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.  Placing women’s rights at the center of all its efforts, 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. 

The Policy, Programme, and Intergovernmental Division (PPID) provides global support to UN Women offices in all locations to deliver results in support of UN Women’s Strategic Plan 2026-2029 and internationally agreed goals on gender equality and women’s rights and empowerment, including the Beijing Platform for Action and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The Division provides intellectual and strategic leadership on normative support and delivery of integrated policy and programming advice, including through policy analysis and gender mainstreaming. The Division leverages innovation, knowledge management, and cutting-edge technical expertise to support UN Women’s operational work to build the capacity of partners to deliver results at the country level and coordinate the contribution of the UN system to gender equality and rights and empowerment of women and girls. 

Leadership and Decision-Making Section within PPID leads and coordinates one of UN Women’s four Strategic Plan Impact Areas. UN-Women leverage its triple mandate to elevate women’s voices, invest in their leadership, and promote their participation at all levels and in all walks of life. The Section is responsible for driving UN Women’s policy leadership and programmatic strategies that contribute towards women fully, equally and meaningfully participating in leadership and decision making for stronger public policy outcomes; and women and girls benefiting from gender responsive governance and access to rights. It will scale up efforts to strengthen women’s voices and institutional accountability, including by supporting aspiring women leaders and office holders, and financing women’s rights organizations and movements through broad-based partnerships, especially locally. Key priorities include promoting greater parity in decision making, increasing institutional safeguards that prevent and respond to violence against women in public life, strengthening capacity of Governments and stakeholders to track and deliver on commitments to women’s leadership, and increasing capacity and influence of diverse women’s rights organizations and networks, particularly those led by young women and those facing multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination.

The Chief of Leadership and Decision-Making Section reports to the Director, PPID and exercises significant delegated for ensuring technical excellence of UN Women’s policy and programmatic contributions in the thematic area, including through directing research and development of knowledge products. Working in close collaboration with Sections across PPID and other Divisions, the incumbent will contribute to inter-governmental, normative and UN system coordination work, establish and strengthen partnerships, and provide strategic advice to UN Women’s regional and country offices. The Chief also directs and manages the personnel of the Leadership and Decision-Making section, exercising substantial autonomy in decision-making within established strategic parameters and escalating to the D2 Director only matters with organization-wide implications or significant political, reputational, or financial risk..  

Key Functions and Accountabilities:

1.     Lead the development and implementation of UN Women’s strategy for Women’s Leadership and Decision-Making: 

• Serve as a globally recognized thought leader on women’s leadership and decision-making and provide authoritative strategic advice to the UN Women leadership and the rest of the organization.
• Direct the development and implementation of a comprehensive UN Women strategy for women’s leadership and decision-making that reflects evidence-based policy approaches, taking advantage of the entity’s strengths, demonstrated niche and triple mandate to position the organization as an influential and relevant actor in ensuring women’s leadership across various sectors and contexts and the gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, exercising independent judgment on strategic priorities and resource allocation.
• Establish standards for and oversee the provision of high quality and timely policy support to Member States and other partners for the advancement of normative frameworks on women’s leadership and decision-making including through directing preparation of Secretary General reports. 
• Provide authoritative policy guidance and advice to UN Women regional and country offices to develop and implement initiatives that promote political participation and leadership, determining appropriate technical approaches and intervention strategies. 
• Drive innovation and cutting-edge practices, drawing on feminist leadership and governance policy and practice, to enhance the development of policies and programmes, shaping organizational approaches and methodologies. 
• Convene leading feminist academics, development policy specialists and practitioners on gender equality and women’s leadership to advise on and guide UN Women’s Women’s leadership and decision-making strategy.

2.     Oversee the development and implementation of the programmatic initiatives on women’s leadership and decision-making: 

• Direct data collection, including relevant SDG indicators, and research on the linkages between global commitments on women’s equal participation in leadership and decision-making and their implementation at global, regional and national levels, establishing priorities and quality standards. 
• Lead and ensure accountability for the roll-out and operationalization of UN Women’s global programming framework for women’s leadership and decision-making in country and regional Strategic Notes and projects.
• Direct the development of global projects that catalyze country and regional programming, support cross-regional collaboration and generation of global data and evidence for replication and impact at scale, exercising significant independent judgment on project design and partnership strategies.  
• Spearhead the development, testing and roll out of tools and methodologies to enhance programming and results and incorporation of lessons learned. 
• Lead and implement a policy research and practice agenda reflecting the linkages between global normative commitments on women’s leadership and decision-making and their implementation at global, regional and national levels.
• Direct results management efforts for the Impact Area to ensure that UN Women strategically plans, achieves and captures SP results, establishing performance metrics and accountability frameworks. 
• Collaborate with other thematic sections to provide integrated policy and programmatic advice to regional and country offices across development and humanitarian contexts.

3.     Oversee research, analysis and knowledge management in the area of Women’s Leadership and Decision-making. 

• Establish the strategic direction for UN Women’s global research and knowledge agenda on women’s leadership and decision‑making, determining research priorities and resource allocation.
• Direct the production of high‑quality policy knowledge, including analytical papers, briefs and evidence products, exercising authoritative judgment on technical content and strategic positioning.
• Establish and oversee systems for data, evidence and knowledge management, ensuring accuracy, coherence and alignment with corporate standards.
• Strengthen knowledge‑sharing platforms and communities of practice to facilitate learning across HQ, regional and country offices.
• Ensure quality assurance of all knowledge products, including adherence to peer‑review and editorial requirements.
• Develop and institutionalize innovative tools and methodologies to support evidence‑based policy and programming.
• Provide authoritative technical guidance to regional and country offices on integrating evidence into policy dialogue and programming.

