UN Women: Peace and security specialist

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. Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, the UN WOMEN will lead and coordinate United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It will provide strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

In Kenya, the UN WOMEN Country Programme contributes to the development objectives of Kenya’s blue print, the Vision 2030 and the Medium Term Plan (2013-2018) 2030 and is aligned to the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks (UNDAF) of 2014-2018, as well as UN WOMEN Global Strategic Plan. The Kenya Country Programme - “Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment Gains Consolidated' - aims to achieve the following results: (i) increased women’s leadership and participation in governance; (ii) strengthened women’s economic empowerment; (iii) increased protection of women & access to justice for women; and (iv) strengthened women’s leadership in peace building and humanitarian response.

The Government of Finland has been supporting UN Women Kenya’s programme on women, peace and security, through its twinning process with the Government of Kenya. The aim of the on the programme is to develop assist Kenya develop a National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 and address the low implementation and weak accountability of the resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council on Women, Peace and Security (1325, 1820, 1888 and 1889). The implementation gap can be measured by the low number of women participating in peace processes, increase incidence of sexual and gender based violence and lack of financing for women needs in post conflict and the absence of monitoring mechanisms/instruments to access implementation and achievements.

UN Women aims at supporting the Government of Kenya, civil society in understanding and applying instruments on women, peace and security such as the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 1325 (2000) towards the full realization of women’s human rights in Kenya. The programme will aim to support women to participate in and influence reconciliation and peace-building initiatives at the community and national level to ensure women’s perspectives are realized and women are viewed as proactive agents of transformative change.  

In relation to women peace and security, the programme will strive to:

• Support the implementation of the Kenya National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325 and the SGs Seven Point Action Plan;
• Enhance government and civil society understanding of the principles of normative instruments such as UNSCR 1325 and other relevant regional and international normative frameworks and instruments that realize women’s human rights;
• Build women’s capacity to engage in violence reduction and peace building initiatives at the community level (i.e. mediation forums, County Peace Committees);
• Strengthen stakeholder’s participation, implementation, tracking and reporting of UNSCR 1325.

It is in this context that UN Women in Kenya is seeking to recruit a Peace and Security Specialist focusing on the implementation of the Peace and Security Programme in Kenya in addition to strengthen the Country office cooperation with regional organizations in East and Horn of Africa and the Great Lakes Region. The scope of work of the Peace and Security Specialist requires experience and understanding of gender equality and women's empowerment issues, as well as programming expertise, to translate UN WOMEN's strategic plans into effective peace and security initiatives and results.  It also requires developing mutually reinforcing partnerships with relevant Government counterparts, UN organizations, CSOs, and FBOs as well as with bilateral and non-traditional donors in order to promote inter-agency partnerships and mobilization of visibility and resources to advance gender equality and women's empowerment in peace and security.

Duties and Responsibilities

Within the delegated authority and under the general supervision of the UN Women Kenya Deputy Country Director the Peace and Security Specialist will ensure effective project planning and management as well as policy development and implementation by carrying out the following functions;

Key Functions:

• Programme Development and Management;
• Provide strategic policy advice and coordination;
• Creation of strategic partnerships  and support Renounce mobilization;
• Facilitate knowledge building, management and knowledge sharing.

Programme development and management:

• Design and formulate Peace and Security programmes, translating to UN Women priorities into local interventions/initiatives;
• Effective application of Results Based Management (RBM) tools and monitor achievements of results;
• Provide strategic support for planning, budgeting, implementation, and monitoring of Peace and Security programme, and manage financial resources in accordance with UN Women rules and regulations;
• Internal reporting requirements are fulfilled focusing on outputs and outcomes, including preparation of results-based high quality donor reports;
• Ensure internal inter-linkages and coordination between UN Women Kenya programmes, projects and activities for a holistic and coherent programmatic approach for implementing the UN Women Kenya Strategy;

Provide strategic advice services and coordination:

• Provision of advisory services to Government, civil society organizations and the National Steering Committee on 1325 on the implementation of the Kenya National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325;
• Provide advice on methodologies for gender responsive peace-processes and security sector reform;
• Identify and support cross-regional initiatives supporting peace-building priorities and the implementation of UNSCR 1325 (ESARO Regional Programme, ICGLR, AU’s “African Women Decade” and other relevant regional and international instruments that realize women’s human rights. IGAD);
• Support inter-agency work and processes pertaining to gender, conflict prevention, transitions and peace building within the UN system, as requested;
• Provide guidance to UN WOMEN Kenya programmes on integrating UNSCR 1325 and assist in monitoring achievements of related result;
• Provide technical assistance on the development and implementation of the UNDAF Joint Work-Plans- Specifically, the integration gender in relevant strategic result areas.

