Current Opportunities at UN Women

• The scope of work of the Policy Advisor, Governance, Peace and Security, who will be based in UN Women's Regional Office, Eastern and Southern Africa (ESARO), requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender equality women’s political participation, democratization and women, peace and security issues, to translate UN Women's strategic plans in the area of Governance/Political Participation and Peace and Security into effective programmes and results. It also requires developing mutually reinforcing partnerships with relevant Government counterparts, UN organizations, and CSOs.
• Reporting to the Regional Director and working closely with the Peace & Security, Prevention & Resilience at UN Women HQ the Policy Advisor will engage proactively with local and regional women leaders and UN Entities (including relevant Divisions, Sections, and Country Offices within UN Women) to ensure gender issues are addressed on Women, Peace & Security (WPS) efforts related to, peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding including formal mediation processes with UN's involvement, transitional justice mechanisms, security sector reform processes, prevention of violent extremism, post-conflict elections among others relevant in the region. The Policy Advisor will support the development of WPS and humanitarian action programmes and regional interventions, advocate for Feminist Foreign Policy and support UN Women offices in the ESARO region, establish and strengthen partnerships. The Policy Advisor will oversee the development and implementation of WPS and humanitarian related programmes, develop relevant advocacy and knowledge products, provide technical and capacity building support to Country Offices and to the UN Resident Coordinator in countries where UN Women does not have country presence, and establish and strengthen partnerships with WPS and humanitarian actors and development partners.

Duties and Responsibilities

Key Functions and Accountabilitues:

Analysis and monitoring of trends and opportunities:

• Provide policy recommendations, strategic advice, and proposed courses of action to the Regional Director and Country Representatives;
• Maintain up-to-date knowledge of regional developments in political participation, governance and peace and security issues and integrate information in support of policy development, analysis, outreach and advocacy;
• Prepare analytical reports, briefing notes, background papers, summaries, talking points and others as required by senior management;
• Establish and maintain close working contacts with key national, regional and local stakeholders from Government, Civil Society, Regional Organizations and other relevant international actors to build and strengthen strategic alliances and partnerships on women, peace and security issues and initiatives;
• Represent UN Women at inter-governmental and regional meetings on political participation, governance and peace and security issues in the region, as requested by the Regional Director;
• Work closely with colleagues of UN Women's Peace and Security and Leadership and Governance Sections of the Policy Division to identify promising practices, technical expertise, and strategic opportunities for addressing women’s empowerment and gender issues in the areas of governance.

Programme development and technical support:

• Promote coordination and participation in joint activities with various stakeholders to work collaboratively in the area of political participation, governance and peace and security in the region such as: UN agencies, relevant government stakeholders, civil society, inter-governmental organizations and regional women's networks;
• Work closely with UN Women country offices in the region and provide programme guidance and support to develop and implement programmes at the local and national level on the area of governance, women’s political participation, women’s participation in public service delivery, and on all aspects of women, peace and security in conflict-affected settings, including conflict prevention, mediation, transitional justice, justice and security sector reform, peacekeeping, conflict-related sexual violence, national action plans on SCR 1325, among others;
• Support country offices to provide technical assistance to the Government on key governance/political participation and women, peace and security issues, including for the development and implementation of National Action Plans on women, peace and security, as requested by the Regional Director and in collaboration with the Peace and Security section;
• Assist country offices in developing and strengthening policies to scale up efforts to increase women’s participation as candidates and voters;
• Work closely with UN Women country offices in the region and provide programme support to develop and implement programmes at the local and national level to enhance women’s political influence;
• Learn from Country Offices in order to ensure that technical support and programme advice provided is relevant to the national and cultural context.

Establish and strengthen strategic partnerships with key stakeholders, regional and international actors and development partners:

• Support the building of strategic alliances and partnerships to develop regional strategies and initiatives on the area of governance, women, peace and security;
• Maintain close liaison with relevant donors, regional entities and other actors supporting efforts on governance/political participation and women, peace and security in the region;
• Support the country offices in mobilizing resources for the implementation of governance/political participation and women, peace and security initiatives in the region;
• Collaborate with UN Entities at the regional level, and support country offices, on accelerating the implementation of the SG’s 7 Point Action Plan on Gender Responsive Peacebuilding;
• Liaise with relevant regional organizations engaged in peace and security issues, such as peacekeeping institutions, regional networks and academic institutions;
• Support the building of strategic alliances and partnerships for women political participation related strategies and initiatives. 

