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.

The Executive Director’s Office provides strategic leadership, institutional oversight, and coordination across UN Women to ensure effective delivery of its mandate. A key priority of the Office is to uphold the highest standards of integrity, transparency, accountability, and ethical conduct across all operations and personnel. Strengthening ethical culture and reinforcing institutional trust are central to safeguarding UN Women’s credibility and effectiveness in delivering for women and girls globally.

The Ethics function supports the Executive Director in ensuring that all UN Women personnel observe and perform their functions consistent with the highest standards of integrity required by the Charter of the United Nations. The function contributes to fostering a culture of ethics, transparency, accountability, and mutual respect across the organization.

Under the overall guidance of the Chief of Staff and direct supervision of the Deputy Chief of Staff, , the Ethics Specialist is responsible for leading the implementation of the Ethics function’s mandate, including the provision of definitive professional advice and guidance, developing and delivering ethics training and outreach, and administering the Financial Disclosure Programme and the policy on Protection from Retaliation as well as other tasks within the UN Ethics Guidance/ mandate.

The Ethics Specialist works in close collaboration with the Executive Director’s Office, the Office of Human Resources, the Legal team, Internal Audit, and other relevant internal and external stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of UN Women’s ethics framework and integrity policies.

Supervision and Decision-Making Authority:

The Ethics Specialist works under general supervision and exercises professional judgment in applying ethics standards and policies to routine and moderately complex matters. 

The incumbent makes independent decisions on:

• Classification of routine ethics inquiries and appropriate response strategies
• Approval or denial of routine outside activity requests and declarations of interest
• Provision of guidance in conflict of interest status for standard Financial Disclosure Programme cases
• Design and delivery methods for ethics training programmes

The incumbent consults the Deputy Chief of Staff/Chief of Staff on:

• Complex ethics cases involving senior officials or novel ethical dilemmas
• Sensitive cases with significant institutional or reputational implications
• Precedent-setting determinations that may establish new organizational practice
• Prima facie case findings on retaliation complaints
• Policy development and revision affecting ethics framework

Key Functions and Accountabilities:

Provide Ethics Advice and Guidance

•  Analyze and provide definitive professional advice to personnel on ethical standards, conflicts of interest, outside activities, and integrity-related matters, exercising professional judgment to resolve ethical dilemmas and ensure compliance with UN Women's values and standards;
• Monitor and analyze ethics case trends, identify patterns, and conduct root cause analysis of ethical dilemmas to inform organizational learning and preventive strategies;
• Review and assess declarations of interest and related documentation, determining compliance with ethics standards and recommending appropriate actions;
• Identify and proactively mitigate ethics-related risks;
• Develop ethics guidance bulletins and conduct ethics research to support evidence-based policy development and organizational best practices.

Manage the Financial Disclosure Programme (FDP) 

• Manage UN Women Financial Disclosure Programme, in line with the Memorandum of Understanding between UN Women and the UN Ethics Office, and in accordance with the Secretary-General's bulletin on financial disclosure and declaration of interest statements (SG/SGB/2006/6)

Administer the policy on Protection from Retaliation.

• Lead the implementation of the Policy on Protection from Retaliation and providing authoritative guidance to UN Women personnel on the protection mechanisms and internal grievance processes;
• Conduct thorough preliminary reviews of retaliation complaints, analyzing complex fact patterns and legal standards, and preparing prima facie case findings with supporting evidence and recommendations;
• Design and implement creative solutions to prevent retaliation and reduce the incidence of formal complaints;
• Conduct research on protection against retaliation best practices and develop and develop education materials to strengthen awareness and compliance

Develop and deliver Ethics Training, Awareness, and Outreach

• Develop, design, and deliver comprehensive ethics training and awareness programmes tailored to diverse audiences, including senior management, programme staff, and field personnel, strengthening the ethical culture across the organization;
• Coordinate the implementation of the UN Ethics Office Annual Leadership Dialogue, adapting global guidance to UN Women's specific context and ensuring effective engagement of senior leadership.

Lead Policy Development, Reporting, and Stakeholder Engagement

• Contribute substantively to the review, development, and implementation of ethics-related policies and guidelines, ensuring alignment with UN standards and organizational needs;
• Prepare and consolidate comprehensive annual reports on ethics function activities, analyzing trends, highlighting achievements, and recommending strategic improvements to the UN Women Executive Director and the Executive Board;
• Maintain comprehensive and confidential records of all guidance provided and reports submitted, ensuring data integrity and compliance with confidentiality protocols.

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

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:

• Demonstrated ability to provide education and training on ethics, values, and standards and promote staff awareness of ethical behavior and ethical decision making;
• Proven ability to quickly analyze complex fact patterns and provide comprehensive, sensitive, and confidential ethics advice and guidance;
• Thorough knowledge and understanding of the UN Staff Regulations and Rules and other policies relating to ethics and integrity;
• Demonstrated ability to consult on the ethical implications within all policy development and standard setting;
• Proven ability to analyze and eliminate or mitigate potential and actual conflicts of interest disclosed in the annual financial disclosure programme.
• Demonstrated ability to maintain diplomacy, tact, and strict confidentiality with internal and external partners and clients in a visible and sensitive process.

Recruitment Qualifications:

Education and Certification:       

•              Master’s degree or equivalent in Law, Ethics, International Affairs, Communications, Corporate Compliance, Human Resources Management or a related field 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.

Experience:        

•              At least 5 years of progressively responsible work experience in organizational ethics, compliance, legal, governance, oversight, communication or related areas is required.

•              Experience in independently providing definitive professional advice on ethics standards and practices, including, inter alia, accountability and compliance frameworks is required.

•              Experience in the design, development and delivery of ethics training and other outreach and awareness-raising activities is required.

•              Experience in the usage of computers and office software packages (MS Word, Excel, etc.) and spreadsheet and database packages, experience in handling of web-based management systems is required.

•              Experience in the use of a modern web-based ERP System, preferably Oracle Cloud, is desirable.

•              Professional experience of the ethics function of the UN or other international organizations is desirable.

Languages:         

•              Fluency in English is required.

•              Working knowledge of another official UN language is desirable (French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian or Spanish).

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.