Senior Gender and Capacity Building Specialist UN Women, Niamey, P4, NORCAP

NORCAP’s vision for its Lake Chad project is a strong local civil society that are able to define their own agenda, participate in prioritisation and decision making, and ultimately deliver quality humanitarian and development projects relevant to the needs of affected populations. This position represents a new role within Niger/Chad on behalf of UN Women and NORCAP. This is an exciting time to join the project and UN Women as our partnership develops, and we enter new arrangements for our work in Niger/Chad.

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. Over the last decade, the four countries around Lake Chad – Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria, have experienced unprecedented levels of crises, exacerbated by repeated incidences of violence from the Boko Haram terrorist group and impacts of climate change

UN Women also advocates and works with gender equality institutions and humanitarian organizations, from grassroots to intergovernmental bodies, to increase their commitment for a gender-responsive localization of aid and a gender-responsive humanitarian response. Therefore Senior Gender and Capacity Building Specialist Expert is needed To support synergy and strengthen gender mainstreaming mechanisms in humanitarian responses in the Lake Chad Region.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The successful candidate in this role will provide technical assistance to humanitarian actors to develop practical skills to help them better integrate gender aspects into their interventions.

You would also design and deliver UN Women’s and NORCAP LCP intervention for inclusion, participation and localisation of response by women’s organizations in Lake Chad Region as well as the following

• Enable and promote women’s organisations participation in localization of aid in the region.
• Enable local and national actors’ participation in coordination and decision-making mechanisms and fora, including but not limited to working groups, cluster system and HCT.
• Coordinate and cooperate with relevant stakeholders and inter-agency colleagues, including but not limited to OCHA, UNDP, national agencies, INGO and Local / National Actors.
• Identify and seek to address key issues, opportunities and challenges in terms of promoting gender responsive localization and participation in humanitarian settings.
• Through advocacy and technical support to CSOs, promote and facilitate Women’s CSO effective participation in key fora on localization of aid and their access to humanitarian funds.
• Realize data collection and tracking of funding to local women’s organizations for advocacy purpose.

Lead on the implementation of the capacity development package and action plan for participating CSOs

• Complete the mapping of humanitarian women led organizations in the region and build a regional network of women’s organizations working on humanitarian response.
• In collaboration with other NORCAP Lake Chad Basin capacity development experts, develop guidance, tools, training materials on gender responsive localization, and provide technical support to the NORCAP Lake Chad Capacity Development project experts

Contribute to UN Women leadership across UNCT and HCT on CSO capacity development and coherence of localization approaches across UN Women programmes

• Provide technical leadership and support and undertake advocacy and representational responsibilities on behalf of UN Women with respect to CSO capacity development activities by attending meetings, events, developing briefing notes and participating in groups and committees as needed.
• Work closely with and provide advice to national bodies and inter-agency groups that influence policies and approaches related to capacity development of CSOs and localization and where necessary represent UN Women.

Support resource mobilization efforts for networking of women-led organizations

• Review existing resources dedicated for women’s networking initiatives and update existing UN Women resource mobilization strategy.
• Research and analyze information on donors; prepare substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation.
• Prepare resource mobilization strategy for support to regional networks and platforms in Lake Chad Basin.
• Contribute to NORCAP Lake Chad Project fundraising and programme strategy.

Lead knowledge building and sharing for capacity development of women-led organizations

• Facilitate peer-learning amongst participating CSOs.
• Develop and share information notes and guidelines with NORCAP LCP team, UN Women programme staff and partner UN agencies, including through the Gender Technical Team/Group.
• Document and disseminate lessons learned within UN Women, WPHF and other partner UN agencies.

Other duties and responsibilities

• Perform any other work-related duties and responsibilities that may be assigned by the host line manager and in consultation with NORCAP project Manager for the Lake Chad Basin.
• Coordinate as relevant the activities with other NORCAP experts working for the Lake Chad project, and travel to other countries of Lake Chad basin if requested.
• You are encouraged to learn more about the role read the TOR.

QUALIFICATIONS

Education:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in human rights, gender, international relations, international development, international law or other social science fields is required.
• A project/programme management certification would be an added advantage

Experience:

• At least 7 years progressively responsible experience in designing and implementing capacity strengthening initiatives for civil society, preferably women-led organizations;
• Substantive and technical experience in capacity development, coaching, teaching, skills transfer;
• Knowledge and understanding of key gender equality, GBV in crisis, and SRHR issues;
• Experience conducting institutional capacity and training needs assessments;
• Familiarity with the localization agenda;
• 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 with civil society networks and platforms, including regional ones is desirable; and
• Experience working in the West Africa region is an asset

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in French and English is required

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

Functional Competencies

• Substantive knowledge and experience related to current policies and practices in the fields of gender equality, protection/GBV and humanitarian action, including the localization agenda
• Strong capacity strengthening and training experience, particularly for civil society organizations
• Strong knowledge of the West and Central Africa region
• Excellent networking skills
• Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
• Ability to perform technical assessments
• Ability to facilitate peer learning
• Excellent mentoring and coaching skills
• Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings
• Strong knowledge of program development, implementation, results-based management and reporting

What we offer

• Rewarding work for a renowned global organisation
• Access to a network of humanitarian, peace, and development professionals
• Join NORCAP’s team of experts and be considered for future assignments elsewhere
• A dedicated Staff Care Unit