National Project Officer

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.

UN Women in Liberia has worked strategically since 2004 and currently holds one of the biggest offices in West Africa. It works closely with the Liberian Government and other UN Agencies through joint development programmes and the “Delivering as One” UNDAF model. Some key initiatives include the establishment of the Liberia Women Empowerment Network, an association of women living with HIV, and the establishment of the Association of Women in Cross Border Trade. In addition, UN Women leads the Liberia Joint Programme for Gender Equality and Women’s Economic Empowerment and implements economic empowerment projects and training for Liberia’s Joint Programmes on Food Security and Nutrition, Adolescent Girls, and the Prevention and Response to SGBV. UN Women Liberia has built networks of male advocates and community leaders committed to “zero tolerance” for violence against women, and has built and replicated the peace hut model, empowering community women to take action to combat violence and resolve disputes independently and with the support of the Police. UN Women supported Liberia in the development of its National Action Plan for the implementation of UN SCR 1325 and is supporting its implementation through ongoing support to the Ministries of Justice and Gender and Development. UN Women also supported Liberia in the development of a gender-mainstreamed Poverty Reduction Strategy, the development and presentation of its 1st to 6thCEDAW report and development of its first national gender policy. Ongoing Programmes: Gender Responsive Planning and Budgeting, Engaging Women in Building Peace and Security, Women’s Economic Empowerment.

UN Women Liberia is implementing a 2-year project to scale up innovative initiatives that leverage digital and mobile technologies to enhance the economic empowerment and the resilience to disasters of rural women in Liberia. The overall project goal is to consolidate the results from ongoing innovative initiatives and expand their scope, by scaling-up the individual components of UN Women’s Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment programme that are linked to women’s digital inclusion. Thus, the project will provide critical value addition to these initiatives, through technical expertise, networking and existing infrastructure around digital skills, digital and mobile technology, and digital inclusion, which are critical aspects to ensure that rural women in Liberia are not left behind during the ongoing digital revolution and the post COVID-19 recovery. In particular, the project will allow UN Women and its partners to consolidate the results obtained to date through the Buy from Women(BfW) initiative, the Rural Women Joint Programme, and the D4WEE project in Liberia. The project is supported by Orange Foundation and is implemented in Lofa, Bong and Nimba counties in collaboration with the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Protection; the Ministry of Agriculture; the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, and the Cooperative Development Agency. It is expected that approximately 1,200 women and youth beneficiaries will benefit from the project in Liberia.

Duties and Responsibilities

Objectives of the assignment

The main objective of this assignment is to provide support to the day-to-day implementation of the D4WEE project and knowledge building.

Duties and Responsibilities

Under the overall guidance of the Deputy Country Representative and the WEE Programme Manager of UN Women Liberia and direct supervision of the Project Specialist, and in close collaboration with the Executive Director Orange Foundation Liberia, the National Project Officer will perform the following tasks:

Timely implementation of the designated project/component in accordance with UN Women policies and procedures.

Plan the timeline of the project activities, conduct daily implementation and monitoring of project activities, ensuring that the project produces the results to the required standards of quality within the specified constraints of time and cost described in the project document and work plan.
Design and draft a Concept Note/Terms of Reference of project activities and related events per project document and work plan.
Prepare annual and quarterly work plans and budget of the project per the project document in consultation with the Project Specialist.
Track the project delivery and regularly report to the project management and partners on progress and achievement of results in consultation with the Project Specialist.
Assist in establishing systems for project planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, in collaboration with partners
Gather and provide inputs and coordinate the preparation of work plans, periodic narrative progress reports and expenditures status reports.
Prepare timely key operational reports including quarterly reports, annual reports and other thematic reports as necessary summarizing findings, achievements, conclusions and recommendations on the progress of the project in the country as per the requirements in coordination with the project specialist.
With UN Women operations team, ensure timely preparation and implementation of the procurement plan for the project.
Collaborate with M&E team for development of M&E plans for the project.
Carries out regular field visits to the project areas and performs any other duties assigned by the project specialist.

Networking and Partnership Building

Maintains good cooperation and coordination between national counterparts, project partners and other stakeholders.
Maintains regular contact with beneficiaries to ensure relevance and quality of project outputs.
Pursues networking and information sharing and follow up on partnership related issues.
Support processes to develop and strengthen strategic partnerships and alliances for project expansion.
Planning, organization and facilitation of, relevant workshops, consultations and meetings, including the procurement, facilitation, and reporting.
Participate in relevant meetings and help to document where necessary.

