Chief, Women’s Economic Empowerment, D-1

Position description

The Chief of the Economic Empowerment section reports to the PPID Director and is responsible for leading the organization’s work on women’s economic empowerment, providing global policy support and developing thematic work and knowledge production in line with the mandate to further women’s income security, decent work, and economic autonomy. Working in close collaboration with Sections across PPID and other Divisions, the incumbent will contribute to inter-governmental, normative and UN system coordination work, establish and strengthen partnerships, and provide strategic advice to UN Women’s regional and country offices. The Chief also supervises and leads the staff of the Economic Empowerment section.

Key Functions and Accountabilities:

Lead UN Women’s economic empowerment strategy:

• Ensure implementation of UN Women’s global Women’s Economic Empowerment Strategy to position the entity as an influential and relevant actor on women’s economic empowerment in the context of UN Women’s Strategic Plan (current and future) and the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development;
• Convene leading feminist economists and development policy specialists and practitioners on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment to advise on and guide on implementation and strengthening of UN Women’s Economic Empowerment Strategy;
• Act as a thought leader for the section, and provide strategic advice to the PPID Director and leadership team and the rest of the organization on women’s economic empowerment;
• Operationalize the Economic Empowerment Strategy drawing on expertise and experience from across UN Women.

Guide development and implementation of policy and programmatic initiatives:

• Oversee design and implementation of global programming frameworks and global projects, in close coordination with regional and country teams and external partners;
• Introduce innovative and cutting-edge approaches, drawing on feminist economic policy and practice, to enhance UN Women’s global policy support and programmatic work;
• Spearhead the development, testing and roll out of tools and methodologies in the area of women’s economic empowerment to provide standards and guidelines, based on a gender-responsive and human rights-based approaches, for policy-making and programming, and ensure lessons learned are incorporated;
• Lead and implement a policy research and practice agenda reflecting the linkages between global normative commitments on women’s economic empowerment and their implementation at global, regional and national levels;
• Collaborate with other thematic sections to provide integrated policy and programmatic advice to regional and country offices across development and humanitarian contexts.

Oversee knowledge production and management:

• Lead production of peer-reviewed discussion papers and policy briefs on women’s economic empowerment to form part of UN Women’s series;
• Provide substantive contributions to processes and publications undertaken by UN system and external partners;
• Determine and implement a mechanism to equip UN Women with the capacity to drive a vibrant global matrix of learning on women’s economic empowerment;
• Oversee and facilitate internal and external communities of practice on women’s economic empowerment;
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of global and regional knowledge networks, activities and practice.

Provide substantive advice and support to intergovernmental processes and events and other key global initiatives:

• Provide substantive contributions to intergovernmental fora to help shape development of global and regional policies, norms, standards and implementation strategies;
• Produce reports and background papers on matters related to gender equality and economic empowerment in accordance with mandates given by relevant intergovernmental bodies and report on progress and challenges on critical and emerging issues;
• Provide technical and advisory support on gender equality issues to intergovernmental bodies, preparing summaries of debates, supporting negotiations and analyzing outcomes;
• Provide leadership and support to multistakeholder partnerships such as Action Coalitions on Economic Justice and Rights and Feminist Action for Climate Justice.

Strengthen and expand partnerships and advocacy initiatives:

• Identify, develop and manage the diverse range of partnerships that UN Women needs to support its work on women’s economic empowerment, including for resource mobilization, in close coordination with the Strategic Partnerships Division;
• Represent UN Women in international fora to encourage greater commitment to and collaboration on the realization of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment policies;
• Convene or represent UN Women in UN inter-agency working groups and other high level academic and policy conferences and events to participate in strategic discussions and establish cooperation/collaboration;
• Develop and maintain relationships with academia, research and training institutes (including the UN Women Training Center), civil society and thematic technical experts, and the International Association for Feminist Economics to gain and share knowledge, exchange views on current issues/trends and to incorporate cutting-edge thinking on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment.

Manage the Economic Empowerment section:

• Finalize and oversee the implementation of the annual workplans and annual reports for the section;
• Promote teamwork and establish a respectful and collaborative working environment that is conducive to delivery of quality results;
• Supervise, guide and oversee the work the work of the team to ensure the delivery of quality results according to standards and goals established in the section and PPID;
• Manage the performance of staff and ensure compliance to the performance management process;
• Manage and monitor financial resources and take responsibility for the integrity of financial systems and consistent Application of the internal control framework and/or UN Women/UN rules and regulations. Submit timely mandated reports;
• Oversee the development and implementation of strategic evaluation plans, ensure that management responses to all evaluations are completed and followed up, and that learning from evaluations is fed back into UN Women initiatives and operations;
• Oversee security requirements for the team.

The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities:

The incumbent leads a team of 27, which includes 7 direct reports (P, GS, etc.), as well as 5 affiliate personnel (SC, consultants and interns).

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.

Functional Competencies:

• Excellent substantive knowledge of current thinking, policies and practices in feminist economics and women’s economic empowerment, including (preferably) a record of peer-reviewed publications;
• Proven ability to develop and implement large-scale policy and programmatic initiatives on women’s economic empowerment;
• Strong leadership and proven team-building and people management skills; ability to create a productive, respectful and collaborative work environment;
• Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision from the spectrum of development experience;
• Effectiveness in establishing and fostering good relations with government counterparts, UN agencies, donors, and NGO partners;
• Strong written and oral communication skills, with proven expertise in writing cogent and convincing policy materials and communicating with diverse audiences;
• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Excellent strategic planning, goal-setting and prioritization skills;
• Strong, proven commitment to gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Recruitment Qualifications:

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in economics, with preferred specialization in feminist economics, or related fields such as gender and development, public policy, or other social science fields with a significant focus on gender equality; PhD desirable;
• 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 15 years of progressively responsible experience in policy and programmatic work in gender and development, feminist economics, women’s economic empowerment or related areas;
• Substantial experience in preparing and publishing policy pieces on feminist economics and women’s economic empowerment;
• Significant experience in designing and implementing large-scale operational programmes on women’s economic empowerment;
• Demonstrated experience in successfully managing teams in a collaborative and transparent manner;
• Field experience in developing countries is an advantage;
• Recognition as an authority on women’s economic empowerment is desirable.

Languages:

• Fluency in English is required;
• Knowledge of one or more of the other UN official working languages is very desirable.

Application instructions

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