Programme Management Specialist

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 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.

Under the supervision of the UN Women Representative in Albania, the Programme Management Specialist is responsible for managing the development, implementation, monitoring and reporting of programmes for the Albania Country Office (CO), including providing technical support to the implementation of the country programme, managing the monitoring and reporting for the Albania CO, overseeing and guiding people and budget management for the programme team, building partnerships and providing support in developing resource mobilization strategies, and managing knowledge building efforts.

The Programme Management Specialist leads the programme team in strategic planning and identifies new programme areas while ensuring consistency with the priorities set in UN Women 2022-2026 Strategic Plan as well as in the 2022-2026 Cooperation Framework signed between the Government of Albania and the United Nations system in Albania, and creative responses to emerging challenges and opportunities.The scope of work of the Programme Management Specialist requires experience and in-depth understanding of gender equality and women’s empowerment issues in Albania, as well as management and programming expertise, to translate UN Women’s strategic plans into effective development initiatives and results. It also requires developing mutually reinforcing partnerships with relevant Government counterparts, UN organizations, CSOs, and with bilateral and non-traditional donors in order to promote inter-agency partnerships, support for UN reform, and mobilization of resources to advance gender equality and women’s empowerment.

The main role is to lead the national UN Women programme, ensuring smooth functioning of programmes/projects in Albania. The Programme Management Specialist also acts as an advisor to the UN Women Representative and Operations Manager on all programmes/projects aspects of the UN Women Country Office in Albania.

Duties and Responsibilities

Manage the programmatic development for the Albania Country Office based on the Strategic Note

• Provide overall programme advisory support to the Office Management and identify strategic programme areas of cooperation
• Provide strategic advice to UN Women Representative regarding insertion of UN Women programme into socio economic development and EU integration process, through monitoring policy changes and preparing situational analysis reports that serve as the basis for the programme formulation of UN Women in Albania.
• Guide the development of the Albania CO programme, and provide technical support to the design and formulation of programme/ project initiatives, translating UN Women priorities into local interventions, and ensuring coordination of programme implementation with the executing agencies
• Review and provide feedback to project/ programme strategies and documents, workplans, case studies and related knowledge products and publications, as needed;
• Provide technical advice on the development of systems, processes and mechanisms to support programme planning, implementation, monitoring and progress reporting; Review and evaluate proposals and oversee the preparation of donor proposals and reports;
• Draft policy documents, briefs and other strategic papers/ materials for the use in the development and presentation of policy and programmatic positions.

Provide technical support to the implementation of the Albania CO programme

• Review programme annual work plans to assure compliance with UN Women programme goals and results-based indicators;
• Provide substantive technical and policy support to country office in ensuring engagement with national stakeholders on the implementation of global, regional and national norms and standards;
• Analyze and ensure alignment of project budgets with logical framework matrices and work plans;
• Draft reports on activities, outputs and outcomes; and compile information in preparations of country office donor and UN Women reports;
• Manage programme quality control and identification of potential challenges;
• Align programme activities with operations team in close liaison with Operations Managers;
• Build and manage relationships with national partners, as necessary.

Manage the monitoring and reporting for the Albania Country Office

• Recommend and establish programme monitoring standards, criteria, and other indicators for measuring and assessing progress/results;
• Manage the monitoring of mutually agreed results frameworks and performance indicators;
• Coordinate the process of gathering information and preparing progress reports on programme implementation; prepare technical reports;
• Prepare programme team for audits and monitor implementation of audit recommendations;
• Provide training on results-based management to office staff, as necessary.

Oversee and guide people and budget management for the programme team

• Lead a team, perform staff performance reviews, ensure capacity development of staff members by suggesting development opportunities;
• Monitor and analyze financial situation on the portfolios and programmes to ensure adherence to delivery rates and utilization of resources to meet agreed upon targets and results;
• Ensure effective information flow, communication and coordination across the office, between programmes, projects and operations, and with other UN Women offices and units.

Build partnerships and provide support in developing resource mobilization strategies

• Develop and implement partnerships and resource mobilization strategies;
• Develop and coordinate partnerships with the UN Resident Coordinator Office and UN Agencies to ensure effective gender mainstreaming in the work of the UN Albania, as well as with international partners, private sector, and civil society organizations.
• Analyze and research information on donors, finalize substantive briefs on possible areas of cooperation, identification of opportunities for resource mobilization and cost sharing;
• Determine programmatic areas of cooperation, based on strategic goals of UN Women, country needs and donors’ priorities and develop the relevant partnerships.
• Review and appraise project proposals submitted, to ensure that they meet UN Women´s strategic plan requirements and provide capacity building support to counterparts in projects formulation.
• Follow up resource on mobilization activities for new projects in coordination with UN Women Representative.

Manage knowledge building efforts

• Manage the process of identifying and synthesizing of best practices and lessons learned that are directly linked to the implementation of the programme and contribute to their global dissemination.
• Work with relevant UN Women units and networks to identify and disseminate best programme practices; Contribute to the development and maintenance of global, regional and national knowledge networks and practices;
• Oversee the production of knowledge products to meet UN Women needs and standards of quality.

Required Skills and Experience

Education and certification:

• Master’s degree or equivalent in Social Sciences, Political Science, Development, Public Administration, Gender 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 project/programme management certification (such as PMP®, PRINCE2®, or MSP®) would be an added advantage

Experience:

• At least 5 years of progressively responsible experience in programme management, including programme design, programme coordination, monitoring and evaluation, donor reporting and capacity building is required.
• Experience in working in a gender related area is desirable.
• Experience in establishing strategic partnerships among international organizations and national governments;
• Experience in setting priorities, budgets, work plans, participating in programme development and programme writing is required.
• Experience in leading teams effectively is desirable.

Language Requirements:

• Fluency in English and Albanian is required.

Source: https://jobs.undp.org/cj_view_job.cfm?cur_job_id=116877