Gender in Humanitarian Action Programme Specialist

UN Women (UNW), 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 leads and coordinates the United Nations system efforts to ensure that commitments on gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action throughout the world. It provides strong and coherent leadership in support of Member States’ priorities and efforts, building effective partnerships with civil society and other relevant actors.

On 24 February 2022, the Russian Federation launched an illegal full-scale invasion of Ukraine, causing widespread death, destruction, displacement and suffering.  The war in Ukraine is impacting women and men, girls and boys, in their diversities, in different ways and threatening progress made in recent years towards greater gender equality, disability inclusion and reinforced human rights. In 2024, approximately 14.6 million people, or 40% of those living in Ukraine, will require humanitarian aid due to the ongoing war. Out of the 14.6 million people in need of assistance, 56 per cent are women and girls, and 15 per cent are people with disabilities, of which women make up the largest proportion. Women account for 58 per cent of those displaced and 60 per cent of people aged 60 and above. The need is most critical in the eastern and southern regions, where intense conflicts have led to extreme and catastrophic conditions for communities on the front lines. Over 3.3 million people in these areas need assistance, facing challenges in accessing basic rights and services like water, food, shelter, and healthcare. Additionally, nearly 4 million internally displaced persons across Ukraine, including around 111,500 in collective sites, are nearing a breaking point due to prolonged displacement, loss of income, and increased risk of exploitation.

UN Women leads and coordinates United Nations system efforts to ensure that the commitments to gender equality and gender mainstreaming translate into action in humanitarian response plans. In Ukraine, UN Women is the co-lead of the Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group, providing technical, advisory and programmatic support to the Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) and the Inter Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG). The GIHA working group is comprised of gender focal persons from the clusters and sub clusters and provide critical support to ensure gender analysis, and advocacy is adequately coordinated, disseminated, and utilized, through the ICCG, including for strategic planning purposes such as Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) and Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP).

To ensure that technical and policy advisory support is systematically provided to the humanitarian response structure, response preparedness, planning, programming, and monitoring, UN Women in Ukraine would like to recruit an International Gender in Humanitarian Action (GIHA) Specialist to provide regular gender-focused technical assistance, to lead the coordination mandate, and the programming staff who serve as focal points in the various clusters and sub clusters.

Under the overall guidance of the UN Women Country Representative, and the direct supervision of the Head of Humanitarian Programme the GIHA Specialist will undertake the following duties and responsibilities, including but not strictly limited to:

Technical assistance on gender in humanitarian action and support the coordination efforts of response actors on GiHA.

• Lead and coordinate the GiHA WG and identify opportunities to strengthen the GiHA coordination architecture in discussion with cluster/subclusters and relevant actors.
• Provide gender advisory support to ensure the integration of gender throughout the humanitarian response cycle including providing gender inputs to the Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), cluster-specific and ICCG plans, contingency plans, etc.
• Participate in interagency humanitarian response coordination cluster meetings.
• Provide technical support on gender mainstreaming to the humanitarian coordination clusters/working groups members to ensure the content of their response plans highlight and address gender concerns and priorities- and that members have increased capacity to respond to emerging gender priorities.
• Regularly review the working groups analyses documents (i.e. Need Assessments, Plans, reports, briefs etc.) to ensure that gender content and sex- and- age- disaggregated data are systematically included.
• Participate in the inter cluster coordination group (ICCG) and represent UN Women in the PSEA and Assessment and Analysis Working Group. 

Capacity building on GiHA and support to gender-responsive localization

• Contribute to the implementation of capacity building initiatives and lead on organizing of different trainings related to GiHA for the members of the inter-agency/inter-cluster coordination including local women CSOs and UN staff in collaboration with GIHA Capacity Building Task Force and GenCap.
• Provide technical and capacity building support to women led organizations on GiHA and Humanitarian response processes.
• Strengthen the capacity of humanitarian response workers and gender focal points on GiHA and strengthen the meaningful engagement with women CSOs as key partners in the humanitarian response, including through GiHA working group
• Support accelerating localization through facilitating/advocating for local women’s organizations and networks participation in humanitarian response planning, decision making and monitoring/accountability

Knowledge building on GiHA/humanitarian response

• Participate in Analysis and Assessment working group and other advocacy and information sharing working group and systematically share inputs on GiHA.
• Develop knowledge products including briefs, fact sheets, statistics, research, policy briefs, gender alerts, etc. highlighting the gendered impact/gendered dimension of the humanitarian crisis on the affected populations.
• Conduct ongoing/periodic context updates and document gender related emerging trends and challenges also as they relate to working group/clusters response.
• Provide technical advice on the inclusion of SAAD and gender content in sector and inter-sectoral analyses and advocacy messages.
• Ensure that gender is mainstreamed in sector assessments, the Joint Multi-Sector Needs Assessment (MSNA) and rapid interagency assessments.
• Identify lessons learned and share best practices

Programme development, implementation and management

• Manage the development of program documents on humanitarian response; and manage program implementation
• Support resource mobilization and donor reporting
• Coordinate the office’s annual workplan and budget drafting, and regular corporate reporting on humanitarian programming and coordination
• Support the coordination of calla/requesta for proposals, including the organization of technical review committees, and capacity assessment of partners
• Review financial and narrative reports prepared by partners;
• Provide guidance to staff and partners on Results Based Management tools and performance indicators;

Advocacy and resource mobilization

• Develop key advocacy messages to bring to the attention of the HCT and relevant stakeholders.
• Support the drafting of strategic notes, talking points, key messages for internal UN Women leadership highlighting the imperative of GIHA across the spectrum of Ukraine response with the aim to inform internal and external policy and decision making
• Support drafting of concept notes and proposals to scale up UN Women Ukraine CO humanitarian programming, in line with the HRP 2023 and Ukraine - UN Transitional Framework.
• Contribute to identifying opportunities-programming and partnerships, including through discussion with clusters, UN entities, INGO, women CSOs and other stakeholders to develop targeted programming across the humanitarian – development nexus.

Key Performance Indicators

• Timely and quality technical assistance and coordination on gender in humanitarian action.
• Timely and quality support on capacity development of humanitarian response actors and local women’s organizations on gender in humanitarian action.
• Timely and quality of programme delivery in line with budget and workplans, and in line with all UN Women operational rules and regulations, including security
• Timely and quality knowledge products
• Strong relationships with various partners and stakeholders
• Quality reports and other strategic documents drafted and submitted in a timely manner

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

Functional Competencies:

• Strong knowledge of Gender in Humanitarian Action and IASC humanitarian standards 
• Strong knowledge and experience related to current policies and practices in the fields of gender equality, protection and humanitarian action, including humanitarian coordination
• Strong knowledge of the region
• Strong networking skills
• Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice
• Strong analytical skills.
• Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings
• Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results-based management and reporting

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Core Values and Competencies: https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/Headquarters/Attachments/Sections/About%20Us/Employment/UN-Women-values-and-competencies-framework-en.pdf

All applications must include a completed and signed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.unwomen.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2FHeadquarters%2FAttachments%2FSections%2FAbout%2520Us%2FEmployment%2FUN-Women-P11-Personal-History-Form.doc&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK  

Applications without P11 may be treated as incomplete and may not be considered for further assessment.

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).