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DEPUTY REGIONAL PROGRAMME DIRECTOR JOB IN KENYA

Application Deadline :10-Nov-11

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 centre of all its efforts, the UN Women will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States' priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.
The UN- Women Sub-regional office for the East and Horn of Africa needs to recruit a Deputy Regional Programme Director to support its work in the East and Horn of Africa. At the country level, where UN Women does not have a presence, the Sub-Regional Office will provide integrated policy and technical support to United Nations Country Teams (UNCTs) so as to ensure a stronger, more coordinated response to advancing gender equality and women's empowerment at the national level. At the Regional level, within the UN's coordination mechanisms and regional interagency mechanisms, the Sub-Regional Office will provide technical advice and leadership so as to ensure gender equality is mainstreamed throughout the UN System's response to Member State needs and priorities.
In addition, under the UN Women's first Strategic Plan (2011-2013), the Deputy Regional Programme Director manages UN Women's sub-regional portfolio for East and Horn of Africa covering 9 programme countries - Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, North Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda.  The Deputy Regional Programme Director oversees the strategic development of the portfolio and oversight of programme implementation in the sub region, to ensure delivery of results as planned in UN Women's Strategic Plan, regional strategies and accountability framework.
The Deputy Regional Programme Director will take the lead in managing the day-to-day implementation of UN Women's Sub-Regional Portfolio, under the overall strategic guidance and direction of UN Women's East and Horn of Africa Regional Programme Director and is responsible for providing specialized technical and strategic support to the Sub-Regional portfolio in managing all aspects of program management and related activities in the office/region.

Duties and Responsibilities

  1. Advisory and specialized technical support;
  2. Program management, monitoring and oversight;
  3. Advocacy and support to UN coordination, joint programming and reform;
  4. Knowledge management and capacity building

1.Advisory and technical support
  • Advise, support, guide and provide input to assure quality control in the formulation of relevant, high quality, results-based and rights-based country programs and projects;
  • Provide strategic and specialized technical advice to the Regional Director on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support effective program planning, implementation, monitoring and timely progress reporting;
  • Review and evaluate proposals submitted to the sub- regional office and oversee the preparation of donor proposals and reports to ensure quality, compliance with requirements as per established rules, regulations, including the commitments under relevant UNDAFs and the UN Women global Strategic Plans. Take timely action to take any corrective action to meet standards for submissions;
  • Prepare policy document, briefs and other strategic papers/materials for the Regional Director for use in the development and presentation of a coherent regional perspective to help define regional strategic and plans of action for implementation;
  • At the sub-regional level for East and Horn of Africa, assess the country level and sub-regional level annual work plans and present Regional Director with recommendations and conclusions to assist in development planning.
2.    Program management, monitoring and oversight
  • Plan, implement and/or supervise the support provided to the sub-regional portfolio, including country offices and sub-regional programmes, to ensure timely and appropriate services are provided as required. Identify areas of competencies and/or weakness to ensure focused and targeted services are provided;
  • Recommend and/or set monitoring standards, criteria and other indicators for measuring and assessing progress/results;
  • Monitor the progress on, mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators and timely take action/decision and/or provide timely support;
  • Lead the annual process of gathering information and prepare reports for HQ on progress of program implementation, assessing results and identifying areas for Regional Director action and/or decision to ensure achievement of results as planned and in accordance with UNW goals and objectives and accountability framework;
  • Identify areas that may require improvement and capture best practices/lessons learned, using corporate monitoring tools, as such as the Balance Score Card, Atlas Snapshot and Dashboard, Staff Surveys, Audits and other corporate reports. Take action to improve areas of weakness;
  • Manage the timely allocation of funds to sub-regions and countries. Monitor and ensure the appropriate utilization of resources approved and allocated to regional programs and projects that are managed by the SRO;
  • Substantive and good quality proposals following the established rules, and regulations, and adhering to the Strategic Plan and Annual Work plans;
  • Sustainable and solid relations developed with  counterparts, resulting in the enhanced reputation and credibility of UN Women;
  • Under the oversight of the Regional Director, backstop the Operations Manager in preparing and providing guidance to the offices on the whole process of audit exercises, oversee the collection and verification of accurate and complete documentation for audit review, advice on the preparation of responses to audit and monitor the timely and full implementation of audit recommendations and required actions.
3.    Advocacy and support to UN coordination, joint programming and reform
  • Support the Regional Programme Director and country level representatives in establishing and maintaining  effective consultations with governments, partners, stakeholders and donors to achieve active collaboration, cooperation and alliances on program development and implementation, resource mobilization and sustained partnerships;
  • Upon the request of the Regional Programme Director, represent UN Women in UNCTs  as appropriate/delegated to consult, collaborate and/or interact on common issues and activities and participate in the CCA/UNDAF process to ensure the active participation of UN Women in these processes to advance gender equity and women's human rights On behalf of the sub-regional portfolio and in partnership with country-level UN Women Representatives, actively seek out participation of UN Women in UN system thematic and other working groups to establish effective network and to keep abreast of ongoing debate and thinking on aids development, facilitate joint programming and promote UN Women competencies and interests to advance gender and women's human rights.

