Associate Programme Officer

Associate Programme Officer

Assignment country: Nepal
Expected start date: 01/09/2024
Sustainable Development Goal: 5. Gender equality
Volunteer category: International UN University Volunteer
Host entity: UN Women
Type: Onsite
Duration: 6 months
Number of assignments: 1
Duty stations: Kathmandu

Details
Mission and objectives

The Government of Nepal has adopted important normative frameworks for women’s human rights, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 2030 Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals, and UN Security Council Resolutions 1325 and 1820. These commitments are enshrined in the Constitution of Nepal and efforts are being taken to ensure that all laws and policies conform with the constitutional provisions on gender equality.

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.
Established by General Assembly resolution 64/289 of 2 July 2010 on system-wide coherence, with a mandate to assist the Member States and the United Nations system to progress more effectively and efficiently towards the goal of achieving gender equality, women’s empowerment, and upholding women’s rights, UN Women’s global programmatic priorities for the period 2018-2022 are: (a) a comprehensive and dynamic set of global norms, policies and standards on gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls is strengthened and implemented; (b) women lead, participate in and benefit equally from governance systems; (c) women have income security, decent work, and economic autonomy; (d) all women and girls live a life free from all forms of violence; and (e) women

Context

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 all genders 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 leads and coordinates the efforts of the United Nations System to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of national priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with government, civil society and other relevant actors.

Under the framework of the current UN Women Nepal Country Office (NCO) Strategic Note 2023-2027, UN Women in Nepal continues its work through its four outcome areas to strengthen women’s leadership and participation in national and local level decision-making processes, empower women economically by supporting women, especially those from the most vulnerable and excluded groups , promote environmental sustainability, climate and disaster resilience and transform gender discriminatory social norms and end harmful practices for inclusive and transformative human development.

Women’s economic empowerment work is covered under outcome 1.1 titled sustainable, resilient and inclusive economic transformation. UN Women promotes women’s economic empowerment through programme design within its normative, operational and coordination mandate. Under the current strategic note 2023-27, UN Women will strengthen its work on gender responsive macroeconomic policies and engage with key stakeholders including International Financial Institutions to advance gender equality in the context of Nepal’s LDC graduation. Private sector partnerships will be explored for increased GE financing through blended finance and gender bonds.

UN Women will promote women’s and excluded groups access to sustainable and decent livelihoods. This is key for women’s economic empowerment in Nepal, as much of women’s income generation is informal and home-based and is accompanied by extensive responsibilities for unpaid work including care. Access to and control over productive resources is also critical and requires transformed environments in both the public and personal domains. This is further complemented by its work around women entrepreneurship and formalization of women’s businesses, care economy, gender responsive social protection, digital and financial inclusion, rural women economic empowerment and climate smart/green practices.

Task description

Within the delegated authority and under the supervision of the Programme Specialist (Economic Security and Rights) or his/her designated mandated representative(s), the Associate Programme Officer will:

a. Provide programme management support to UN Women NCO programme intervention on women’s economic empowerment (WEE)

• Support quality implementation of programmes on women’s economic empowerment including care economy and linkages to climate smart/ green practices (green value chains).
• Prepare and review programme documents on women’s economic empowerment. This includes preparation/review of terms of reference, partner reports and deliverables, donor reports.
• Support partners in programme implementation, monitoring, feedback collection, learning sharing. This includes developing and maintaining mechanism/format for capturing disaggregated data across different programmes and events aligning with UNW corporate reporting requirements. In addition, support in data verification and validation together with the UNW.
• Provide technical assistance for developing project briefs and fact sheet on WEE.
• Assist with documentation and record-keeping of project documents.
• Participation in partner meetings and stakeholder consultations under WEE portfolio.
• Support coordination with provincial focal points and field partners.
• Provide support to draft annual work plan and budget for WEE related programme and projects.
• Support in drafting and finalizing partnership contracts.

b. Provide technical and substantive inputs to building partnerships and resources mobilization for WEE.

• Support in drafting of project proposals, TORs, and documents on women’s economic empowerment, care work and green value chains.
• Support economic empowerment unit with technical and substantive inputs to resource mobilization for women’s economic empowerment, care work and green value chains/climate smart practices.
• Analyze and maintain information and databases of funding partners/donors on women’s economic empowerment, care economy, green value chains.
• Prepare relevant documentation such as project summaries, conference papers, briefing notes, talking points/speeches, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, presentations and donor profiles related to WEE portfolio.
• Participate in donor meetings and public information events, as delegated.

c. Support in advocacy and knowledge building and communication work for WEE.

• Ensure documentation of key results and lesson learned from project reports, deliverables and evidence.
• Support in developing tools, checklist, guidance and communication products to disseminate key milestones/results under WEE portfolio.
• Support review, finalization and dissemination of knowledge products/advocacy material developed by partners in line with UN Women guidelines.
• Contribute to the exchange of information and knowledge products internally and externally of the WEE programme.
• Support to organize major advocacy campaigns, events, training, workshops.
• Support to organize consultation meetings and virtual platforms.
• Provide media advocacy support in close collaboration with UN Women’s Communications’ Officer.
• Conduct background research for preparing thematic briefs, speaking points, periodic progress reports, meetings, events reports, etc.
• Coordinate with communication team to prepare case studies and human-interest stories.

d. Support in Office wide coordination and progarmme Implementation

• Provide coordination support to programme focal person for the implementation of different project and programmes of UN Women.
• Any other related tasks as may be required or assigned by the supervisor.

