Policy Specialist - Women, Peace and Security

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 by the implementation of the National Plan of the UN resolution 1325.
UN Women's Peace and Security cluster is responsible for providing technical support to UN Women Country Offices in a number of areas, including: conflict prevention and peacebuilding, justice sector and security reform, transitional justice, promoting women's political participation and mainstreaming gender issues into governance reforms. It has global components but it is grounded in country-level activities. To further this work, UN Women has entered into a joint partnership with the Peacebuilding Support Office to support the implementation of the Secretary-General's Report on Women's Participation in Peacebuilding. UNWOMEN aims to strengthen women’s participation, leadership and empowerment in both humanitarian response and peace and security settings.
In the specific context of Mali, seven years after the signing of the peace accords in 2015, the country still facing a multidimensional crisis with security, socio-political, economic and humanitarian challenges affecting the population particularly women and girls.. Women's participation in the current process and in the post-conflict phase is therefore crucial. At the same time, women constitute strong actors for peaceful coexistence, community reconciliation and to improve prevention efforts against radicalization and the spread of extremism.
Under the supervision of the UN Women Country Representative and in close collaboration with the Regional Peace and Security Adviser and the Chief of Peace and Security Section in HQ, the Women Peace and Security Specialist will will further UN Women's mandate in ensuring the participation of women in all aspects of conflict resolution, fighting against radicalization, peacebuilding and post-conflict recovery as described in the national plan of United Nations Resolution 1325 for Mali Country, which includes provide advisory and technical support in the area of women, peace and security, provide programme management support, lead coordination and policy development initiatives, provide technical support in strategic partnerships, resource mobilization and advocacy, liaise with partners and stakeholders, provide technical support in monitoring and reporting, and provide inputs to knowledge management and capacity building.

Duties and Responsibilities

Provide advisory and technical support in the area of women, peace and security:

Advise the UN Women Representative on strategies and opportunities for building women's participation and influence in conflict prevention, resolution, and peacebuilding, with a particular focus on implementation of the resolution 1325 in Mali, strengthening the ongoing collaboration with MINUSMA in this area;
Provide technical support in project management and resource mobilization for the UN Women's programmes and initiatives on peace and security, through strategic partnerships with regional and sub-regional organizations (AU, ECOWAS) and civil society groups, and training of relevant stakeholders;
Provide technical advice on strengthening women’s role in fighting against radicalization and violent extremism;
Advise, support, guide and provide input to ensure the formulation of relevant, high quality, results-based and rights-based peace and security programmes and projects;
Prepare policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers and materials for use in the development and presentation of a coherent UNWOMEN country perspective on women peace and security (R1325);
Provide strategic and specialized technical advice to the peace and security team on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support effective program planning, implementation, monitoring and timely progress reporting.

Provide programme management support:

Review and provide feedback to ongoing peace and security project, strategies and documents, work-plans, case studies and related knowledge products and publications as requested and needed;
Provide technical support in project management and resource mobilization for the UN Women's programmes and initiatives on peace and security including Role of Law Programmes, through strategic partnerships with regional and sub-regional organizations (AU, ECOWAS) and civil society groups, and training of relevant stakeholders.

Lead coordination and policy development initiatives:

Develop outreach and advocacy programmes to ensure women's voices are heard throughout main peacebuilding processes and forums, including through nurturing policy dialogue Member States, senior officials and staff of international and regional institutions, in close cooperation with the UN Women Peace and Security Section and the Regional Office for West and Central Africa;
Provide technical support and guidance for women's groups and women peace activists to develop common positions related to peace and security processes affecting Mali;
Advise on capacity development of Malian women's organizations in the peace building process and collect and analyze good practices;
Work with civil society partners and other stakeholders to conduct awareness raising on transitional justice and to mobilize this constituency to document and advocate for gender sensitive transitional justice measures;
Provide technical support for the coordination of the peace and security result group of the UNCDF and other Coordination mechanisms with MINUSMA
Set up the women, peace and security national coordination mechanism and strengthen its capacities to monitor the R1325 and UNWOMEN peace and security Program.