Communication, Knowledge Management and Learning

Ensures regular exchange of information/experience with other projects, cross-learning and sharing results and good practices.
Responsibility for bringing best practices and lessons learnt to help achieve the outputs of the project and facilitating the use of global knowledge networks in the field.
Ensures that project activities, results and learnings are communicated to all relevant groups
Assist communication team, prepares communication materials for dissemination inside and outside the UN Women.
Captures lessons learnt during project.
Participates in internal meetings.
Participates in training events, communities of practice.
Facilitates team learning and knowledge sharing.
Leads in preparation of data base for Women Digital Centers and Orange Digital Schools while providing them management support.

Competencies

Core competencies:

Achieve Results: LEVEL 2: Scale up solutions and simplifies processes, balances speed and accuracy in doing work
Think Innovatively: LEVEL 2: Offer new ideas/open to new approaches, demonstrate systemic/integrated thinking
Learn Continuously: LEVEL 2: Go outside comfort zone, learn from others and support their learning
Adapt with Agility: LEVEL 2: Adapt processes/approaches to new situations, involve others in change process
Act with Determination: LEVEL 2: Able to persevere and deal with multiple sources of pressure simultaneously
Engage and Partner: LEVEL 2: Is facilitator/integrator, bring people together, build/maintain coalitions/partnerships
Enable Diversity and Inclusion: LEVEL 2: Facilitate conversations to bridge differences, considers in decision making

Cross-Functional & Technical competencies:

Business Direction & Strategy

Effective Decision Making: Ability to take decisions in a timely and efficient manner in line with one’s authority, area of expertise and resources

Business Development:

Knowledge Facilitation: Ability to animate individuals and communities of contributors to participate and share, particularly externally

Business Management

Project Management: Ability to plan, organize, prioritize and control resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals
Communication: Ability to communicate in a clear, concise and unambiguous manner both through written and verbal communication; to tailor messages and choose communication methods depending on the audience; Ability to manage communications internally and externally, through media, social media and other appropriate channels

Digital & Innovation

Design thinking: Solving problems by putting people at the center, visualizing ideas and making them tangible in order to improve them through and iterative process of developing and testing. Strong empathy skills, being able to put yourself ""in someone else's shoes"", understand needs, abilities, preferences, motivations, (everyday) experiences from different perspectives as well as their cultural, social, economic and political contexts. Ability to identify and challenge assumptions, (cognitive and social) biases and dominant mental models by generating new perspectives and frames that help redefine the problem, solution and opportunity space. Being able to work with incomplete information, ambiguity and opposing views, needs and constraints and synthesise them into solutions that are viable, technically feasible and useful.
Team design & management: Ability to create a clear sense of shared purpose while leveraging curiosity, expertise and agency at an individual level. Set up and manage team rituals and rhythms that create a safe space for learning and reflection. Foster a positive culture around failure, encourage exploration, experimentation. Set the conditions and structures for 'fluid' team modelling and distributed leadership enabling the team to continuously develop and renew itself. Ability to create synergy between team members with diverse professional and cultural backgrounds, being able to leverage their broad knowledge and skillsets

Partnership Management

Relationship management: Ability to engage with a wide range of public and private partners, build, sustain and/or strengthen working relations, trust and mutual understanding

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master's degree in economics, information technology, social sciences, development studies, or related field.
Bachelor’s degree in a related discipline in combination with 2 years of relevant work experience will be given due consideration in lieu of Master’s degree.

Experience

Minimum of 5 years working experience in the field of gender mainstreaming, digital innovations, economic empowerment, institutional capacity development, project management and coordination of relevant work experience in the field of multilateral development context.
Experience participating in projects/processes that included extensive communication, coordination, and facilitation requirements.
Experience in partnership building at national, regional and local level.
Good application of Results-Based Management.
Excellent communication, coordination and facilitation skills.
Consistently ensures timeliness and quality of work.
Establishes lasting relationships and substantive dialogue with clients.
Treats all people fairly without favoritism.
Strong oral and written communication skills.
Displays cultural, gender, religion, race, nationality and age sensitivity and adaptability.
Demonstrates integrity by modeling ethical standards.
Familiarity with the UN system would be an asset.
Experience in managing projects in the sphere of digital governance, eGovernment, data policies, digital economy or digital skills will be considered an asset
Experience working in or with the public sector or international organizations will be considered an asset.

Language and Other Skills:

Proficiency in oral and written English
Ability to effectively utilize computer software (i.e. MS Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Word) for database development and management.
Excellent facilitation and training skills