4.    Knowledge management and capacity building
  • Ensure regular assessments of the regional and sub-regional strategic and implementation plans. Identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to guide program improvements and future strategic development plan;
  • Manage the process of collecting and sharing lessons learned on gender equality and women's empowerment to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders;
  • Design and implement capacity building training activities to enhance skills and knowledge in Results Based Management, Results based budgeting and systematic quality assurance;
  • Contribute to the development and maintenance of global and regional program knowledge networks and practices, and development of knowledge products.
Impact of Results
The effective support provided to the Regional Programme Director in the management of programs and operations in the office directly impact on the quality of UN Women program development, implementation and results that in turn directly impact on the credibility and image of UN Women as an effective partner for regional and country organizations and as a competent knowledge based organization on gender equity and women's human rights issues.

Competencies

CORE VALUES / GUIDING PRINCIPLES
  • Integrity: Demonstrating consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct;
  • Cultural Sensitivity/Valuing diversity: Demonstrating an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff.  Demonstrating an international outlook, appreciating differences in values and learning from cultural diversity.  
CORE COMPETENCIES:
  • Ethics and Values: Promoting Ethics and Integrity / Creating Organizational Precedents;
  • Organizational Awareness: Building support and political acumen;
  • Developing and Empowering People / Coaching and Mentoring:Building staff competence, creating an environment of creativity and innovation;
  • Working in Teams:Building and promoting effective teams;
  • Communicating Information and Ideas:Creating and promoting enabling environment for open communication;
  • Self-management and Emotional intelligence:Creating an emotionally intelligent organization;
  • Conflict Management / Negotiating and Resolving Disagreements:Leveraging conflict in the interests of the organization & setting standards;
  • Knowledge Sharing / Continuous Learning:Sharing knowledge across the organization and building a culture of knowledge sharing and learning;
  • Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Fair and transparent decision making; calculated risk-taking
FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:
  • Demonstrated theoretical, intellectual and technical skills in aid development/programming particularly those that are pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues and women's rights;
  • Demonstrated political acumen and technical capacity in representing the organization effectively in national and international fora to advocate and to promote organizational priorities, initiatives and a better understanding of the organizational strategic agenda;
  • Proven ability to lead a practice area and to drive results;
  •  Ability to establish and maintain broad strategic networks and partnerships with UN agencies and other international partners to promote partnership and build alliances to advance organizational interests and competencies;
  • Ability to go beyond established procedures and practices, introduce new approaches and strategic innovations;
  • Good knowledge of Results Based Management principles and approaches;
  • Demonstrated theoretical, intellectual and technical skills in aid development/programming particularly those that are pertinent to UN Women strategic priorities on gender issues and women's rights.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:
  • Masters degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, economics or public policy or other social science fields.
Experience:
  • Over 10 years of extensive development experience that combines intellectual, strategic and managerial leadership in development programs some of which should be in the area of gender equality and women's rights at the international level, preferably in developing countries within the UN system, Agencies, Funds or Programs or renowned institutions/academia.

Language Requirements:
  • Written and oral proficiency in English is required. Proficiency in another UN working language is desirable.
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.
 
All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment

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.
Follow link to apply: http://goo.gl/gn47y
 

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