Knowledge management and reporting:

• Manage the process of compiling reports and lessons learned on women’s political participation and contribute to UN Women's knowledge management efforts;
• Collect information at the regional level to input to into regional mechanisms as appropriate and the annual SG report on Women and Peace and Security (usually due by May of each year), as well as other relevant thematic SG reports such as peacebuilding;
• Provide strategic information to input into briefings by UN Women’s Executive Director to the Security Council, as requested, as well as ongoing provision of relevant information to HQ in relation to Security Council debates and resolutions;
• Provide inputs regarding the implementation of the SG’s 7 Point Action Plan on Gender-Responsive Peacebuilding.
• In close consultation with Field Offices manage the process of compiling reports and lessons learned on women, peace and security issues in the region and contribute to UN Women's knowledge management efforts;
• Facilitate cross-regional exchange of best practices and lessons learned with Regional Governance, Peace and Security Advisors and relevant Policy Division units;
• Contribute to the development of the regional knowledge hub and propose plans to enrich the evidence base on all aspects of gender-responsive governance, peace and security in the region.

Leadership and overall management of the unit:

• Establish the work plan/s in line with the UN Women bi-annual work plans and set objectives, performance measurements, standards and expected results in collaboration and discussion with the Team;
• Supervise and assess and provide feedback on work in progress to ensure delivery of results according to performance standards, overall objectives and accountability framework;
• Provide technical guidance, supervise team and oversee progress of implementation of activities
• Ensure that the systems (financial and administrative) are available to support the Humanitarian and WPS teams;
• Support other priorities of the unit, as assigned by the supervisor.
• The incumbent will perform other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organisation

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.

FUNCTIONAL COMPETENCIES:

• Substantive experience and record of accomplishment in the area of women, peace and security;
• Demonstrated people management skills;
• Good knowledge of UN Women and the UN system;
• Proven ability to advocate and provide policy advice;
• Ability to lead strategic planning, programme development and implementation, results-based management and reporting;
• Ability to develop and maintain strong partnerships and mobilize resources.        

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Social Sciences, International Development studies, Law, Human rights, Politics, Gender, Peace & Women studies or related field.
• 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:

• Minimum of 10 years progressively responsible experience in the area of governance, peace and security;
• At least 5 years field experience in one or more of the regions in which UN Women operates;
• Experience working in large multicultural development agencies is a distinct advantage;
• 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.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required.

go to method of application »

• The Finance Associate position forms part of UN Women’s Virtual Global Service Centre (VGSC) for financial donor reporting and project closure under the responsibility of the Chief of Accounts.
• Under the guidance and primary supervision of the Finance Specialist – Financial Reporting and Project Closure Unit Head, the Finance Associate is responsible for the preparation of financial donor reports and financial project closure; while also providing additional capacity to the regional office for other finance related duties under the daily secondary supervision of the Regional Office Finance Specialist. The Finance Associate will always promote a client-oriented approach and abide by UN Women’s financial regulations and rules. The Finance Associate works in close collaboration with the staff of the Division of Management and Administration, Programme Division, Regional Office and Country Offices, as well other UN entities in HQS and COs for resolving complex finance-related issues and information delivery.

Duties and Responsibilities

Administer focus on timely preparation of financial donor reporting and other management reports:

• Prepare financial reports for donors for UN Women offices timely and submit to VGSC Finance Specialists;
• Monitor outstanding donor reports to donors and initiate follow-up actions with Country Offices;
• Follow up on errors in chart fields or over expenditures and ensure proper adjustments are made;
• Assist in the maintenance of the General Ledger, analyzing and reconciling accounts with supporting modules;
• Respond to requests to resolve financial data issues;
• Prepare other regular finance indicators or management reports as requested;
• File and archive supporting work papers and documents;
• Regularly communicate with VGSC Finance Specialists;
• Provide budget setup support to permit accurate reports in formats required by Donor (E.g. EU report);
• Provide project staff with training on budget formats for donor-specific reporting requirements.

