Programme Officer

Job Description

Programme Officer- Rule of Law and Human Rights

Background

Grounded in the vision of equality enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations, UN Women 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 center of all its efforts, 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 national priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with government, civil society and other relevant actors.

In Nepal, UN Women is currently implementing its 2014-17 Strategic Note and Annual Workplan (country programme) which incorporates several thematic areas, including economic empowerment, governance and leadership, ending violence against women and girls, and peace and security. Across all of its work, UN Women applies its normative and coordination mandates, and works through strategic partnerships and on generating knowledge and evidence. UN Women is also engaged in the humanitarian response following the tragic earthquakes of 2015.

The Governance and National Planning (GNP) Unit of UN Women is responsible for providing technical support to government, development partners and civil society organizations in the areas of governance, and gender responsive planning, budgeting and monitoring, women’s access to justice, Convention of the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) implementation and monitoring, Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) and Beijing + 20 follow up in line with the Nepal Country Office Strategic Note and Annual Work Plan (AWP) 2014-17.

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Nepal’s Representative, and direct supervision of the Deputy Representative, the Programme Officer will be responsible for planning, implementing, and managing UN Women interventions under his/her portfolio, which covers UN Women’s programming to governance, rule of law and human rights at national and local level to fully reflect accountability for gender equality. S/he supports the delivery of the programme by analyzing results achieved during implementation and supporting appropriate application of systems and procedures.? She/he works in close collaboration with the programme and operations team, UN Women HQ staff, Government officials, multi and bi-lateral donors, civil society and key stakeholders ensuring successful programme implementation under portfolio.

Duties and Responsibilities

Ensures effective implementation of programme strategies:

• Thorough analysis and research of the political, social and economic situation in the country related to the thematic/sectorial areas assigned and preparation of substantive inputs to the UN Women country office programme planning in those areas.
• Constant monitoring and analysis of the programme environment, timely readjustment of programme interventions.
• Identification of areas for support and interventions within the thematic/sectorial areas assigned.
• Identification of programme risks and updating the status of these risks. Develop contingency plans as necessary.
• Design and formulation of programme initiatives within the area of responsibility, translating UN Women’s priorities into local interventions.
• Provision of programme advisory support to the Office Management within the thematic area/portfolio assigned.

Ensures effective management of the CO programme:

• Under the guidance and oversight of the supervisor, exercise responsibility for planning, implementation, management, and coordination aspects of the programmes/projects under his/her responsibility.
• Develop research, monitoring and evaluation (MER) plans and facilitate in effective application of RBM tools and monitoring achievement of results.
• Support the management of the portfolio of on-going programmes/projects through technical monitoring and administrative and financial supervision ensuring the proper application of a monitoring system to track progress on program results and indicators.
• Lead programmes/projects appraisal and evaluation according to results-based management requirements under close guidance by the supervisor.
• Provide support to coordinate and supervise the activities of programme staff, projects staff, experts and consultants working as part of the technical assistance team.
• Provide technical guidance to programme partners and staff in the area of rule of law, human rights and access to justice implementation.
• Responsible for the timely preparation and quality control of all substantive technical reports, briefs and required documents.
• Ensure timely production and submission of all progress reports by all members of the project team, contractors and project partners.
• Conduct field visits to supervise, coordinate and monitor field level activities of portfolio.

Advocacy for and support to UN coordination, joint-programming and reform:

• Provide substantive support to the Representative and Deputy Representative on inter-agency coordination related activities.
• Advocate in the area of rule of law, human rights and access to justice and implementation of normative frameworks on gender equality, and provide advice in the identification of national partners and lead the discussions on partnership arrangements.
• Take part in country level UNDAF processes and similar exercises related to the RC system ensuring that gender concerns are clearly reflected and mainstreamed in process.
• Prepare substantive inputs to UNDAF and other documents thoroughly analyzing and researching the political, social and economic situation in the region.
• Support the implementation of joint programmes as relevant.
• Participate in relevant coordination working groups to provide GEWE inputs.

Strategic partnerships building and resource mobilization support:

• Provide support to implement the office partnerships and resources mobilization strategy to achieve programme outcomes within the areas assigned.
• Establish and maintain effective working relations with the relevant UN agencies, government institutions, bi-lateral and multi-lateral donors, private sector, civil society etc.
• Determine programmatic areas of cooperation, based on strategic goals of UN Women, country needs and donors’ priorities.
• Update the partnership matrix, preparation of substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for cost-sharing.
• Follow up on resource mobilization activities for fund raising for new projects in coordination with the UN Women Representative and Deputy Representative in the area of rule of law, human rights and access to justice.

Facilitation of knowledge building and management:

• Identify sources of information related to policy-driven issues, and systhesize best practices and lessons learnt directly linked to programme policy goals to guide programme improvements and future strategic development planning.
• Sound contributions to knowledge networks and communities of practice; stocktaking and mapping of UN Women’s programme experience and lessons learnt relating to gender responsive peace building and budgeting.
• Support partners and stakeholders in capacity development activities to enhance knowledge and skills in results based management; results based reporting and budgeting, and systematic quality assurance.
• Proactively contribute to knowledge networks and communities of practice.

Impact of Results: The effective support provided by Programme Officer will strengthen and support the implementation of gender responsive programmes at the national and local level.

Competencies

Core Values / guiding principles

• Integrity: Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.
• Professionalism: Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.
• Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity: Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff. Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.?

Core Competencies

• Ethics and Values: Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.
• Organizational Awareness: Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.
• Development and Innovation: Take charge of self-development and take initiative.
• Work in teams: Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.
• Communicating and Information Sharing: Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.
• Self-management and Emotional Intelligence: Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others.
• Conflict Management: Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.
• Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing: Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.
• Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making: Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional Competencies:

• Ability to lead formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects.
• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting.
• Ability to lead resource mobilization.
• Ability to formulate and manage budgets, manage contributions and investments, manage transactions.
• Ability to implement new systems and affect staff behavioural/ attitudinal change.
• Builds strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and result for the client and responds positively to feedback.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills.
• Demonstrates openness to change and ability to manage complexities.
• Good planning, goal setting and prioritization skills.
• Ability to lead and inspire team and partners toward shared goals.
• Good inter-personal and diplomacy skills.
• Capacity to write clearly and concisely.
• Ability to take decision under pressure and to deal with matters that are politically and cultural sensitive.
• Ability to work across multi-cultural context and build partnership to ensure achievement of results in a post conflict environment.
• Demonstrates sensitivity, discretion, tact and courtesy in relation to gender equality and women's rights, development principles, implementing partners, and national and international personnel of varied nationalities and backgrounds.
• Commitment to upholding the organizational values and principles of UN Women.
• High level of proficiency in computer systems, internet navigation and various office applications.

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Master’s Degree in Law, Gender Studies, Human Rights, Economics or other Social Sciences related field.

Experience:

• Minimum 7 years relevant experience at the national or international level in design, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development projects in the field of rule of law and human rights of women.
• Experience of working in the area of law reform from a gender equality and human rights perspectives and access to justice at the national and inernational level.
• Sound knowledge of international standards on gender equality and women’s empowerment and related instruments.
• Experience of working with I/NGO and/or UN organizations would be?asset.

Language:

• Fluency in English and Nepali is required.

Application Information:

• 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;
• UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.

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.

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