external meetings and exchanges.
• Support Chief of MPAS – and/or other UN Women senior managers – as needed and required on all issues regarding partnership engagement assessment/s.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as assigned by supervisor.

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:

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent research & analysis skills with experience synthesizing and summarizing;
• Strong knowledge of gender equality and women’s rights issues;
• Familiarity with corporate engagement dimensions and framework within the UN;
• Strong multi-tasking skills;
• Strong analytical and interpersonal skills
• Strong initiative-taker;
• Strong written and oral communication skills;
• Strong IT literacy in standard applications (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.)
• Participates effectively in team-based, information-sharing environment, collaborating and cooperating with others.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in economics, business management, social sciences, public administration, international relations, communications, 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.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in development of risk and policy analysis for partnerships engagement and growth with private sector is required.

• Experience working in risk monitoring and management, using and evaluating Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) provider reports, and implementing internal control systems is required.

• Experience working on gender equality and women’s empowerment is required.

• Experience in capacity building in partnership growth and development is desirable.

• Experience working in the UN system is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.

• Working knowledge of another official UN language is an asset (Spanish, Arabic, French, Russian, Chinese).

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.)