UN (United Nations) 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, peace, and security.
In efforts to advance peace, stability, and inclusive development in Africa, UN Women, and the African Union Commission, through the office of the AU (African Union) Special Envoy on Women, Peace, and Security and with the support of the Federal Republic of Germany have been implementing a project on women’s leadership initiative for stability in Africa. Under this project, the African Women Leaders Network (AWLN) was launched in June 2017 in New York.
The AWLN seeks to enhance the leadership of African women in the transformation of the continent, in line with the Africa Agenda 2063 and the Global Sustainable Development agenda 2030. AWLN serves as a continental platform to galvanize women’s leadership towards lasting peace and sustainable development, the promotion of gender equality, and women’s empowerment in all sectors and at all levels, building on, and working with, existing women networks. AWLN also serves as a practical instrument to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) at the regional level. The network looks to increase women’s participation in decision-making through peer learning and mentoring, enhanced solidarity, advocacy, and capacity-building, among other strategies.
To date, the African Women Leaders Network continues to grow through the national chapters at the country level who contribute to expanding and operationalizing the network. AWLN activities and advocacy are based on the Network’s six pillars: peace and security, governance, finance, agriculture, youth, and social mobilization, which are advanced through the Network’s National Chapters, (now 33).
To support the growing Network, UN Women is hiring a Project support intern who will work closely with the AWLN Policy Analyst; as a person supporting the implementation of a women's leadership project, the intern’s duties and responsibilities would be crucial in ensuring the success and impact of the initiative.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Support the coordination and management of various aspects of the project, including planning, scheduling, and monitoring progress in regard to global and national initiatives in collaborations with the Chairs of the national chapters and the coordination Team
Support engagement with relevant stakeholders such as members of the National chapters, Caucuses and Group of friends, as well as other UN agencies in line with project objectives
Support coordination mechanism and maintain clear and regular communication to foster collaboration and support amongst team members and the young women leaders caucus members.
Support in identifying and share training and capacity opportunities with the women leaders and to provide them with the necessary skills, knowledge, and resources to enhance their leadership abilities.
Support the Network in its resource mobilization strategies: donor mapping, stakeholder engagement, and scanning through for potential opportunities to secure funding and resources for the project. This involves support in seeking sponsorships and building partnerships with donors and organizations.
Support in tracking the project various actions for monitoring and evaluation of its impact by supporting the development of the M&E tool
Establish and maintain a professional and productive working relations with relevant networks, forums, and advocacy groups to promote the AWLN's objectives and raise awareness about women's leadership issues.
As a Network for women’s leadership, ensure that initiatives undertaken in collaboration with partners keep the vision and mission of the Network.
Support in organizing workshops, conferences, forum, coordination meetings and other events related to the AWLN and its partners, creating platforms for women leaders to showcase their achievements and share experiences.
Facilitate the sharing of best practices, lessons learned, and success stories from the Network with other stakeholders and organizations working on similar initiatives.
Support in preparing reports of various meeting of coordination meeting and support in event reports and updates for internal and external stakeholders.
Support the development of a sustainability plan for the Network through research and support in drafting cooperation Frameworks.
Supporting communications activities, including drafting thematic briefs and informational assets and supporting communications content creation around AWLN’s key messages
Supporting the operations of the AWLN in delivering online learning, communications to the group about new opportunities and resources
Contributing to the development of the knowledge management strategy through collating information and resources, updating SharePoint, supporting knowledge collection and dissemination of knowledge and information
Drafting and updating social media messages for AWLN
Research interesting posts from partners, AWLN members/national chapters and retweets, and disseminate as needed.
Helping in the update and content development of the AWLN website as well as the Flickr account and publishing resources, events and other key features’ upkeep
Contributing to AWLN Newsletter production through support in content generation and graphics
Update and support a database of AWLN members
Perform other related duties upon request.
Required Skills and Experience:
Education:
University studies or have graduated with a university degree, minimum bachelor's level or equivalent, in one of the following disciplines: international relations, international development or other relevant subjects such as Journalism, Communication. Additionally having a background in women empowerment, gender equality or women, peace and security is a desired.
Language:
Excellent communication skills (written and oral) in English are required.
Working knowledge of another UN language is an advantage, especially French.
