Policy Advisor, Women's Economic Empowerment

UN Women

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.

The UN Women Regional Office for the Americas and the Caribbean in Panama, guided by the LAC regional strategy and aligned with UN Women's Strategic Plan on economic empowerment, focuses on key priorities within this thematic area. These priorities include integrating a gender perspective into the adoption and localization of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), fostering macroeconomic environments that promote gender equality, and advancing women's economic rights. The office also prioritizes the eradication of female poverty through gender-responsive policy making and budgeting, ensuring equal employment opportunities and decent work for all genders, and enhancing women's access to resources. Additional priorities involve gender mainstreaming in national planning and budgeting processes, promoting women's entrepreneurship, and strengthening the relationship between women and the private sector.

Reporting to the Regional Director, the Policy Advisor for Women's Economic Empowerment will oversee the development of programs and resource mobilization strategies in these thematic areas. The role includes providing capacity building to country offices and multi-country offices in the region, establishing and strengthening partnerships, and leading the creation of relevant knowledge products on economic empowerment with a special emphasis on care, livelihood strategies and decent work, gender budgeting and macroeconomics and financial inclusion of women facing structural discriminations in LAC. This position is integral in ensuring that the organizational priorities are effectively translated into actionable outcomes and impactful results.

Key Functions and Accountability:

1.Manage the development of programmes on gender equality and women's economic rights to support Programme Presence Office (PPO)/Country Office (CO)/Multi Country Office (MCO) teams

- Manage the development and implementation of an integrated strategy for the delivery of technical assistance, policy advocacy and programme support in the region;
- Manage the development of regional programme documents on women´s economic empowerment;
- Oversee the contextualization/ localization of programme documents, country strategies, and knowledge products, and ensure proper monitoring and reporting in women´s economic empowerment.
2.Lead the provision of capacity building support to Programme Presence Office (PPO)/Country Office (CO)/Multi Country Office (MCO) teams and partners

- Lead COs and MCO programme teams in developing and strengthening policies, projects/ programmes and modalities to support the implementation of global norms and standards; and ensuring proper monitoring;
- Manage the identification of knowledge and implementation gaps and possible solutions;
- Develop, implement and monitor capacity building initiatives.
- Lead the provision of technical policy advice to programme/ project managers/specialists in the region, with special emphasis in care systems.
3.Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with stakeholders, regional/ international actors and development partners

- Build and strengthen strategic partnerships for the advancement of women´s economic empowerment;
- Build and strengthen close liaisons with relevant donors and other actors supporting efforts towards women´s economic empowerment;
- Produce periodic updates and briefs on regional/country development situation to be used by stakeholders, CO and HQ; 
- Maintain close contact with relevant staff in UN Women HQ and with other relevant UN agencies and IFIS. 
4.Manage the resource mobilization strategy for women´s economic empowerment in the region 

- Participate in the implementation, monitoring and periodic updating of the resource mobilization strategy on women´s economic empowerment in the region;
- Provide technical support to field-based presences in the region in mobilizing resources for the implementation women´s economic empowerment;
- Research and analyze information on donors; prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation. 
5.Lead the design of women´s economic empowerment in the region and the development of relevant knowledge products

- Lead the provision of policy recommendations and guidance to strategic planning and positioning on women´s economic empowerment;
- Lead and provide advice to regional/ national bodies; represent UN Women in interagency groups that influence national policies related to women´s economic empowerment;
- Contribute substantively and lead existing thematic and gender equality networks to better connect UN Women and partners;
- Lead the research, development, and presentation of analytical reports, research papers, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, correspondence on women´s economic empowerment.
- Lead and develop a consultative process to establish a strategy for women economic empowerment in the region align with the global strategy
- Identify promising practices, technical expertise, and strategic opportunities.
6.Manage knowledge building and sharing for women´s economic empowerment

- Identify and disseminate lessons learnt and good practices in collaboration with country offices;
- Ensure technical skills and knowledge are shared within and among RO/PPOs/COs/MCO;
- Manage and monitor the regional knowledge platform and innovative approaches in women´s economic empowerment.
7.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 will lead a team of 20 persons and support all LAC country offices and non-physical presence programmatic efforts on WEE. Under the current regional Strategic Note, UN WOMEN Regional strategy for WEE aims to contribute to greater economic autonomy and women's access to comprehensive care systems and policies (outcome 2 of the regional strategy). WEE regional team organized through the following subareas of work: the design and implementation of integrated care systems (outcome 2.1), the promotion of macroeconomic policies and gender-responsive budgeting (outcome 2.2), and support for income generation and sustainable livelihoods through financial and digital inclusion, as well as opportunities within the green and circular economy framework (outcome 2.3). 

To provide Specialized Technical Advisory to country offices and partners, the team includes eight senior international consultants under a retainer modality, covering areas such as care systems, financial inclusion, and digital inclusion.

The program team working on outcome 2.1, Comprehensive Care Systems, consists of a Regional Program and Care Initiatives Coordinator, a Regional Care Specialist for coordinating the regional care project, a Technical Consultant on Care and Social Protection, and a Program Assistant. Outcome 2.2, focuses on macroeconomic policies and gender-responsive budgeting, includes a Regional Specialist on Gender-Responsive Budgeting, a technical program consultant, and five specialized advisors providing technical assistance on budgeting and maintaining the digital platform www.presupuestoygenero.net. Finally, Outcome 2.3, related to sustainable livelihoods, is overseen by a Regional Advisor for program and project management and implementation, along with a technical consultant specialized in program management and monitoring.

Competencies :

Core Values:

- Integrity;
- Professionalism;
- Respect for Diversity.
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 Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

- Excellent knowledge of gender equality and women´s economic empowerment issues
- Strong knowledge of region
- Excellent networking skills
- Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising 
- Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research
- Ability to advocate and provide policy advice 
- Excellent analytical skills
- Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings
- Excellent knowledge of programme development, implementation, results based management and reporting
Education and certification:

- Master's degree or equivalent in economics, human rights, international relations or other social science fields 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 10 years progressively responsible experience in designing and managing programmes and advocating for gender equality and women´s economic empowerment, ideally with some experience in developing countries is required.
- Experience in programme, policy analysis, and strategic planning is required.
- Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field is required.
- Experience leading and coaching staff in international settings is required.
- Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required.
- Experience in the use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable.
- Experience working with the UN system is desirable.
- Experience working in the Americas and Caribbean region is desirable.
- Experience working in care studies, policies or advocacy efforts is desirable.
Languages Requierments:

- Fluency in English and Spanish is required.
- Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese or Russian).
- Working Knowledge of French and/or Portuguese is desirable. 
Statements :

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.)

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Sector: Servicios sociales y por la comunidad/Sin fines de lucro

Función: Otros

Porcentaje del trabajo: 80-100% / 100%

Tipo de empleo: Staff (Permanent and Fixed Term)

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