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.

Based on UN legislative mandates and the UNW Strategic Plan, the Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (ROAP) is tasked with providing strategic programme development, policy/ technical advisory services and quality assurance support to Multi-Country Offices (MCOs) and Country Offices (COs). It undertakes or coordinates regional research and data analysis; advises on norms, policies and strategies for achieving the internationally and regionally agreed goals related to gender equality and women’s empowerment issues. It acts as a knowledge hub at the regional level, collecting evidence on progress and emerging issues and sharing knowledge on innovative approaches and lessons learned in implementation.

Asia and the Pacific continue to be one of the region’s most prone to the impacts of disasters, with 8 of 10 deadliest disasters worldwide in 2018. Disasters and extreme weather events, such as flooding and drought, are responsible for the majority of forced displacements – and climate change is a driving and exacerbating factor. Asia and the Pacific remains the region most vulnerable to environmental degradation and climate change impacts due to its densely populated coastal areas, high rates of poverty, and its dependence on natural resources and agriculture sectors. Approximately 80 per cent of people displaced by climate change are women. This has severe implications for gender equality – especially related to livelihoods and economic empowerment, access to services (including health, education, protection and social protection), risks of food insecurity, GBV, displacement, exclusion from decision-making processes, and exacerbated burden of unpaid care work.  Conflict and violence persist in the region with several protracted crises, intensifying vulnerabilities. Regional vulnerability is heightened by other factors including rising global inflation and high food prices, as well as the impacts of shocks, which are eroding coping capacities and increasing people’s vulnerability to the effects of natural and human induced disasters.

UN Women’s work in humanitarian action is guided by global norms and standards. Building on findings of the inter-agency Gender in Humanitarian Action (GiHA) review based on the Accountability Framework of the IASC’s Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls in Humanitarian Action Policy. The UN Economic and Social Council adopted resolutions E/RES/2012/3,1 E/RES/2013/62 and E/RES/2014/23 in 2012, 2013 and 2014, which recognize that humanitarian action can be strengthened by mainstreaming a gender perspective into all aspects of the humanitarian response. Similarly, the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) in 2016 emphasized the centrality of gender equality and women’s empowerment (GEWE) to humanitarian action.  As the impact of climate and conflict continues in the region, there is an increasing recognition among UN Women country offices that the development and humanitarian challenges arising from the crisis must be met with accelerated action and enhanced capacity with the support of the regional office. In October 2022, UN Women became a member of Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Humanitarian Action, the highest-level humanitarian coordination forum of the United Nations system. This will enhance the coordination and operationalization of gender input to humanitarian response and recovery, as well as resilience building across the humanitarian peace and development nexus. In the Regional Office for Asia and Pacific, humanitarian action, disaster risk reduction, climate change action is under one portfolio, with matrixed coordination across other thematic areas of the office.

Reporting directly to the Regional Advisor for Humanitarian Action and Disaster Risk Reduction/Humanitarian, DRR and Climate Portfolio lead, the Programme Coordinator is responsible for providing the ongoing technical support to UN Women’s country offices connecting the regional and country level to strengthen UN Women’s programming across the nexus, building UN Women’s capacity and portfolio on resilience across humanitarian, disaster risk reduction and climate action. Additionally, the Programme Coordinator will provide rapid technical support to both UN Women country office, as well as to humanitarian responses in case of crisis, including providing short-term provide surge capacity when needed to ensure women and girls needs are prioritized at the onset of crisis through technical engagement, as well as ensuring UN Women’s presence and visibility and partnership with the wider humanitarian response system. Furthermore, the programme coordinator will work cross-cutting with the wider resilience team, in order to solidify UN Women’s value add working across the nexus space. The Programme Coordinator will coordinate relationships with regional and national partners and stakeholders, and support all required monitoring and reporting, as well as finances and personnel within the portfolio.
Duties and Responsibilities

Coordinate the Humanitarian and Resilience Programme/Portfolios:

• Coordinate the overall Programme/Portfolio workplan development and implementation according to UN Women Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific’s Strategic Note and Annual Workplan;
• Coordinate continued implementation of key activities within RO’s requirements with the 2022 Crisis Evaluation management response;
• Provide technical advice to UN Women’s country offices on strengthening UN Women’s role across the humanitarian, peace and development nexus;
• Liaise with regional and national counterparts, donors, UN Women and partners to ensure that the portfolio results are achieved and resources are managed;
• Prepare and present workplans, periodic narrative progress reports and expenditures status reports to the donor and UN Women;
• Ensure successful implementation and compliance with systems for project planning, implementation and monitoring, in collaboration with partners;
• Record and maintain documents on relevant activities, issues and risks.

Guide coordination with regional and national partners and other stakeholders:

• Coordinate relationships with regional and national partners to support implementation of the humanitarian and resilience portfolio;
• Coordinate implementation of UN Women’s co-chair role of the Asia Pacific Gender in Humanitarian Action Working Group;
• Identify capacity building needs and support UN Women partners working in relevant areas across the nexus, in humanitarian response, as well as disaster risk reduction and climate action through technical assistance, mentoring, training, cross-partner learning, and capacity development initiatives.

Coordinate monitoring and reporting on humanitarian and resilience portfolio:

• Gather and compile all information necessary for monitoring and reporting on UN Women ROAP’s humanitarian programming from the planning to the evaluation stages;
• Support drafting of annual and bi-annual reports; review and coordinate the submission of any required financial and narrative reports;
• Provide inputs from humanitarian and resilience portfolio activities and results to Regional Office reporting and coordinate with country level personnel to do the same.

Manage financial resources and supervise staff:

• As required, supervise and manage a team of professional and administrative staff, review performance and mentor/coach staff;
• Coordinate development and preparation of financial resources of the portfolio including budgeting and budget revisions, and expenditure tracking and reporting.

Build partnerships and support in developing resource mobilization strategies:

• Provide technical support to the development of partnerships and resource mobilization strategies;
• Identify potential programmatic areas of cooperation, based on strategic goals of UN Women, country needs and donors’ priorities and develop the relevant partnerships.

Advocate and facilitate knowledge building and management and communication:

• Ensure documentation of the humanitarian and resilience portfolio implementation process and products produced are in accordance with UN Women guidelines;
• Contribute to the exchange of information and knowledge products internally and externally of the programme;
• Organize major advocacy campaigns, events, trainings, workshops and knowledge products.

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

Required Skills and Experience:

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in public administration, human rights, gender equality, humanitarian action, disaster risk reduction, management, social sciences or other related areas is required
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying experience may be accepted in lieu of the advanced university degree
• A project/programme management certification (such as PMP®, PRINCE2®, or MSP®) would be an added advantage

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in managing complex and multicomponent programme interventions with national or regional partners, on gender equality and the empowerment of women
• Experience in coordinating, monitoring, and evaluating development programmes and projects, especially humanitarian or DRR is required.
• Work experience in humanitarian action or disaster risk reduction is required.
• Work experience in the Asia and the Pacific is desirable.
• Previous experience working in the UN system is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).
• Knowledge of languages spoken in the Asia Pacific Region is desirable.

Source:  https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=114575