Provide technical support in strategic partnerships, resource mobilization and advocacy:

Establish and nurture relationship with Ministry of the Promotion of Women, Technical specialists and financials partners, academia, research institutes, civil society and experts in transitional justice, DDR and other women peace and security matters to expand and share knowledge, exchange views on latest findings, incorporate cutting-edge thinking in UN work on gender equality;
Convene or represent UN Women in relevant international and regional forums to enhance coordination and/or ensure increased attention to gender and mediation and other conflict prevention and resolution issues;
Build strategic partnerships with key stakeholders including with MINUSMA, regional organizations, NGOs and core international mediation institutions seeking to increase their presence and activities in Mali;
Develop and maintain networks with institutions and experts in peace building and women's peace networks;
Plan, organize and provide technical support to ad hoc expert group meetings, seminars, conferences, workshops, communities of practice and similar gatherings, including identification and determination of major issues for discussion and selection of participants, development of background documentation, preparation of reports and policy recommendations, and dissemination of results of such meetings;
Organize regular meetings with the technical and financial partners of the peace and security program.

Liaise with partners and stakeholders:

Liaise with the Regional Office and HQ to ensure exchange of information and develop analytical briefs on the evolution of peacebuilding processes in Mali;
Liaise with the commission on Dialogue and Reconciliation to ensure that they have the technical support, expertise, training, and general support to ensure women's full participation and gender-sensitive transitional justice;
Liaise with the DDR and RSS National commission to ensure women’s ex-combatants and associated to combatants participation in these processes.

Provide technical support in monitoring and reporting:

Review and evaluate proposals and oversee the preparation of donor proposals and reports;
Contribute to the monitoring and evaluation of the results of UN Women.

Provide inputs to knowledge management and capacity building:

Develop, implement and monitor capacity development in the area of ender and peace building capacity amongst relevant stakeholders including through information sharing and joint trainings with MINUSMA and relevant regional and sub-regional organization so as to build availability of regionally-knowledgeable and rapidly deployable specialists in this area;
Work with civil society partners to conduct awareness raising on women’s participation in the peace agreement implementation and to mobilize this constituency to document and advocate for gender sensitive peace process;
Ensure regular assessments of the country office peace and security program, implementation plans and Mali’s national plan on 1325 implementation. Identify lessons learned and areas of emphasis to guide program improvements and future strategic development plan;
Identify areas that may require improvement and capture best practices/lessons learned, using corporate monitoring tools;
Manage the process of collecting and sharing lessons learned on women, peace and security to build knowledge and capacity of partners and stakeholders;
Identify and implement capacity building training activities to enhance skills and knowledge on women’s participation in peace building and all related matters: gender and DDR, gender and SSR, women’s early recovery;
Contribute to the development and maintenance of county program knowledge networks and practices, and development of knowledge products.

Impact of Results:

Timely and quality technical advice and support
Leadership in area of expertise in the region
Quality reports and other strategic documents drafted and submitted in a timely manner
Strong relationships with various partners and stakeholders
UN Women is well represented in important meetings on topics related to expertise
Contributions to resource mobilization
Timely and quality knowledge products

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.

Excellent knowledge of Peace and Security 
Strong knowledge of the region
Excellent networking skills
Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research
Ability to advocate and provide policy advice
Excellent analytical skills;
Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings;
Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results based management and reporting

Required Skills and Experience

Education:

Master's degree (or equivalent) in social sciences, political science, international affairs, international development studies, gender/women's studies, human rights or a related technical field.

Experience:

At least 7 years progressively responsible experience in designing and managing programmes and advocating for peace and security ideally with some experience in developing countries, in conflict/post-conflict situations
Experience in programme, policy analysis, and strategic planning;
Experience working with, and building partnerships with governments, donors and civil society organizations internationally and in the field;
Experience working with the UN is an asset;
Experience working in the west and central Africa is an asset

Languages:

Fluency in both written and spoken English and French is required.