4.     Provide substantive advice and support to intergovernmental processes and events and other key global initiatives:

• Provide substantive contributions to intergovernmental fora to help shape development of global and regional policies, norms, standards and implementation strategies.
• Direct the production of reports and background papers on matters related to gender equality and women’s leadership and decision-making in accordance with mandates given by relevant intergovernmental bodies and report on progress and challenges on critical and emerging issues to these bodies.
• Determine and provide inputs to political engagement strategies and oversee preparation of summaries of debates, and analysis of outcomes to facilitate follow up implementation. 
• Provide leadership and support to multistakeholder dialogues and engagement in intergovernmental processes.

5.     Expand partnerships and resources and lead advocacy initiatives to advance women’s leadership and decision-making: 

• Establish, cultivate, and manage a diverse range of partnerships at the highest levels to support UN Women’s work on leadership and decision-making, committing organizational resources and prestige.
• Lead mobilization of resources for programming across the Impact Area, in close coordination with the Strategic Partnerships Division.
• Represent UN Women at the highest levels in international fora, high level academic and policy conferences and events to participate in strategic discussions and establish cooperation/collaboration, exercising delegated authority to commit the organization to courses of action.
• Convene or represent UN Women in UN inter-agency coordination mechanisms to encourage greater commitment to and collaboration on the promotion of women’s leadership and gender parity. 
• Establish and maintain relationships at senior levels with academia, research and training institutes, civil society and thematic technical experts to gain and share knowledge, exchange views on current issues/trends and to incorporate cutting-edge thinking on women’s leadership and decision-making.

6.     Management of the Leadership and Decision-Making Section: 

• Direct the development and implementation of the bi-annual workplans and annual reports to ensure the delivery of quality results according to targets established in the section and PPID, exercising significant delegated authority over resource allocation and programmatic priorities. 
• Manage the section’s financial resources and exercise delegated authority for budget management within approved allocations, taking responsibility for the integrity of financial systems and consistent application of the internal control framework and UN Women and UN rules and regulations. 
• Direct the development and implementation of strategic evaluation plans, ensure that management responses to evaluations are completed and followed up, and that learning from evaluations is fed back into UN Women initiatives and operations.
• Promote teamwork and establish an inclusive working environment that is conducive to delivery of quality results. 
• Manage the performance of staff and ensure compliance to the performance management process.

7.     The incumbent performs other duties within their functional profile as deemed necessary for the efficient functioning of the Office and the Organization.

Supervisory/Managerial Responsibilities: The incumbent directs and manages a multidisciplinary team comprising professional and general service staff across multiple grade levels (P1-P5 and GS), with direct supervisory responsibility for senior professionals at P4-P5 levels. Exercises significant delegated authority for all staffing decisions including recruitment, performance management, career development, and disciplinary matters within delegated authority. Establishes team structure, assigns responsibilities, and determines work priorities to optimize delivery of the Impact Area's mandate. Escalates to the D2 Director only matters involving major organizational restructuring, significant budget implications beyond delegated authority, or sensitive personnel issues with potential reputational risk.

Competencies :

Core Values:

• Integrity;
• Professionalism;
• Respect for Diversity.

Core Competencies:

• Awareness and Sensitivity Regarding Gender Issues;
• Accountability;
• Creative Problem Solving;
• Effective Communication;
• Inclusive Collaboration;
• Stakeholder Engagement;
• Leading by Example.

Please visit this link for more information on UN Women’s Values and Competencies Framework: 

Functional Competencies:

• Strong political acumen and political engagement skills.
• Substantive knowledge and experience related to current policies and practices in intergovernmental processes.
• Ability to conceptualize and convey strategic vision from the spectrum of development experience.
• Strong communications skills, with proven expertise in writing cogent and convincing policy and programme documents for development practitioners
• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to leverage information technology, executive information systems, management techniques and tools for optimal office performance.
• Good planning, goal-setting and prioritization skills.
• Effectiveness in establishing and fostering good relations with government counterparts, UN agencies, donors, and NGO partners.
• Proven track record of excellent management and technical leadership skills and ability to delegate appropriate responsibility, accountability and decision-making authority.

Recruitment Qualifications:

Education and Certification:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in development related disciplines, gender issues, economics, public policy, law or other social science fields directly related to the thematic area of the post 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 programme or project certification in this area of work would be an added advantage.

Experience:

• A minimum of fifteen years of progressively responsible senior professional experience in development, demonstrating intellectual, strategic, and managerial leadership in areas including policy analysis, gender equality, social development, human rights, sociology, and institutional governance, with at least ten years of experience at directly related to women’s rights and gender equality related to elections, work with parliaments or public and private decision-making institutions is required. 
• Substantial experience in managing large, complex programmes and leading multidisciplinary teams is required.
• Grounded knowledge on young women and intergenerational leadership is required.
• Proven knowledge of and experience with United Nations intergovernmental processes, including support to governing bodies, legislative mandates, and intergovernmental negotiations is required.
• Prior professional experience within the United Nations system or other international or intergovernmental organizations is highly desirable.

Languages:

• Written and oral proficiency in English is required.
• Knowledge of another UN working language is desirable.

Statements :

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system (DAW, OSAGI, INSTRAW and UNIFEM), which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment.

Diversity and inclusion:

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.)

Note: Applicants must ensure that all sections of the application form, including the sections on education and employment history, are completed. If all sections are not completed the application may be disqualified from the recruitment and selection process.