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 UN Women Regional Office for East and Southern Africa furthers gender equality in the ESA region, including by addressing deeply embedded discriminatory social norms and practices. The Regional Office works across the following areas: Governance and Inter-governmental support (including Gender Statistics); Women’s Economic Empowerment (including Migration, Ending Violence Against Women; Women, Peace, and Security; Climate Change, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Humanitarian Action. The Eastern and Southern Africa region (ESAR) comprises 22 countries. UN Women exercises its triple mandate and functions at a regional level and in support of UN Women’s offices and UN Country Teams (UNCT) in 13 countries and oversees and manages programming where there is programme presence and provides support on demand to an additional 12 countries where UN women has no physical presence (Non-resident Agencies - NRAs) within ESAR.

The Programme Specialist, Strategic Planning and Gender Coordination will work under dual supervision, with primary reporting to the Resident Coordinator’s Office (RCO) and secondary reporting to the UN Women ESARO Strategic Planning and Coordination Specialist. The Programme Specialist, Strategic Planning and Gender Coordination will be embedded within the Resident Coordinator’s Office in Eritrea and report directly to the Head of Office. Within this framework, the Programme Specialist, Strategic Planning and Gender Coordination provides strategic advisory support to the Resident Coordinator (RC) and the UN Country Team (UNCT) to ensure that women’s rights and equality are positioned as core drivers of Eritrea’s development trajectory, institutional performance, and Cooperation Framework results.

The role focuses on informing UNCT decision-making, shaping system-level approaches, and ensuring that Women’s Rights and Equality (WRE) is integrated into national development priorities, sectoral outcomes, and financing strategies in ways that strengthen productivity, human capital, and resilience. In doing so, the Programme Specialist, Strategic Planning and Gender Coordination contributes to country-level strategic planning processes on gender equality across the UNCT, supports coherent engagement with national and international partners—including government institutions, the National Union of Eritrean Women, UN agencies, development partners, and civil society—and advises on Eritrea’s engagement in regional and global intergovernmental and normative processes.

The role further supports the integration and operationalization of key normative frameworks (including CEDAW, Beijing Platform for Action, SDGs, and the Women, Peace and Security agenda) within the UNSDCF and UNCT programming, while strengthening inter-agency coordination, accountability, and knowledge generation on women’s rights and equality.

In close collaboration with the RCO and UN Women ESARO, the Programme Specialist, Strategic Planning and Gender Coordination also contributes to resource mobilization efforts, partnership development, and the identification of strategic opportunities to advance gender equality outcomes within the Cooperation Framework.

Key Functions and Accountabilities

Strategic Advisory and Integrated Analysis:

• Lead analysis on gender issues in Eritrea and provide forward-looking political, economic, and social analysis, with a WRE lens, to inform RC and UNCT decision-making, prioritization, and engagement with the Government of Eritrea
• Identify key structural and institutional constraints affecting women’s participation (including time poverty, access to services, and economic opportunities), and translate these into actionable entry points within national systems 
• Advise on the intersection between WRE and core development priorities, including human capital, service delivery, livelihoods, and resilience 
• Coordinate the UNCT Eritrea’s contribution towards key normative processes such as periodic report of CEDAW, Commission on Status of Women, SDGs voluntary national review, 1325 and Beijing Platform for Action +30.

Technical and advisory support in inter-agency coordination on Common Country Assessments (CCA) and United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Frameworks (UNSDCF) process:

• Coordinate and provide substantive inputs in the conduct of rigorous gender analysis to inform the Common Country Assessment (CCA), including its annual updates, analyzing root causes of gender inequalities and discrimination that results in differentiated impacts for men and women, boys and girls.
• Contribute to the analytical framing, theory of change, and prioritization of the UNSDCF, ensuring alignment with national priorities and system-level constraints 
• Advise on the integration of WRE within core outcomes, outputs, indicators, and results frameworks, ensuring it is embedded as a driver of results rather than treated as a cross-cutting consideration 
• Ensure continuous alignment between UNSDCF design and implementation by identifying emerging gaps, informing course correction, and supporting adaptive programming based on evidence and system performance
• UNCT Coherence, Accountability, and Institutional Performance Strengthen UNCT accountability systems to ensure that commitments on women’s rights and equality translate into measurable, resourced, and trackable results 
• Lead and guide the Gender Working Group (GWG) as a system-level mechanism to drive implementation, track progress, and address gaps in delivering results for women and girls across the Cooperation Framework 
• Support and drive the implementation of UNCT-SWAP, GEAP, and related frameworks as tools for institutional performance, planning, and decision-making 

Government Engagement and Strategic Partnerships

• Advise the RC and UNCT on strategic engagement with key national counterparts, including the National Union of Eritrean Women 
• Translate global normative frameworks (including SDGs, CSW outcomes, Beijing Platform for Action, and WPS agenda) into context-specific policy and programmatic entry points aligned with Eritrea’s development priorities 
• Support coherent UNCT positioning in national, regional, and global processes related to women’s rights and equality 

Women, Economics, and Financing

• Advise on the integration of WRE into development financing discussions, including resource allocation, investment prioritization, and partnership development 
• Contribute to positioning WRE as an economic and productivity issue, including its links to labor participation, care systems, and service access.

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

Key performance indicators:

• Identify and support opportunities to align WRE with emerging financing instruments and strategic partnerships
• Gender responsive programme/project documents, workplans, and budgets are developed, and programe teams supported on implementation, in line with JWP, and RCOs rules, regulations, policies, and procedure, using results-based management approaches.
• Timely and quality contributions and guidance to the UNCT, and interagency working groups and other coordination meetings.
• Quality advice to RC, UNCT, and Senior Management.
• Increased communication and collaboration on women’s rights and equality between agencies.
• Increased UNCT leadership and results in gender equality and women’s rights.
• Increased UNCT programming grounded in and including women’s rights and equality.
• Better integration with and support received from UN Women as a non-resident agency.

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:

• Ability to support strategic planning, results-based management and reporting.
• Ability to support formulation, implementation, monitoring and reporting of development programmes and projects.
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice.
• Ability to implement new systems and affect staff behavioural/ attitudinal change.
• Ability to build strong relationships with development stakeholders focussed on impact and results for target beneficiaries.
• Consistently approaches work with energy and a positive, constructive attitude.
• Ability to lead teams effectively and shows conflict resolution skills.
• Demonstrates good oral and written communication skills.

Recruitment Qualifications

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree (or equivalent) in International Development, Gender, Human
• Rights, Applied Anthropology, or in other related Social Sciences.
• A first-level university degree in combination with two additional years of qualifying procurement management 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:

• Minimum 5 years of progressively responsible experience at the national or international level in the design, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of development projects.
• In-depth contextual understanding, technical and practical expertise, and relationship building skills to define and deliver UN strategic ambition for advancing gender related outcomes in Eritrea.
• Experience in setting priorities, budgets, work plans, participating in programme
  development, and programme writing.
• Technical experience in the field of gender and/or human rights of women is preferred;
• Prior experience in the UN System and working on UN System coordination is desirable.
• Experience in partnership building with development stakeholders including national governments, international organizations, and other UN entities.
• Experience in leading teams effectively is an asset.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English is required.
• 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.