Establish and maintain strategic partnership and support the resource mobilization efforts of the Country Office:

• Strengthen partnerships with UN agencies and national and regional policy making forums to highlight and reinforce accountability mechanisms for the implementation of UNSCR 1325 and the SGs Seven Point Action Plan;
• Establish and nurture relationship with academia, research institutes, civil society and experts in women and peace building to expand and share knowledge, exchange views on latest findings;
• Provide support to women's civil society organizations (including private sector organizations) and advocates to implement the Kenya National Action Plan on UNSCR 1325;
• Develop partnerships and close collaborations with UN agencies, Government institutions, civil society organizations, multilateral and bi-lateral donors on matters related to the promotion of women, peace and security with a view of ensuring strategic partnership and strengthened coordination;
• Analyze and research information on donors and preparation of substantive briefs on thematic area;
• Identify and follow-up opportunities for resource mobilization for UN Women’s work on Peace and Security.

Advocacy and knowledge sharing:

• Facilitate and coordinate strategic advocacy efforts to maximize support of UN System, governments, CSOs, and other relevant partners on advancing women rights in line with UNSCR 1325 and other normative commitments/frameworks;
• Identification of key women’s human rights issues and challenges, best practices, lessons learned and recommendations to be integrated into UN WOMEN Kenya knowledge management efforts;
• Facilitate 'Open Days' between UN senior leaders, the Government of Kenya and women peace activists and CSOs on women priorities in peace and security;
• Facilitate South-South and regional cooperation/initiatives on women, peace and security;
• Participate actively and contribute UN WOMEN’s perspectives at relevant conferences, workshops and meetings which advance women, peace and security agenda;
• Maintain a calendar of the most relevant international/regional/national peace fora and events on peace and security and facilitate UN Women participation and coordinate partners. 

Impact of Results:

The Peace and Security Specialist will contribute to the smooth and successful implementation of UN Women’s Peace and Security, Humanitarian Action and DRR Strategic Result Area. The key results have an impact on the success of the country programme within the areas of cooperation. In particular, the key results.

Competencies

Core Values and Guiding Principles

Integrity:

• Demonstrate consistency in upholding and promoting the values of UN Women in actions and decisions, in line with the UN Code of Conduct.

Professionalism:

• Demonstrate professional competence and expert knowledge of the pertinent substantive areas of work.

Cultural sensitivity and valuing diversity:

• Demonstrate an appreciation of the multicultural nature of the organization and the diversity of its staff;
• Demonstrate an international outlook, appreciating difference in values and learning from cultural diversity.

Core Competencies

Ethics and Values:

• Demonstrate and safeguard ethics and integrity.

Organizational Awareness:

• Demonstrate corporate knowledge and sound judgment.

Development and Innovation:

• Take charge of self-development and take initiative.

Work in teams:

• Demonstrate ability to work in a multicultural, multi ethnic environment and to maintain effective working relations with people of different national and cultural backgrounds.

Communicating and Information Sharing:

• Facilitate and encourage open communication and strive for effective communication.

Self-management and Emotional Intelligence:

• Stay composed and positive even in difficult moments, handle tense situations with diplomacy and tact, and have a consistent behavior towards others.

Conflict Management:

• Surface conflicts and address them proactively acknowledging different feelings and views and directing energy towards a mutually acceptable solution.

Continuous Learning and Knowledge Sharing:

• Encourage learning and sharing of knowledge.

Appropriate and Transparent Decision Making:

• Demonstrate informed and transparent decision making.

Functional competencies:

Knowledge Management:

• Promotes a knowledge sharing and learning culture in the office;
• Actively works towards continuing personal learning and development in one or more practice areas, acts on learning plan and applies new acquired skills.

Development and Operational Effectiveness:

• Ability to lead strategic planning, results based management and reporting;
• Ability to apply conceptual models in support of formulations, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of development programmes and projects and mobilize resources;
• Knowledge in financial resources and human resources management, contract, asset and procurement, information and communication technology, general administration;

Management and Leadership:

• Build strong relationships with clients, focuses on impact and results for the client and responds positively to feedback;
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude;
• Demonstrate openness to change and ability to manage complexities;
• Demonstrate strong oral and written communication skills. Demonstrate good listening skills and responsiveness to the opinion of others;
• Proven networking, team-building, organizational and communication skills;
• Ability to build strong relationships with both internal and external actors-cultivates productive relationships with donors, partners and other important institutions and individuals.  

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

• Advanced university degree (Masters or equivalent) in Social Science; Gender Studies, International Development, Law, Human Rights, Political Science, International Relations or other related field.

Experience:

• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience working in the field of gender and development with a focus on the promotion of gender equality, women’s empowerment and women human rights;
• Prior experience working on women, peace and security issues in Kenya;
• Proven experience in supporting establishing and fostering strategic partnerships with government counterparts in the area of peace and security, UN agencies, donors and CSOs;
• Good knowledge of the UN system is an asset.

Language:

• Written and oral proficiency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another UN working language is an asset.

Application:

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from http://www.unwomen.org/about-us/employment;
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment. Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment.

Note:

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.

To apply please click here