Policy Specialist - Gender - Tamil Nadu (Open to Indian Nationals Only)

Job Description

BackgroundUN 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 and the diverse gender as partners and beneficiaries of development, human rights, humanitarian action and peace and security.All human development and human rights issues involve gender dimensions. UN Women globally focuses on key priority areas fundamental to womens equality and can unlock progress across the board. UN Womens priority areas include increasing womens leadership and participation in political spaces, ending violence against women, enhancing womens economic empowerment, engaging in all aspects of womens peace and security processes, making gender equality central to national planning and budgeting through Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) mechanisms and advancing gender in intergovernmental processes.UN Womens India Country Office (ICO), based in New Delhi, India, works towards ensuring that policies and programmes at the national and state level are gender responsive. In the state of Tamil Nadu, UN Women has been collaborating with the Department of Planning and Development, Government of Tamil Nadu since 2019 towards integrating gender in SDGs monitoring, strengthening gender responsive budgeting and women safety in the state. UN Women will continue to provide technical expertise and policy advisory on gender responsive policy and governance to the nodal departments for gender equality including Planning, Social Welfare & Women Empowerment, and line Departments. The technical expertise going forward will be for strengthening gender data and SDG monitoring, gender responsive planning and budgeting initiatives, and prevention and response mechanisms for women safety. Leveraging on the institutional capacity, past work and established networks and partnerships, the focus will be on creating an enabling environment by building capacities of key stakeholders to address gender issues and be instrumental in making the government plans and budgets gender responsive.Within this context, UN Women seeks the service of a Policy Specialist - Gender to provide technical expertise and policy advisory support on gender responsive policy and governance to the nodal departments for gender equality and womens empowerment in the Government of Tamil Nadu.Duties and ResponsibilitiesUnder the guidance and direct supervision of the Deputy Representative, UN Women India Country Office and day to day reporting to the Additional Chief Secretary, Planning & Development/ Chief, Sustainable Development Goals Coordination Centre and in coordination with the nodal departments for gender equality and womens empowerment in the Government of Tamil Nadu, the Policy Specialist - Gender will have the following specific tasks:Technical advisory to the State Government on advancing gender equality and SDGs:

• Provide policy support to the State Government on gender issues and integration of gender perspectives in policy documents
• Provide support in developing proposals for obtaining funds under Nirbhaya Fund for prevention and response to violence against women and girls
• Technical support on gender mainstreaming, strengthening gender data, and tracking of gender indicators to the Sustainable Development Coordination Centre, and Planning & Development Department
• Establish/strengthen effective coordination mechanisms within and among Social Welfare and Women Empowerment, Planning, Finance and other line departments to institutionalize and promote gender responsive budgeting in the state.

Documentation and analysis:

• Provide inputs in documentation of planning, budgeting and auditing processes at the state level from a gender perspective in coordination with State Technical Coordinator- Gender Budgeting
• Provide support in mapping and assessing prevention and response mechanisms with government budgets for womens safety
• Undertake state-specific situational analysis of gender indicators and state initiatives to map the current status
• Document and disseminate resources and knowledge products on gender mainstreaming, such as case studies and good practices at the state level
• Facilitate and contribute to conducting research on impact of state government schemes on women empowerment
• Support Planning and Development department in integrating gender in Outcome Framework/Outcome Budgeting
• Support IT specialist and UN Women project team in roll out and implementation of e-governance tool on GRB.

Facilitate training and capacity development of relevant constituents on gender mainstreaming:

• Review and contextualize training tools, manual, and other resource material on gender mainstreaming, GRB and engendering SDGs for the state
• Facilitate state-level gender budgeting and gender mainstreaming capacity development training programmes for government officials, relevant stakeholders and create a pool of local experts
• Facilitate training of government officials on RESPECT framework on prevention of violence, safe cities and safe public spaces for women
• Monitor the outcomes of the trainings by undertaking pre and post assessment, and developing quality training reports
• Develop and prepare gender sensitive as well as gender specific IEC materials that support gender sensitive campaigns to address gender norms.

Partnership Management and Networking:

• Identify opportunities for partnering with private sector, UN agencies, state partners, organisations on UN Women Strategic Action Plan and SDGs
• Develop a resource mobilisation plan for the state, and support resource mobilisation initiatives to strengthen ongoing efforts on gender responsive policy and governance at the State level
• Facilitate meetings and visits of senior management team in the state, and represent UN Women in platforms and events
• Coordinate with project team for timely completion of project deliverables
• Preparation of monthly progress reports.

Any other duties as assigned by supervisor.Key Performance Indicators:

• Development of state action plan with indicators for monitoring SDGs from a gender perspective.
• Proposals for obtaining funds under Nirbhaya Fund for prevention and response to violence against women and girls developed.
• Technical advisory to strengthen inter departmental coordination on achieving SDGs from a gender perspective.
• Facilitate training of government officials and its institutionalisation on gender budgeting and RESPECT framework.
• Develop and prepare gender sensitive IEC materials that support gender sensitive campaigns to address gender norms.
• Manage state partnerships and resource mobilisation initiatives at the State level.
• Report on the assignment (4-5 pages) covering the documentation of practices, approach, methodology, limitations and challenges, and good practices to be replicated in other states.

CompetenciesCore 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

• Excellent knowledge of Gender
• Strong knowledge of the region
• Excellent networking skills
• Ability to interact with donors, identify and analyze trends, opportunities and threats to fundraising
• Ability to perform qualitative and quantitative policy research
• Ability to advocate and provide policy advice
• Excellent analytical skills
• Ability to write policy papers, speeches, briefings
• Strong knowledge of programme development, implementation, results based management and reporting.

Required Skills and ExperienceEducation:

• Masters Degree or equivalent in Social Sciences/Economics/Social Work /Gender Studies/Public Administration/Policy or related fields.
• 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:

• Minimum 7 years of experience at the national/state level working with development projects, including hands-on experience in design, implementation, and monitoring/evaluation of projects, preferably on Gender Equality and Womens Rights.
• Experience working with national/ state governments, particularly on gender-responsive governance, is required. State-sp ecific experience will be preferable.
• Experience in policy analysis, data analysis, gender statistics, and quantitative and qualitative research is desirable.

Language:

• Proficiency in English good command over Hindi and Tamil is desirable.

Application Information:Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.orgApplication Information: Interested applicants should apply to this announcement through UNDP jobs site: jobs.undp.org

• All applications must include (as an attachment) the completed UN Women Personal History form (P-11) which can be downloaded from
• Kindly note that the system will only allow one attachment.Applications without the completed UN Women P-11 form will be treated as incomplete and will not be considered for further assessment
• UN Women will only be able to respond to those applications in which there is further interest.

Note: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 womens empowerment.

Keyskills :
NetworkingResearchEvaluationPolicyExcellent KnowledgePolicy AdviceProgramme DevelopmentgenderStatisticsQualitativeReportingImplementationAdvocacyQuantitativePolicy AnalysisData AnalysisResults Based ManagementMonitoringExcellent Analytic