Eligibility criteria
Age: 18 – 26

Additional eligibility criteria

ELIGIBILITY

• As this assignment is funded by KOICA, specific eligibility criteria apply.
• Candidates must be Korean nationals between 18 and 29 years of age at the time of application (the age limit shown above does not apply).
• You must be enrolled in a bachelor’s or master’s degree or have recently graduated (no longer than 12 months ago at the time of application).
• Candidates who already served on a UN Volunteer assignment funded by KOICA are not eligible.

APPLICATION

• If you are currently enrolled in a university and have not yet obtained a university degree, indicate in the section ‘Academic qualifications’ under ‘diploma/degree obtained’ that you are still studying and towards which degree. In the ‘to’ field, enter the current date, as the system does not allow you to enter a future date. Instead of the degree certificate, upload any evidence of your enrollment, for example a transcript.
• You may apply to a maximum of three assignments and indicate the order of preference in the ‘Additional remarks’ field when filling in the application form.
• If you are above the age of 26, a notification will be displayed that you are not eligible to apply. You may ignore this and proceed with submitting your application.
• Application deadline: 26 May 2024

SELECTION

• Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. The selection will be done by the UN Host Entity at the level of the country of assignment. Interviews will be conducted by the UN Host Entity in June.
• Selected candidates will be invited to attend a mandatory online preparation training on 19 and 21 August.

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Nationality

Candidate must be a national of a country other than the country of assignment.

Donor priorities
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Requirements
Required experience

1 years of experience in or demonstrated interest in the areas of gender equality, women’s economic empowerment, care economy, climate smart practices and green value chains.

Work experiences with the National NGOs, INGOs, or Development Partners, working with and building partnerships with donors and civil society organizations at national and international level is an asset.

Area(s) of expertise: Administration, Development programmes
Driving license: –

Languages

English, Level: Fluent, Required

Required education level

Bachelor degree or equivalent in – currently enrolled or recent graduate – in any discipline.

Competencies and values

Professionalism: demonstrated understanding of operations relevant to UN Women Nepal; technical capabilities or knowledge relevant or transferrable to UN Women Nepal procedures and rules; discretion, political sensitivity, diplomacy and tact to deal with clients; ability to apply good judgement; ability to liaise and coordinate with a range of different actors, especially in senior positions; where appropriate, high degree of autonomy, personal initiative and ability to take ownership; resourcefulness and willingness to accept wide responsibilities and ability to work independently under established procedures; ability to manage information objectively, accurately and confidentially; responsive and client-oriented

Integrity: demonstrate the values and ethical standards of the UN and UN Women Nepal in daily activities and behaviours while acting without consideration of personal gains; resist undue political pressure in decision-making; stand by decisions that are in the organization’s interest even if they are unpopular; take prompt action in cases of unprofessional or unethical behaviour; does not abuse power or authority;

Teamwork and respect for diversity: ability to operate effectively across organizational boundaries; excellent interpersonal skills; ability to establish and maintain effective partnerships and harmonious working relations in a multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, mixed-gender environment with sensitivity and respect for diversity; sensitivity and adaptability to culture, gender, religion, nationality and age; commitment to implementing the goal of gender equality by ensuring the equal participation and full involvement of women and men in all aspects of UN operations; ability to achieve common goals and provide guidance or training to colleagues;

Commitment to continuous learning: initiative and willingness to learn new skills and stay abreast of new developments in area of expertise; ability to adapt to changes in work environment.

Planning and organizing: effective organizational and problem-solving skills and ability to manage a large volume of work in an efficient and timely manner; ability to establish priorities and to plan, coordinate and monitor (own) work; ability to work under pressure, with conflicting deadlines, and to handle multiple concurrent projects/activities;

Communication: proven interpersonal skills; good spoken and written communication skills, including ability to prepare clear and concise reports; ability to conduct presentations, articulate options and positions concisely; ability to make and defend recommendations; ability to communicate and empathize with staff (including national staff), military personnel, volunteers, counterparts and local interlocutors coming from very diverse backgrounds; capacity to transfer information and knowledge to a wide range of different target groups;

Flexibility: adaptability and ability to live and work in potentially hazardous and remote conditions, involving physical hardship and little comfort; to operate independently in austere environments for protracted periods; willingness to travel within the area of operations and to transfer to other duty stations within the area of operations as necessary;

Genuine commitment towards the principles of voluntary engagement, which includes solidarity, compassion, reciprocity and self-reliance, and commitment towards UN Women Nepal mission and vision, as well as to the UN Core Values.

Other information
Living conditions and remarks

Furnished and unfurnished are available. Both imported and local food and clothing are abundantly available. There is a short supply of water, and it is not safe to drink without treatment. Public transport is easily available and generally reliable. Kathmandu has a temperate climate with coldest temperature reaching just above zero at the night during the winter and mild but humid during the monsoon period, mid-June to end September.
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Inclusivity statement

United Nations Volunteers is an equal opportunity programme that welcomes applications from qualified professionals. We are committed to achieving diversity in terms of gender, care protected characteristics. As part of their adherence to the values of UNV, all UN Volunteers commit themselves to combat any form of discrimination, and to promoting respect for human rights and individual dignity, without distinction of a person’s race, sex, gender identity, religion, nationality, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, age, language, social origin or other status.

Note on Covid-19 vaccination requirements

Selected candidates for certain occupational groups may be subject to inoculation (vaccination) requirements, including against SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) in line with the applicable host entity policy.

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