 Administer and implement financial procedures focusing on timely closure of projects:

• Perform and provide advice for financial project closure of projects for UN Women (UNW) offices;
• Monitor, reconcile and follow up with Country Offices (COs) on status of closed projects not yet financially closed;
• Prepare various reports on project closure status and initiate follow-up actions;
• Ensure proper control of the supporting documents for refunds to donors and general ledger journals;
• Follow up on errors in chart fields or over expenditures and ensure proper adjustments are made;
• Assist in the maintenance of the General Ledger, analyzing and reconciling accounts with supporting modules;
• Respond to requests to resolve financial data issues;
• File and archive supporting work papers and documents;
• Regularly communicate with VGSC Finance Specialists.

Provide accounting and administrative support to the RO Finance team focusing on achievement of the following results for Regional Office support: 

• Prepare and review of payment vouchers based on proper supporting documents authorized by the budget owners and project managers;
• Prepare various reports on incomplete/unpaid vouchers and initiate follow-up actions and; corrective actions on unposted vouchers, including the vouchers with budget check errors, match exceptions, unapproved vouchers;
• Ensure Proper control of the supporting documents for payments, accounts receivable and General Ledger journals;
• Approve vendors in Atlas (for offices that you are not a delegated payment voucher preparer);
• Maintain the internal expenditures control system which ensures that vouchers processed are matched and completed, transactions are correctly recorded and posted in Atlas; and other entitlements are duly processed;
• Support the finance team in the internal and external audits of UN Women offices, as requested;
• Provide support to office as ATLAS (ERP) focal point as required;
• Provide support in management of asset and inventory of the region’s offices as required;
• Review and monitor month-end and year-end closure checklists and reports submitted by M/COs to ensure completeness, correctness, and timeliness;
• Provide supports, technical advices and assistances to M/COs on finance-related processes, activities and reports and facilitating sharing of good practices among offices;
• Handle budgeting, monitoring and reporting of RO management fund;
• Coordinate and facilitate project audits for projects under RO and project offices, and also support and monitor M/COs  project audits in coordination with HQ;
• Maintain and update ICF (Internal Control framework) matrix for RO and project offices and related delegation letters.

Facilitate knowledge building and knowledge sharing focusing on achievement of the following results:

• Build and strengthen the capacity of UNW offices in the areas of financial donor reporting and project closure, including conducting trainings in your region;
• Assist and provided input to training materials for the operations / project staff on financial donor reporting and project closure or other related finance items;
• Actively participate in knowledge sharing and changes of duties with other staff in Finance team, as requested by RO Finance Specialist, to ensure that all duties have back-up staff assigned and trained;
• Ensure full compliance with amendments to International Public Sector Accounting Standards (IPSAS). Inform other UNW Finance Users to ensure IPSAS compliance and currency; 
• Ensure full compliance with all UNW Financial Regulations and Rules, Operations manuals, Internal Control policies and procedures, Standard operating procedures, Finance manual, and Delegations of Authority to ensure consistency across UNW and harmonization with other UN Agencies. Provide recommendations to Unit head for proposed amendments.
• Perform other relevant duties from time to time as requested by RO Finance Specialist.

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

Functional Competencies:

• Strong accounting skills;
• Knowledge of financial rules and regulations, and accounting;
• Strong IT skills and proficiency;
• Ability to provide input to business processes re-engineering, implementation of new systems;
• Ability to administer and execute financial and accounting processes and transactions;
• Results and client oriented approach to work;
• Strong communication and relationship management skills.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and Certification:

• Completion of High School (Secondary Education) is required;
• University Degree in Accounting or Finance is an advantage;
• Successful completion of UN Women Accounting Technical Test as part of the selection process.

Experience:

• At least 7 years of progressively relevant finance work experience is required;
• Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and knowledge of database packages, working experience in web based ERP financial systems (i.e. SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, etc.);
• Knowledge of IPSAS and/or IFRS is desirable;
• Demonstrated experience in developing complex financial reports required;
• Experience in developing reports for donors within a international organizational context is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required; 
• Knowledge of any other UN language is an advantage (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

Application Deadline :    20-Oct-23