Gender Specialist to the Special Envoy for Syria

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. To complement this, UN Women is working to document women's priorities for peace and to build dialogue and trust across women's groups, women leaders, and women's rights actors operating inside and outside of Syria – seeking to create strategic alliances around key issues and processes that may shape the future of Syria. UN Women is providing a balanced gender analysis of the conflict. UN Women coordinates with other actors supporting gender equality and women's rights in Syria. This work is done within the programme entitled "Supporting Syrian Women's Engagement in the Syrian political process – Building a homegrown constituency for peace." This programme receives support from the governments of Finland, the Netherlands, and Norway, and the EU.
Within the framework of UNSCR and guided by UNSCR and other resolutions related to the Women, Peace and Security agenda of the United Nations, the Office of the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Syria (OSE-Syria) ensures the meaningful participation of women in the Syrian-owned and led, UN facilitated and mediated political process. OSE-Syria's gender intent is to ensure that OSE-Syria's facilitation and mediation efforts provide equal opportunity for the engagement of women and men, and in turn, women and men can be equally consequential in their interactions with OSE-Syria's mediation processes. This intent incorporates the Women, Peace and Security agenda, and places it within a Syrian context. Gender mainstreaming is identified as a means to achieve Syrian women's meaningful participation and influence in the Syrian political process.

OSE-Syria operates from the belief that engaging all components of society will enhance an understanding of the conflict dynamics and ensure policy prescriptions are better informed, thereby building wider public support for these prescriptions and strengthening buy-in for UN facilitation and mediation efforts. Inclusion mechanisms such as the Syrian Women's Advisory Board are perceived as one avenue to draw in the voices of women.

UN Women has been working to support Syrian women's engagement in peacemaking since 2013. As part of this work, UN Women has partnered and works closely with the Office of the Special Envoy (OSE) for Syria, including by supporting Syrian women's leadership and effective engagement in the political process through the Syrian Women's Advisory Board (WAB).

The Gender Specialist will be funded through UN Women's Syria Programme and seconded to OSE-Syria. There will be a reporting line to UN Women Regional Women, Peace and Security and Humanitarian Action (WPSHA) Advisor, and OSE-Syria's Gender Advisor with overall leadership and supervision provided by the Deputy Special Envoy for Syria.

The Gender Specialist will be responsible for a range of functions, including providing substantive support to the organization of WAB meetings and to the documentation of the outcomes of all WAB related activities, contributing to gender mainstreaming in the mediation process, contributing to the gender sensitive conflict analysis of Syria, maintaining relationships across a range of national and international interlocutors, and other tasks required by the Gender Adviser- OSE.

Key Functions and Accountabilities:

Lead gender sensitive political and conflict analysis of the Syria conflict for OSE-Syria

• Identify and address gendered triggers of violence and responses to conflict;

• Assess and analyze the gendered impact of armed conflict, including conflict-related sexual violence, and the gender roles of women, men, girls, boys in all their diversity;

• Address the specific challenges related to exclusion of young women, both in online and offline spaces, and
challenges related to practices of gendered violence, discrimination and exclusion.

Promote inclusion and women's meaningful participation in all OSE-Syria peacemaking efforts

• Establish and maintain relationships with national constituencies in Arabic, including Syrian civil society organizations, women's groups, networks and women's rights leaders, and any other relevant partners including institutes and academia working on the Syrian political process and women's issues;

• Strengthen key alliances and partnerships, enhance collaboration, share and influence agenda- and priority-setting;

• Represent the organization in conferences and meetings as requested by OSE-Syria;

• Identify ways to address the priorities of women interlocutors in all facets of the Syrian political process;

• Contribute to designing, implementing and monitoring implementation of the OSE-S gender strategy;

• Support inclusion platforms such as the Syrian Women's Advisory Board through a range of substantive and administrative tasks as required;

• Provide guidance to the Civil Society Support Room team when requested.

Draft key documents:

• Draft talking points, speeches, and background papers related to the gender portfolio as requested.

Contribute to the work of the OSE-Syria

• Contribute to analysis, note-taking, and support the work of the Constitutional Committee as requested.

Provide technical inputs for the monitoring and reporting on the UN Women Syria Programme

• Regularly prepare analytical reports and updates to the UN Women Regional Office as well as UN Women Headquarters;

• Provide substantive inputs to UN Women's Syria programme donor- and annual work plan reporting through participation in weekly UN Women coordination meetings.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of OSE-Syria and UN Women

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: N/A

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:

• Substantive experience and skills in the area of gender equality and women's empowerment issues;
• Proven ability to advocate and provide policy advice on women's meaningful participation in peace and political processes;
• Good partnership and outreach skills, building alliances and networks, and maintaining good relations with partners and stakeholders;
• Strong analytical skills;
• Experience with implementing the WPS agenda;
• Ability to lead strategic planning, results-based management and reporting;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills;
• Ability to plan work assignments, establish priorities and to meet strict assignment deadlines;
• Ability to build strong relationships with colleagues and to focus on impact and results.

Education and Certification:

• Master's degree or equivalent in Political Science, Social Science, Development Studies, Gender Studies, Human Rights, International Relations, Law or a related field 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;
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible work experience in the humanitarian/development/peace sector, with strong focus on gender issues and Women Peace and Security.
• Experience working in international organizations is required, with strong knowledge of the UN system.
• Experience working on the Syrian political process and/or in the Arab States region is required.
• Experience in policy or programming work on gender mainstreaming 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 in working with civil society organizations, specifically women led organizations is required.

Languages:

• Fluency in English and in Arabic is required;
• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

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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